TWIST - Day 1

Posted: 26/Aug/2007AD @ 00:23
Categories: Foundation

A group of six musicians and singers from our church are attending TWIST music conference this year. I have to say its been pretty fantastic so far.

First impression? The King’s School is not Pendo (my alma mater).

Session 1 (Sat AM Gathering)

We arrived the customary parents-with-young-child, 10 mins late for the first session. From the courtyard outside it sounded as if they were playing the EMU Live 2 CD through the PA – actually it was live and that just built my anticipation of getting in there. The strange thing was that the sound wasn’t so good once we got inside. I can only put it down to the fact we were sitting under the dress circle and most of the speakers were suspended from the ceiling of the main part of the auditorium. But the singing was still good. For the evening session Lea, Renee and I sat in the main part of the auditorium and the sound was soo much better.

The M.C.’s for the common sessions are Karen Pang and Jodie McNeill. With the singing lead by EMU regulars Matt Roberts and Sarah Bailey. Finally, Mike Raiter is teaching on songs from the Bible.

Unfortunately, in this session Jodie and Karen seemed like they were trying just a bit hard, and having the presenters and interviewees run on to stage smacked of too much Guy Smiley with breakfast. Fortunately, they relaxed a bit by the afternoon session. Other things that didn’t work so well were segue muzak (this was also gone by the PM session), and a brief game show “TWIST and Specs” (tho’ this was more due to Mike Raiters poor singing ability :) ).

We had an interview and were lead in a few songs by Mark Peterson. He’s unabashed about wanting to see Jesus and keeps writing songs on just that theme.

Karen then did the bible reading (Judges 5) in the form of a soliloquy which was very powerful.

For his first talk Mike spoke on the Song of Deborah in Judges 4-5. One of the main points he made from this passage is that the song doesn’t just praise God, it tells us why we should praise God. He said that it’s entirely biblical to sing “Worship his majesty, kingdom, authority” but it leaves you hanging for a reason. Praise needs a context. What wonders has God done? Why should we love him? Why is God so great? The context can be provided by the leader, but it’s better if the song does it itself. Deborah’s song not only praises God for saving Israel but recounts his mighty acts.

This session was followed by morning tea where I consumed a very yummy, slivered almond encrusted, croissant looking pastry.

Session 2 (Workshop 1)

My first workshop was PA-1 or “Making Sound Work”. This was a very entertaining and informative session by Steve Williams. After attending this session I no longer feel daunted by a mixing desk. I now know the theory, I’ll just have to practice to be any good.

What was also great about this session was that he kept coming back to the theology of being the soundguy—serving the body of Christ.

After this session was lunch, and Lea and I nicked off to look at a place for rent (we’re looking for a new place atm). The house was fine, the yard a bit scary for a 2 yr old. Oh, and everything you’ve heard about the Sydney rental market is true.

Session 3 (Workshop 2)

My next workshop was “Changing the musical culture of your church”. In this session, Simone Richardson from Scots Presy, Clayfield spoke of her and her husband’s experience of coming a church where the services were an organ-accompanied hymn sandwich and how they went about freshening the music in church.

She had a lot of good things to say on musical trends, and on why people might be afraid of change. Another interesting thing she did was to point out the differences in musical style between Scripture in Song Book 1 (1979) and Book 3 (1988): Five lines to five verses, chromatic chords to plain chords. There are fads in songs and the most daggy ones are those that are just out of date.

Her argument for change included making church accessible, showing that what we do in church is connected with the rest of our life, and that by always looking back to a supposed ‘golden age’ of church songwriting we ignore the truth that Christ endows his church in every age with gifted songwriters.

She went on to give some great suggestions about setting goals and how to go about freshening up the music—even without adding new songs to your repertoire. It’s not about hymns versus choruses, but about freshness and a contemporary sound.

Again we dwelt on the scriptures. Particularly what they have to say about managing change in church (1 Cor 13:1-7, Phil 2:1-8, Rom 15:1-6, Phil 4:6).

Unfortunately from what Simone said, it seems syncopation may be a battle better not contested.

Session 4 (Sat PM Gathering)

As I said earlier, we sat closer to the front and were able to hear everything much better. The singing was amazing—the chorus of “See him coming” was glorious. There was a mix of oldies and newies, mainly EMU and one Sovereign Grace song. Part of the focus of this session was meant to be mission but a music video and some prayer didn’t really provide a huge challenge to think about mission work.

Karen again gave a great bible soliloquy, this time Ps 43-44.

Mike spoke from Ps 42-43 on the place of experience in the Christian life. It was a great talk. The Psalmist is crying out, thirsting for a tangible experience of God. And noted that we all deeply desire to see God face-to-face, to have a genuine experience of his presence.

Mike quoted John Piper saying that evangelicals will sing a megatonne of truth with an ounce of passion, and Jonathan Edwards who spoke of the two faculties God has given us Apprehension to know the truth and Affections with which to feel the truth. Piper calls on us to feel the awful and wonderful truths of God, that when we believe and deeply feel these truths we will spring into action and nothing will stop us singing.

But he noted that our experience of God in this age is primarily not tangible, for God is invisible and intangible. We do not experience God by manipulating church meetings to provide an emotional experience. We experience God when the Spirit prompts us to cry “Abba, Father”, when he answers our prayers, when we love one another. In typical Mike Raiter style he concluded saying that now we live by faith and it’s hard.

The session closed with a great set from Garage Hymnal.

Looking forward to tomorrow. Mike Raiter’s speaking on Psalm 90 and I’ll be doing my final workshop on “Planning the gathering”.