"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."
~ Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Unless
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Belated Father's Day
Father's Day was good to me, as seen above.
The belated part relates to posting the picture just today. I had some iOS4 issues and I couldn't attach the picture to an email, nor could I get it off my phone. Urgh. And, to top it off my favorite app wasn't working. All resolved now though, so let the hip picture taking resume. PS The Laphroaig is VERY good.Monday, June 21, 2010
Art creates space to ponder
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"If we think at all about the church, it is historically and intrinsically an artistic operation. It always struck me in the little rural church where I grew up that no matter how flat and unimaginative and prosaic the life of the village was, we had that organ music on Sunday morning. And what the organ music did was to create space for us to ponder the stuff that didn't fit the formulae. And, by and large, the language of the church and the language of liturgy is essentially artistic language. We flattened it. So the work, it seems to me, first of all, is to help people see what has been entrusted to us is artistic from the bottom up. If people are caught in dogmatism or in moralism they tend not to notice how incredibly artistic it all is." ~Walter Brueggemann
Heard these words again this morning. It's a little self serving, but the quote comes from a TWOTP interview we did with Walter last year. You can find the video on our site for context.
I had to put this up because I've been speaking lately about creative expression being central to God's people being God's people. After a while one begins to doubt one's own words. Is it really? Maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe I'm way off base. And then I hear the words above and I realize being an advocate for artists and the arts means being an advocate for that which is entrusted to us. Suddenly being an advocate for the arts seems mildly terrifying, but it's a holy terror.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Black and White
Just before starting the class this morning I discovered, of all things, a gallery just down the hall that had mounted a Chagall exhibit, with intaglio prints none the less! I was short on time and had to rush through, but above is a shot of "Jeremiah in the Well." The picture loses the subtlety, but I had to put it up. My brother Jeremiah, the writer-performance-artist-prophet, is an important example to me of an artist's life well lived. This print adds to my understanding. I'm so glad I got to see it in person.
Good bye Albuquerque
Taught the second and last "Toward a Theology of Visual Media" class today. We were small in number but big on passion. Thanks everyone who contributed stories and insight. Off to the airport right away where I sit now. I'm going to miss: good friends, good conversation, good food, the sun, the warmth, the heat, saying the word Albuquerque.
Washroom? You mean "restroom?"
Have you ever been to an English speaking country that uses slightly different words here and there and the people from that country feel the need to "correct" your word usage? For example I asked, "Can you tell me where the washroom is?" The response was, "You mean 'restroom?' Yes, it's right over there." I said, "I'm from Canada, we say 'washroom.' "Well, you're not going to 'wash' in there are you?" "Well, I'm not going to 'rest' in there either."
It seems a fairly common human trait to think our perspective is the right perspective, and therefore measure other perspectives against our own. When we do so we tend to not notice the ways in which our perspective is also askew. If we are correct we are alone in our correctness. If we are able, even falteringly, to move away from needing to be correct, and move toward seeing our perspective as one among many common to our humanity gains us a brotherhood of mutual difference. In that move we gain the whole world.
Maybe too much to get from a washroom? Such are my thoughts.
One teaching gig down, one to go
The Work Of The People was invited to teach a seminar here at NWLC. So this morning I presented "Towards a Theology of Visual Media." Good to talk about stuff we've been chewing on for so long.
Also heard a great story from one of the attendees about the Kingdom breaking through. Alan teaches at a middle school. He sent one of his students out to take sport images and she got bored and brought back all kinds of beautiful images of the landscape around her. She ended up making an amazing video that catalyzed her classmates to embark on a spontaneous garbage clean up in their neighbourhood. She didn't set out to change her world, she was just telling her story. You can find her story and the video here. Visual media in the hands of kids is an awesome thing.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Up in the air
Here I am in the placeless place, the non-culture of the airport, a manufactured landscape of banality. Okay, it's early, I got up at 4:30. Maybe I won't be quite so bleak once the Americano kicks in.
