Off the Grid

I have been off the grid for the last few days recovering from a long semester ending with a 2 week tour with Singers in Germany.  I am working on several posts that I will add in the next few days.

Stay tuned.

Home Sweet Home

Our final days on the Germany Tour in Munich were wonderful.  The weather was perfect, our hotel was located in a great place to catch the train, the hotel was fairly new and very clean, and the students took full advantage of a great city and culture.

On the first full day in Munich the students spent time shopping in the retail shops around the city center and exploring the food of the many beer gardens all over the city.  From Monday through Thursday, Missy, Morgan, and I took all our meals outside in the courtyards of Munich.  It was beautiful.

Day two in Munich was exploration day.  Many of my students took day trips to Austria and to the many castles around Munich.  They all came back with great reports of fun and culture they experienced.  Missy, Morgan, and I along with 9 other students rented bikes and did a 15 mile bike tour of the city including the English Garden and Olympic Park.  This bike ride was one of the most enjoyable days I have spent in a long time.  Morgan had her heart set on a bike tour, and she was not disappointed.  She stayed up with the group for all 6 hours.  In addition, the students that went with us were so much fun and easy to be with.  I laughed and laughed at their reactions as we rode all over Munich.  

We traveled all day on the 22nd.  We took off from Munich at 10am local time and landed in Atlanta at 2:30pm local time.  Re-entry into the US was fast and easy and we were back on the Lee campus at 7pm.  

I went to bed at 9:30pm and woke up around 5am.  Hope I can sleep later in the morning.

It was a great trip.  We covered a large amount Germany, and most importantly we met some new wonderful people that most of us will never forget.  My nights in host homes were some of my favorite times.  A special thanks to Phil and Becky Burton, Benson and Kathy Vaughn, and Rolland Frank.  Your hospitality was a blessing to Missy, Morgan, and me.

Host Home Experiences

As I travel in the U.S., I almost always stay in a hotel.  My students usually stay in host homes, but unless I am a personal friend of the host, the church gets me a room.  However, on international tours this is not usually the case.  In counties outside the U.S. it is an honor to host someone in your home, and I have been reminded of this experience on this tour to Germany.

Lee is all about global experiences.  The university professors and staff host up to 50 trips abroad each year, and we require all our undergrad students to complete a cross-cultural experience to graduate.  I love this program and I think it makes our undergrads not only more well rounded to enter the work force, but as followers of Christ it opens our eyes that our God is a God of the world not just the U.S.  

While we want our students to experience different cultures, I have become very aware of a culture within a culture on this trip, and I think it is a “sub-culture” in many parts of the world today.  This sub-culture is the many Americans that find themselves living in foreign countries.  

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend two nights with the director of the Ministry to the Military Center in K-Town, Phil Burton and his family.  This is a man and his family who have spent the past 5 years living in Germany leading a vital ministry to the U.S. military and trying to reach the German culture for Christ.  This man’s work is not limited to an American philosophy of ministry and inclusion, but he is reaching the least of these in the poverty stricken neighborhoods of K-Town.  

Two to three times a week Phil’s team is going into the project housing around the center taking food to hungry families in the name of Christ.  Singers joined his team last week in one of these distribution ministry efforts.  Singers would assemble on a street corner and we would begin to sing.  People would gather to hear us, then we would give them bread and fruit.  It was amazing to see so many needy people in what is considered one of the richest countries of the world.

For two nights, Missy, Morgan and I stayed with Phil and his family.  In addition to my family, Phil and Becky took 6 of my students and they had 5 other family members staying in their home as well.  Yes, that is a total of 16 people in one house.  We all had a bed or a pull-out couch to sleep on, and we were treated like royal guests.  

I so enjoyed talking with Phil and his father Tom about ministry in Germany.  I love to hear that they are not just reaching our U.S. military folks, but trying to learn the culture and reach those natives with the love of Christ.  They are doing a great work.  Before our concert, Phil took the Singers around the village where we rented a concert hall for the evening performance.  We would sing and hand out invitations to the German people on the streets.  As a result we had many Germans come to our concert and at least 18 of them accepted Christ as a result of the concert.  What a great experience for my students and for the U.S. military people who are trying to reach the culture they have been called to live in for Christ.  

