Virtually Paul

Third Day Tabs

The phrase “You are beautiful my sweet sweet song” in this previous post seems to have driven a bit of search traffic my way from people looking for Third Day lyrics and tabs.

The site you want is here: www.guitar-dude.com (click “The Tabs” link on the left)

If you know of a better one, please leave a comment!

Alive on a Sunday

Last Sunday, after finishing up with my house-sitting gig, I had the privilege of being able to attend the morning service at Yarra Valley Vineyard, which in my mind was just a convenient excuse to catch up with my wonderful Essendon-supporting friend Bec and her almost-as-wonderful recently acquired fiance Geoffrepops. Enough about them though… they’re already getting enough attention at the moment. Geoff has the statistics to prove it.

I expected to be participating in a run of the mill church service. Stand up, sit down, sing this, listen to that, nibble this, drink that, have a chat, go home. And I’m sure I could have been that nonchalant about it if I’d tried hard enough. Fortunately for me, God had other plans.

The time that I spent there was nothing short of exactly-what-I-needed. The music was phenomenal. Acoustic rock all the way with at least one vocalist who I could have listened to all day. There was no sign of a crass performance mentality from the musicians. They were there to lead us, indeed, to draw us in to meeting with God. I’ve missed seeing that happen so much in recent times. The song choices were rich with meaningful words that embodied the theological concepts that I’ve been learning and meditating on over the past year and before. There were no fairy floss one-liners. This was about God. Come as you are. Be engulfed in who He is. Know God, even though everything hurts.

The sermon was fantastic and again hit the nail right on the head as we were led through content on the illusive connection between suffering, faith and healing. I’ve spent a lot of time learning about the first two of those in the last two years. I wanted to go forward for prayer afterwards but didn’t have the strength to step forward. Unfortunately I allow that to happen all too regularly.

After/during the service, I got the chance to catch up with some other Vineyardians who I’ve run into over the years. I think that really added to the atmosphere because I didn’t feel like I was there on my own. My housemate’s sister and her fiance were there, along with some people I’ve led on camps with. In fact, I think I got the best welcome I’ve had to a church service in years when Laura spotted me in the carpark and escorted me into the building, preventing the need for plodding in awkwardly and trying to work out where to go.

I had lunch with Bec and Geoff after the service, at the traditional eatery of anyone who’s just been to a church service - La Porchetta. We had a great chat and I even got the chance to unpack some of the things that have been happening in my church’s youth ministry that have been weighing on me over time. It was good fun and big encouragement to me. Thanks guys!

I took a reasonably significant detour on the way home to visit a place that I spotted in the Melways - Silvan Reservoir Park. I spent a good hour or so there reading through lots of different bible passages and praying heaps before driving back home.

And so for reasons I have shared… and also for reasons that I haven’t… I am seeing the Holy Spirit moving in and around me more and more. Through these experiences and many others, He is showing me that soon He’s going to bring me up out of this valley. He is teaching me how to walk in His strength and not my own. He has even given me a slightly amusing sense of hope that runs deeper than I usually allow anything to go.
Hope is a wonderful thing. And I’m glad that, after all that’s happened, I started to feel that extra bit alive, on a Sunday.

Words and Theology

Following some good discussion starters from Geoff:

One of the things that we looked at quite a bit in my first semester at Ridley was the worship/church service stuff. With three weekly chapel services to practice/practise in, my eyes were opened to a world of prayer books and meticulous attention to eloquent readings of scripture. My church seems much more haphazard in comparison. We’ve got a decent bunch of bible readers now, who even pre-read the passage before they drop it on the church… but we don’t use prayer books… and sometimes even the pastors say stuff, that, if you took it back to the letter of the biblical-theological law, wouldn’t actually hold water.

I was in one chapel service at college where a fellow student said, in passing, during a closing prayer, “Thanks God for showing up today”. At morning tea following, there were 5 stiff old Anglicans there to remind him that God is actually omnipresent. Now, for an ordination candidate in a theological college, that’s probably not as tactfully horrific as it would be in a church laity context. The point, however, remains… and I think this is the source of Geoff’s underlying ponderings.

Language is one of the key means through which we express and understand theological ideas. The thing about words, is that they are merely a representation of the concept that the communicator is trying to explain. The quality of that representation, is influenced not only by the lingual/literary education of the speaker… but also by the decoding processes of the listener.

So what does that mean for Geoff and the Third Day song? Well seeing as I’ve actually sung live on stage with Third Day, I’ll dig a bit deeper into the song lyrics. I agree that the phrasing of the lyrics over the music leaves the obvious misnomer surrounding what the beautiful thing is. But the words aren’t just “You are beautiful, my sweet, sweet song”… the bridge says this:

You are my strong melody
You are my dancing rhythm
You are my perfect rhyme
And I will sing of You forever

Anyone who has ever tried to write a song will tell you, from the experience that these are all components of a beautiful song. I think that’s where the words of “You Are So Good To Me” are coming from. That’s what I take away from it anyway. It’s an analogy. And it’s a largely emotional/experiential one, rather than a strongly theological one.

