You can now find me at:
http://eubanksme.tumblr.com

WHY? Honestly, I just need a new look, and I want some more seamless integration between this blog and my ministry blog, and they know how to do it.  Also, I can post music for free, and there will be a LOT more music posted in the next phase of blogging.

See you there!

—–eubanks.

2. the internship idea

What if I used an established structure that provided time and a specific context (e.g. short term missions) to train musicians and worship leaders to write, lead worship, pray, and serve both the missionary community and the locational community in which they were living?  What if it became a place where artist’s lives and voices were freed from the bondage of sin, lies, and brokenness that constrict and constrain them, and they were able to been to artistically live, lead, and relate in freedom?

HYPOTHESIS: There is something we can learn about how to employ music for worship and reflection in the context of a mission trip that can’t be taught or experienced throughout the course of a school year.

3. the school idea

What if a multi-ethnic, cross-ethnic, reconciled, group of artists came together to form a school for artists to learn how to develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit, Torah, art, and people across ethnicities?  What if the school taught people to be worship leader artists – not just singers and musicians, but visual artists, performing artists, media artists…learning how to lead others toward Jesus with the art they create, and being personally transformed by the relationship they are cultivating with the Holy Spirit, Torah, and art?  And what if, in all of that, people learned how to be artistic and creative agents of reconciliation and peace (see eph2)?

In order for this to happen, the group of pioneering teachers would have to have a substantial level of relationship with sufficient trust, as well as a working theology and meaningful experiences associated with art, ethnicity, justice, and reconciliation.

1. The “concert” idea
I was driving toward Staples Center one day, and I saw that Jesus Culture was coming to perform at the Nokia Center.  And all of a sudden, it had me thinking about whether or not I would enjoy performing in a venue like that.  And instantly, my soul said, “no.”  I thought that to be curious, and so I spent the rest of that time stuck in traffic thinking about why I felt so adversely toward the idea.  It didn’t take long for the answer to come, and it was so simple: I want my music to be a catalyst for response and community.  I don’t just want the music I write to be consumed and digested in a private experience.  The primary function of most concerts is to get you to focus your attention vertically, toward the performer.  I’m interested in horizontal and reflective attention.

So, what if I created a “new” cultural artifact that was a different kind of concert (in fact, this isn’t even close to being new and I probably only have this idea because people like Jenny Hall and Erna Hackett have shaped my imagination about art and worship)?  The requirements would be simple:

• Biblical Artistic Storytelling: the story of the Bible must be told with performance and visual art.
• Horizontal Communication: people have to talk to each other.
• Personal Reflection: people have to ask and answer one honest question to themselves.
• Tactile Objects: the horizontal communication or the personal reflection has to be related to at least one object that people can touch

The first experiment native to my art will be this Thursday (5/26/11) at UCLA InterVarsity’s large group.  Let me know if you are interested in coming.

Current emotions: confusion, relief, fear.

I called it “prologue.”  I’m at a point in my life where a lot of things are beginning and ending, but even the endings feel more like beginnings.  This, too, feels like a beginning, but I’m stumped as to what for.

To the reader: If you read this, then I probably know you personally.  Thanks for supporting me and my art; it means more than you’ll ever know.

Now, listen to your heart’s delight