Thank you Phil and Becky for taking my family into you home and treating us so well.  The fellowship and discussions were great and so were the Belgium waffles.  What a treat to get to know you, and to see you enlarge the Kingdom of God in Germany and the U.S. military.  God bless you.

Ok, long enough post for today.  Many more thoughts to come.

Munich

It is 9:15 P.M. and I am drinking a 5 euro bottle of water in the lobby of the hotel.  It has been a few days since I have been able to get internet access.  Everyone is safe and has had a great time.

Since my last post we have had 3 concerts including an outdoor event in the largest market place in Germany.  Freduendstat (sp?) is a beautiful city and we were able to do some good work for ETS and Crossroads Church in the outdoor concert.

On Sunday we performed in the morning in Kenibus at Crossroads Church.  This church meets on the campus of ETS.  There was a full house and there were several who came to the church on Sunday as a result of the concert the night before in the market place.  There were at least 15 who accepted Christ in this service.

In the evening, we traveled to Almersbach and performed at the Church of God.  Singers has a long history at this church.  Again, the church was full and several came to know Christ.  

I met an old Lee friend Khi Vector (sp?).  He and I were in the music program at the same time in the late 80’s.  It was nice to see him, and he seemed shocked that I was now the director of Singers.

We visited Straussburg, France on Monday and we performed in the cathedral in the city center.  It was thrilling to perform in such a large room with no mics.

Today we spent several hours at Dachau Concentration Camp.  It was an eye opening experience for the students.

Now we are in Munich for 3 nights.  No singing, just food, culture, the opera concert, fun and relaxing.

New Germany Update

It is 11:15 p.m. in Germany, and we have just arrived back to our rooms at the hotel.  It has been a long day.  

This morning we started with a traditional German breakfast of hard rolls, cold meat, and cheese. In addition the cooks prepared some eggs American style for my students.  The kids have made a good impression on the hotel staff.

We left the hotel and traveled to Amburg.  This is a beautiful city with a old town dating back to the Middle-Ages.  The old wall is still standing and they have incorporated the old and the new inside the old town.  Middle-ages buildings with modern department stores like H & M.  It is a site.  

We spent a couple of hour in Amburg and Melissa and I had lunch with some students at a German beir garden.  I had the crispy roasted pork shoulder with potato dumplings and Missy had pork with German pasta in a creamy cheese sauce.  The sun came out for the first time on our trip and it was beautiful.  It was fun watching my students try to order off the menu with no German translator.  What an experience.

We arrived at the U.S. Military base about 4.  Many of my students needed to Euros so I went to the bank and changed money and the students got dressed and set-up for the concert.

Another small crowd, but what a wonderful worship service.  I asked for anyone wanting prayer to stand at the end of the service and almost everyone in the sanctuary stood.  My Singers left the risers and began to join in prayer with these military families.  It was a beautiful sight.  I thank God for the students willingness to pray with people.  

The military gave us money to eat dinner on the way home.  We stopped at a German McDonalds and had a great meal that was familiar to the students. 

Now in bed for a short nights sleep before a big day tomorrow.  I am not sure what my internet connection will be, so I will update when I can.

God Bless

Germany Update

Good morning.  It is the morning of my 5th day in Germany.  I am eating a hard roll, swiss cheese, and some kind of cold meat.  Last night the military put is in a lovely old world German hotel.  It is great.  After the concert last night, we arrived back at the hotel and they had a special room set up for us to dine in, and they fed us a wonderful meal.  The rooms are large and the hosts at the hotel are warm and act glad to have 47 American university students in their “home.”

It has been a very busy few days.  After a safe day of travel on the 11th, we headed to K-town for a day of shopping and trying to ease into the Germany culture.  At lunch on the 11th, Missy and I (with a few students) ate lunch in the oldest house in downtown K-town (early 1500’s).  It was a traditional German meal, and it was very good.  We have found all the local German people to be warm and welcoming to our students.