Now, to drive my point home, I decided to pick on one of Geoff’s favourite songs, which I actually really like as well. “How Great Thou Art”. It is a really nice song. However, I kind of struggle with it sometimes, particularly singing this verse:

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

I understand what the song is getting at here. It’s reflecting on God’s creation as a revelation of His greatness and trying to express that. It has a more staccato melody compared to a Third Day song where the chords tend to ring out and flow together. That, for me, really brings out the “ye olde english” feel to the verse as it talks about “forest glades and woods” that “I wander” through. I get what the song is saying… but I’m an Aussie. I don’t wander through forest glades. I walk. I walk through the bush.

I could start a rant about how crap I think songs are when they talk about Jesus and his “fame” just because of it’s sheer literary Hollywood-infused stupidity… yep… I just did start a rant.

Words are awkward. Theology is complicated. That’s about to become my tagline.

The Best Thing Ever

“I wanna be a rockstar but I ain’t got what it takes.” - from “Rockstar” by Third Day

Wednesday night marked the third time that my favourite band, Third Day, have toured Australia. I first heard them in 2001 when they came to Sonfest in Ballarat. They were fantastic then and they just keep on getting better. Last time they toured, in 2005, I organised a small army of friends to go along and see them. I even drove out and bought tickets in advance for everyone. This time around, I was thoroughly disappointed that no one wanted to go with me. However, undeterred, I bought my ticket anyway. I wasn’t going to miss it. And I’m glad that happened because it was a key factor in what came next. Keep reading whilst I build the suspense.

See, as everyone knows, when you go to some sort of concert, people all sit with their friends. In a packed out venue, due to people’s somewhat impractical ideas of personal space, this generally means that there are lots of single good seats in really good spots where two groups have allowed a ’spacer’. After a quick chat with a very nice mum, who’s 12 year old son quite obviously didn’t want to sit next to a stranger until I made an effort to befriend him, I snaffled myself a seat in the third row on the aisle.

The support act, although their name currently escapes me, we’re pretty entertaining… but I was hanging out for Third Day. It’s been a couple of days since the concert so I don’t have a hope of remembering the set list. I like all of their songs. I’m a bit of an all-round Third Day fan. So there I am. At a Third Day concert. How cool is that! I’ve gotta say, their music really stirs me up and touches me. I’ve been doing the church musician thing for quite a while now… and in recent times, particularly in the last two years where a lot of us have sacrificed our own personal spiritual interaction in worship services, to run a church that has no permanent pastors, I’ve really felt numb to the music and words of songs with Christian spiritual themes.

In that process, where the music has still been happening every Sunday, I haven’t really had a pathway to deal with some stuff that’s really been bugging me for a long time. I have felt like I’ve been continually living in the fragments - the debris - of a church family that once worked well, that once wrapped its arms around me and embraced me… that once loved me. I’ve been a bit resentful since things became unsettled those few years ago. I think that’s normal to an extent. Close relationships change dramatically, in ways were people disconnect from each other, and we ask ourselves the question “Who is going to love me now?”. I’ve been waiting for someone to answer that question for me. I’ve been waiting for someone to be the answer to that question for me. It hasn’t happened. But the answer was right in front of my eyes the whole time.

“When you think your life is shattered and there’s no way to be fixed again, love heals your heart.” - from “Love Heals Your Heart” by Third Day

Third Day opened the floodgates for me again. The words to their songs and the absolutely fantastic musical arrangements broke through the walls that I’ve had up for a long time. It’s been such a long time since music was something that I let speak to me. And then, the absolutely unthinkable happened. Mac Powell, the lead singer, got the band to do something unrehearsed. “Who would like to sing for some Third Day Karaoke?” (thick southern American accent that is much cooler than Dr Phil’s). My hand was in the air before I could really think about it. I’ve actually imagined many times, what it would be like to sing with Third Day in concert. I’ve got their CDs, so in some senses I feel like I sing with Third Day all the time… but yeah… Mac picked me out of the crowd along with three others.

I’d been on the stage for about 2 seconds when he asked me my name, asked the audience to “give it up for Paul” and told me I was about to sing one of my favourite songs… “Love Song”. So there I am on the stage at Richmond AOG with Third Day, in front of 2000 people who I could see all looking at me. My legs were shaking like absolute jelly and I was worried that I was going to fall over. I couldn’t look. I shut my eyes. I didn’t even have to think about when to come in. It was one of the freakiest things listening to my voice boom out from the lead singer’s microphone. It was intense. And it was an absolutely beautiful experience. I even got a little bit of a cheer after the first line. I knew the words by heart but I would have gone completely blank, if it wasn’t for Mac saying the next line into my ear as each one passed.

