Reflections on IAM Encounter 10: Making Our Art an Expression of Love

Guest post by Julie Robertson (photo at right):

We received a massive blessing from God last week— he allowed my husband Eric and I to attend the IAM Conference in New York City! Due to short notice, we were not certain if we would be able to attend… but then funds started coming in from unusual places. We knew then that God was telling us to go! Paul Nethercott met us there, and it was a blessing to be able to connect with him over the weekend.

IAM (International Arts Movement) is an organization that encourages artists worldwide to change their world through faith and their chosen art field. The conference was held March 4-6 at Cooper Hall in the exciting Greenwich Village area of New York City. We attended seminars by prominent musicians, fine artists, sculptors, designers, writers, and illustrators. Studio Re:'s collaboration, the film Jitensha, was selected from a number of other entries to screen at the Conference. It was encouraging to see the positive reaction and thoughtful questions that people were asking Paul after the showing.

We were encouraged to go out and explore New York City. For those of you who have been/lived there, you know that just being in this city is an

inspiration… it is so busy, exciting, artistic, diverse… and (just like Alicia Keys sings) you truly feel that “there’s nothing you can’t do.” We attended several art shows of a caliber beyond anything that we could possibly see in our current home of Oklahoma.

Eric (photo at right is Eric at Grand Central Station) learned valuable information about music from Jacob Marshall, lead singer of the successful band “MAE.” Among the other fantastic friends we made were Makoto Fujimura (in photo beside his painting), a world-renowned Japanese artist and founder of IAM; Dave and Corey Fuller, who are involved with IAM in Oklahoma City; Kiwa, a Japanese exchange student studying fine art near Boston, and so many others!

The thing that sticks out most in my mind is what Mr. Fujimura said about making our art an expression of Love. We all know the famous description of love in I Corinthians 13, but how many of us artists think of applying these characteristics to our work? How many of us make art that is not envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, or delighting in evil, but rejoicing with the truth? So much of modern art is purposefully intended to shock, aggravate, horrify, or otherwise celebrate evil. How wonderful it would be if we artists would all use our energy to create art that points people to life in Christ instead of hopelessness and death.

It was also great to see so many successful, prestigious artists who are Christians... something that sometimes I don't think exists. We don't have to stay caged in our small little ambitions that only reach a few people in our immediate area. We can truly make a huge impact on the whole world, like many of these people are already doing. That was what I will always remember from this conference.

That, and the 99c pizza by the slice.

Manga Messiah & Manga Metamorphosis Artist Interview

The Bible Illustration Blog has an excellent interview of Japanese Manga artist Kozumi Shinozawa posted here: THE INTERVIEW

Kozumi is the illustrator of Manga Messiah & Manga Metamorphosis -- the first two books in the Bible Manga Series (there will be a total of five). Well over 500,000 copies of Manga Messiah have been distributed in Uganda alone; it is being published around the world in many languages.

Three of the Bible Manga series are currently available in English at Amazon, you can purchase them HERE

Countenance Three by Makoto Fujimura - Free Download

It is Christmas day in Chicago where I am so thankful to be spending time with family celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I want to wish the readers of Worship and the Arts a Blessed Christmas! I also want to let you know that Makoto Fujimura's painting "Countenance Three" is now available as a free-of-charge downloaded. I highly recommend Makoto and this lovely painting.

The note about this painting says that "Countenance captures the reflection of the Creator's gaze on His creation."

Download High Resolution Image of the painting HERE

Creative Commons License For photo of the painting "Countenance Three" by Makoto Fujimura

Makoto is a Japanese national who lives in NYC. He recently wrote a book with Tim Keller (pastor of Redeemer Church in NYC) called Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture

Innovation In The Arts: "Missional Art"

Innovation in the Arts is a guest post I wrote for Innovation in Mission, a blog by Jon Hirst connected with the book he published with the title Innovation in Mission.

I have not had a face-to-face meeting with Jon -- we recently connected on the social networking site called facebook. But, Jon's parents, Lester and Priscilla Hirst are good friends and former colleagues in the same mission. I have a lot of respect for Les and Priscilla.  They have been a great encouragement to me, and to many others that I know.

Other posts on this blog related to "Missional Art." 

• A Film Showing that God is at Work in Japan
• "Bicycle" - A Film by Biola University & Studio Re:
• Missional Art - Lamp Post Graphic Novels
• Manga Messiah: Expanding Around the Globe II

Three Books Related to "Missional Art:"

• "imagine" by Steve Turner
• "Unceasing Worship" by Harold Best
• "Innovation in Mission" by Jon Hirst and Jim Reapsome

Black Gospel Music in Japan ...and the questions that come with it

Greetings from a guest blogger. 