After a late lunch we traveled to the U.S. Military base at Baumholder.  Chaplain Hall, a Church of God post chaplain, met us at the gate and we went to the chapel.  The Baumholder base is a beautiful place.  Hitler was fond of this particular base and he held many of his formal social events on this base.  Many of the old Nazi symbolism has been left on the buildings to remind the U.S. Military folks of the damage that was once done from this post.  

The chapel was a beautiful 500 seat marble floor worship space.  The Singers sounded great in this room.  Although there was a small crowd, we had a great service.  Four people gave their heart to Christ and several came down for prayer.  

After the service we had to return to K-town to meet our host families at the World Outreach Center (A Church of God Ministry to the Military Center).  We arrived at the center at 9:30p. m. and went home with great families.

Missy, Morgan, and I along with 6 of the young ladies from Singers went home with the pastor of the center, Phil Burton.  It was a great place to stay, visit and gain a better understanding of a missionary’s heart concerning not only the U.S. Military folks, but the German culture as well.  It is so refreshing to be around someone so passionate about what God has called them to accomplish.  

We got to sleep in the next morning and arrived at the church at 10 a.m. to begin what would be a very full day of ministry, service, and cultural exchange.  We took all the students into one of the most poverty stricken areas of K-town, and we would sing on the street corners and hand out food to the hungry.  We did this in three different areas.  It was great to see the people gather in the streets to hear us, and then for us to give them bread in Jesus’ name.  What an experience!  It was great to see my students trying to interact with these all German speaking people on the streets.  

Next we traveled to the theater in Rammstein to get set-up for our concert in the evening.  We set-up and did sound check and the church folks provided lunch for us at the theater.  After lunch, we once again took to the streets in Rammstein and did mini street performance for all the people milling around the town.  We also handed out invitations to our concert that evening.

The concert went very well.  We had a nice crowd of people, with a good mix of American Military and local Germans.  There were 15 people who accepted Christ and the local Germans loved the students music.

On the next morning we got up early and headed to Hoenfelz for a concert on the base.  We traveled all day and had lunch at a truck stop on the autobahn.  We arrived at the hotel and had an hour to change and get to the base.

We had some technical difficulties before the concert, but all things came together and we had another productive evening of music making and worship.  In the end 9 or 10 gave their hearts to Christ, and we are praying that these who are making a decision for Christ will find a place to grow in Him.  

Today we are getting ready to go to Grafenwoeh.  We are performing on the U.S. base there at 6 p.m. tonight.  On the way we are spending several hours in a small German village to eat lunch and for cultural exchange.  I am sure it will be a great day.

Thanks for your prayers.  I will update as I have internet access.

Safe Arrival

Singers made it safe to Germany.  It is now 4:00 p.m. local time and we have had lunch and checked into the hotel.  Thanks for the prayers.

Singers Germany Tour

I am leaving on Sunday morning with the Lee University Singers for a two week international tour to Germany and France.  We arrive on May 11 in Frankfurt and will tour mainly in the southern portion of Germany with a day trip across the border into France.

The first four days we will be performing on United States military bases. During these concerts we will perform some American and patriotic music along with much of our normal stateside program.  We hope to bring encouragement and the love of Christ to the men and women serving our country in Germany.

The middle portion of the tour will be in the Black Forest area of Germany.  While in the region, the Singers will be performing in local Church of God congregations and an outdoor public concert in Germany’s largest outdoor market.  We will also be spending time with faculty and students at the Church of God European Theological Seminary.  

The final three days will be spent in Munich.  The first day in the Munich area will be spent at the concentration camps in Dachau.  After the visit to Dachau, the students will have two full days of cultural exchange and sightseeing in Munich.

We return to the states on May 22. Pray for our trip when you think about it.  Touring with 47 people has its challenges. The challenges are always travel related.  Having to use a bus company in a different country, and using Delta alone presents many hidden challenges. In my three years of being the director of Singers, the students have never been the challenge.  These are some of the finest young adults anywhere in the world.  I have often said that as talented as they are, and as well as they perform, some of their finest work representing our university is the manner in which they conduct themselves off the risers and stage.  

