Hi!  It's been a while.   

I sincerely hope you have been doing well and that you had 

a wonderful summer and Thanksgiving.

I am currently pondering and processing what it is to be a leader and what my philosophy of music and it's place in a church service is.

I think and pray about it most days.

Art is so important to church life and it's vitality.  It gives words when none can be found and brings to life deep longings that have been dormant.  Art is powerful and to often under-valued in the church context.  Music is the most readily accessible form of art that we have at our disposal but we leave out so many other forms that are just as valid and lovely. 

At the root of my desire as a church leader, I want our congregation to come to service and to be confronted, simultaneously, with how amazing our God is and the realization of hidden parts of their lives.  Good or bad.  I long for honest vulnerability before my God because it is in those moment's that healing and growth and vision and passion's are realized and fostered.  And I do believe that art plays a role in that process.  

In our service we follow a liturgy that is, weekly, crafted by our Liturgist's.  It is their art and it is a blesses and enriches my life and those in our service.   We have a wonderful artist who will be displaying her work and the works of others on our chapel wall and I look forward to what will be up there this year.   And we have some talented musicians that have a vision for where they would like to take us as a congregation with songs of praise, worship and adoration.

I pray we are all diligent with what we have been tasked to do this year, with a keen ear to hear where Christ is leading us and a gentle heart to sense quiet nudges.