I (Jeff Timmer) am here for six weeks this summer working as an intern with Paul Nethercott and fulfilling requirements for my grad degree in ethnomusicology. I’m also here to do some research on gospel choirs in Japan. I became interested in this topic two summers ago while on a short-term trip working with a church in Osaka. After two years of grad classes as framework and preparation, I’m back to spend some more time looking in to the topic. Paul has asked me to share a few thoughts via blog posts while I’m here.

I’ve been here only a week, so I’m still a little cautious when it comes to writing any new and interesting discoveries, happenings or insights. Instead I think it’s best to begin by sharing some of the questions I’m addressing as a researcher, visitor and ethnomusicology student. (For those who don’t know, I should probably mention that “ethnomusicology” is essentially the study of music in/as culture; the anthropology of music; the study of the music of the world; etc.)

To the questions:

•  Now that black gospel music has been popular in Japan for around 15 years, has the genre established itself as a fully Japanese activity and not something that has been imported? How is this defined or characterized? What is uniquely and distinctively Japanese about the way black gospel music plays itself out here?
• What is drawing the Japanese to participate in these choirs?
• What are the goals, methods and vision of gospel choir leaders and directors?
• How are choirs established and how are they supported?
• As Jonathan Herring notes in another post on this blog, most of the participants are not Christians. For the number of choir members who have become Christians through participation in the choirs, what are the elements, methods or people God is using in this conversion?
• What lessons can be drawn from these gospel choirs that can help the local Japanese churches and their ministry to the community?
• Some work is being done to experiment with fusing black gospel music with wadaiko as well as hip-hop dance. What effects will this have on the genre, if any? How will the relationships between leadership and participants develop and spread?
• What’s next for black gospel music in Japan?

The purpose in sharing these is partly to preface any later posts on the subject, but also to help challenge your own thinking and take a moment to put on the hat of an ethnomusicologist/artist by taking a step back and asking similar questions. Sometimes when you take things that have become normal or routine and look at them with some outside eyes, new insights or epiphanies can emerge that will ultimately help refine your work or goals.

I’m looking forward to digging a little deeper with these questions and others over the next few weeks. More thoughts later!

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Note from Paul Nethecott: 

It is really good to have a quality person like Jeff here for a few weeks working with me on an important project. His research is tied in with a film project we are producing under Studio Re:

The first part of this production is a mini-documentary that will explore the popularity of both Black Gospel and a genre indigenous to Japan called Wadaiko (Japanese style percussion troupe). 

The second part is a Wadaiko/Black Gospel Music Video (WBG Music Video) that we will shoot on June 20, 2009 at a large hall in Tokyo.  This will feature a large Japanese Black Gospel choir under the direction of Ken Taylor and 12 Wadaiko percussionists from a group called Matsuriza. As far as we know, this will be the first performance of Black Gospel and Wadaiko fusion.  It could be the start of a new style of music.  And, it could attract a lot of attention. 

Why is Studio Re: producing a Music Video?  This will be a visual demonstration of the fact that the Gospel is for Japan.  It will show that the gospel does indeed "connect" with Japanese and with their culture.  In a nation where virtually everyone views Christianity as a foreign religion, this is a radical idea.  But, we aren't going to just talk about the fact that the gospel relates to Japanese culture, we are going to create a visual demonstration.  Will it work? 

The first time our Japanese bookkeeper saw the WBG teaser inserted below, she cried.  

She couldn't even say exactly why she cried but it touched her on the emotional level.  I took it as a very good sign.   She did say something like "I had never thought about how Japanese culture could be part of my faith." 

Related Posts: 

Japanese Black Gospel Choir & Taiko Troupe in a Music Video?

Missions & Filmmaking Converge in Tokyo

A Film Showing that God is at Work in Japan

"Bicycle" - A Film by Biola University & Studio Re:

View Mujo No Kaze Online Here

A Christmas Video by Sufjan Stevens

When Sufjan had a concert in Tokyo early this year this year a good friend of ours was in the show so my family got complimentary tickets; we all loved it. Rather quirky and a lot of fun, it was the first concert that my eleven year old daughter really enjoyed.

I want to wish readers a "Merry Christmas!" I hope you enjoy this delightful video by Sufjan.

Missional Art - Lamp Post Graphic Novels

Welcome to a new series entitled "Missional Art." In May, Paul (along with a group of facebook friends) created an article that defined and demonstrated Missional Art. You can access it HERE. This series will be written by both authors of this blog, plus a few other writers. This series will include a diverse array of examples that illuminate how God creatively communicates his love for the world through art.

We're really excited about it -- if you are interested in participating (as a writer) let us know by leaving a comment on this post.

Three weeks ago, I, Scot, was contacted out-of-the-blue by Brett Burner, owner and chief writer of Lamp Post, Inc.--a publication company based in San Diego that specializes in e-books and graphic novels. Some of their graphic novels show stylistic influences from Japanese manga, and easily fit into a new category that has arisen in the past few years: OEL (Original English Language) Manga. Though mainstream publisher Tokyopop is the leader in OEL Manga, a few Christians have added their voice to the mix. That's not surprising. Christian media has a long history of imitating mainstream media, though it's usually a few years behind and is usually a pale imitation.


