Nancy Beach

Off to New Zealand and Australia

I am heading to New Zealand and Australia for a 10 day teaching journey.  In Christ Church and Auckland, I will spend full days with worship arts leaders and pastors.  Then in Sydney and Melbourne, I’ll be investing in women leaders for a couple days.  I look forward to new connections, to the stories I will hear about churches that are flourishing and those that are struggling, and to the ways I will be inspired by the sacrifice of others.  These trips never fail to lift my own spirit and humble me.

I would appreciate prayers on two fronts.  First, I am fighting a nasty virus and currently don’t have much of a voice.  The doctor today gave me some strong drugs, so hopefully that will do the job!  Also, I always struggle with big time jet lag when I head to that part of the world, especially on the return.  But these are minor concerns, and I believe that God will equip me with what I need to serve.

I will attempt to post from those countries if I can get hooked up…so I’ll let you know what I experience and how God works…Blessings to you and your ministries…

Favorite Part of the Oscars

I was quite ill this weekend, down for the count with some kind of yucky virus, but nothing will keep me from watching the Academy Awards.  With lots of press about all the creative changes that were planned, I was eager to see what the new producers had designed.  I would give some of the adjustments a thumbs up, some a yawn, and some a big question mark.  But my absolutely favorite change came when the major acting awards were presented.

When five previous winners of these awards walked out together, framed by gorgeous photographs of their previous work, I already had goosebumps.  Then when each actor spoke directly to one nominee apiece, looking that individual right in the awe and ennobling them with carefully crafted words of affirmation, I sensed I was witnessing a powerful moment.  For an actor to hear directly from a peer – someone they hold in extremely high regard and someone who truly gets it in terms of the skills required to act – was the highest possible gift.  This was confirmed by the shots of the eyes of each actor as they listened intently, many with tears in their eyes.  I know it took a great deal of time.  But in my view, it was time well spent.

For those of us in ministry, we must never underestimate the power of our words spoken into the eyes of someone we lead and want to affirm.  We must be careful to avoid the easy and casual phrases like “Good job!” that have so lost their meaning and become weak and wimpy.  To think through precisely how a person has contributed, and then to express appreciation with fresh words and images, looking straight at the individual, is the greatest gift we can impart as well.  That’s good to know when the economy restrains most of us from being able to hand out a financial bonus!

I can’t wait to see if next year’s Oscars ceremony continues to build on this new practice of honoring actors.  I truly hope they keep this one change, at least for awhile.  If I were an actor, nothing could mean more, especially if I were one of the four nominees who did not receive the actual award.  What did you think about the program this year?

Why Wonder?

“You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy.”   Isaiah 26:19

 

With all the possible themes for the annual Arts Conference, why did we choose wonder?  To some, it may seem like a rather lightweight sentiment, given the state of our world.  But I beg to differ.  If there was ever a time that artists and communicators needed to traffic in wonder, that time is now.  “Wonder” is a word that has never grown tired for me, like so many other words have…including the longer form of the word, wonderful, or “full of wonder.”  The more I reflect on what it means to wake up and pay attention, to delight in the surprises and beauty and mystery that God has lavished all throughout the world, the more I am convinced that this is the foundation of our calling – to live in wonder and to call others to the same path.

The early church knew all about wonder.  In Acts 2 we are told that during that magnificent era, “Everyone was filled with awe.”  Yet so many of us simply rush through our days, simply trying to survive, overwhelmed by noise, information, deadlines, and technology.  Artists and pastors hold within us the remarkable potential to point to another path, to literally point people toward the God of wonder.  This requires us to devote ourselves to reflection, to observation, to imagination, to transcendence.

In the midst of the worst economic downturn any of us have ever known, I call you to join me in a return to wonder.  Join me in living life in such a way that we truly seize it and then communicate God’s glory in ways that will inspire others and give them the hope they so desperately need.  I hope and pray you will find a way – however much creativity and sacrifice will be required – to join us in June as we rally together and declare that we have not lost our sense of wonder, that we will continue to pursue the God of wonder with all our hearts, and that we will seek to create moments of such breathtaking beauty and awe that others will lift up their heads, wake up, and join us.

Creativity in a Downturn

With all the bad and scary news about the economy – which affects every single ministry I know, including ours – there are a few upsides.  First and foremost, it’s apparent that people in general feel more vulnerable and open to spiritual needs and spiritual experiences.  This is tremendously significant for the local church, and if we ever needed to BE THE CHURCH, it’s now…

Another upside is that when resources are scarce, we are propelled to become amazingly creative.  We learn how to do things a different, less expensive way – but often end up being even more effective.  In his terrific book, Organizing Genius, author Warren Bennis describes great groups who uncovered the most remarkable discoveries in garages, dismal basements, and other non-stimulating environments with absolutely no money and very few people.  All they had was their brains and passion and inventive spirits.  And it was more than enough!

