Music Camp and Psalm Tap

Dear friend,

I will be traveling tomorrow after worship to Monroe, LA to attend the Jubilate Deo Summer Music Camp. The week functions like a training camp for young musicians from 1st-12th grades. I will be teaching theology of music for the high-schoolers, which is always one of my highlights. I have been teaching some of these students for several years now and always relish our reunions.

Everyone plays a part in this great musical composition. They will train all week in music (in addition to art and dance) and on Saturday they will offer a performance to the community. It is truly a magnificent sight to behold and hear. We have for too long minimized music education in our youth treating it as an elective when it is should the norm for a Christian community. This camp is a noble attempt to bring back musical literacy not only to the church but to the household and schools as well. Thanks to the tireless Jarrod Richey for his efforts and friendship over the years.

The Lutheran pastor, Bonhoeffer, spoke to the need for singing in our communities as that which diminished our fears and “lifts us about our personal concerns.” Bonhoeffer understood well the role of singing as he sought to form young pastors fighting for their lives in an underground seminary. Even amidst confusion and a maniacal dictator, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not content to live in fear, but he pursued the committed task of singing together. In fact, in singing together the church spoke for the world n “vicarious representation.”

Our mission has not changed. We teach and encourage one another with psalms, hymns and Spirit-songs in all seasons knowing that our God sings over us (Zeph. 3).

For anyone interested, I will be also speaking at the first Psalm Tap Colloquium along with Theopolis Institute president, Peter J. Leithart and others on various topics related to music and its role in the church (you can see the link below).

An entire week of teaching and communion with gifted musicians and eager singers will keep me relatively away from my daily missives here. As a side note, I do want to thank those who have sent me kind notes about these daily posts. I do try to be intentional about them, and in a social media platform made for the mundane, I try to offer a substantive outlook that helps form ideas and visions about the world with as much biblical zeal I can muster.

Hearty cheers and solid joys,
Pastor Uriesou Brito