Below is a promo video from an upcoming release of old material by Bruce Springsteen.

The compelling part of the clip for me was the sheer exhuberance displayed by Bruce and band member Steve Van Zandt playing an unfinished song together on the piano.

This is a glimpse into a joyful, creative process that I wonder if worship leaders and musicians don’t long for on a regular basis.  It reminds me of the reason I loved music – it was fun!

HT:  Mark Moring

A tip from our friends at Soli Deo Gloria:

“Arvo Pärt has opened a window into a world of spiritual ideals,” writes NPR Terrance McKnight in an announcement of Pärt’s newest CD, Cantique, to be released this month to coincide with the composer’s 75th birthday. You can preview Cantique on NPR, which is streaming the disc for free, in its entirety, till it releases on September 21, 2010.

SDG is joining the birthday celebration by co-sponsoring the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Wales, which is offering the most extensive celebration of Pärt in the UK.

While songs of lament have a long Biblical tradition but seem to have given short shrift in the current milieu of worship music.

Michael Card is among those recognizing the situation:

“Our theology tells us that if we complain to God, we’re being disrespectful. But at least 80 of the Psalms are actually Laments. It has become a lost language to our culture…. Every lament in the Bible, with the exception of Psalm 88, ends in praise. The answer to all our laments is seeing the face of God.”

But there is a resurgence of the use of lament in Christian worship and music.

Dave Trout @ UndertheRadar (www.radarradio.net) interviewed Card for his blog and has a great episode featuring new songs of lament.  Here’s the blurb:

Take a walk on the darker side of faith.  All of the music this week creatively expresses the theme of lament.  We’ll also talk about why this topic is important to our faith.  Includes music by Jon Foreman, Michael Card, Emmylou Harris, and an interview clip with Eric Peters.

Stream the episode here.

Contact Dave here and let him know I said hello.

Beautiful.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy provides this short video (also below) on what is being done by several charities to ready Haiti for the annual rainy season this year.

To see what Cross International has done in Haiti, go to: www.crossinternational.org/relief.

Prayer point:  Hurricane season is June-November.

Title to a great song by Brady White, a dear friend to this ministry who gets it.

Click here to listen to it via My Space.

Patrick Henry Hughes:

“God made me blind and unable to walk…big deal!  He gave me the musical gifts I have and the opportunity to meet new people…”

Amazing.

HT: Noel Piper

Via Tim Chester:

The church is not a building you enter. Nor is it a meeting your attend. It is not what you do on a Sunday. To be a Christian is to be part of God’s people and to express that in your life through belonging to a local Christian community.

Michael Card’s “The Basin and Towel” comes to mind (posted below or via YouTube here).

“Day after day, we must take up the basin and towel.”

From Carlos @ RagmuffinSoul (who gets it):

Danny is a homeless guy in Atlanta who happened to walk up on me while I was shooting the EPK for my new record.

I was singing the song “God Of Second Chances.”

Danny walks up, kneels down, starts crying, puts his hands up in the air and this happened…

HT:  Resurgence

Bring me a white horse for Christmas

Underneath white birches
Our faces toward the sky
We will make snow angels
With our white horse standing by

Hush now baby
One day we’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Our white horse through the sky

Bring me a white horse for Christmas
We’ll ride him through the snow
All the way to Bethlehem
2000 years ago

I wanna speak with the angel
Who said do not be afraid
I wanna kneel where the oxen knelt
Where the little child was laid

Hush now baby
One day you’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Your white horse through the sky

No bridle will he be wearing
His unshod hoofs they will fly
Keep a watch out this Christmas
For that white horse in the sky

Hush now baby
One day we’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Our white horse through the sky

Hush now baby
Let every angel sing
Hush now baby
One day we’ll ride again

• Words & music by Linford Detweiler
  
• Stream OTR’s Christmas album free here. (more…)