June 14, 2010 by cpiatt.

This video talks about our upcoming book on Faith and Politics, called SPLIT TICKET. The song in the background is one of my spoken word pieces, called “Revolution.”

Posted in economics, politics, current events, theology, WTF, books, young adult, church transformation, spoken word, Music, faith, church, culture, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

June 11, 2010 by cpiatt.

My good friend, Shannon Moore, and I got the chance to do a little concert at First Christian Church in Granbury, TX together in June, 2010. Here are some video highlights from that evening.

Posted in culture, theology, video, church, faith, Blogroll, Music, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

October 12, 2009 by cpiatt.

SUSTENANCE for the SOUL

Music can be a means of worship, a prayer in itself
By LORETTA SWORD
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Music. With or without words, it’s a universal language that transcends creed and color, dogma and doctrine.

It’s been around thousands of years longer than any of the world’s religions, and in recent decades has become an integral part of many of them.

For some, it is as powerful a form of worship as prayer, and more powerful than anything a priest or preacher could utter from pulpit, altar or revival-tent stage.

For others, it is a unifying force – a communal act that binds together people of varied backgrounds who share a common faith – or fears, or doubts or hope. Although early religions forbade most instruments from churches and didn’t allow song from anyone but the priests or other “holy” men, hymns began easing their way into Catholic, Anglican and Protestant churches several hundred years ago.

Then came gospel, a genre birthed in the fields of Southern plantation owners by slaves who weren’t allowed a church, or even to worship in the open.

Today, there are nearly as many types of Christian and religious music as secular music, and churches that once frowned on anything that didn’t emanate from an organ, harp or choir now advertise praise band entertainment before or during services.

Undoubtedly, some churches use music as a draw or pre-show entertainment – more window dressing than substance.

But plenty have integrated song and instrumentation into the worship experience in a way that enriches it rather than detracting from it.

Dave Foncannon, well-known as a member of the popular Fireweed bluegrass band and pastor at Pueblo Mennonite Church, grew up with the comforting acappella music that is typical of churches in his faith.

He loves it still, and can conjure a crystal-clear image of his mother when he hears “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”

But his soul is stirred by the sounds of strings, too, and the mournful and joyful ways they can blend with human voices. Surely, he says, those creations make God smile and weep, too.

“God is creator, and if we are an image of God, there is creativity that we are supposed to express,” Foncannon said.

“I was the first person to take a guitar into church and do special music.” The reaction, at first, was “cautious, but supportive.”

Today, Fireweed often weaves its sounds into the messages he delivers from the pulpit, if not during services, then afterward. His worship messages often are embellished with his guitar and his voice, sharing favorite old hymns or pieces he penned himself.

When choosing selections each week, he doesn’t consider variety or what he thinks his congregation will enjoy, but “what will take us to where we’re going” with that week’s worship topic, he said.

“Music is one of those ways our spirits can talk to God without words. For me, personally, it can be very spiritual. There are times that I pray just by playing music.”

Power to the people

Ken Butcher, a lifelong music teacher who is retired as a deacon and musical director at Pueblo’s Ascension Episcopal Church, says music “is an integral part of worship for me – and always has been. Music can be a tool for good or for ill, and people have recognized that for centuries. Martin Luther used it as a means of giving power to the congregation – to the people – rather than the choir. It’s a sort of democratizing influence” as well as one that unifies, whether there’s harmony among congregants outside the walls of their church or not.

That’s not to say everyone agrees with him (when they’re not swept up in the music). “The presence of popular music in the church has been an issue way back to the 16th century, because popular music was creeping into the Catholic Church and the pope began insisting on certain standards. We still have that battle, about what’s appropriate, in our denomination,” he said.

“Of course, music can be a substitute for a real spiritual experience; you can be so swept away in the music that you miss the message. So it can be both a blessing and curse. But it also can be an entree, a way to open the door of receptivity” in a closed mind or heart.

Butcher conducts regular worship services for inmates at Pueblo County Jail and finds that beginning the services with a few hymns eases tension and helps him bring his listeners to a common focus.

“ ‘He who sings, prays twice.’ I use that phrase all the time when I go into the jail,” he said.

“The words can have whatever the meaning that the words have, but the music can add the dimension of emotions to it. It can reflect your mood or change your mood.”

