Hi!

Alright, my new song is up now -
please fell free to listen to it/ download it and to comment!
I posted a link in my Songwriting section.

Peace.

Check out my new song!

I will post the lyrics in the SongWriting section.
It is a german song on grace.
Title: “Herr deine Gnade”.
I already recorded it, but it’s not fully ready yet.

I keep you posted.

OM ship Doulos.

The journey of the oldest passenger ship in this world is coming to an end…

One of OM’s two ships, visiting different countries all over the world, the world’s biggest swimming bookshops on board, is not allowed to resume it’s journey.

Due to the ship’s age and the various, very expensive repairs that would have to be done.

What will happen to the 300 people crew? Where will they be going? How can they continue to work for the Lord and for OM?

Please pray – for the future of the OM ship ministries, for a new vision, for being able to listen to God’s voice in this difficult time – and maybe…for a new ship!

A message from the Director of OMShips.

Friends

This is my home-bible group / mein Hauskreis

- oder zumindest einige davon:

Finished with Essentials Course*blue

Four weeks of Theology and Worship studies through the “Essentials Course*Blue.”

It has been a great time, a really blessed time for me, which includes reading N.T.Wright’s ‘Simply Christian’. I recommend this book to everyone, who wants to experience in a fresh and very clear way, what the christian life is all about. That book gave me a whole new perspective on some things, world views and my life as a Christian.

I hope that I will be able to include the things I learned in my Worship-Leading and in my playing in different other Worship Bands

In our group from the Vineyard Heidelberg, who has gone through this course together, we contemplated on what we have learned four ourselves and how we want to put in practice some of the aspects and ideas we got in our church.

But – this course is not completely finished yet – we still have one more assignment, which is designing what we feel is important into some sort of project, for the benefit of our church. I am thinking about doing a powerpoint presentation, similar to the ones on “e-water”; the Germans will know what I am talking about.

And…from February 5 to March 5 2010 we are going to embark on Worship Studies once again, doing the ESSENTIALS course*red!

I will keep you updated.

e*b Week 4 Assignment

Now, having reflected on a variety of theological ideas related to God’s nature, His purpose in the world, and the role of human beings, you’re going to write a small, summary “worldview” document in this post. Take a deep breath; this will serve you for years to come, and could even form the foundation (coupled with next weeks assignment) of a life-long worship philosophy for you and your community. In other words, write this as if you are writing it as a foundational biblical worldview statement your church community.

You’re going to distill all we’ve read and discussed thus far into a 250-500 word “A Christian Worldview”, using phrases, theological ideas and your own perspectives from our course thus far. When you’re finished, you may want to simultaneously post this on your blog as well, so it will be there for others to find and explore in the years to come.

Here is a suggested outline to help you (optional):

1. Origins (Who is God, who are human beings, and why are we here?)

2. What happened to us along the way, and what did God do?

3. What is the Kingdom of God, and how is it expressed in the world/in the human family/by the Church?

4. Endings (where is human history going – what will be our final destiny?)

Now, having reflected on a variety of theological ideas related to God’s nature, His purpose in the world, and the role of human beings, you’re going to write a small, summary “worldview” document in this post. Take a deep breath; this will serve you for years to come, and could even form the foundation (coupled with next weeks assignment) of a life-long worship philosophy for you and your community. In other words, write this as if you are writing it as a foundational biblical worldview statement your church community.

You’re going to distill all we’ve read and discussed thus far into a 250-500 word “A Christian Worldview”, using phrases, theological ideas and your own perspectives from our course thus far. When you’re finished, you may want to simultaneously post this on your blog as well, so it will be there for others to find and explore in the years to come.

This world is in a mess. Not just we as Christians know, but every human does by looking at what is happening in this world, every day. People are concerned with what is happening, and in my opinion, this is what partly triggers the echoes of God, resonating within us. People ask “Why?”.

People long for justice, spritituality, relationships and beauty. This goes for every human being, because we are created in God’s image. In the beginning, when God made the heavens and the earth; He who is a person-ality and longs for relationship, created man at the hight of all of the created order. He who longs for community, displays community within himself as trinity, and also put into us those characteristics and that personality.

God is also king, and saviour. He reigns over his creation, and it is our responsability in worship, to acknowledge that; to declare, that only he is the true king of this world and us, the only one that is to be worshipped. As saviour, God came into this world, fully human, to restore everything, to draw us back to Him. Matthew 1:21: “God will fix the sin issue, take away the obstruction, brake down the wall that seperates us; he brings us into life by laying down His life” (1) It is crucial to understand this, as we lead people into worship, because only through Jesus’ sacrifice can we come to God, are we made holy and worthy.

