Adam, Author at Adam Brooks Webber

Advent Processional

Hello friends!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and Advent starts next week. Here’s something I wrote and arranged for my church choir. We’re using this at the start of the service throughout Advent. (The shhh! at the end is meant to be followed by the lighting of the Advent candle.)

I’ve posted it in two pieces:

This is the text:

Searching and seeking, we hear the Spirit speaking.
The signs are appearing: the Holy One is nearing.

Finding and feeling, the Hidden One revealing,
Invoking, inviting, with every candle lighting.

Mary is bearing, and Joseph is preparing,
The Spirit entwining, and all the stars aligning.

All are expecting our God with us connecting,
Creation awaiting its holy recreating.

Longing and yearning, 
We keep the fire burning.

The time is near, the time is near, 
The time is near, the time is near.

Bells are ringing! Angels singing! 
Drums are drumming! Christ is coming!

The music is simple and dramatic, with three vocal parts (plus cantor) and a repetitive structure in four-bar phrases. I hope this will be useful to someone out there, and I hope it will help you feel the wild hope of Advent.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Adam2019-11-27T14:12:11-06:00November 27, 2019|1 Comment

Videos for the Inn of God’s Forgiveness

Hello, friends! This month, I’ve been thinking about my book, The Inn of God’s Forgiveness. I have an idea, and I’d like to get your thoughts about it.

It seems to me that The Inn of God’s Forgiveness would be ideal for use in an adult study group in a progressive church. It’s a small book and modestly priced. It presents progressive (and sometimes provocative) theological ideas in a good-humored and accessible way. It’s divided into eight chapters, which would fit a one-chapter-a-week structure quite neatly. And it has a built-in activity for each chapter, because each chapter introduces a new hymn. A study group could look at each hymn, give it a try, and then perhaps decide whether to bring it to the wider church.

What the book hasn’t had, until now, is video content to go with it. My idea is that it would be useful to have a video to go with each chapter, so that a class leader could simply show the video and then lead the discussion (and singing).

I’ve made a draft of a video to go with the first chapter. It’s longer than the usual five-to-ten-minute Merry Mystic missive: it’ll be about forty minutes, including the singing, leaving twenty minutes for discussion in a one-hour class. This draft has a few defects, and the video is grainy in places, but it’ll give you an idea of what I’m suggesting. (And I’m a bit proud of it, in spite of the defects!)

So please: have a look, and let me know your thoughts. Is it useful to you? Would a full video series like this be useful to you, or to others? What would you like to see in the final version? If I make a series like this, how should I deliver it, and how much should I charge for it? (Alas, I don’t think I could give something like this away; just making a draft of the video for the first chapter took a ridiculous number of hours.)

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Adam2019-10-16T13:56:26-05:00October 16, 2019|1 Comment

The Center of the Circle

Hello, friends!

This one is by request. Fair warning: it’s a straight-up sermon, it’s serious, and it’s twenty minutes long. As you know, I am the pastor of the Open Prairie United Church of Christ in Princeton, Illinois; this is what I did in church last Sunday. My text was the Good Samaritan parable from the Gospel of Luke.

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Adam2019-07-19T21:32:26-05:00July 19, 2019|2 Comments

Come, O People

I write a lot of music, and often, it’s humorous and irreverent. But one can’t be sassy all the time; that would just be annoying.

Today, I have something serious to share with you: some liturgical music I wrote and used in my church during Lent. It’s a processional, arranged for cantor and choir. (The choir part consists of three simple parts, so it’s undemanding—unless the choir also has to stomp and clap as they process!)

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The sheet music for “Come, O People” is available here, in our Free Stuff area.

Adam2019-07-12T16:30:14-05:00July 12, 2019|0 Comments

The Perfect POTUS

Hello, friends! Today was Trinity Sunday at church, and I did my best with a sermon. Maybe I’ll share it with you, one of these days. I did my best to keep it light. But, damn: it’s still a pretty heavy topic, theologically speaking!

