Brehm Center

Newsletter - September 2006

I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. (Psalm 89:1)

Thoughts from Ed...

Thanks for your encouraging responses to our first newsletter last month! Here is issue #2!

Fall is the time for beginnings. Even as things swing into new schedules, such as carpooling, rehearsals, classes…it is a good time to remember that God gives us times to begin again as His children…and again and again. Aren’t you glad for that? I am! As the fall season starts here on the Fuller campus, there are times for new beginnings for us as well. A few of those are featured in this newsletter. Have a great time checking them out! Keep praying for us at the Fred Bock Institute of Music! Classes start the week of September 25th. Blessings to you all, Ed

P.S. Don’t forget to check my blog once in a while for the latest in things I’m thinking about! Jubal’s Jottings can be found at…http://www.netbloghost.com/fredbock/

New Institute Joins the Brehm Center Family

Another institute will be officially added to the Brehm Center family this fall. On October 5, 2006, the Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching will be dedicated in a special worship service at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Dr. Ogilvie served at the church (usually known as Hollywood Pres!) for many years, where Fred Bock was the Director of Music. Following his ministry at Hollywood, Dr. Ogilvie was elected as the 61st Chaplain of the U.S Senate. To inaugurate this new institute, Ed Willmington has been asked to compose/arrange a new piece of music for the Cathedral Choir to sing with the congregation at the dedication service. The piece is titled Declare, My Soul, the Greatness of God, and will include prayers of adoration and the congregation joining the choir and organ in the singing of Praise to the Lord, the Almighty! It should be a great event – and link Lloyd and Fred together again, under the Brehm Center umbrella.

Brehm Center Labs

One of the things that we’re experimenting with this year in the Brehm Center is "labs," or maybe you would call them artistic studio experiences. We will probably not ever be a dance school, art school or music conservatory, but we would like to offer practical artistic opportunities for students to get a taste of different experiences to help them grow. These little opportunities may even help decide decide where their gifts are, what they need to work on in the future, and will no doubt translate into enhanced ministry skills for many. There are two musical labs that will be offered this fall. Ed Willmington will offer a lab called "Songwriting 101", and Clay Schmit will offer……… Don’t you wish you could take one of those? How Clay gets "prophet" out of "profit" will make that one worth taking all on its own!

A Long Horse Ride!

Music has always had a special place in delivering the message of God to the world…and also has been a continuously controversial issue in the life of the church as well. From the beginning, the singing of Psalms was a mainstay of the church’s worship. Once hymn writers began to write their expressions of faith, many considered that to be an infringement on the use of Psalms – God’s word. In May of 1789, Rev. Adam Rankin told the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, "I have ridden horseback all the way from my home in Kentucky to ask this body to refuse the great and pernicious error of adopting the use of Isaac Watts’ hymns in public worship in preference to the Psalms of David." That’s quite a horse ride to deliver such a message! So, if Rev. Rankin had his way, we might not be singing the hymns of Isaac Watts. Here’s a short list of some hymns that we might have missed.

I Sing the Mighty Power of God
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Joy to the World!
At the Cross
Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?
Jesus Shall Reign
Am I a Soldier of the Cross?
Come, We That Love the Lord

Another One of Our Students

Nate Risdon, whose full name is Stephen Nathaniel Risdon, has been at Fuller for the past couple of years. Nate grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and completed a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance, performing in numerous recitals and operas along the way. While receiving classical training in voice from tenor Joseph Frank, Nate somehow managed to hold onto his affinity for popular music as is evident from his rather eclectic music collection. He and his wife, Mee Heh, came to Pasadena via Boston where she completed her Master’s in City Planning at MIT and where Nate sang in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus with the Boston Symphony. It was also in Boston that Nate felt called to come to Fuller Theological Seminary to pursue a Master’s of Divinity with a concentration designed by the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts. The M.Div. degree requires that you take both Hebrew and Greek! Go Nate!

Last year, Nate was the chair for the Arts Concerns Committee, which planned various artistic events throughout the school year including a week-long Arts Festival in the Spring of 2006. This year he will be interning at Pasadena Presbyterian Church under the direction of their Minister of Music, Gregory Norton, as well as working with Ed Willmington, the director of the Fred Bock Institute of Music. Nate believes "that the local church needs to be a continuous presence of grace, love, hope, and light in whatever community they find themselves in and believes that the arts can help facilitate this. He wholeheartedly believes that the arts and artists have the unique ability to allow us to see God through different lenses and worship him more holistically, so that our whole being becomes involved in the worship of God." Pray for Nate during this important year in his training.