I'm on my way to Albuquerque, of all places. I'm speaking at the south west region National Worship Leader conference presenting a seminar called "Toward a theology of visual media." Come look me up if you're going to be there.Thinking of my Aboriginal friends
Thinking of my Aboriginal friends, Patrick, Marvin and of course my new friends Mary, Ruth and Little Mouse. The following links are all in relation to the Forgiveness Summit in Ottawa this past week leading up to National Aboriginal Day on June 21
The Prime Minister gave a formal apology to former students of the federally financed native residential schools. Here's the full text of the Prime Minister's speech:
(links at the bottom of the page to a formal apology from the Anglican Church, Presbyterian Church, United Church and the RCMP.)And a response from the Aboriginal people of Canada.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Yesterday's Regent visit up on Vimeo
Ryan came all the way into Vancouver to shoot this little adventure and has it cut together and up on Vimeo already. Thanks editing superstar dude!
Thanks again to Robert and Cherith Nordling of Calvin College for inviting me into their "Arts and Worship" class being taught at Regent over the next 2 weeks. Also, thanks to the class members in attendance for your attention and energy and for putting up with a giant camera in your classroom. I left energized, encouraged and blessed.
Like most human beings, I despise watching myself on video. I am therefore somewhat loath to post this. However, I believe in the importance of the broader discussion regarding creative expression happening in the church today, of which this humble offering is a small part. So I'll go with the needs of the broader discussion.
<p>Steve Frost on Art & Worship from Transposition Films on Vimeo.</p>
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Off to Regent
My friend Ryan Schroeder offered to come along and film our adventures at Regent. What can I say, all my friends are video geeks, we document everything. If anything worthwhile/interesting happens we'll put it up on the ol' interwebs.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Cornucopia Saturday
FEAST ONE: Spent the morning listening to Mike Frost [no relation] at an event sponsored by Parish Collective and Forge Canada. Good food for the soul talking about a theology of place. My favorite metaphor: a community of people who are followers of Jesus are a movie trailer for the Kingdom. We create places of love and justice as a foretaste of the kingdom. Based on the movie trailers we create, would people want to go see the movie? Favorite snippet: Maybe the church confuses friendliness for friends.
FEAST TWO: This was an actual feast, in Surrey, of all places. Went to a great brew pub after the day's events. This is the only picture I have, (That's Dwight Freisen and Cam Roxburgh) I was kind of in the moment enjoying my stout and not documenting. Had a good chat with Mark Votava, Mike Frost, Tim Soerens and his wife Maria-Jose. There were 13 of us in all, so pretty spread out. You know how it is Paul. Next time brother, we will talk Ellul.
FEAST FOUR: Rev. Mary Fontaine of Hummingbird Ministries was our guest at Mosaic. She and two friends sang songs and conducted a sharing circle with us. We all felt such a connection to these sisters and their heart for reconcilliation and peace.
Ruth, the woman closest to the camera in the picture above, is from the local Musqeam band. For thousands of years, the Musqeam people lived and flourished on the land that is now the city of Vancouver. To open our evening Ruth sang a song of welcome on behalf of the Musqeam people, welcoming us to this land and inviting us into their circle of friendship. This welcome song had a profound and equally unexpected impact on me. I am the very picture of dominant hegemony; white, middle class, male. Despite being demographically at the centre of our culture's attention, I am affected by a rootlessness that many urban dwellers experience. I have no tangible connection to my mish-mash of national ties a couple of generations back. There is much to love in the shiny garden of Vancouver, but for many of us our roots aren't deep. These women from the margins—women at the very edge of our culture's attention who have experienced all kinds of ugly and systemic discrimination—have rediscovered a deep connection to the narrative of this place. And what is their response to discovering their rootedness, their narrative, their community, their place? They invite me into that narrative with them. Tears well up thinking about it now. For this somewhat rootless soul it was such a warm embrace. A little piece of me felt "I've been welcomed, I really belong here now." and that was way more important than I ever would have thought it was.
Here's some liturgy for you all. I recorded it on my iPhone, so the sound quality isn't great, but the quality of spirit is awesome:
Rowan sang the Woman Warrior song to our sisters, thanking them for coming and visiting us.
Our sisters sang Amazing Grace in Cree for us and then we all joined in in English. Mary talked about how special it was to sing this song in her native language of Cree. Not too long ago her language was forbidden, outlawed. What an amazing gift that this language, this way of seeing the world, this way of understanding the Creator, the Father, Son and Spirit hasn't been lost. What a testament to courage that faithful ones have persevered and retained this piece of our common humanity.
Speaking @ Regent
I'll be at Regent June 9th talking to Robert Nordling's "Arts in Worship" class about painting in a worship context. I don't know if I know anyone in that class, if so, I'll see you there.
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