Come experience Urban Hymnal 3 is this Saturday. I’ve been told it’s post-modern worship music and apparently it’s a free/donation based concert. We’re making it a Ventus worship night field trip.

If anyone is in or around the area, you should join us! If you’re going - shoot me an email and you can join the bunch (sdelony@yd.org).

Here’s the details:

November 1st, 2008 - Kane Hall @ the University of Washington

Check it out here: Urban Hynmal.org

Here’s a Free Mp3: Psalm 13

Saturday was a great day.

We spent the afternoon with our YD youth and some from a local church @ World Relief in Seattle learning about the Refugee problems on around the globe. World Relief is an awesome organization partnering with refugees entering Seattle. It was pretty eye opening experience for many of the youth, learning about the horrors and struggles many endure as a way of life.

From there we dashed back to set up for Ventus.

That night was one of our smaller crowds, but one of the most impactful evenings for me. Our topic was worship. We had a local youth pastor, Clay, come and talk about why we sing in church. From there we had a rousing discussion with the teens and they shared their experiences in the past with worship. They mainly saw it as just singing songs that were “Jesus-y”.

Then something really cool happened. As we ended our discussion, Clay pulled out his guitar and explained the words to a song. Then the led them in worship,. Listening to those teens worship just broke me. They weren’t just singing songs - they were expressing their love for God. These are kids with no context for church, no religious background, and no real outward desire to seem Christian. And they were singing from somewhere deep within them. The Holy Sprint really moved. It was powerful. I love it when things happen that are so far beyond me. I just love to be there to experience the Lord at work.

It was a simple song. It was the one I was looking for (after Catalyst) a few weeks back. All I had a YouTube clip, and Kevin Twombly send me the chord chart. I gave this to Clay and a day or so later, we were worshiping the Lord (I love it when a plan comes together).

It was a great evening.

The song is “Glory to God” by the band Fee.

The chorus is so simple, but expresses something so powerful and deep to the Lord.

Glory to God

Glory to God

Glory to God, Forever…

If you want more, here you go:

Beautiful blood/Glory to God (mp3) (Glory to God hits around the 5 min. mark)

Glory to God Chor Chart (pdf)

From “what the heck is that Ventus god thing?” to “what the heck do you do?”  I’ve been fielding lot’s of questions lately about Ventus. And recently Alaina asked:

“I’d love to hear more about your concept, what you do to create the space, etc. I know that is a lot of technical stuff, but it would be interesting/easier to wrap my brain around Ventus as a concept.”

Hopefully this may shed some light…

So what is Ventus?

It’s a gathering; a community of people seeking to know the Lord more.

It’s a weekly place to meet and contemplate our lives and where the Christ fits into them.

It’s a sacred space for quite contemplation.

It’s a time to talk, hang out, to ask questions and to listen (to God and others).

We’re just broken, undeserving, messed up folks journeying towards an amazing, loving God.

What does Ventus look like?

Our goal was to do something simple and easy to replicate on a weekly basis. We wanted to create a space that felt sacred and different from our every day lives. We meet in an old church sanctuary in town. They have pews and do a regular church service the next morning (Sundays). So we’ve had to learn to work around what’s currently there.  What we’ve done to create a conducive space has been minimal and mainly based on lighting and music. People sit in pews, the lights are low, incense burns, and there’s 50-60 candles going for mood. Background music plays and is usually something ambient/chill/reverent (ie. Moby). We convert available clear spots into worship stations by tossing a sheet on the ground and decorating to suit the activity.

Simplicity is the key, getting the most out of minimal effort.  Our goal is for us to purse the Lord and we could do that in a cardboard box - so keep in mind that the mood is an important part, but not essential. It should never overtake or overshadow the true focus of the service.

What happens during Ventus?

It’s a simple service that opens with a prayer and greeting. We have a scripture reading and then unpack what it means in our lives. That usually lends itself to conversation and discussion about the scripture or whatever tangent we find ourselves on. Some week we sing hymns or praises to the Lord, but most weeks we have worship stations. Those stations will usually include elements of prayer, reflection, contemplation and expression (lectio divina, etc.). After the stations, we gather once again for a response; a time to share anything that is being impressed on our hearts from our times of reflection and communion. The service is ended with a prayer and blessing over the group. Then we hang out eating snack food (or whatever else someone brings) and drink coffee.

The service typically spans an hour.

Any other questions? Or points of clarification?

We are by no means experts in this. Long before Ventus started we were doing many of these practices on retreats and trips. Most of our wisdom has come from other more intelligent individuals from books and also plenty of trial and error.

Words cannot contain what broke out Saturday night. Authenticity, transparency, don’t do it justice. The Lord moved. I was moved. It was amazing.

Thank you all for your prayers leading up to our first service. It made a difference. They were felt.

We had 18 people attend and I was surprised that we had that many. We hadn’t advertised it because we wanted a trial weekend to cut out teeth on.  And it couldn’t have gone better. We had a few random adults there as well. I love seeing multi-generations praying together. There’s something that feels so right about it.  It was a simple service. Prayer, reflection, scripture, discussion and contemplation. I never grow weary of watching teenagers pursue the Lord through the ancient practices.

I’m excited to see how this thing progresses. Those that attend definitely caught the vision and I’m excited to see how this community will grow together as we purse the Lord.

Thank you again for your prayers!