But not only God is creative. We as his children are called to be sub-creators, and called to live out that creativity in different ways, for example in caring about others, about this world, creating places of encounter with God, etc. We have to reclaim and find that creativity, encouraging people to use the skills God has given them. And especially as Christians we are to bear God’s image, to reflect Him. Trough that, we tell people around us about what Jesus has done for us, working with everything we have on bringing people back to God – because all have fallen short of his glory, Romans 3:23.

But we do not have to wait for restoration of God’s creation, because God’s Kingdom is not a distant reality, it is present, as heaven and earth interlock and as we go out to make new disciples. In all of this we have a helper, the Holy Spirit, the “strange, personal presence of the living God himself”, as N.T. Wright puts it, “celebrating our small steps towards the true inheritance”.

So what are we actually doing, as we lead Worship? What does it mean? ”Worship means, literally, acknowledging the worth of someone or something.” (2) What we worship, is our God and king. But do we get it right? When we look at our songs, do we worship ourselves, submitting to individualism or do we worship God, the “fully colored God”? (3)

It is our duty as worship leaders to create spaces of encounter for people, which involves, that the worship is accessible to everyone. We are to praise as a community, together. “Entering into the circular dance” (4), presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God. Worship is a lifestyle; we should worship God with everything we do in our lifes, day in, day out. Until he returns.

“The essence of Worship is a reaction to the arrival of the Kingdom” (5)

______________

(1) Dan Wilt, “The Nature of God”

(2) N.T.Wright, Simply Christian, pg 124

(3) Dan Wilt, “The Nature of Worship”

(4) Dan Wilt, “The Nature of Worship”

(5) Derek Morphew, “The Arrival of the King (Expectation)”

e*b Week 3 Assignment

Fully Human – What Does It Mean To Be A Human Being?

We’re a quirky bunch, we human beings. In the whole of the created order (at least on planet earth) we uniquely bear the imago Dei, the image of God, expressing God’s benevolent kingship in the world through governing, loving, stewarding, relating and tending to this world and one another.

Begin to define what it means to be human. In a sense, we’re exploring who it is that we lead into worship. Use words, phrases and ideas from Simply Christian, and the vids and media in your piece. In other words, present a brief theological + anthropological (meaning “focused on humans) reflection that articulates what human beings are all about. Feel free to integrate ideas about the Garden, the Fall of humankind, etc., but you will spending more time on those ideas in the next weeks.

“Fully Human – What Does It Mean To Be A Human Being?

We’re a quirky bunch, we human beings. In the whole of the created order (at least on planet earth) we uniquely bear the imago Dei, the image of God, expressing God’s benevolent kingship in the world through governing, loving, stewarding, relating and tending to this world and one another.

Begin to define what it means to be human. In a sense, we’re exploring who it is that we lead into worship. Use words, phrases and ideas from Simply Christian, and the vids and media in your piece. In other words, present a brief theological + anthropological (meaning “focused on humans) reflection that articulates what human beings are all about. Feel free to integrate ideas about the Garden, the Fall of humankind, etc., but you will spending more time on those ideas in the next weeks.”

God is the creator. We as human beings are “sub-creators”, which means, that we have a responsability; we are to take care of this world and everything in it, including other human beings like ourselves.

As sub-creators we are creative beings, and we take that into our Worship. Not just in the sense of being creative as we worship, but also in the sense of encouraging others (again), to be creative themselves; to ’serve, to love, to give, for the common good, meant to build community’ (1).

I think that it is crucial, to understand, that we are CALLED to be creative. It is God’s vocation to us; he WANTS us to live out that creativity and not feel unworthy or imperfect.

I love Dan’s and also N.T.Wright’s image of picturing us humans as lenses or mirrors, who reflect the image of God, but at the same time reflecting back to Him the praise of all creation – as we worship:

‘…highly creative, transparent lenses that reflect, who God is. The struggle comes in when those lenses become dark; when we start to draw attention to ourselves.’ (2)

One last thing that came to my mind concerning us humans as “community builders” is, that we are supposed to lead the whole congregation into Worship, not just individuals. Practically seen we should then sing songs, that are singable for everyone, not excluding others through complex and very elaborate lyrics of music.

(1) Dan Wilt’s video: “The Nature of Human beings”

(2) Dan Wilt’s video: “The Nature of Human beings”

e*b Week 1 Assignment

Wright opens our course with ideas related to the four echoes of God in the world. Which of these echoes most deeply resonates with you as evidence of God’s reality, and how does that particular echo reflect what you believe to be the biblically expressed personality of God?

From here, answer how the four ‘echoes’ relate to the theology and worldview represented in the worship songs that you have used/sung in the past year? (Seek to be positive in your answers, but also reflective – i.e. this question is meant to engage our theological thinking related to worship songs, not to create a song-bashing session).

