Let my prayer rise...

Here is a jazz setting of Psalm 141 by the extraordinary artist, Deanna Witkowski, that we will use this Sunday:  Let My Prayer Rise. I had the privilege of hearing/meeting her at the IAM Encounter in 2010 in NYC and have been grooving to this for the past year.

This Sunday we're starting a four part series in worship concerning DEEP blended worship - AUTHENTIC blended worship - that brings into God's house ALL the sounds of praise - sacred and secular - using three key guidelines:

1) Speaking to ALL of God's people - those who are Christians as well as those who sing to an unknown God - by finding appropriate ways to bring secular music into worship.  (We're using three tunes by Paul Simon.)

2) Finding ways to build bridges between hipsters and oldsters - rockers and jazz folk - using the insight from Jesus that all who aren't against us...

3) And then the GREAT text from Philippians 4:8-9 (using Peterson's MESSAGE): Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

As some of you know, I've been buzzed by Paul Simon's new album - So Beautiful or So What - but I'm also digging Deanna's work, too.  And how about Bobby McFerrin's setting of the 23rd Psalm?