We have undergone a lot of change in this ministry over the last 10 years. We have moved the ministry once, leaving our entire volunteer, support, and contact base in Florida and starting again in Georgia. We have changed our name from davis54:2 to Proskuneo. Back in 2004, we changed our mission statement and focused on the God-given task of “bringing nations together in worship.” We lost a good friend and fellow-founder of the ministry, Heidi Goodbar, to cancer. We have had 3 staff members come and go. And now, while our mission statement remains the same, we are changing our focus a bit. Rather than scattering seeds so broadly, we feel called by God to focus our energies on a little town called Clarkston, Georgia.

With all the change happening, and sometimes at a staggering pace, it is easy to become disoriented. It is easy to fear the unknown. It is easy to second-guess. But, there is one constant. Our GOD is unchanging. James 1 says that He is the “Father of lights who does not change like shifting shadows.” I can’t tell you what a deep settledness in my soul this knowledge brings.

So many times, I go back to what I know of GOD’s nature. When money seems scarce, I remember that the GOD who provided for the first two years of this ministry’s operating expenses with an unsolicited donor (who had no idea we were dreaming of starting this ministry), is the same GOD that provides for us today. When the work of “bringing nations together in worship” seems too messy, difficult, and time-consuming, I remember that GOD has always had it in His heart to bless the nations (Genesis 12:3). And that He is working a plan that culminates in people from every tribe, language, and nation gathered around the throne praising Him (Rev 7:9,10). When I don’t know how I am going to lead through the next change, I remember that I didn’t get myself into this ministry. GOD did. And I know that the One who called me is faithful, “He will do it.” (I Thess 5:24)

English translation:

Does your spirit live?
The day of decision is now
Your live ebbs away and you weep
But you live on, waiting for tomorrow
You carry evil around with you everywhere you go
Where do you think you can take it?
It’s a narrow way to the Hill of the Cross
But it is the way to freedom

[For more information on this choreography, or to invite the dancer to your church, contact: DanceForJesusMinistries@gmail.com]

This month, we celebrate the Bhutanese-Nepali! The Bhutanese-Nepali are people without a country. How did that happen?

HISTORY

(late 1800′s) Nepalis were brought to work in the south of Bhutan. The numbers of ethnic Nepali in south Bhutan grew tremendously.

(1958) All Nepalis in south Bhutan granted citizenship. However, they retained their distinct culture and language (Nepali).

(1980′s) Bhutanese government instituted the One Nation One People policy. The aim was to preserve the Buddhist culture and language of Bhutan. As a result the Nepali language was banned from schools and literature and those who could not prove they had been in the country before 1958 were deemed illegal immigrants.

(1988) A census is taken and people were wrongly categorized as non-nationals. Many of these were then ejected from the country after being forced to sign “voluntary migration papers.” Their property was seized and they were told they had to get out of the country by a certain date or face death.

Over 100,000 ended up in refugee camps in Nepal, where they had not running water or electricity. They were not allowed to work. And they were not recognized as citizens of Nepal or allowed to return to Bhutan.

The US offered to settle 60,000 Bhutanese-Nepali. A few other countries offered to take up to 10,000 each.

LANGUAGE

I have begun to learn some Nepali (which was derived from Sanskrit), so I can speak with some of our new neighbors. Right now, I am learning basic phrases from a youtube video! Check it out here.

FOOD

When we visited some Bhutanese-Nepali friends for dinner, we enjoyed: dal-bhat-tarkari. Dal is a spicy lentil soup, served over bhat (boiled rice), served with tarkari (curried vegetables) together with achar (pickled radish).

RELIGION

The majority of the Bhutanese-Nepali practice Hinduism. In fact, many of my friends are named after Hindu gods.

OTHER

The capital of Nepal is Kathmandu. Mount Everest is located in Nepal. The Nepali like to say that they live at the top of the world.

Glory to Your immortal word! Victory to Jesus! Victory to the Father! Victory to the Son! Victory to the Holy Spirit! Victory to the Life-Giver!