Consider the second half of the question less in the light of “what songs am I doing that match these echoes,” and more in the light of “how is the contemporary worship song body of work doing at giving voice to these echoes – the celebration of creation, the longing for justice, the magnetism of relationships and the hunger for spiritual reality.”

Use ideas from the readings & media to answer the question, and feel free to incorporate ideas outside of our study

“Wright opens our course with ideas related to the four echoes of God in the world. Which of these echoes most deeply resonates with you as evidence of God’s reality, and how does that particular echo reflect what you believe to be the biblically expressed personality of God?

From here, answer how the four ‘echoes’ relate to the theology and worldview represented in the worship songs that you have used/sung in the past year? (Seek to be positive in your answers, but also reflective – i.e. this question is meant to engage our theological thinking related to worship songs, not to create a song-bashing session).

Consider the second half of the question less in the light of “what songs am I doing that match these echoes,” and more in the light of “how is the contemporary worship song body of work doing at giving voice to these echoes – the celebration of creation, the longing for justice, the magnetism of relationships and the hunger for spiritual reality.”

Use ideas from the readings & media to answer the question, and feel free to incorporate ideas outside of our study”

I see the evidence of God’s reality most clearly in the quest for spirituality. It amazes me to see people, mostly people that are close to me, searching. Searching for something spiritual in their lifes. Deep inside, people want to know, how they came into being, where the meaning in life is, and where they will go once they leave this world.

In the worship songs I know, all echoes but the “longing for justice” are widely represented. If we praise the creator, we often sing songs that tell of God’s beauty, if we talk about life and God and us, his creation, we sing songs of relationship, and so forth.

I know of many songs, which talk about relationship, spirituality and beauty, and many of these touch my heart. But some paint a very bright and perfect, sometimes too bright picture, for example in terms of christian living. I think we have to be real and genuine in what we express within our songs.

But the echoe of the longing for justice seems to be a hard topic when it comes to songwriting. Because if we claim justice for the world, for our communities, we often call people to action which involves a responsability we then have:

God’s commandment to go out and tell people about Christ; trying to bring justice where we can.

e*b Week 2 Assignment

“Part A: How has your understanding of the theological phrase, the “Kingdom of God” been challenged/shaped by this section of Simply Christian?

Part B: What particular theological idea (within one of the four theological ideas on the Nature of God presented in Dan’s material) do you believe has the most importance for the next 10-20 years of worship leadership? Why?”

A.

At first I didn’t get the connection between the idea of the “Kingdom of God” and the different world views that T. Wright is talking about in his book. But I think, that ultimately these two subjects come together as we as God’s children try to “enlarge” His kindom here on earth. Bringing heaven – where He is dwelling –  and us – on earth –  together.

What I have learned about the term “Kingdom of God” is, to look at it with a historical perspective. That even in Jesus’ lifetime, His people expected Him to establish his Kingdom on earth; rescueing them and their nation.

B.

In my opinion, the theological idea of “God as king – the God who reigns” is very important for us today, when looking at Whorship Theology. I like how for the early christian church “Worship” was not so much about “singing” but about declaring, that God is the only one, the one and true God.

That perspective on Whorship I believe, is vital for us as Songwriters and Worship leaders today! That we remember that the God we praise, is the ulitmate, the only God, and in all that we are to declare our loyalty and our surrender to Him. Much like the early church –  although they had to face even persecution declaring God as being the only true king.

I think that by taking this into account, we show the people around us very clearly, that there is only one God who deserves to be worshipped; and not man-made gods like money, fame etc.

A.

At first I didn’t get the connection between the idea of the “Kingdom of God” and the different world views that T. Wright is talking about in his book. But I think, that ultimately these two subjects come together as we as God’s children try to “enlarge” His kindom here on earth. Bringing heaven – where He is dwelling –  and us – on earth –  together.

What I have learned about the term “Kingdom of God” is, to look at it with a historical perspective. That even in Jesus’ lifetime, His people expected Him to establish his Kingdom on earth; rescueing them and their nation.

B.

In my opinion, the theological idea of “God as king – the God who reigns” is very important for us today, when looking at Whorship Theology. I like how for the early christian church “Worship” was not so much about “singing” but about declaring, that God is the only one, the one and true God.

That perspective on Whorship I believe, is vital for us as Songwriters and Worship leaders today! That we remember that the God we praise, is the ulitmate, the only God, and in all that we are to declare our loyalty and our surrender to Him. Much like the early church –  although they had to face even persecution declaring God as being the only true king.

I think that by taking this into account, we show the people around us very clearly, that there is only one God who deserves to be worshipped; and not man-made gods like money, fame etc.