Readers: This is from an email I sent to the Red Words Band and Fr. Joe Ciccarello - the church's music maestro last year at this time.
Mark/Mike/Fr. Joe/Paul:
Wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your recent concert at Intercessor.
I took two friends who were visiting from their other home in Arizona – my friend Mike and his wife Miriam. Mike’s an artist and likes new experiences – last fall he introduced me to the Halloween Extravaganza at the Cathedral of St John the Divine. This event reminded me how important it is for churches to maintain an active presence in the arts. For Mike, a hip choir and rock ‘n roll musicians praising G-d were music to his ears. Miriam’s from a more conservative background and got an eyeful and earful of contemporary worship music.
Who knows…upbeat music might lead to dancing – “Oh no!” And dancing might lead to you-know-what!” Actually, the oft-told joke reverses this sequence. : )))
"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman
"Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not WHAT a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is WHY he does it." - A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
"I play the notes as they are written, but it is G-d who makes the music." - J. S. Bach
"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo
BTW – Bono asked Franciscan Richard Rohr to give a retreat for him and his band.
Pastor and Theology Professor Timothy Neufeld article on the connection between U2’s Bono & Edge and Richard Rohr
NOTE: Prof. Neufeld's site is under construction and this is currently a non-working link. In the meantime, check out this one:
--the mention of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant reminded me of this joke: “The fact that there is a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic load.”
While I’ve been on both roads…this is now my preferred intersection…it’s my EZ Pass…
tOM