I like this song because it is call and response. And it is designed to get faster and faster each time the chorus is sung. I also like to use this song to set up a sermon, a time of looking into God’s word. Or, I like to sing this song, and then ask people to quote Scripture they have memorized (usually about a specific theme) and then we sing the chorus one more time at the end…Glory to Your immortal word!

Each month (January – July 2012), we will release a new video from this series on our blog. Or, if you would like them all at once, sign up to be one of our Proskuneo Ministry Partners.

WHAT?
A year-round program offering private instruction (1 hour individual and group lessons) in the arts to members of the Clarkston community.  We also offer special seminars (topical, instrument/genre demonstrations), workshops (on arts and culture), and ongoing ministry teams/programs such as: Children’s Choir, Youth Choir, Musical Theater, etc.
WHEN?
Private/Group lessons offered afternoons and evenings throughout the week, as well as Saturdays. Also, seminars, workshops, and ministry programs offered on Saturdays and weeknights. School runs January-May; September-December, with special camps, etc happening during the summertime. We open registration and begin preparing the facility in January 2012.  We will have an Open House on Feb 11, 2012 and classes will begin on Feb 18, 2012.
WHO?
Ages: 5+. Anyone is welcome to participate! We require a commitment for a semester at a time. Students may need to audition for certain instruction and/or for scholarships. Students would audition and interview for ministry teams. We could serve up to 150+ students with weekly 1 hr lessons!
WHERE?
Clarkston International Bible Church, 3rd floor of education building. [3895 Church Street Clarkston, GA 30021] It is estimated now that in Clarkston, Georgia, 3/4 of the population is foreign-born. And these immigrants are literally from all over the world. In a 1.5 mile radius, there are over 60 languages spoken!
HOW?
Private lessons would be taught by a culturally diverse group of teachers. Every student will pay something for lessons, but we will seek to subsidize lessons by fundraising.

For more info (about students, teachers, donations, etc) and to see a promo video, click here.

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Across America on Sunday, about 43% of the population will go to worship. In most cases, they will worship with folks who are pretty much like themselves. They will mostly be of the same ethnicity, education level, and economic class. In many cases, members of those churches will say that they really would like folks of other ethnicities to join them. Or they want to reach out to folks who are poor, but poor people “just don’t come to their church”. Or they may even be a church that serves the poor throughout the week with meals, clothing and other actions, but those same poor people do not join them in worship on Sunday.

What these congregations may not realize is that, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, their church has a big “Keep Out” sign for those who are different from themselves.

Here are just a few examples of stylistic struggles with diversity and music in worship:

• Those who grew up in traditional worship may find meaning and comfort in old hymns and formal and liturgical worship. They may be comfortable with pipe organs, robes, and enjoy classical music and choirs. Some people feel betrayed and fearful about “Contemporary” worship. It feels like what is most precious to them is being discarded. They may be turned off by what they see as the emotional and superficial nature of Contemporary Christian worship music.
• Many traditional hymns are in styles that were very popular when they were written at the turn of the 20th century or earlier, but they feel old and stilted to unchurched folk. In addition, back in the day, just about everyone learned how to read music and learned to sing in parts; something that can no longer be assumed. Language was different – more flowery, with a greater vocabulary, and now requires a college education to understand. Many people today just don’t connect with traditional worship.
• A lot of traditionally African-American music is focused on personal salvation and sustenance, with less of an emphasis on caring for others and deepening discipleship. Some people find it overly emotional and lengthy. Traditionally black services are often filled with vocal feedback to the pastor or choir that may be perceived as disrespectful by others.
•  Many churches that do good work for the poor sing songs about social justice and caring for the poor. Many of these songs have a meditative folk/Celtic quality that may not connect much with non-white cultures. Many songs come from the perspective of being ABOUT poor people, not WITH them. Not surprisingly, not many poor folk appear to be worshiping in the congregations that serve them and there is limited racial diversity.

So, the dilemma is: how can we have relevant worship that is inviting for rich and poor, black and white, young and old, churched, de-churched, and un-churched, that also has depth of discipleship, and includes both evangelism and social justice? Seems like an impossible task!