That's where Lamp Post is so different. Their works surpass the "Christianized Imitation" paradigm and raise the bar for a new generation of graphic novel creators. It is no exaggeration to say that their products are the best Christian graphic novels I have ever read, and believe me, I have read a fair share of them. I can easily see Lamp Post, and Brett Burner in particular, as being for the Christian graphic novel industry what D.C. Talk was for the Christian music industry: a good product with promise of even better things to come.

[Edit (9/27/08): After talking it over with Paul, we agreed that the term "Christian Graphic Novel" and "Christian Music" were vague and potentially misleading, since the sacred/secular divide is more of a fallacy than anything. In this article, whenever I use "Christian" in regards to media, I simply mean media that is marketed towards a Christian subculture, rather than a mainstream audience. There are many reasons that many Christians choose to do this--sometimes spiritual and sometimes financial. We won't go into that here, but just to clear it up, neither Paul nor I believe that anything except people can be "Christian" in the truest sense of the word.]

When Brett contacted me, it was in regards to licensing and translating Japanese Christian manga. After establishing that such a thing doesn't exist (aside from the already-published Manga Messiah series), the focus of our conversations shifted, and I am now interested in reversing the process and bringing his products over to Japan. I think that something like this could spark a lot of interest and ideas among Japanese Christian Youth, who have no access to anything like this. A few weeks ago I finally received some copies of the Japanese versions of Manga Messiah and Manga Metamorphosis, and put them in my English School's lending library. We haven't been able to keep them on the shelves, and both students and parents have exclaimed how they finally understand the story of Jesus. We have had a lot of people asking questions about faith recently. Praise God! We need more examples of this.

In the following paragraphs, I am going to highlight three of Lamp Posts works, all written by Brett Burner. Please think about the possibilties of bringing such things to Japanese shores.

Holy Scrolls - The Origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls

This is a charming 36-page graphic novel about a boy who is stuck all day in a musuem with his parents. As he is about to pass out from boredom, a quirky old man sits down next to him and tells him the unlikely story of the Dead Sea scrolls. He awakens a love for history in the boy and tells the truth about documents whose existence has been used to make many false claims against Christianity. It's a well-drawn and cleverly written collaboration between Diego Candia (artist) Brett Burner (writer) and Dr. Pam Fox Kuhlken, a well-respected Dead Sea Scrolls scholar. But don't take my word for it. Head to this website to read the e-book version: http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=3287

This graphic novel series, currently up to Volume 4, details the portion of the Bible that tells of the Babylonian captivity through Nehemiah. Told through the point of view of the prophet Zechariah and his father and grandfather Berekiah and Iddo, it breathes life into a portion of the Bible that many people skip over. Of all of the graphic novels published by Lamp Post, it is the one that is closest to the Manga Messiah series, so those who liked Manga Messiah and Manga Metamorphosis should also be interested in this. I have included a video preview below:

Above anything else, I believe this to be the defining work of Lamp Post, and it is the one I am most interested in seeing brought over to Japan. The story is an incredibly engaging take on the Superhero genre. Throughout the Bible, the name "Morningstar" remains ambiguous. Sometimes it refers to Christ, though at other times it is used to refer to Satan. That ambiguity is at the heart of this series, as the concept of "hero" and "villain" get turned on end.

The series begins with a group called "Hand of the Morningstar" who have all been granted superpowers by "the Morningstar" in order to relieve suffering in the world and bring honor and glory to the name of the Morningstar. And they do many good things from healing overfarmed land to saving the president from terrorist attacks. In the course of the first book, they meet a superpowered eco-terrorist named "The Tempest," who uses the powers of a storm (rain, lightning, and wind) to violently attack oil rigs, deforestation projects, and other things around the world which exploit the earth. Nevermind that he often does more harm than good. Titan, the group leader of the Hand, defeats him and leaves him for dead. This, despite being at the end of Volume 1, is where the true story begins.

The Tempest, aka Michael Tempe, washes up on the coast of Argentina, near-dead and powerless, or so he thinks. He is nursed back to health by a missionary and his daughter, and in the process becomes a follower of Christ. During a hurricane, he rediscovers his powers and starts using them for good.

The thing that makes this series so good and so relevant is the two portrayals of "good." One, used by the Hand of the Morningstar, embodies countless Christian stereotypes. This is juxtaposed with the vey real and personal faith of Michael Tempe, and it makes for a striking contrast. The following is an excerpt from an interview that Burner did with The Christian Manifesto:

Mike [the artist] says, “We need a BibleMan!” I said, “No! We need the opposite!” Whenever I see a “Christian-Superhero” story, the premise is always (I will say “typically”, but to date I have never seen otherwise) that the main character is somehow endowed with super powers by God and sent off on a mission of righteousness with these powers. My view is that we ALL are given this mission—“…to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God,” Micah 6:8. So how does that translate to a superhero such as Spiderman, the Hulk, or the Fantastic Four? Take a guy that happens to have super powers, then make him a Christian. How does he act?

