Zach Williams Folk Prophet

I met Zach WIlliams at Q in Austin this week. Zach opened Q with an acoustic guitar and sang a song that summoned all the good things I love about the prophetic singer songwriters in the tradition of Dylan, Cash, Jonatha Brooke, Derek Webb, Jon Foreman, Sufjan Stevens and the likes. Zach is a legit new folk voice with a sense of urgency and daring vulnerability.

On top of all the great vibe and the rapture of my musical senses, Zach was a great conversationalist with a huge heart for Brooklyn (where he is involved in a church plant) and a huge love for Jesus and people. Zach strikes me as the guy who wears others' burdens physically. He internalizes others' struggles and feels a deep sense of their pain. I think that's what makes him a great songwriter. You can buy some of his stuff on iTunes but the real magic is seeing him live. He's a great storyteller to keep your eye on.

Zach is planting a church in Brooklyn and is connected with my friend Jon Tyson, pastor of Trinity Grace Church in NYC.

Beauty and Sheep

I had the great privilege of listening to one of my heroes this past week at Q. I took rough notes and thought I'd share them in case something magic jumps out at you as it did for me.

Makoto Fujimura starts his 18:00 session at “Q” in NYC by putting a piece of paper over the large countdown clock with Chinese symbol for “Beauty.”

At first, the crowd chuckles believing this is Makoto’s act of artistic defiance and disregard for the time—or, at least his attempt at drawing the crowd’s attention towards him without being distracted by the digital reminder.

He has something different in mind.

“The function of the arts is to mediate and steward time.” He’s given us a metaphor.

Makoto explains before Christianity reached China, it was already imbedded in their culture the very language that unlocks the beauty of Christianity.

The beauty character/ideogram that now covers the clock (which we can still see shining through the paper by the way) is made up of two characters which roughly translated means “greater sheep” (lit. Sheep/large).

Beauty has something to do with a sheep, says Makoto. A sacrificial sheep.

Kul Shin Voo and Larry Hovee wrote a wonderful exposition entitled, “The Lamb of God hidden in the ancient Chinese characters” wherein they explain : : :

The Chinese have recognised the spiritual symbolisation of a sheep in their society for centuries. For example, the filial act of a young sheep to kneel down in order to suck milk from its mother’s udder is used even today as a reminder that the Chinese people are supposed to humble themselves and respect their parents. There are general agreements among Chinese scholars that the sheep represents truthfulness, kindness and beauty. Besides these attributes, the sheep or the bull (representing loyalty) were the sacrificial animals to be offered to ShangDi. Emperor Tang, the founder of the Xia dynasty (1787 BC) disguised himself as the white unblemished sacrificial animal to take upon himself the sins of his people such that ShangDi would forgive them and send rain to stop the seven years of drought. The rain came in response to Emperor Tang’s humble actions on behalf of his people. Thus, the ancient Chinese understood that the sacrifice of the unblemished sheep and bull would take away their sins. Did the ancient Chinese believe that the way back to heaven was through the sacrifice of the unblemished and kind sheep?

Makoto discusses the “Problem of Beauty” using an interesting choice of words when he describes beauty as “difficult.” Beauty transcends our understanding of truth and what we believe in.

Makoto quotes “Beauty, sooner or later, brings us into contact with our own capacity for making errors—Elaine Scarry—On Beauty and Being Just.

Mokoto discusses “The Paradox of Beauty” by telling of his own conversion story in the most poignant quote of the gathering; “ . . . every day, I sought higher transcendence through the extravagant materials. I found success in expression through Nihonga materials. And yet the weight of beauty I saw in the materials began to crush my own heart. I could not justify the use of extravagance if I found my heart unable to contain their glory.”

Mokoto discusses “The Presence of Beauty” and our obligation as artists—The Chinese call the USA “the beautiful country.”

Beauty is equated with love, explains Makoto. “Christ cannot be talked about outside of Beauty.”

“Use the ideogram of Beauty if you are ever sharing about Jesus with the Chinese—not simply the ideogram for love.”

One of the most “beautiful things” he has ever seen was a picture of the rescue workers climbing out of the fallen towers. Sacrifice is inherent in Beauty.

Makoto ends with a great take-away for those of us leading artists and influencing artists in our churches. “We need to see more ways to reach into the artist’s creative process beyond asking them to make logos for our church.” It isn’t “bad” to ask them to do this but it is not enough.

Go here for a great article on Mokoto if you aren't familiar with him. You can also visit his site here.

NYC Take Aways

1. Case settled. Porsche is pronounced “por-sha” and not “porsh.” We heard it from the mouth of Porsche ad exec Shane Hipps.

2. The advertising agencies job is to “hijack your head, brand your brain, and feed you opinions you actually thought were your own.” Thanks for that one as well, Shane.

3. “The culture war is over. We lost.” --Jud Wilhite

4. “ . . . every day, I sought higher transcendence through the extravagant materials. I found success in expression through Nihonga materials. And yet the weight of beauty I saw in the materials began to crush my own heart. I could not justify the use of extravagance if I found my heart unable to contain their glory.”—Makoto Fujimura

5. It is easy to walk 23 miles in the course of 3 days in NYC. I know. I wore my pedometer.

6. If you ever want to live stream a gathering, ask permission. Once you get permission, ask if they are the person who should be giving you permission.

7. Imodium AD is a lie.

8. Little Italy is an incredible dining experience.

9. If in NYC, buy a hotdog from a street vendor for the experience.

10. Irish pubs owned and operated by the Irish are way cooler.

Micro Blogging @ Q

I am blogging at my "snapshot" blog over at Tumblr this week.

Ready, Set, Q

Q is about to begin in NYC. The stage is set. The vibe is warm and inviting. Meeting great people.

Q is a "collective of innovators, artists, social entrepreneurs, and church and societal leaders experimenting with ways to advance the common good in culture.

Follow my posts here. I will also be broadcasting some live material on Mogulus as well as putting up YouTube posts.

I do not want to clutter Vertizontal with a bunch of posts about Q so . . . I will be posting Q posts on my Tumblr blog--fun. If you want to follow my Q travels, follow me on Twitter and here.

Peace.