Christian Piatt grew up in the Southern Baptist tradition, where music was a part of the worship scene, albeit it muted, carefully chosen and sparingly woven into the larger tapestry of church life.

His uncles were in Baptist gospel barbershop quartets, he said, and some of the music he grew up is a comforting, nostalgic snapshot from his youth. But it’s not what feeds his creative fire, or his faith, as co-pastor at Pueblo’s Milagro Christian Church.

“Music is my direct line to the divine. That’s how I got invested in organized religion after 10 years away,” he says.

Universal messages

Highly opinionated about the way some Christian music has been used (and what’s good, and useful, or not), Piatt said he seeks out and shares what he believes are universal messages of spiritual longing and fulfillment in the music of secular artists, as well as his own compositions.

For instance, he hears his own inner voice and that of many spiritual seekers in U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

Piatt definitely wasn’t looking to become a co-pastor or musical ministry leader when he met his wife, Amy (Milagro’s pastor). He hadn’t been inside a church in more than 10 years. Soon after they met, she invited him to come with her to a church in the Denver area and he went to appease her, “to show her that I just wouldn’t fit.” The music he heard there convinced him that he did.

The congregation “sat in the round, and there were people like me there,” he said. “I’m not a church-music kind of guy. I was like a rocker guy, and music was a very secular experience for me then.”

He heard some of both types of music, and more, at that church before being invited to play for the group himself. It took some talking from his yet-to-be wife and her pastor, but he finally agreed.

“I almost didn’t make it through my first song because I just burst into tears. I had to excuse myself from the worship service to compose myself,” he remembers.

“I had allowed myself to be vulnerable with this group of people and I connected with something I had walled off for years,” he said.

Later, he sang at a church in Boulder and the pastor there asked him if he would consider a job as musician at church in Fort Worth. Picturing a “megachurch,” Piatt at first said no.

Then Amy received a scholarship to the divinity school at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, so he decided to check out the church he had already judged.

“It was a small, open and affirming church. It deconstructed and reconstructed everything I knew about religion,” he said.

A few years later, he and Amy (who since had married) moved to Pueblo to start Milagro, where he approaches his music ministry in much the same way she approaches her weekly message from the Bible.

“The music has to be about something bigger than one hour in church. It’s about love and God, but also about struggle and pain. It’s about all of those things because we are about all of those things,” Piatt said.

Music reverberates at an almost primal level, he said, because “probably before humans could understand the concept of a creator, there was music. What connects us is stories, and at its best, that’s what music does.”

Posted in culture, pueblo, theology, church, faith, Blogroll, Music, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

September 18, 2009 by cpiatt.

I traveled recently to Lee’s Summit, MO for an event where I was leading some workshops, speaking and such. On Sunday night, I got to close out the evening with a concert for a couple hundred very welcoming folks. It was probably the highlight of the weekend for me.

I love getting to share music and spoken word with people, and though some of the stuff I introduced may have been a new experience for many in attendance, they all seemed to have a good time.

Check out the podcast by searching my name on iTunes, playing it on the streaming audio player on my website (www.chrstianpiatt.com), or hit the link below to go directly to the podcast site.

http://christianpiatt.podbean.com/

All episodes of the podcast, including the concert, are free. Let me know what you think.

Peace,
Christian

Posted in youth, young adult, church transformation, comedy, humor, workshop, theology, emergent worship, emerging church, Podcast, Blogroll, Music, church, culture, technology, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

March 14, 2009 by cpiatt.

I posted part two of the Big Fat Jesus Head podcast series last night. you can catch it on iTunes and other podcatchers of course, or go right to it with this link:

http://christianpiatt.podbean.com/

Also, if you have not already signed up for my new free monthly E-Zine, “Faith Portals,” just go to www.christianpiatt.com and drop your email in the box at the top of the home page.

Christian

Posted in young adult, humor, parenting, children, church transformation, emerging church, Music, faith, church, culture, Podcast | Print | No Comments »

February 24, 2009 by cpiatt.

I know it’s short notice, but I want to invite you down to First and Main to the Downtown Bar in Pueblo. I’ll be playing a couple of acoustic sets, and it may be the final one for a while as they may be changing it up on Tuesdays for a while.

As always, no cover. Come and enjoy!

Posted in social networking, culture, Music, Blogroll, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

February 17, 2009 by cpiatt.