And the results are great. I cannot recomment it highly enough. It has honesty, it has humanity, and it has hook. This is a perfect example of Missional Art, and I look forward to more. The Hand of the Morningstar is currently 5/8 of the way through publication. Brett assures me that the climax of the story will cover the majority of books 6-8, which will be published within the next two years. Personally, I can't wait.

Below is another video promotional. If you follow the link above to the Christian Manifesto, you can also see some high-quality images from Volume 5. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments.

A Great Communion Celebration -- an example from TEAM mission meeting in Japan

One of Nancy Nethercott’s passions is celebrating Christian communion… she also thrives on planning communion services for both large and small groups. Below is Nancy’s description of the Christ-centered communion service she recently planned for our mission here in Japan.

We had a wonderful morning (final session) on Saturday of our mission annual conference, celebrating communion in a way that made it fresh and memorable. Our theme for the week was from John 10:10 "Life...to the Full." So, I had ordered large loaves of light rye bread from the local bakery (Asanoya) which Tom & Nancy Edwards cut it into large chunks. Tom and Nancy also prepared much larger than usual glasses of juice. After a time of worship through music and Scripture, Steve Baughn shared a short devotional. The people came down the center aisle of the chapel to receive the elements and then fanned out around the outer edge of the chapel in a circle holding the elements until we were all served (there were around seventy people in attendance).

Then, Steve broke a large loaf of bread as he said, “The body of Christ given for you;” and poured juice from a large pitcher into a clear glass as he said, “the blood of Christ shed for you; remembering the lavish sacrifice of Christ, partake with thankfulness in your hearts.” We ate and drank for an extended time savoring the "abundance,” and "fullness" of the provision of Jesus Christ - it was quite special. We closed with singing the traditional “Doxology.”

I got many comments afterwards about how meaningful this time of communion was. People entered into singing the songs and seemed to appreciate the "Scripture Tapestry" reading that Karyn, Gerald, and I presented. It was a Scripture reading focusing on Christ (from John 1) with related verses woven in (this reading is from Reformed Worship magazine June 2008 issue, pages 32-33). The larger than usual servings were a visual reminder of just how big and lavish the love of Jesus is.

Instruments included two guitars and one piano -- Mike Gray and Paul Nethercott played guitar with Tim Johnson and Rita Schellenberg taking turns on the piano. Nancy Nethercott, Angie Carter, and Tim Johnson were the lead singers.

Communion Service for TEAM Japan Annual Conference
Karuizawa, Japan August 16, 2008

Order of worship:

Song: Lord, Reign in Me (by Brenton Brown)

Song: Jesus, Hope of the Nations (by Brian Doerksen)

Scripture Tapestry: Read by Nancy Nethercott, Karyn Zaayenga and Gerald May
(This group practiced several times, they were well prepared which was an important aspect of the effectiveness of this reading)

Song: Here I am to worship (by Tim Hughes)

Recognition and prayer for several members of TEAM (this took about 40 minutes)

Song: How Deep the Father’s Love for Us (by Stuart Townend)

Prayer from “The Worship Sourcebook” (based on 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Peter 2:24)

All pray:
Awesome and compassionate God,
you have loved us with unfailing, self-giving mercy,
but we have not loved you.
You constantly call us, but we do not listen.
You ask us to love, but we walk away from neighbors in need,
wrapped in our own concerns.
We condone evil, prejudice, warfare, and greed.
God of grace, as you come to us in mercy,
we repent in spirit and in truth,
admit our sin, and gratefully receive your forgiveness
through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.

Silent Prayer

Leader:
Hear the good news:
This saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
He himself bore our sins
in his body on the cross,
that we might be dead to sin,
and alive to all that is good.
I affirm to you in the name of Jesus Christ,
you are forgiven.

All: Thanks be to God.

Song: Great is Thy Faithfulness (traditional)

Steve Baughn: Communion Devotional (about ten minutes)

Communion Ceremony

Closing Song: The Doxology (traditional)

NOTE: We used a Power Point presentation that included several photos, the service was on the long side, but it did not seem too long, as everyone in attendance was invested in the TEAM related presentation/prayer for members.

Looking for Great Photos of Japan?

Photos of Japan are easy to come by; good photos of Japan are a little bit rarer. I have spent time slogging through different websites out there looking for great photos of Japan, and have found some gems -- several that belong to friends of mine. So, enjoy browsing through their sites. If you use any of these pictures, please give credit to the photographer!

