Let’s get our Monday morning praise on with this video of creative worship from World Outreach Worship featuring StikYard:
worship
Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #13 — Rockin with the Cross
StandardAs a musician and worship leader, quick access to chord charts, tablature and lead sheets is a must! Rockin’ With the Cross has provided Christian chord charts and tablature for guitar, piano, bass and horn for over 13 years! There is a small fee of $3.95/monthly.
Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #9 — Danced Prophetic Word
StandardMarlita Hill is a dance minister, a dance educator, a choreographer, and author of Dancers! Assume the Position, a Biblically-rooted examination of the dance minister’s purpose and role as artist.
Watch as she dances an excerpt from her book. And note that it is SO MUCH MORE than just an excerpt. It is a prophetic word to ALL ARTISTS and CREATIVES! If you only have 5 minutes today, watch and listen and be released as priests of God’s glorious praise!
Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #6 — Creative Church Conferences
StandardI hope one of your New Year’s resolutions was to attend a conference this year. If not, you should! Conferences are a great way to grow as a creative, to meet other like-minded worshipers and artists, and to re-imagine your ministry!
Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #5 — Jeremy Begbie, art theologian
StandardToday I’d like to introduce you to theologian and musician Jeremy Begbie, the Thomas A. Langford Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School. I first discovered Dr. Begbie while doing research for my book and was caught up by the depth of his thoughts regarding worship and the arts. I loved that a theologian was mining the depths of the arts for the church and its people.
Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #4 — Shaping Worship
StandardAre you a “undiscovered” songwriter? Perhaps a worship leader who’s written songs well-liked by your congregation? A musician who’s written instrumental music for church and liturgical use? Or maybe you develop backgrounds and videos for worship? Are you a small church with a limited budget wanting to take advantage of some free resources to enhance your Sunday morning worship experience? Then I’d like to introduce you to ShapingWorship.com.
Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #3 — Epiphany
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Today is Epiphany. For those of us who’ve been raised in a high-church tradition, we know and understand what this holiday means to us as Christians. Some celebrate this holiday with great joy. Some have lost the joy in the repetition of a seemingly outdated tradition. Some of us have no idea what Epiphany means as our church does not celebrate or acknowledge this religious holiday.
Create-A-Day 2015: your daily dose of creativity
StandardJust as One-A-Day® Vitamins help restore the nutrients we deplete in our bodies, so too do we need to refill, replenish and renew our creative souls. So in 2015, I will be doing a daily* post to undergird your ministry, to lead you to resources to nurture the creative spirit within, and to draw you more deeply into your worship of Jesus Christ. Starting in January, watch for “Create-A-Day” blog posts. My goal is to provide you, the creative Christian, with over 250* resources to help you develop your ARTistry, CREATivity & capacity for BEaUty. What kind of resources? Books, worship arts ministries, video series, websites, conferences—all geared towards artists, creatives, worshipers and people serving in worship and creative arts ministries.
Whether you are a musician, singer, composer or worship leader; a painter, sculptor, sketcher, photographer or graphic artist; an actor, playwright or film producer; a weaver, potter, seamstres or silversmith; a writer of poetry, prose or non-fiction; a dancer, flagger or abandoned worshiper, I hope to post resources that will help you as you develop the creative gift God has placed within YOU!
So, visit my blog every day* to see what creative resource I’ve hunted down for you. You can stay connected daily by following me on Twitter or Facebook. Or better yet, sign up to receive email updates by clicking the button to the left. We’ll watch the resources pile up as the year unfolds!
** I am a proponent of family time and Sabbath rest so don’t look for posts on weekends or Holidays.
Create-A-Day
http://www.jodythomae.com
Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You, a devotional book with Bible studies to nurture the creative spirit within and to serve as a resource for creative Christians, artists, musicians and worshippers. She has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, serving as worship arts ministry pastor, worship leader, and creative arts director. She has coordinated artistic involvement in church services and regional worship events through dance, drama, poetry and fine arts and has had the opportunity to perform, teach, choreograph, preach, coordinate and lead workshops in the area of creativity, spirituality and embodied prayer. She has also recently released a devotional CD called Song of the Beloved.
Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and formational ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. Life scriptures include Psalm 27; Isaiah 50:4-7; and Zephaniah 3:14-17.
“Song of the Beloved” Devotional Album
StandardSong of the Beloved reflects the love of Christ our Sacred King for His Beloved Bride, the Church and its people. This simple acoustic recording, with readings from scripture and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, is designed to lead you through a time of confession into quiet meditation and rest in the arms of your Savior.
The idea for a devotional CD was birthed in the early years of motherhood, when there was little time to spend in God’s Word and presence. As I “taxi-cabbed” my children from activity to activity or waited in the school pick-up line, I thought how great it would be to have a CD that had scripture or devotional material with accompanying songs to give me a few moments “alone” with God — something simple that would lead me into quiet rest with my Savior amidst the craziness of life as a busy mom. That is my intent behind this recording.
Six of the eight tracks are original songs and two tracks are original arrangements of traditional hymns. Many of the songs begin with scripture or readings. Tracks include: In the Garden, an arrangement of the 1912 hymn written by D.Austin Miles; Steal Me Away, a prayer of the heart set to song by Nate Bebout; My Adulteress Heart, a song of confession based on the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8; It Is Well, an original arrangement of the 1873 hymn by Horatio Gates Spafford and Philip Paul Bliss; Remedy, a song of healing co-written with Aaron Wardle; Song of the Beloved, a love song based on passages from Song of Songs; Dance Before You, an uplifting song of God’s redeeming power based on Psalm 30; and Kingdom Song, based on Psalm 45, which according to the NKJV is a song of “The Glories of the Messiah and His Bride.” You can give them a listen on YouTube!
Other artists and musicians included on this album include: Nate Bebout (guitar, vocals); Glenn Black (reader); Jeremy Harrison (piano); Paul Stoffer (guitar); and Jillian VanDuyne (keyboard, vocals).
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Marshall Green, Marshman Studios, Ashland, Ohio.
Cover design by Allison Barnhart Design with photo by Carly Eger.
Dedicated to the loving memory of my best friend, Lynn Hill (1968-2013).
You can preview all songs* and purchase my album through CDBaby, iTunes, or from My Square Shop. May God meet you with grace and peace as you listen. Blessings!
*Tracks #3, 6 & 8 on CDBaby are full previews so you can give a listen to the entire song with its accompanying readings.
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Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You, a devotional book with Bible studies to nurture the creative spirit within and to serve as a resource for creative Christians and artists. She has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, serving as worship arts ministry pastor, worship leader and creative arts director. She performs, teaches, choreographs, preaches, coordinates and leads workshops in the area of creativity, spirituality and embodied prayer. She also leads worship at local seminars, retreats and women’s events.
Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and formational ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. She is particularly interested in the way in which God uses the arts to bring formational development and healing to His people.
You can read more about Jody here.
Dancing in the River: a Meditation on Psalm 65
StandardOh, visit the earth,
ask her to join the dance!
Deck her out in spring showers,
fill the God-River with living water.
Paint the wheat fields golden.
Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields,
soak the dirt clods
With rainfall as harrow and rake
bring her to blossom and fruit.
Snow-crown the peaks with splendor,
scatter rose petals down your paths,
All through the wild meadows, rose petals.
Set the hills to dancing,
Dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
a drape of flax across the valleys.
Let them shout, and shout, and shout!
Oh, oh, let them sing! (Psalm 65:9-13 MSG)
Photo by Heidi Weller
Nurturing the Creative Spirit Within 