After that, I was in need of an antidote: a little silliness. And here it is: in honor of the forthcoming Democratic presidential debates, an advertisement a la Mary Poppins. Wanted: a president for fifty adorable states…

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Adam2019-06-16T18:27:33-05:00June 16, 2019|0 Comments

Something New in the Store

Hello, friends!

I’ve written a considerable variety of things over the years: some computer science journal articles, a couple of textbooks, a book of theological essays with new hymns, a dozen more new hymns after that, dozens of videos for The Merry Mystic, and two CDs of original music—plus, of course, a few hundred sermons. But you know what I’ve enjoyed writing the most? Fantasy romance.

Yes, really.

I’ve just published a book called The Pastor and the Priestess. It’s a feel-good story about a small-town pastor and a Wiccan priestess who find magic and romance while facing a deadly series of hate crimes. Hah! I’m grinning ear to ear just typing that description. It’s available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. If it sounds like something you’d enjoy, please give it a try. And if you do enjoy it, please share a review on Amazon.

Thanks and best blessings,

Adam

Adam2019-01-15T23:40:43-06:00January 15, 2019|5 Comments

The Lady Loves Me

I’ve spent most of my life immersed in a received Christian tradition that refers to God as male. It’s almost always “He cometh,” and “bless His name,” and “praise Him;” almost never “She cometh,” and “bless Her name,” and “praise Her.” Intellectually, I don’t want to think of God has having a specific gender. But under the weight of all that gendered language, it’s hard not to.

Here’s my own little contribution to address the imbalance: a song called “The Lady Loves Me.”

Adam2022-05-24T16:47:24-05:00January 14, 2019|3 Comments

Real Men (Are Kind and Polite)

Do you have an ideal of what a “real man” should be like?

Popular culture seems very confused about this. Action films tend to have leading men who are vengeful and aggressive, quick with their fists and their guns. (There are a few exceptions, of course. God bless Dwayne Johnson!) Our national politics also seems to reward men who are aggressive, abusive, boastful, self-serving, and untruthful.

My father taught me something completely different about what real men are like.This song is dedicated to my father, who turns 85 today. Happy Birthday, Papa!

Update, 4/20/2019: I’ve been asked to post the lyrics to this song. Here they are:

Real Men

by Adam Brooks Webber

So I said, Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be a real man. And he said, Son, I know you can do it. Let me just give you a little advice.

Real men are kind and polite,
Not like in the movies on Saturday night,
Short-tempered and quick with a fist or gun.
That ain’t a man, my son.

Real men are quietly strong.
They’re never abusive. That’s totally wrong.
Bombastical bragging is way too weak.
Real men let action speak.

Real men are ready to work,
Not serving themselves. That just makes you a jerk.
They care for their families, their friends, their town,
Help you up when you’re down.

Real men are honest for sure,
Not fibbing or fudging. That’s so immature.
They may not say much, son, but when they do,
Every word is true.

Real men are kind and polite,
Daddy said as he tucked me in tight for the night.
Remember my words, son, and when you do
You’ll be a real man too.

Adam2023-05-28T10:19:19-05:00October 20, 2018|0 Comments

A Little Something I Can Sell

This heartfelt prayer goes out to all my fellow pastors. Haven’t you sometimes wished your church had a better value proposition—something that was a bit easier to sell?

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It was so much easier in the old days, when we could just threaten ’em with hell. God, I miss the screaming ….

Adam2022-01-13T07:53:19-06:00October 6, 2018|2 Comments

Viriditas

I’ve written a choral piece called “Viriditas,” and in this video I introduce it and sing a little sample while sitting in a cornfield. Viriditas was a favorite word of one of my favorite Christian mystics, Hildegard of Bingen. In Latin, it just means greenness, but for Hildegard it meant much more than that.

Sheet music for “Viriditas” is available in our Free Stuff area. If you get a group together and perform it, please let me know. Send me a video, and I’ll put it up here for all us Merry Mystics to enjoy.

Adam2022-08-25T12:19:05-05:00July 30, 2018|4 Comments

About Adam

Real Men