Andy Gray - Japan Window (Various) : Andy has a tremendous collection of very good photos on his site -- this is a rich resource for photos of Japan AND for commentary on life in Japan. Andy and his family (he has three cute little girls, two of which are twins) lived next door to me for a couple of years. At that he was just getting his web site established but now, he has almost one thousand photos, organized in easy to navigate categories. A number of Andy's photos feature one or more of his daughters. [http://japanwindow.com/]

Andy Gray just sent me the following wonderful photo, and wrote "these days I'm posting more at www.photosensibility.com rather than at JapanWindow.com











For several more amazing people photos by Andy go HERE


Tim Crowson - Tim Crowson Photography (Scenery and Black Gospel Concert): During the two years Tim lived in Japan he took some exceptional photos. Many of his scenery shots are stunning, and he also has an album of photos he took at a black gospel choir concert (with mostly Japanese singers!). [http://timcrowson.smugmug.com/]

Robin White - Outlook on Japan (City Shots/Everyday Life): Robin lives in Nagoya, so he has lots of opportunities to get shots of people going about their daily business. [http://outlookonjapan.com/index.php?x=browse&pagenum=1]













Here are a few more options from people that I don't know:

TREK EARTH Trek Earth (Locations): a huge collection of photos organized by location. If you are looking for shots of a particular place in Japan, this is a great place to start. [http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Japan/]

Chuck Neel (aka Slug) - Japan Photo Gallery by Slug (People): Lots of people shots, primarily in and around Tokyo. [http://www.pbase.com/slug/japan&page=all]

Eric Lafforgue's Flickr Page (Close Ups of People): a good site for closeups of people of all fashions (ancient and modern) and ages. You'll find everything from standard to sumo to kabuki to the street fashions of Shibuya and Harajuku. [http://flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/sets/72057594066310184/]

"ENGRISH" Site (Humor): Engrish.com is a classic site chronicling badly used English in advertisements, signs, and translated media. Not all of it is from Japan, but a good portion is. This site is great for a laugh. [http://engrish.com/]

I hope you enjoy these pictures. Do you know of any more great sites? Do you want to put in a plug for your own photos of Japan? Leave a comment!

Thanks to Scot Eaton for his excellent editing help on this post.

Introducing (and thanking) Web Site Designer Yuin-Y

We want to acknowledge, and thank, Yuin-Y for her much appreciated artistic contribution to this blog. Yuin-Y is the talented artist who did the banner art work and color scheme for us. Few blogs have a custom design, so we are thrilled with the special contribution of Yuin-Y to this blog.

In one of those "you never know who you are going to meet where" experiences, I met Yuin-Y when my family was on vacation in Malaysia and we were invited by her parents to take part in their church related cell group. Yuin-Y is not only a good artist, she is a delightful young woman with a great attitude.

Yuin-Y's Profile: "I am a classic case of anime-bait, my interest in Japan being first stirred by watching anime several years ago; although now my interest has expanded to manga (translated into English, of course), J-dramas, and a little of the J-pop scene too.

I attended Multimedia University in Kuala Lumpur, with a major in Film & Animation. Since I finished school, I have been working for an advertising firm in Malaysia. I also do lectures on multimedia.

Literature, art, and film, are all a joy to me, and I am very much intrigued by the work that CAN is doing, using media to reach people for Christ. While I can't be in Japan to help them out directly right now, I am glad that I can be involved a little bit from where I am in Malaysia!

Please check out my blog: Ind Elwen Tinuviel, which has evolved into more of an art blog, though it began as a typical what's-going-on-in-my-life blog."

Scot Eaton also contributed a lot to upgrading this blog by giving invaluable artistic input, and by doing the coding -- which was a big job. Thanks Scot for being a part of this effort!

Scot -- this blog's co-author -- lives in Japan, where he is teaching English, editing Manga for the US market, and also finishing his MA in Ethnomusicology from Bethel University in MN. Scot is a good percussionist and is making the most of that talent by connecting with Japanese in his community through joining a local Taiko troupe.

Mujo No Kaze Wins Inigo Film Festival Award

Mujo No Kaze, The film CAN produced in collaboration with Biola University has won an award!

Inigo Film-Festival in Sydney Australia has chosen our film to receive a significant honor — details will be announced later (we know what the award is, but want to honor their right to make the announcement first). But our film is listed on their site, and we have been told that actress Cate Blanchett is slated to be in Sydney for the awards ceremony on July 18, 2008.

Biola professor Dean Yamada wrote, “I think this is an auspicious start for Studio Re: (the CAN Film Project) and I hope it’s just the first of many great collaborations.”

Right now, I am in the US (Minnesota to be exact). I checked into going to Sydney for the July 18 awards event but the price is around $3,000!! So, as much as I would love to be there, I gave it up. Dean Yamada, and one or two Biola students, are planning to attend.

You can view the trailer below:



Or, a higher quality version here: MNK TRAILER

Our next Biola/CAN film project is in the "pre-production" stage -- which involves what has to happen before you shoot a film including: setting a budget, choosing a script, choosing staff and assigning roles, gathering equipment, and making sure all logistical issues are taken care of. Then, in Jan of 2009, Dean Yamada will bring a group of twelve Biola film majors to Tokyo to shoot our film.

Manga Messiah: Expanding Around the Globe II

As a follow up to a previous post on this blog called "Manga Messiah: Expanding Around the Globe," here are cover photos of various language editions, will add more when I get them.

The first photo is of the Japanese Version of Manga Messiah. The left half of the second photo (middle row) is actually the yet to be published Japanese version of Manga Metamorphosis, while the right side is (I think) the Spanish version of Manga Messiah.

The last photo (bottom row) I am not sure of -- can anyone identify it?

自分らしく生きる

I taught a class yesterday for a group of ladies who are part of our new CLTC Communities (this is a Japanese site)initiative. The class is called 自分らしく生きる (literally "Being Yourself & Living it Out").

Recently, I have finally become convinced that the traditional approach of imparting knowledge simply does not work. Connected with that, I am committed to avoiding the lecture approach to teaching -- because it is not effective, and getting less so. I want the students to be involved in the process, and to help them integrate knowledge (truths) into their lives (application). So, we did several untypical things for this class that I thought worked well:

1. To start the class I asked the students to make a sketch of where they are at in their life journey. We had large pieces of paper and a basket full of my daughter's colored pens and crayons, they used this stuff to draw the place that they see themselves existing in at this time.

One person asked for an example so I drew a simple sketch on the white board of me jumping off a cliff, heading down, but looking at some nice hills in the distance. This has to do with my plunge into film making, very exciting but scary too. The class "got it" and got to work on their masterpieces -- the results were awesome. Several of the ladies have a lot of artistic talent, but all the drawings revealed a great deal about the person who did them... more then they realized.

Finally, I asked each person to tell about what they drew. So, not only was it a good time of personal reflection for each person, it was also a means of building community by getting to know each other better. Below is a photo of two of the students drawings:


2. Instead of just lecturing about the Bible (I have done way too much of that, although there is a place and a time for it). I divided the class into three groups and asked each of the group to study a section of I Corinthians 12. After they huddled for ten minutes each group reported what they had discovered -- again it worked out very well. Instead of me telling them, they found it themselves, and they did a good job, probably better than I could have done in terms of content. And, I think they are far more likely to remember what we covered and apply it to their lives.

3. We also watched a section of "Walk the Line" a movie on the life of Johnny Cash. I used this movie because there is a scene early in the film that shows young Cash struggling to make a go of it as a singer. His wife doesn't believe in him, they have no money, but he wants to sing so he tries to find a way to make it work. He goes to a recording studio, hoping to get a contract but he is told that the gospel music he is singing sounds stale. Johnny finally plays one of his original songs, with honesty and conviction, and he lands his first recording contract.

Cash had a rough life, complicated and full of problems but he eventually met God and became known as one of the most authentic musicians in the industry, and was deeply respected for it. For the class we discussed the obstacles he was dealing with, and how he found his genuine "voice" or way to express himself -- something it is so important for all of us to do. The students seemed to connect with this, one them talked with me after class about how difficult it is to figure out what her gift is and then how to use it. She expressed her frustration with the realities of having to make money and dealing with the expectations of others, struggles I am sure most of us can relate to.

Two weeks before Cash died, he recorded a moving music video. It was a cover of a song by Nine Inch Nails called Hurt. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend taking a few moments to view Johnny's incredibly authentic rendition of this song.



I want to acknowledge coach trainer Keith Webb, who contributed a lot to the way this class was taught. In other words, I blatantly stole ideas from him. I attended a coaching workshop in Tokyo that Keith facilitated. Not only did I get to learn a lot of great stuff about coaching, Keith used "interactive discover-based training" methods. It was wonderful -- a creative and highly effective way to teach. It is also a lot more fun than typical approaches. I highly recommend Keith, his web site is Creative Results Management.

the indie contingent

Mark spent a year in Tokyo as an Artist In Residence (AiR) with CAN. He left behind a lot of good friends who miss him, a lot. Thanks Mark for this post, and, welcome to the blog. Come back to Tokyo sometime soon and make my Taylor (guitar) sound really good again. It was great having you here with us for a year! (Paul Nethercott)

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con·tin·gent - [kuhn-tin-juhnt]
–adjective

1.dependent for existence
2.A representative group forming part of an assemblage.

