Around Town: Brooke Fraser, Hollywood Theatre, David Platt, Thomas Merton . . .

Brooke Fraser will showcase her new album Brutal Romantic at Venue Night Club January 23.

When I noticed that Brooke Fraser was going to be performing at Venue Night Club this Friday (January 23), I thought, wait, isn’t that the name of the Hillsong woman who wrote ‘Hosanna‘ (“I see the king of glory coming down the clouds with fire / The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes . . .”) and a bunch of other worship songs? The answer is yes, though it wasn’t obvious from looking at ads for the show, or even at most interviews about her latest album.

Fraser seems to keep her two lives pretty separate, at least while she is promoting her ‘secular’ albums. Here’s an explanation from Timothy Yap, in his review of Brutal Romantic – which came out late last fall – on Hallels, a Christian music website:

Brooke Fraser has . . . evolved from her brand of quirky folk-pop to a full album of experimental electronic pop with this new effort Brutal Romantic. Yet, what’s even more interesting about this New Zealand songbird is that running parallel to her pop music career is her involvement as a writer and worship leader of Hillsong Worship.

What is an enigma is that she has completely kept both career trajectories separate from each other. Under . . . her married name Brooke Ligertwood, she has written some of the Australian mega church’s most cherished worship songs including ‘Hosanna,’ ‘I Will Rise (Beneath the Waters),’ ‘Like Incense (Sometimes by Step)’ and ‘Our Father.’

When she takes on her Brooke Fraser persona, rarely does she ever talk about her Hillsong endeavours. While her Hillsong compositions are rife with gorgeous expositions of scripture, on her own solo outings, God is at best peripheral or designated into the vocabulary of allusions.

Lydia Jenkin in the The New Zealand Herald puts it this way in an insightful interview:

That’s the Brooke Fraser we’re all familiar with – positive, thoughtful, charming, award-winning singer-songwriter, daughter of former All Black Bernie Fraser and, yes, Christian.

None of that has changed of course, but with her fourth album, entitled Brutal Romantic, we’re about to see a whole new side of her.

“I really felt that Flags [her third album, released in 2010] was the end of a trilogy for me as an artist. I felt like I’d explored the folk pop singer songwriter world. I knew that I had always set my voice against really warm organic sounds, and I really wanted to experiment with setting my voice against different textures – spiky things and cold things and mechanical things, and bring out the tension and contrast and balance that could be enjoyed if I did that.”

So, if you like Brooke Fraser, you’ll probably enjoy her show at Venue, though you might want to check out ‘Psychosocial‘ from the new album to see how you feel about the new sound – and you probably shouldn’t expect to hear ‘Hosanna.’

It appears the former Hollywood Theatre will not become a church, at least not in the near future.

Redemption Church has decided not to make the move to the former Hollywood Theatre. The process has been a long one, but pastor Tim Horman announced on a January 15 blog posting that the leadership of the church has decided “not to continue with the purchase of the Hollywood.”

Pastor Tim Horman feels Redemption Church has been open to God’s leading, no matter where it is housed.

Acknowledging to his congregation that “this feels like a disappointing outcome, especially after so much work and prayer and money has been invested in trying to make the purchase a reality,” pastor Tim Horman said:

I recently wrote a story on the loss of local church properties in Vancouver – and the great difficulty in finding new land or renovating older buildings for church purposes.

David Platt: Radical comes to town

David Platt will be in town January 27.

David Platt is best known for his books – Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me – but he is also pastor of a megachurch and, more recently, president of International Mission Board, which has almost 5,000 members in the field. He will be in town next Tuesday (January 27) as part of the Send North America Experience Tour, at Bethany Baptist Church in Richmond.

This excerpt from the introduction to Radical Together gives a sense of Platt’s passion:

In my first book, Radical, I explored how the biblical gospel affects individual Christian lives. Simply put, in a world of urgent spiritual and physical need, gospel-believing, God-exalting men and women do not have time to waste their lives pursuing a Christian spin on the American dream. . . . as long as individual Christians journey alone – no matter how ‘radical’ they are – their effect will be minimal. But as men and women who are surrendered to the person of Christ join together in churches that are committed to the purpose of Christ, then nothing can stop the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

In Radical Together, I want to consider what happens – or can happen – when we apply the revolutionary claims and commands of Christ to our communities of faith. I want to contemplate the force of a people who come together to enjoy God’s grace in the church while they extend God’s glory in the world. And I want to propose that a movement of such people in such churches has the potential to permeate nations with the praise of God.

Platt will be joined by worship leaders Shane and Shane.

Darryl Klassen, second from left, was recently celebrated for his 25 years with Aboriginal Neighbours.

My wife Margaret and I recently had the honour of joining a celebration of Darryl Klassen’s 25 years with MCC BC’s Aboriginal Neighbours program. Last Sunday (January 18), friends, co-workers and those who had benefited from his tireless bridge-building with Aboriginal cultures heard many stories about his work around the province. He even entertained us with a couple of songs; one of his other lives involved producing and playing country folk (hillbilly jazz?).

Among the participants wishing Darryl and his wife Glenda well for the future were Mary Fontaine, who runs Hummingbird Ministries and Brander McDonald, Indigenous Relations Coordinator for Mennonite Church BC and Indigenous Justice Ministries Coordinator for the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster.

Under Darryl’s leadership, MCC BC’s Aboriginal Neighbours program existed “to foster respectful relations and understanding with Aboriginal people by creating opportunities for dialogue, service and learning for our churches and placing MCC workers in Aboriginal communities. Our activities include an annual camping trip to Aboriginal communities in the province, events and workshops that bring us together with Aboriginal people to explore issues and topics that are important to them and more.”

My own family benefited from Darryl’s friendships with Native people. He took our family on a 10-day camping trip to three native communities – Dog Creek, Cheslatta and Ksan – in 1993. We had chance to meet and interact with some of the people living there, and it has affected our lives since. Our four children who still live in Metro Vancouver all work or volunteer with Aboriginal people to one degree or another, and have come to appreciate their culture. Thanks Darryl!