There will be updates on the trip at singersingermany.blogspot.com.

Understanding the Importance of Excellence

This past week I was doing a lecture in my History and Philosophy of Church Music class on the cycle of music from simple to complex represented in the Old Testament.  I have presented this talk maybe 12-15 times in classrooms and in conferences.  I believe that if we look at how music functioned through history and in the paradigms of philosophical thought, we will see this cycle of music being informal and simple to highly formal and complex.  

In class we were discussing that as the rise of formal worship began to develop in the Old Testament the sacrifice of animals was accompanied by music.  While I have discussed this subject many times, in class that day the connection to excellence in worship finally made sense to me.

I have spent the last 18 years of my life trying to build a theology of excellence for music in worship.  I have talked about giving our best offering musically to God in the formal corporate worship setting.  I have often made the connection to the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament.  As you know, the animals used for sacrifice were to be the best a family had to offer.  However, in all these years I never really noticed or made the connection, that when the formal system of worship though sacrifice was established, musical accompaniment was directly associated with the rite.  If only the finest animals were to be offered in the sacrifices of worship, then the music that accompanied that act must have been offered in the same context.

I am a firm believer that the New Testament is a completion of the Old Testament.  This whole discussion ends in the fact that Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, gave his life for us.  Whether we are making music in an organized corporate worship service, working on a job in the marketplace, or hanging out with friends and family, He deserves and His life, death and resurrection demand excellence from us.  As a musician, I am challenged today not to just throw up any old song when the body of Christ gathers to offer the sacrifice of praise.  

May our lives be the music that accompanies the sacrificial life Christ lives in us.  May we live our song with excellence, and God help all of us who choose and prepare music for worship realize what a important task we have been called to accomplish.

Simple Pleasures

I realized tonight that my age is a great place to be in life (38).  On one hand I am still young enough to have dreams about the future I want to have, and I still have a lot of years to accomplish those dreams.  On the other hand I am old enough to look back on life and ponder the “way things used to be.”

As a kid growing up our family meal in the evening was a big deal.  For most of my life it was Mom, Dad, and me.  I have an older sister, but she is 12 years older than me.  By the time I have really solid memories, my sister had become a young adult and had moved on in her life.  

My Dad’s office was either in the house we lived in or across the street.  Most nights he would come in about 5:15 p.m. and by 5:30 p.m. we would sit at the table for a home cooked meal.  My Mom would cook simple wholesome meals with a southern flair.  Our dinner time was always a time of reflecting on our day and enjoying each other’s company (except for my 8th-10th grade year if you have kids you understands).  While we do not eat at 5:30 p.m. very often, now that I am married and have a daughter, we still try very hard to have a family meal in the evenings together.   

Tonight Morgan, Melissa and I went to Mom and Dad’s for dinner.  We do it as often as we can with my busy schedule.  Here I am 38 years old and it brings back all the good parts of growing up.  My 78 year old mother is still a good cook.  I think she loves Missy and Morgan more than me.  She made sure we all had something we really liked tonight.  For Missy she made a chicken casserole; for Morgan she made cream corn, strawberries and ice cream, and sweet tea; for me fried okra and green beans.  It was a feast. 

As I drove home I was thinking about how blessed I am to have my folks living so near.  They have been such a big influence in my life, and I thank God for them.  Dad is 79 and Mom is 78.  Except for Mom’s bout with shingles and her loss of hearing and Dad’s bad knees, they are in reasonable health.  Dad still drives to Atlanta a couple times a month and works on staff as Senior Adult Pastor at Mount Paran North Church of God.  Mom still drives herself around town and actually talked about driving herself to her sister’s house about 350 miles away.

When you reach my age, you will want to take advantage of every moment God gives you with your parents.  Tonight was one of those moments, and I am thankful.  I wanted you to know more about Mom and Dad.  I think I will post more about them in the days to come.