There are several things I've been learning on my journey as an "independent" artist:
1.There is no such thing as an independent artist
2.Artists can not possibly survive independently
3.and for you math people out there I've come up with this little formula A^1=undefined

What am I saying? Am I throwing in the sweaty towel? Chucking my guitar against the wall and walking away? ummmm... here is another equation - NO x INFINITY = ANSWER :)

What the term independent means in music, is that we are free to follow our heart's passion, free to express that passion in our art as we desire, and free to distribute and use our art to benefit others with out being inhibited. But to accomplish this, we are actually very, very dependent - on people like you. A group of people that goes beyond just a "listener" or a "fan", into what I am calling the Indie Contingent.

These are the people who share a common vision with me, a vision of reaching out to the oppressed, seeking healing and justice for the exploited, and loving them with the Love that has been poured into us. Are you willing to merge your time and abilities with me in this?

Morocco Trip:

Many of you have heard me express my vision for loving the oppressed around the world, but only some of you know how we plan to let this vision manifest in the near future. I want to take a small team of people to different countries where significant exploitation is happening for 2 to 3 months. Our goal is to hear their stories so that we can present them in forms of media - songs and other art - to raise awareness and funds to bring aid, practical help, and loving people to the sides of the hurting. We are currently in the planning stages of preparing for the first of these trips - to Morocco, in the summer of 2008. There is a lot that has to fall into place, but we are preparing, brain storming ideas, and planning in full expectation of it happening.
ALL of these positions below aid this, either in actually participating directly in Morocco, or preparing our distribution base back in America and around the world where we hope to share the stories.

These are the talents I am specifically looking for to join the Indie Contingent -

The people we are looking to potentially have come with us to Morocco are listed below...we hope that those numbers can be replaced soon with names :)

1-2 song writers
1 photographer/video documenter
1 translator or translators in country

And maybe you aren't into traveling around the world, or simply can't... Here are several talents that we really need tons of here in America, or abroad

Graphic Design:
-Merchandise (designing t-shirts, wrist bands, and whatever your mind come us with)
-Web Work (design, Flash, and programming)
-Promotional Material (merch layout at shows, promo posters/flyers, CD designs)

Tour Management:
-Venue Scouts (finding interesting, artistic venues to play in and promote our vision)
-Booking Agents (booking shows at venues like art spaces, colleges, churches, bars)
-Local Talent Scouts (finding artists to join the show in their area and bring new people to listen who normally wouldn't be there)
-Promoters (people who spread the word about new music/shows through word of mouth, distributing flyers, writing reviews and notices for newspapers, getting announcements through connections to radio stations, etc)

Visual Art:
-Artists of nearly any medium (I love to have artists performing during the shows to turn the musical and lyrical message into a fresh visual connection)

Are you interested in joining the Indie Contingent, or just wanting more information?
email me at

We sure hope you are, as we are truly impotent without you. Your ideas, hearts, and abilities only make our visions more viable, and its potential reach far greater!

"Cellphone Novels" Huge Hit in Japan

On the trains in Tokyo I often see young women absorbed in their cell phones, now I know one thing they are doing is writing and/or reading novels! Amazing...

"Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular" The New York Times

TOKYO — Until recently, cellphone novels — composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in Japan as a sub-genre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, “The Tale of Genji,” a millennium ago. Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.

Read the full article on the NY Times Site

CAN Monthly January, 2008

Every month we (CAN) hold a "CAN Monthly" meeting. We have held a number of "open mic" events over the past year where participants share their gifts and abilities. We have had ballet, traditional Japanese dance, hip hop dance, hip hop music, lots of other styles of music, visual arts, film, and poetry presented. Most participants do original material, with some outstanding talent represented. It has been fun, and very rewarding to be a part of these Monthly Meetings. Our purpose includes networking, encouraging participants, and giving everyone a "safe" place to perform.

Last Saturday (1-12-08) we had our first 2008 "CAN Monthly." Going into it I thought we were going to have around five people show up, I even suggested that we cancel it. That was a really dumb idea as it turned out to be one of our best meetings. Around thirty people showed up and we had dance, music, poetry, and an illustrator who showed and talked about his art.

We met in a wonderful church building in Chiba. Kashiwa Glory Chapel is an old warehouse that the church refurbished into a warm, inviting beautiful church site.

And, the food was absolutely delicious. The pastor's wife cooked us a huge meal that included coffee and desert (see photos).

I am looking forward to the rest of this year, meeting new people, seeing people get excited about what God is doing in their lives and being a part of what CAN connected artists are doing. I plan to do a monthly report on our meetings.

The video below is of three children at our CAN meeting performing a hip hop dance. Their teacher, who was also at the meeting, is a well-known mainstream dancer in Tokyo. Great to see Christians in strategic arenas like the hip hop sub-culture in Japan (which is large).

Sufjan Stevens Japan Tour (Jan, 08)

I (Paul) am really looking forward to seeing Sufjan in concert here in Tokyo next year.