I’ve recently released two CDs on CD Baby, iTunes, etc. One is my acoustic singer/songwriter stuff, and the other is a spoken word and jazz improv project, called S’aint Trio. Though you can pull samples from CD Baby, iTunes and Amazon MP3, they’re only 30 seconds long, so I thought I’d post a full track, since some folks may not be used to this kind of stuff.

The piece I selected is called “Hair,” which is a tribute to my ongoing, complex relationship by body hair. It’s definitely my more humorous stuff, so don’t expect the same goofiness on the whole album, but this seems to be the most popular piece when I perform it.

Click here to check it out.

Posted in youth, comedy, humor, jazz, young adult, culture, Podcast, Music, spoken word, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

February 13, 2009 by cpiatt.

My Faith Story (new podcast)

February 14, 2009 by christianpiatt

My wife, Amy, and I wrote a book a couple of years ago called “MySpace to Sacred Space: God for a New Generation” (Chalice Press). One of the main themes of the book is that young adults, many of whom feel alienated from organized religion, are seeking meaningful connection with one another. We believe one of the best ways to nurture this sort of connection is through sharing our stories.

In the book, Amy and I both share our own stories of our relationships with faith, religion and God, and so I created this audio chapter of my own personal journey.

Click here for my WTFWJD Author Podcast .

Like any relationship, there are good and bad times, but in all, I’d say it’s been worth it.

You can also subscribe to the podcast, where I’ll continue to add other audio chapters and interviews with some interesting folks, on iTunes, Podcast Alley, Podbean or at my personal website which you can find at www.christianpiatt.com.

Let me know what you think, and please check out the book if you dig the podcast.

Posted in faith, church, culture, Music, Audiobook, Blogroll, Podcast, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

February 13, 2009 by cpiatt.

If you pull up iTunes and search “Piatt,” you can find my podcast and both of my new CDs featured in the top window. Pretty groovy.

The podcast is free, of course, and the CDs…well, they’re worth it in my humble opinion.

Please check it out and share with friends, family and enemies. Gotta get the word out, yo…

Peace,

Christian

Posted in faith, spoken word, church, technology, culture, Music, Audiobook, Columns, Blogroll, Podcast, Pulling the Goalie, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

February 12, 2009 by cpiatt.

If you have not yet heard about the Pomegranate Phone phenomenon, you’ve missed the latest buzz:

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

The ad reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer talks about
how great bacon, pork chops and ham all are, and when Lisa explains
they’re all from the same animal, Homer rolls his eyes skeptically. “Oh
sure,” he says, “some maaaagical animal, Lisa.”

The Pom, which boasts a HD projector, 50 language real-time voice
translator, on-board coffee maker, electric shaver and, of course, a
harmonica, is said “magical animal.” Problem is, it’s a big, fat,
would-be awesome fake. I knew, as I was watching the phone suck up a
glass of water and spit out piping hot coffee from a modified K-cup
insert, that it was a viral video scam.

But there was this little part of me that cried out, “hey, I want to
be able to shave while speaking Farsi, playing the blues and sipping a
latte! I want it, I want it!”

The very fact that the Pomegranate is even within the realm of
comprehension is phenomenal in itself. I mean, I just picked up a G1
“Google Phone,” which sports a touch screen, full qwerty keyboard, web,
email, camera, and a high-speed connection. I can look up anything in
the universe by voice command on Google and look up any product in the
world and compare prices by snapping a picture of the bar code. I can
have my phone “listen’ to any song being played digitally and it’ll not
only find the album cover, artist, publisher and year released, but
it’ll also link right to Amazon MP3 or iTunes so I can download it to
the on-board MP3 player.

Ten years ago, I was considering my first mobile phone, whether I
really could use it or not. Now, I not only have the G1 wunderkind
phone, but as soon as I saw something better, even though my logical
mind kept reminding me it wasn’t real, I longed for it. I pined, I
coveted.

At the heart of the technology industry is a delicate dance between
wooing you with a seductive dance for the new, while also making you
dissatisfied with it, pretty much as soon as you get it. Thus the cycle
begins again. Though the Pom is laughable now, I’m sure there’s some
geek somewhere that’s watching this viral ad and thinking, “yaknow, if
I tweak my iPhone just so, I bet I could make it brew coffee…

Who says our economy’s in trouble? God bless human innovation, combined with an insatiable desire to consume.

Posted in pomegranate, iphone, G1, culture, technology, Columns, Blogroll, Music, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »