Ffm 2009

Long time recording artist, and former music industry executive Charlie Peacock reflects on the seismic changes in the music industry and their effect on the creation of music. Peacock contrasts old music business models with new models of musical faithfulness and forecasts a way forward to good human enterprise and even better music. Guaranteed to inspire.

This workshop critically examines the relevance of sacred music within popular culture, and in particular, pop music. Pensak and Wardell briefly survey the history of hymnody and sacred music with a focus on the deep roots of the sacred in popular music today. Part one focuses on the rich lyrical tradition within hymnody. Part two will addresses the place of the sacred within the creative consciousness of our culture.

An interactive, musical conversation with Baby Dee moderated by Adam Wolpa, professor of art at Calvin College.

The primary objective of this workshop is to offer leading questions that encourage musicians to explore how they might further integrate practical aspects of their faith with their artistic interests. Discussion includes intersections between Biblical calling and musicianship that have been historically understated or ignored. Key topics include: elitism in both classical and popular music media, the Biblical narrative that requires our connection to the oppressed, and the concept of community as it relates to music and our faith.

Want to start a war? Try to work out an authoritative definition for this all too common term, "Christian music." Nearly two decades after Amy Grant recorded "Baby, Baby," Christians can still work up a lather in the culture wars, and worship wars, linked to popular music. Nationally syndicated columnist Terry Mattingly has been covering these battles since his days as a rock columnist in the late 1970s and remains convinced that these debates offer the most revealing window into the heart of Christian niche culture. Prepare to argue with him.

Makoto Fujimura shares from the process of his art, his writing, his experience with church planting projects and the founding of International Arts Movement to discuss the role of creativity in cultivating a movement mindset. He also draws from Japanese culture and art history to connect how God embeds Kingdom principles in “pagan cultures,” keys to unlock cultural history for the Great Commission.

David Dark leads a discussion on our understanding of prophetic traditions, broadly defined, and how the reworking (or remixing) of words and images is part of the crucial task of actually receiving a witness (avowedly religious or otherwise). If a song is an ethical summons, how do we know when we're hearing it? Dark suggests that being a living audience to the cosmic plainspeak of a Bob Dylan, a Lupe Fiasco, a David Bazan or an Emily Dickinson involves more than mere consumption. What do faithfulness, intelligence gathering and re-visioning have to do with one another?

Cathleen Falsani had her first epiphany at age twelve while listening to U2's song "Gloria" for the first time in a friend's living room. And, not unlike Rob Gordon in High Fidelity, she can trace her spiritual evolution in the songs she was listening to at the time, and, perhaps, that were shaping what was happening in her soul. From U2's October to U2's No Line on the Horizon, with stops as varied as the Indigo Girls, Jeff Buckley, Luciano Pavarotti, the Beatles and the Dixie Chicks in between, throughout her life music has been the fastest vehicle to get her to grace. She tells that story, with vignettes from her books The God Factor, Sin Boldly and the forthcoming The Dude Abides: the Gospel According to the Coen Brothers and The Thread: Finding A Sacred Place in Cyberspace, along with music clips.

Andy Crouch lectures from the piano at the Festival of Faith & Music 2009.

Music journalist Marty Garner interviews The Hold Steady's Craig Finn.

Dr. Cornel West speaks at the Festival of Faith & Music 2009.

In an historic first meeting, Cornel West interviews Lupe Fiasco at the Festival of Faith & Music 2009 at Calvin College.