“I’ve heard it said that a man would climb a mountain
Just to be with the one he loves
How many times has he broken that promise
It has never been done”

The rest of the verse which the next guy sang, goes like this:
“Well I never climbed the highest mountain
But I walked the hill of Calvary”

It was, of course, the chorus of that song, that answered the question I walked into the concert with… and the question that I’ve been wrestling with for these last few years… “Who is going to love me now?”. The whole, complete and all-consuming love of Christ, claims to be more powerful than anything that other people can offer us. That’s not to say that the love of others isn’t necessary. I’m still interested in having happy, healthy, loving relationships. But this - this is something more.

“And just to be with you, I would do anything
There is no price I would not pay
And just to be with you, I would give anything
Yes, I would give my life away”

-From “Love Song” by Third Day

True Christian Community: The Real Building

It’s difficult to talk about buildings at my church without making reference to the one that’s being assembled under our noses.

But the metaphor for the church as a “building” in the New Testament, isn’t talking about the products of the construction industry. This is something that we often forget simply because of the way we use the word “church” in modern English.

“I’m going down to the church on Saturday to help with the working bee.”
“Which church is the wedding being held in?”
“That church over there looks very nice.”

The “building” described in the NT is not a physical one. When Paul (not me, the apostle) talks about the “church” he uses the Greek word ekklesia.
According to the commentary I looked at (see my Community Resources page) ekklesia refers to “an actual gathering of people” or “the group gathering for a regularly assembled meeting”.

Biblical commentators qualify the idea of ekklesia, proposing that Paul wasn’t referring to the church in an institutional sense either. The early church was most certainly linked in organic ways between the different gatherings. But here, Paul’s use of the word didn’t intend to carry an undertone of an earth-bound, organisational sense of federation, beyond their shared faith in Christ. When Paul wrote to the ekklesia in Corinth, or the ekklesia in Colossae, I don’t think he had the different gatherings listed on a database as member churches of the BURE (the Baptist Union of the Roman Empire). So, in my context at Essendon, I tried to imagine what it would be like, if we didn’t have our physical building.

I imagined what church would be like, if, at 5am every Sunday morning, Heath and Simon, our music guys, got up and put up a marquee made from about 80 sheets of blue tarp in Lincoln Park, just in case it rained… and we had church there every Sunday with musical instruments that don’t need electricity… Doug, who’s been worship leading for decades, whips out an old broom handle with bottle caps nailed on to it… the drum kit got stolen last week because someone forgot to pack it up… so Gary, my favourite drummer, is unloading a couple of upturned rubbish bins from the back of his car like that guy who busks in the city. Joan, everyone’s favourite little old lady, is getting into it with the tambourine. There’s no overhead projector. Just one of the tallest guys at church, Bruce, with a big whiteboard and a step ladder. When I picture that, the only things that are strikingly similar to the regular gathering I call church, are the smiling familiar faces.

Paul wasn’t writing to buildings, nor to organisations. He was writing to Christians who met together, living out real faith in a community. The community gathering is the building that Paul is referring to in Ephesians 2, as he writes to Gentile believers, extending to them the invitation for all believers, to enter into the church community.

Ephesians 2:19-22 (NRSV)
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

True Christian Community: An Introduction

Stained Glass Masquerade (popup window warning)

Those are the lyrics to a song by a band called Casting Crowns and for me they present a challenge. The song vividly depicts for us the false experience of community that many of us will experience at one time or another.

For me, the words remind me of my brokenness and my aloneness when I put up walls of self-protection that stop me from being real with other people. They bring to life for me the shallow, fake, empty reality that can exist for us in our approach to participating in the church community.

According to Wikipedia:

The word community comes from the Latin communis, meaning “common, public, shared by all or many.”^[1] The Latin term “communitatus” from which the English word “community” comes, is comprised of three elements, “Com-” - a Latin prefix meaning with or togther, “-Munis-” - ultimately Proto-Indo-European in origin, it has been suggested that it means “the changes or exchanges that link” (Both municipal and monetary take their meaning here), and “-tatus” a Latin suffix suggesting diminutive, small, intimate or local.

So, you could probably describe community as “Localised, intimate exchanges that link together”.

The community at my church is something that’s extremely important to me. My strongest memories of being a part of a real community, being cared about, being accepted, and being loved, are all intrinsically connected to Essendon Baptist Community Church. So I guess that makes me living proof that true Christian community can happen in amongst us those of us who chose to gather together on Sunday mornings.

My purpose in writing the upcoming content on this blog, is to examine some of what the bible has to say about the way Christians are to live in community with each other. On its own merits, our community at Essendon Bapts certainly isn’t perfect… but even just in our youth ministry, there are some great things going on. People are investing in each other in some really encouraging ways. We really do have something special. Hopefully, I’ve got a few ideas here that apply universally… things that we can all take onboard as we interact with others in our communities.