Entries Sought for Short Film Contest

The HOSFU Short Film Contest is now open for entries. Short Film Contest prizes will be awarded at the 2010 Gideon Media Arts Conference & Film Festival banquet, held at the LifeWay conference center in Ridgecrest, NC on June 7, 2010.

Short films which are 5-30 minutes in length, including credits, will be accepted through April 1, 2010. Ten semifinalists for each award category will be announced on May 1, 2010.

There will be four prize packages awarded for Best Short Film, Runner Up Short Film, Best Actor and Best Actress. All prize packages include the following:

1) A cash award (up to $400, depending on the category)
2) Free tuition to the Gideon Media Arts Conference & Film Festival 2011 ($315.00 value)
3) A one-on-one meal with a Gideon faculty member of choice, at the 2011 conference (priceless)

To receive any award, the entrant must be registered for the 2010 Gideon Media Arts Conference & Film Festival as a full access student, by May 15, 2010. For details on the prize packages, please click here.

The contest is sponsored by HOSFU, (an acronym which stands for "His Only Son For Us"), a company dedicated to promoting Christ through the film industry. “HOSFU is blessed to be sponsoring this year’s Short Film Contest at the Gideon 2010,” says HOSFU CEO Eric Highland. “The Gideon, sponsored by LifeWay, is one of the top Christian media events of the year and is truly a don’t-miss event. We fully anticipate a high level of quality submissions from independent filmmakers, to make this year’s Short Film Contest the best that the Gideon has ever seen.”

For complete Rules and Regulations, judging criteria, details on prize packages and the entry form, visit http://hosfu.com/.

Registration Open for Festival of Faith and Writing

Online registration for the 2010 Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College is open.

The festival, on the Grand Rapids, MI campus, will be held April 15-17 and allows participants to discuss, celebrate and explore the ways in which faith is represented in literature and how it plays out in our world today.

Among the authors scheduled to be at the conference are playwright Arlene Hutton, screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi and journalist Tim Stafford. Novelist Wally Lamb will be the featured speaker at the festival's evening plenary session April 15.

To register, click here. Information is provided through frequently asked questions here. For additional information, contact ffw@calvin.edu.

Attendees have the opportunity to submit a manuscript for review by editors attending the conference. They may be submitted online beginning in January.

Enjoy an Evening of Song with Larry Woodard

The Episcopal Actors' Guild presents an Evening of Song with acclaimed voice and musical performer Larry Woodard 7 pm Thursday, Nov. 19 at Guild Hall, the Little Church, 1 E. 29th St., NYC.

Woodard has played at the White House, at the United Nations and to audiences across the globe.

A suggested donation of $10 will benefit the guild's Emergency Aid & Relief Program.
Wine and refreshments will be served. Space is very limited. RSVP to matt@actorsguild.org or 212-685-2927.

Book Review: 'Finding the Groove' by Robert Gelinas

By Jerry Starks
“Finding the Groove” by Robert Gelinas (Zondervan, 2009) is a deep and multi-faceted exploration of the Christian life and jazz. The subtitle entices you with another clue about where Gelinas is heading: “composing a jazz-shaped faith.”

This intrigued me on two levels, because I had assumed that jazz wasn’t really composed– it was more improvised. That also seems to be many people’s style of life– improvisation more than planning. As I read further, I became very engrossed in his thoughtful observations about jazz and Christianity.

Gelinas is not a musician; he is a pastor and a jazz theologian. He explains that jazz is bigger than just music: it can be an entire lifestyle (not just the improvisational aspect), and a very Christian lifestyle at that. “Christian” not just by putting different labels on things but by using patterns and behaviors developed in jazz music when we interact with God and with our fellow humans. Even the history and development of jazz should ring with familiarity in Christian ears. Jazz was developed by African-Americans: people not free living in a free land—just as we were all born slaves of sin living in a fallen world. Yet even in the midst of deep segregation, jazz became a meeting ground where races could actually enjoy the same thing at the same time in the same place—just as in Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor slave.

Three cornerstones of jazz form a framework for Gelinas’ exploration. They are syncopation, improvisation, and call-and-response. He explains how each works in jazz music, then gives examples of how they can work outside of music, often giving examples from Scripture.

This would have been encouraging and enlightening by itself, but Gelinas keeps on going. He discusses jazz greats in many areas of life, such as John Coltrane, a saxophonist, Langston Hughes, a poet, Ralph Ellison, a novelist, Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher. Each of them was influenced by jazz, and each made significant contributions to America. The depth and scope of Gelinas’ understanding of jazz and American culture is deeply satisfying.

Chapter headings include “Creative Tension,” “Life in Concert,” “Finding Your Voice,” and “Developing Your Ear.” All of them have a musical basis, but all of them go far beyond that art form the just like jazz cannot be restricted to a concert hall: it gets into all of life. In the same way, insists Gelinas, the love of Jesus should break out of our familiar constructs and pulse with life, causing others to stop and listen. One way of doing that is to compose and live a jazz-shaped faith.

You can purchase this book here.

Jerry Starks is associate director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. and has numerous acting and directing credits in both secular and Christian productions. He resides in Essex Junction, VT where he is active in the arts ministry at his church.

Book Notes: God's Cycle of Music by Mark Paulson

There are many ways to look at God’s amazing relationship with humans: people with different talents, interests, and backgrounds see different aspects of God more clearly. It enriches us when we try to see from another person’s perspective. “God’s Cycle of Music: A Musician’s Explanation of God’s Purpose and Meaning for Our Lives” (Hope Publishing House, 2009) is a look at God’s redemption from the viewpoint of Mark Paulson, a professional pianist and piano teacher in New Jersey..

