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Author: Robert

Hope

January 10, 2020 Robert

The psychologist Erik Erikson writes of how in the first stage of our development the primary concern is basic trust…

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Posted in: music ministry, spirituality Filed under: hope, mistrust, music, spirituality, trust

Musicians picking apart music

December 30, 2019 Robert

Musicians have a tendency to pick apart songs. You could say we dissect them but that is too clinical a…

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Posted in: music Filed under: debussy, music

We are God’s people

May 2, 2019 Robert Leave a comment

From my May 12, 2019 Music Corner bulletin column Today’s Psalm 100:1-2 We are God’s people, the sheep of his…

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Posted in: music ministry, spirituality Filed under: community, faith, psalms, singing, testimony

How music heals

March 29, 2019 Robert

Trees are constantly growing. When a limb is cut off the tree grows around the cut to seal the wound…

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Posted in: creativity, music, music ministry, spirituality Filed under: creative, creativity, healing, play

“Shrink!” The constriction of creative imagination

March 17, 2019 Robert

Slang for therapist, shrink is an intriguing word; rather it is a fascinating image. One story goes that it arose…

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Posted in: creativity, psychology Filed under: becoming, identity, imagination, play, shadow, shrink, therapy, winnicott

God through us

February 25, 2019 Robert

Singing into a microphone or playing in front of a congregation can be intimidating. From personal experience and many conversations…

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Posted in: music ministry, spirituality Filed under: courage, service, stewardship, trust

Music, language of the soul: melody and harmony

February 11, 2019 Robert Leave a comment

The arts, including music, are the soul’s languages. Music connects with us (and connects us) because it speaks the soul’s…

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Posted in: music, psychology Filed under: harmony, melody, narrative

can we own a work of art?

February 9, 2019 Robert Leave a comment

…we no more own art by buying it than we own nature by buying land.

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Posted in: creativity Filed under: art, commerce, encounter, ownership

The art of accompanying

February 4, 2019 Robert

In Mark 9:36 Jesus tells the disciples the one who leads must be “the servant of all.” An accompanist leads…

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Posted in: music, music ministry Filed under: ensemble, music, spirit

Sympathetic vibration of the heart strings

February 1, 2019 Robert Leave a comment

When you a sing near a cello, it vibrates. If you sing the pitch of one of its strings, it…

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Posted in: music ministry, spirituality Filed under: music, resonate, vibration

Beauty opens us

January 28, 2019 Robert Leave a comment

In divine moments, by the Holy Spirit, nature’s beauty uncloses us. Tightly wrapped, we are unbound

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Posted in: music ministry, theology Filed under: beauty, heart, music, spirituality

Believing is seeing

January 23, 2019 Robert Leave a comment

Mark 1:15 says “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the…

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Posted in: music ministry, spirituality Filed under: belief, imagination, kingdom, seeing

God’s only-begotten song, born into the world

December 22, 2018 Robert

We celebrate that God was born into the world–that God took human form. So, what does this mean? This deceptively…

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Posted in: spirituality Filed under: in the moment, incarnation, performance

rhythm

May 13, 2018 Robert Leave a comment

Why does Music have such an effect on us? Where does it come from? In the beginning, there was rhythm.…

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Posted in: music, psychology Filed under: music, rhythm

what makes a space sacred

Robert Leave a comment

The spaces we dwell in have a powerful effect on us. Moving from our parking lot toward the church we…

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Posted in: architecture, psychology, spirituality Filed under: sacred, space

love, freedom and creation

February 28, 2015 Robert 1 Comment

What if we are so much of creation that the gift of free will, given in love, had consequences for…

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Posted in: creativity, philosophy, psychology, theology

why heaven is up

August 21, 2014 Robert 1 Comment

Of course we’re not talking literally “up.” That would lead to all sorts of absurdities. We’re speaking metaphorically, which is…

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Posted in: psychology Filed under: metaphor, spatiality, verticality

transformative ideas

August 2, 2014 Robert Leave a comment

“Perhaps ideas are the single most precious miracle in human existence. For ideas determine our goals of action, our styles…

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Posted in: creativity, psychology Filed under: ideas, transformation

reimagining memory

July 2, 2014 Robert Leave a comment

While we may imagine memory as the collection and recall of facts, compared with technologies we create to help us…

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Posted in: psychology

the impact of music ministry in worship

March 28, 2014 Robert Leave a comment

One of the great benefits of communal worship is that witnessing the expressions of faith of our brothers and sisters…

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Posted in: music ministry

mind and nature

January 2, 2013 Robert Leave a comment

In abstracting we imagine ourselves as outside of nature looking in and Forgetting the “as” we are left alienated and…

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Posted in: philosophy

music and spiritual experience

December 1, 2012 Robert Leave a comment

Consider the character of spiritual experience and what it has in common with the experience of music. Spiritual experiences often…

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Posted in: music ministry

being a musician

Robert 1 Comment

At the core of being a musician is the deep desire to experience and express what goes beyond words. When…

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Posted in: music

defining moment

Robert Leave a comment

There are moments in a musician’s life – defining performances that touch so deeply that they effect a fundamental shift…

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Posted in: music

creativity and possibility

Robert 2 Comments

For a creative person, what could be is as tangible, if not more real than what is. A piece of…

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Posted in: creativity

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