Sufjan Stevens Japan tour dates:
Osaka Gig(Monday Jan. 21, 2008)
Tokyo Gig (Tuesday Jan. 22, 2008)

I feel connected to "Suf" because he is a good friend of a friend of mine. Suf is a Christian, but has gained a broad international following that is not confined to the Christian sub-culture. A very creative and rather unorthodox songwriter/performer Suf produces music that is both fun and thought provoking. He has been spotted wearing wings while performing. If you want to see what that looks like check out this video:



About Sufjan Stevens

Visual Worship

About five weeks ago, I had the chance to play alongside singer/songwriter Mark Miller (http://www.theothermarkmiller.com/) in a concert in Tokyo. Sadly, it was Mark's final concert in Japan before he moved back to the United States, and he is already missed. It was one of the most fun concerts I have ever played in (I played djembe), with Mark, myself, and two other very talented musicians. However, the thing that made it most memorable was not just the great music, but the great art that accompanied it. Graham Fleming (http://www.gramskrit.com/) added his skill to the concert by making works of art while the music was playing. Using a mixture of chalk and watercolors in order to produce the art in a short amount of time, he created 8 drawings over the course of 9 songs. I have included the eight pictures (plus a pre-concert test) right here:

Graham's experiment during the concert filled my head with thoughts and questions. Specifically, it made me think about worship. A commonly accepted definition of worship is that it is "the act of coming into God's presence and responding to Him on the basis of who He is and what He has done." Bruce Leafbald expands this by saying that worship is "communion with God in which believers, by grace, center their minds' attention and their hearts' affection on the Lord, humbly gloryfying God in response to His greatness and His word."

The phrase that jumps out at me is "center their minds' attention." As I mentioned in my last post, I am an English teacher. As such, I have learned about various teaching and learning methods. One of the most widespread theories is the theory of learning modalities, which says that each student has a particular modality, and if information is presented in a way that resonates with their modality, they will be able to easily comprehend it. The modalities are as follows:

Audio - responds best when information is verbalized or presented via sound. They have a hard time gaining information from books.

Visual - responds best when information is presented visually, whether that be through graphics or diagrams. Learning that occurs solely through sound is very difficult for them.

Tactile/Kinesthetic - responds best when information is associated with movement and hands-on activities. These people generally have a hard time with reading and listening, but will immediately understand when they can walk through the process.

Now, let's connect this with "centering their minds' attention." To me, it only makes sense that a person's learning modality is directly connected with how they are able to channel their thoughts and center their minds' attention. I don't think that worship is an exception. I think that audio learners will naturally be able to express themselves to God most fully using sound, and tactile kinesthetic learners will naturally express themselves to God with movement.

The problem is, our worship services are not set up to favor anyone except the audio learners. Think about the elements of the service. In any service, there are active and passive elements. Generally stated, the active elements are the parts of the service where the congregation directly interacts in the service. The passive elements can include sermons and times of prayer (both audio by the way) as well as the church environment. I am not a pastor, so I am not going to qualify on the passive elements. Let me instead focus on the active element: the worship time.

Most worship times consist of two things: singing and responsive reading. These two things highly favor the audio modality. The advent of computers and slide-show presentations have added some visual element to this time, but it is passive. I am looking for things people can participate in. In some churches, dancing is acceptable, which is a blessing to the tactile/kinesthetic people out there. In other churches, the T/K people have to resort to clapping and sometimes (gasp) raising their hands. As far as the visual people go... well... I'm drawing a blank. I can't think of any commonly accepted elements to the service that allow visual people to actively participate in a response to God. This is sad, even tragic! If worship is about centering our minds' attention and our hearts' affection to God, then we are neglecting a sizeable portion of the body without realizing it! How do these people learn to focus on God when the active congregational times are all conducted in a way that doesn't allow them to center their minds' attention?

This is where Graham comes back in. He was a participant in the concert through the visual element, and it was powerful for us musicians, him, and many people in the audience. Is it inconceivable to bring that same idea into a worship service? Here is a small picture of what it could look like: Set up a table on one side of a sanctuary, and on the table to have blank white paper, small amounts of colored paper, old magazines, crayons, markers, scissors, and glue. During the time when the worship team is playing (especially for extended 3-4 song sets), people are free to come to this table and worship God, centering their minds' attention visually. Whatever is produced can either be taken by them or displayed after the service. Think of how that could transform the worship experience for some of the people in our churches! Just last Sunday, I was sitting next to a friend, and when the pastor was talking about advent, she started scribbling the word "Anticipation" in various fonts all over a stray sheet of notebook paper. It was her way of entering into the worship experience. I questioned her about it later that day, and the short conversation that followed was engaging, heartfelt, and meaningful. I would like to see that story repeated every Sunday.

One final note. Adding the visual element to worship is not a new concept. People who practice Lectio Divina have been discovering this for hundreds of years. I have seen this concept transform campus meetings, where instead of a message, an artistically minded student will lead their peers to meditate on a passage of scripture and respond to it visually.