WHO INSPIRES YOU? Future artist suggestions

Hi, folks.

We've featured a diversity of music at Faith/OnTap and want to expand. Please share your own ideas.

Click "comments" at the bottom of this post to suggest other artists to explore and a few words about why you think they might be good for Faith/OnTap.

We want to include a lot more human diversity. The musical diversity so far has only come from white guys. Help us expand, but most importantly share about any musical artist who inspires you.

Suggestions so far: Indigo Girls, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen.

Your turn!

-Brent & Shane

Note to ACT class participants (Sept. 29)

Please also visit the new site for Fall 2007 and beyond:
www.faithontap.net

Hi, folks.
Brent and I were glad to have you in class on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007.
In case any of you are seeking information that isn't posted here, please e-mail me!
swhisler@synodsun.com
I haven't taken time to update the site with all the behind the scenes details.
Please ask and be patient. I didn't tell you Saturday that I was in a car wreck Thursday and am moving slowly.
Peace,
Shane

NEW: Faith/On Tap - Welcome!

Please also visit the new site for Fall 2007 and beyond:
www.faithontap.net

Fall 2007 - 7p Third Mondays, same great place.

We're branching out... U2, Beatles, Indigo Girls and maybe Johnny Cash for starters.

Join us in the back room of Bailey's from 7-8p Aug. 17, Oct. 15 and Nov. 19 and Dec. 17 for Faith/OnTap.

Hear some music, see images, lyrics and explore the spiritual side of music from well-known artists.

Come early and order dinner if you care to. The great staff will keep a tab for you or your group and you pay them at the end of "class."

We are Presbyterian-flavored spiritual folks who welcome all flavors of faith and agnostic people!

Questions? Contact Brent at brent@northridgepc.org.

Professional childcare is available for free by calling Melanie at the church anytime the week before: 214-827-5521.

Last Spring's Welcome Message

See what Lakewood-Now.net says.

Uno, dos, tres...

7p Mondays (Spring 2007)
(same topics for 9:30a Sundays the day before)

1. April 16 - FAITH & VERTIGO
2. April 23 - FAITH & GRACE
3. April 30 - HOPE
   
4. May 7 - HOPE continues
5. May 14 - LOVE
6. May 21 - LOVE & JUSTICE
   

UPDATE - Join us 7p Monday, Sept. 10th as U2/OnTap re-emerges as FAITH/OnTap!

After the September kick off, we'll gather monthly - THIRD MONDAYs of the Month, starting Oct. 2007.

Whether you love the spiritual depth, the call to social justice or simply great rock-n-roll music, join us at one of our discussion sessions.

The churchy version is called All Because of U2 and meets 9:30a Sundays at Northridge PC.

The casual version is called U2/OnTap which meets 7p Mondays in the back room of a popular sports bar and grill called Bailey's 1st and 10. You don't have to like sports or even beer to enjoy the sessions here! And child care is available by calling ahead.

Please visit the Sundays or Mondays topics to learn more about the differences and similarities. Faith, hope and love will be overarching themes as we travel through the six sessions. But the journey may turn out differently than we expect.

And even if you can't attend either version between April 15 - May 21, 2007, we'd love you to share how U2 has moved you in spiritual ways here.

FUN & MUSIC:

John Kenny, who's played for our sessions,
is performing his own work June 30, 2007 at
Opening Bell Coffee

VERTIGO USA (tribute band)
in Dallas: July 20, 2007

Questions/Comments: mailto:%20Shanenahs@U2.com

1 - FAITH & VERTIGO

Sun. April 15 / Mon. April 16

Please share your comments, critique and questions from the first session here!

Sign it with your first name and which day you attended (optional).

It was great to see 40+ folks Sunday morning sharing in the multimedia session.
And 30 attended Monday night.

The most important medium of communication is yours (your words and interpretations).
Please ask questions here as well. We'll try to start a FAQ topic for those answers.

Peace,
Brent & Shane

The review below gives an idea of what we discussed and heard.

Session 1 review: FAITH & VERTIGO

Set list:
Vertigo
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
40

vertigo. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vertigo (accessed: April 14, 2007).

Vertigo
I’m at a place called Vertigo
It’s everything I wish I didn’t know
but you give me something to feel

How do you experience vertigo in life?

RESPONSES from participants:

• News is maddening, don't know how to react to it.

• "Donuts" in the neighborhood (vandalism with cars)?

• One person literally suffers from vertigo.

• High school seniors: No time to think. So much to do in little time.

• Sandwich generation's empty nests – losing parents and children moving out.

• So much violence

• Parent/child decisions – which college? What are right decisions on any issue?

• No easy answers.

• Disillusionment at dismantling parents' home, deconstructing their lives – finding out so much of what we thought was (true), isn't.

• Too many places to go, not enough time...

• Being the only person in a 4-person house with a job (overwhelming responsibilities)

• Too many responsibilities - How to priorities?

• When your pushing 85 and every time you forget something, thinking you have Alzheimer's.

• I'm pushing 57 and feel the same way.

• Having unrealistic expectations – getting disappointed.

• Turning attention away from anything that isn't God (turning away from God)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
Bleed into one.
But yes, I'm still running.

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, you know I believe it.

But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.

What kind of faith is this?

RESPONSES from participants:

• Constantly being evaluated – measured at the time.

• The faith of every day life.

• One person said he experienced this kind of faith at age 17 when a friend who was very religious and a positive influence on his faith talked of committing suicide. He was able to help talk his friend out of it.

• Faith and doubt.

• Faith is a journey... I don't usually see until looking back, that I found what I was looking for.

The opposite of faith is not doubt:
It is certainty.

-Anne Lamott, April 27, 2005 on Salon.com

40

I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined and heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay.

I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song.
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?

How long—believing is not the hard part, waiting is the hard part.

How long this vertigo?

"How long" is also in two other songs “Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Saints are Coming."

But notice people of faith never stop singing.

Songs of thanksgiving and imagination—that’s faith.

Songs of lament and waiting and pain—that’s faith.

Faith is keeping the song going.

Faith as singing the new song.

Faith as not forgetting about the painful songs.
Faith is the voice that never stop singing.

2 - FAITH & GRACE

Sun. April 22 / Mon. April 23

Set list for Class 2 is complete. We will explore at least an excerpt of the following songs.

Sunday Bloody Sunday
Peace On Earth
Numb
Love and Peace or Else
Kite
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Walk On
Grace (performed live by John Kenny)
Silver and Gold (Rattle and Hum version)

3 - HOPE

Sun. April 29 / Mon. April 30

This week we turn to the topic of "hope in the music of U2." We will be discussing "The Streets Have No Name" which is the first song on Joshua Tree, "Drowning Man" which is the fifth song on War, "Walk On" which is the fourth song on All That You Can't Leave Behind, and "Revelation 21:22-22:6" which is the last book in the Bible.

One thing that might be fun to do is purchase a copy of the Bible called "The Message." It is a contemporary version of the Bible put together by Eugene Peterson. This is the Bible that at least three of the members of U2 read most often and some of the words of their songs come directly from this version of the Bible. Someone asked me the week before Easter what version of the Bible they should read and I told them the "New Revised Standard Version" for the mind, and the "The Message"
for the heart.