Some of Paulson’s analogies are expected: it’s almost automatic to cast God as the Composer of the music of life. Yet several of his analogies delightfully caught me off guard. I had never thought of the Holy Spirit as a Conductor, or Jesus as an Agent. In a compact style, Paulson brings up images for several aspects of the Christian experience; then allows us to expand and develop those images, creating our own variations on .the theme. For example, he suggests comparing spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting to practicing scales and etudes. He spins off a list of nine disciplines, gives a paragraph or two on each one for a starter, then encourages your imagination to expand and apply the idea.

Occasionally an analogy gets weak and seems overshadowed by more familiar, non-musical expressions. Any metaphor can only be stretched so far before breaks down, but before that point the metaphor enriches and expands the mind and the heart that considers it. “God’s Cycle of Music” is well worth reading and then building upon. You can purchase the book here.
-- Jerry Starks

Redeemer's November Gathering for Actors Set

Actors can gather for the monthly meeting at Redeemer Prsbyterian in New York 7pm Monday, Nov. 30 at Ripley-Grier Studios, 520 8th Ave. (at 36th Street), Studio 17A

Bring a monologue, scene, audition piece, or work in progress to workshop or show. No judgment! Come enjoy fellowship and fun with other actors as we explore the meaning of our work. Dinner is provided.

RSVP to actors@redeemer.com. Questions? Contact Kenyon Adams at kenyon@redeemer.com or (212) 808-4460 x1344.

The Kiss That Worships

This week we bring you a guest blog post on worship from Jerry D. Scott, senior pastor of Washington Assembly of God Church in Washington, NJ. Read more of Pastor Scott's messages on his blog, "Coffeebreak with the Word" at http://jerryscott.blogspot.com.

The Kiss That Worships
By Jerry D. Scott
A Christian for my entire life, I have attended a lot of church services! Some have included worship, many have not! Sometimes the obvious focus is to entertain the audience, with a circus-like atmosphere of performing acts. Sometimes the service is more like a family reunion, the focus being on meeting the people who are present. Sometimes I’m puzzled why anyone shows up since the whole thing is pointless, wandering through a ritual that goes nowhere. And, sometimes worship really happens. The people gathered are purposefully focused on the Person and Presence of Almighty God, challenged by His Word, and left in awe. Now, that’s church!

This Fall, I am leading a Bible Study group through the book of the Revelation. Chapters 4 and 5 are John’s vision of the Throne Room. While the language is sometimes strange to my mind, the overall message is about worship. While meditating on those chapters, I have found myself in tears repeatedly – partially from awe, partially from longing for a more consistently authentic worship in my life. Read an excerpt.

"The Lamb (Jesus Christ) stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. … And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb." (Revelation 5:6-9, 13-16, NLT)

Modern worship is frequently evaluated only by the experience of the worshipper.

• Was the band good?
• Did they sing songs I liked?
• Did I feel ‘blessed’?
• Were warm and fuzzy emotions stirred?

Those are all fine things, but they are not what worship is about. Authentic worship must have an upward focus. It focused on offering to Jesus the same adoration that is shown to Him in heaven! Imagine the Elders of that scene getting up from their faces and high-fiving one another saying, “I feel so blessed right now!” No way. They were not even thinking of themselves. They desired only to pour out their love to the Lamb, to give Him praise because He is worthy!

Worship is about creating awareness, but not self awareness. It is always about being more aware of God’s Presence, and as we are awed by Him, increasingly submitted to His will. If worship does not do that, it is misfocused at best, a profanity at worst! Jesus taught, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24, NIV) The word that is translated as ‘worship’ is “proskuneo.” {pros•koo•neh•o} which means “to kiss the hand in token of reverence.” (Strong’s)

Disciple, have you leaned forward in worship to kiss the hand of God?
Have you taken your eyes off yourself, your circumstances, your needs to come to Him, just to offer up the adoration of your worship?
Remember, worship is first an attitude, then an action. An unsubmitted, self-willed Christian will not ‘worship in spirit and truth’ even though she may sing the right words and go through the motions of ‘worship.’ The heart must bow first, the will be submitted, and then worship will become worthy of its focus.

Lord, teach us to be worshippers, not just singers.
Bend our wills to Yours, draw our minds and hearts to You.
Our days are frequently a mad rush during which we forget
You and Your majesty, consumed by the things of ‘now.’
Forgive us for loving our lives so much that we fail to ‘kiss Your hand.’

Now, Lord, I join with all Creation to say:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!”

_________________

To bow and to kiss,
To pour forth our love,
The perfume of our adoration.
To wash with our tears
The feet that were bruised,
To bless and to serve and to gaze on.

To bow and to kiss,
To pour forth our love,
The perfume of our adoration.
To press to our lips,
The hands that were pierced,
To bless and to serve and to gaze on.

To bow and to kiss,
To pour forth our love,
The perfume of our adoration.
To reach up and touch,
The brow that was torn,
To bless and to serve and to gaze on.

Jesus, my Savior!
My life and my love!
You are my treasure,
My gift from above!

To Bow And To Kiss
© 2002 Life Unto Life Music
Andrea C. Hunter
Jeremy Michael Riddle

CCLI License No. 810055