Our team both at my church and also at the Willow Creek Association are in extremely difficult meetings these days, trying to figure out how to do more with less.  But as John Ortberg taught us this past weekend, heaven is not in a downturn!  God is still God, and we can depend on the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills to provide us with precisely what we need to do ministry another day, even in the midst of potential lay-offs, lower offerings, and weary leaders.  I take heart from Psalm 24 that begins:

            The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,

               the world and all who live in it…

            Lift up your heads, you gates;

               lift them up, you ancient doors,

               that the King of glory may come in.

            Who is he, this King of glory?

            The Lord Almighty –

            He is the King of glory.          (Psalm 24: 1a, 9, 10)

I am choosing these days to lift up my head to the Lord Almighty – that’s where our help will come from.  He is an unlimited supply of creativity, resources, people, ideas, strategies, and transcendent moments to provide for each and every one of his children.  Let us not despair or be downcast.  God is NOT in a downturn!

Call to Worship Learnings

I mentioned in a previous post that we are experimenting at Willow with various ways to call our people to worship.  Of course, this is a practice that thousands of churches have used for centuries in various forms.  Our goal is to help our people shift their focus from whatever else is on their mind, and begin from the very start of the service to fully engage.  Last weekend we used a beautiful responsive prayer from The Book of Common Prayer that was suggested to me by one of our worship leaders.  As I was going up to lead the congregation, Bill Hybels just said one key sentence – “Call it out of them.”   So here are just a few learnings we discovered last weekend:

• Leadership really matters.  When I first set up this responsive prayer, I was quite intentional with my comments, urging people to begin to set aside whatever concerns them and begin to focus on God.  I told them that the words would be on the screen, that their part was simple (mostly the repeated phrase, “We thank you Lord”), and that they would be building on the statements I would make as their leader.  But even with all that set-up, their first effort was wimpy, tentative, and just plain awful!  So with Bill’s words ricocheting in my mind, I stopped and said, “That was pathetic.”  Yes, I called them pathetic.  But they laughed and then did so much better!
• Consider underscoring.  As I was leading this responsive prayer, the keyboard and mandolin were gradually joining and building.  They helped us to escalate our own energy and captured the spirit of what we were trying to do.
• Carefully select the song that follows to match what the Call to Worship will evoke.  In our evaluation meeting later, we felt we should have selected a song that was known more by our people because we got them all engaged and then some were on a bit of a learning curve with the stylistic treatment of the hymn we sang, “For the Beauty of the Earth.”  We later discerned that perhaps that should have been our second song, with another more well-known piece to begin.

We are still learning and growing with all of this, but very excited to see our congregation stretched and beginning to engage with God more fully from the first minute of our precious time together.  What are you learning about how to call people to worship?

Brown Bag in Glen Ellyn

 In several cities around the country, worship/arts leaders are beginning to gather periodically from various churches in a local community.  For some it’s a monthly breakfast, for others a quarterly lunch.  What gets me so excited is that these little communities are forming to encourage church arts leaders and create a strong sense that we are not as alone as we might think in the ministry, that others might be able to help us with solutions, that we can exchange creative ideas, that we can actually talk about the hard parts of leading artists and learn from one another’s wisdom and experience.  That vision pumps me up!

Here in the Chicago area, we have begun this kind of gathering, one that we call a Brown Bag Lunch.  Each person brings their own lunch and we move around from church to church so we can see one another’s environment and change up who has to drive the greater distances.  We spend about 90 minutes together, eating our lunches and then focusing on a subject or theme that is relevant to us all.  Next Thursday, February 19, we’ll be gathering at Parkview Community Church in Glen Ellyn.  Steve King is the Worship Pastor there, and I  had the privilege of teaching at their church back in January.  It’s not far off the expressway, and easy to find.  So how about it?  If you are a worship/arts leader (or Creative Arts Pastor or Tech Director or any other leader in this arena!), we’d love to have you join us.  Details are available on our website at towardwonder.com.

For those of you who live elsewhere, if you don’t know of such a community in your area…why not be the catalyst to start one?  We’d love to talk to you further about that…

Best Show on Television

I’ve been catching up on the latest episodes of Friday Night Lights, and I nominate this series as the best television offers these days.  Almost every episode moves me – and it’s not the football!  The relationships on this show are written in ways that ring so true, so real, and so raw at times.  I love how the marriage between the coach and his wife (who works as the principal of the high school) is portrayed with a tremendous depth of love and respect - mixed in with the common frustrations and annoyances experienced by most husbands and wives.  But what moved me most recently is the influence of the coach on his star running back, Smash, a young guy recovering from a serious knee injury that threatened his opportunity to play college ball on a scholarship.  The coach invests extra early morning hours helping Smash get his game back – paying off in a walk on try-out with Texas A & M.  The scene when Smash discovers he has been offered this opportunity and then goes to the coach’s home to thank him brought tears to my eyes, inspiring all of us to recognize how we have the potential to impact the trajectory of a young life.

