Sunday, May 29, 2005

Harp 46 at Emergent 05

I had every intention of returning to the IKON worship Wednesday night, but when I heard that Harp 46 (who I loved last year) were leading a jazznight/with spoken word type service with Brian McLaren, I had to check it out. Thank God! No one grooves like Harp 46! And at the risk of sounding racist, who’duvthunk a white girl on HARP and and a coupla Asian guys on percussion and bass could sound so funky? If it’s true that there'll be harp-playing in heaven, please, please, please let it be Harp 46!

Brian Mclaren's spoken word beat-poet opening was likewise suprisingly groove-y. From that opening he traced the Biblical story in various poetic segments. We interspersed his readings with community credal recitiations. You can find a version of Brian's creed on his site. We also followed Harp 46's inventive jazzbased arrangements of mostly familiar hymns.

Fact is this was what worship should be: so overwhelming in some way or another that it points to the worth of the Creator. These co-creators mixed sense with the sensory, intellect and emotion, teaching toward Christian formation. The teaching was healing as it drew us out of ourselves to meditate on the Creator, the creatures, the creation, and the story we find ourselves in.

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