Worship at C4AP might be described as “blended worship”, but it really goes way beyond that. It is “transformed” worship. We sing old hymns, but we “rehabilitate” them with new rhythms and sometimes update the lyrics to take out the “thee’s and thou’s”. We sing contemporary Christian songs, but we pick those whose message deepens discipleship. We sing both black and white gospel music, but not always the way folks might have heard it growing up. In some ways, we’ve made every piece of music our own, and given it a fresh style that goes beyond just offering “something for everybody.”

And it’s not perfect. But over time what we found was that folks, for whom traditional black gospel resonated, started liking some of the pop/rock contemporary Christian songs. And folks who liked peaceful Celtic worship music, kind of got jazzed by modern Black Gospel songs. And folks who didn’t think they cared for opera, have been moved and entertained by our own choir director and owner of BTSF, Katelin.

In the midst of learning to love one another and making a sacrifice of the praise that most resonated within ourselves, we have learned to love the forms of praise and worship most cherished by others who are different from us.

Here’s the spiritual gem I have found: Letting go of “my preferred” music or worship style is practice for letting go of prejudices, stereotypes and labels that divide us one from another. It is relinquishing the worship that suits “my needs” and embracing worship that speaks to my neighbor. It is about loving one another through worshiping together.

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By Their Strange Fruit (BTSF) is an online ministry to facilitate justice and understanding across racial divides. BTSF explores how Christianity’s often-bungled relationship with race and racism affects modern ministry and justice. Recognizing that racial brokenness hinders our witness to the world, BTSF strives to increase the visibly of healthy and holy racial discussion by approaching justice and reconciliation from a Christ-minded perspective Follow more conversations at http://bytheirstrangefruit.com

We are excited to announce the launch of PWI 2012! Check out our brand-new, hot-off-the-presses promo video with testimonies from last year’s students:

We are also excited to announce that PWI2012 has a new director! Becky Thurman, who has been an integral part of PWI since 2010 is going to take up the reins this year. She is an administrative creative (rare combination) with a deep passion for life change, empowering, and pouring into others. She is the person I know who is the most excited about PWI! And I am excited about how PWI will be richer and better this year as a result of her leadership. If you have any questions about PWI, email Becky at: pwi@proskuneo.info!

Last, but not least, we are pleased to announce that registration for PWI2012 is now OPEN! Ready, set, register! You don’t want to miss this…

These keys symbolize several things to me today.

These keys are a sign of prayers answered. We have been praying about moving the ministry to Clarkston since July of 2008…for 3 & 1/2 years! It finally happened yesterday.

These keys symbolize a fully-functioning, synergistic staff team. I made the connections to get the keys. Heidi met with Randy to actually get them handed off to us. Karen made the copies. And, now they are in my hand. I love teamwork! I love it when everyone does their thing, and it works out well! I am grateful for Karen and Heidi and how we have learned (and are learning) to work together for God’s glory!

These keys are a sign of God’s perfect provision. We did not go looking for a place to start a School of the Arts. We were praying about the possibility, and Pastor Phil of Clarkston Int’l Bible Church approached us. The rooms we are renting are perfect. The big rooms are great for larger seminars, workshops, and worship times. The small rooms are perfect for individual lessons and practice times. We can have as many as 7 different lessons/classes happening at once! We could serve hundreds and hundreds of students a week! Also, if you look carefully at the key ring, you can see a little Allen wrench. We had no idea we would need one of these little guys. But, the nurse who teaches down the hall from our PSOTA told us yesterday that we had to have one to lock the doors at night. It just so happened that in the group she was telling, there was a man who had this little Allen wrench on his key chain. We checked it out, and it worked perfectly! And, he gave it to us, recognizing our need in that moment. GOD provided perfectly, what we didn’t know we need, just when we needed it.

These keys are a sign of work left to do. It turns out that a couple of these keys don’t work properly. We’re going to have to have them re-made. There are kinks to work out. We have a lot to learn…and to maneuver…nd to pray through as we open the Proskuneo School of the Arts. But, for all the reasons above, and many more…I am excited!