Sadly, Friday Night Lights is not getting good ratings and may not last long.  I urge you to check out this hidden gem, and enter into the world of a small Texas town obsessed with football.  Let me know what you think…

The Story of Sor Juana

I love plays, films, or books that tell the story of someone I’ve never heard about before and inspire me with displays of courage.  Last night my husband and I experienced a play at Northwestern University titled The Sins of Sor Juana.  The play brings to life an incredible women who was recently listed as one of the most influential writers in history – Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, from Mexico.  In the l7th century, Sor Juana displayed extraordinary intelligence though she was born to a poor family and was illegitimate.  Despite nearly impossible odds, she educated herself and then disguised herself as a boy to enter the university in Mexico City.  When she was just sixteen, Sor Juana was presented to the Viceroy, the colonial governor of Spain, and became a lady-in-waiting as she continued to write her poetry and plays.

At the age of 19, Juana gave up her life at the court and joined a convent where she remained for the rest of her life.  History is not completely clear about her reasons for becoming a nun, so the writer of the play, Karen Zacarias, speculates about the possible details of the story.  Sor Juana believed that she was silenced because she was a woman, living in an era when women were not allowed to be highly educated nor published.  Yet today, schoolchildren throughout Spain and Latin America recite her poems by heart.

There is nothing like live theatre – in just two hours time – to open us up to another place and time, to tell a story that moves us.  Sor Juana fought to create, to be heard, and to find her own voice.  Yet because she wrote a critical analysis of a sermon delivered by a Bishop, her voice was silenced and she completely stopped writing.  She died of the plague at the young age of 46.  The students of Northwestern performed this creative play with remarkable skill.  I am marked by the story they told, and grateful once again to have invested some time in a theatrical experience that tells me such a powerful story.

Just Wondering About JEPHTHAH

Lately, I’ve been reading in the book of Judges, and I came across the story of Jephthah in chapter 11 – a story that I will add to my list of parts of the Bible I just don’t get.  I mean no disrespect, and realize that God’s ways are higher than my ways.  But maybe one of you can help me understand this story better.

Here’s the “Cliffnotes” version – Jephthah made a vow to the Lord that if He would deliver the Ammonites into his hands in battle, then Jephthah would offer as a burnt offering whatever first comes out of the door of his house on his return.  So God delivers Jephthah and his army an enormous victory.  When Jephthah goes home, who should run out the door but his one and only child, a daughter.  Jephthah is devastated, and tells his daughter about the vow.  She asserts that her father must keep his word to God, but asks for two months to head to the hills and weep with her friends before being sacrificed.

I can’t help but wonder – first of all – what else Jephthah thought might meet him at the door of his house, and why he did not take into account the risk of his vow.  But second, I wonder why God would not give him a second chance, a do-over to sacrifice the best lamb or goat or ANYTHING else but his one and only child.  It just, honestly, seems so cruel.  Of course the story underscores the sober nature of making vows and the significance of being people of our word.  I get that.  But I still struggle with the severity of the consequences.  Does anyone have any wisdom for me?

Magnificent Gift in London

  I finished up teaching this weekend in London, with over 200 women leaders gathered in a beautiful Anglican church.  The night before, God gave me an incredible gift – seats with my hosts in the 7^th row center for the revival of the musical, Oliver.  Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, this production exceeded in quality nearly everything I’ve ever seen – and I’ve been blessed to witness a lot of theatrical greats.  The role of Fagin was masterfully played by Rowan Atkinson, mostly known for his hysterical portrayal of Mr. Bean.  The rest of the cast was also superb, especially the young boy who captured the heart and soul of the Artful Dodger.

Known for his work on Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera, Macintosh never fails in the area of magnificent staging design.  This production was truly a visual stunner in every respect.  Even though I am quite familiar with the story and the songs, I was also quite moved by the final moment when Oliver is reunited with his grandfather.  This was truly a glorious evening in the theatre.

As I sat there with an enormous smile on my face, I thought about the breathtaking goodness of God.  What a gift He gave me after a very long journey and days of teaching.  It was sheer delight, and I am deeply grateful.  I will head home tomorrow, so anxious to be with the family and doze through the Super Bowl, jetlagged and deeply fulfilled.  Thank you to anyone who prayed for me – I felt the anointing power of the Holy Spirit and the sustaining strength of the Lord throughout my journey.