Saturday, August 16, 2008

#20 The Djembe



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Christians took to this drum as starved dogs to a meat wagon. With this, set-up volunteers who do not have a musical bone in their body are given a chance to contribute to the band because, come on, how hard can it be to hit a drum? The sound of a poorly played Ovation* guitar with a horribly played djembe really draws people into the worship experience. It really does.

*plastic-backed, tinny-sounding guitar that must be plugged in to sound only halfway crappy. Very Nashville.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Why, oh why was this drum invented?" ... well, considering that the djembe originated in West Africa, where it has tribal significance, I'm pretty sure that Christians didn't invent it ...

stephy said...

Good point. I took it out. :)

Anonymous said...

Then there are the churches of today that have swung way the other way because they are afraid of being too cool which is actually un-cool. So they over think worship, decide that only hipsters should be allowed to worship and make it way too cool for most people to feel comfortable to just be themselves. God forbid that we should come across as CCM. I know I don't want to. And I really don't. So what do we do? How about just worshiping and allowing worship to be just that, worship. Stop the over analytical crap. The new church the "post modern" church is as guilty as all the other churches trying to being cool. It's just a new breed of cool. It's selective and self righteous under the guise of being hip and edgy. It's really just catering to generations x and y and all those who were burned and sick of the "Jesus is my Co-pilot" bumper sticker churches. Granted I love the post modern church. I love the expository sermons. I mean if I am forced to sit through one more sermon that has little to no Bible references and just a bunch of stories and illustrations I may go jump off a bridge. I know that God can still reach people through those churches though. Regardless of what type of church we go to we always need to check ourselves and make sure that we are being Christ like through love and humility. We need to allow worship to be glorifying to God and about God not about anything else. To me it seems that your post it about Christians trying to be cool but not actually pulling it off; how about we just forget about being cool altogether. These are things I know that I’m always working on. I hate CCM and topical sermons; my brother is a pastor of a Four Square Church and is the epitome of everything that sends shivers up my spine in terms of the cool/un-cool things. Yet, his heart is a heart for God and for reaching people who don’t know God. He’s amazing at what he does and it’s obvious that God it blessing him and working through him to reach people in his community. I can’t deny this no matter how much I personally don’t want to go to his church or a church like his. We all tend to get in this mentality that our church is the best and we’re the ones with all the right answers and if only other churches would get it right. Remember that every church is made up of flawed humans. Whether we are being legalistic or completely taking grace for granted or we think we have it just right, we all need to take a step back and take a look at ourselves.

3Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Philipians 2: 3-4
19Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. 26For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
Hebrews 10:19-26

By the way your posts crack me up and I love reading them. This has just been on my mind a lot lately in regards to my brother and his church and my own experiences; past and present.
-Jamie

Anonymous said...

"Christians took to this drum as starved dogs take to a meat wagon."
ROTFLMFAOAICSNMHHIT

And what's up with Ovation guitars? How did they gain such market dominance amongst church strummers?

Anonymous said...

OMG. I just found your blog and have been in LOLZ-land for a while. You could say more here - as a djembe-playing percussionist (and Christian) I cannot begin to tell you how crazy these cheapo drums make me, especially when played by people who don't have a clue... ;)

Every single "worship team" person who plays badly needs to go here and get the right idea:
http://djembefola.com/index.php

Mary Beth said...

I have a 'no drum circle' rule in my house. Apparently God has no such rule.

Justin Bower said...

just reading this now, but this resonates with my college experience. What the heck is with the Ovation fetish? I mean, fine guitars for certain purposes, but what the heck?

Anonymous said...

Ovation was an innovator in acoustic/electric guitars, and their guitars were widely used by all sorts of artists in the 1980's. They're less popular now, but I can only assume their continued popularity among the church strummers has to do with the average age of such strummers and/or the fact that used Ovations are inexpensive and widely available.

Anonymous said...

no mention of the tambourine? :(

Anonymous said...

Hey now. There are some of us who have talent. The talented ones have bongos! :D

Anonymous said...

First there were the Crusades, then there was the great Missionary period, then there was the Scourge of church people led to believe they could play djembe who came to share their talent with the world at open mics and poetry readings.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lennyb said...

Stephy, here's where you and Driscoll agree!

Kab00m! said...

As a child, I went to a private Christian school. In the 4th grade, our teacher told us that music with too much rhythm is bad (unsure how to measure that). His reason was because drums are heavily used in Africa and that's where demons rule.

Anonymous said...

I am a follower of Jesus and a professional Djembe player. I'm all for giving my best of everything for the glory of God, but "the best" varies from person to person. I am led to believe that the God of the Bible cares more about a persons' heart/intent than the tones that resonate in the human ear.

Don said...

How did "professional djembe player" even get to be a thing...?

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