Author: Reggie Kidd
Located in: Maitland, FL
Submitted: October 11, 2005
Tell us a little about yourself. I'm the father of 3 teenage sons ... one an
upright and an electric bass player, one a
baseball player, and one a wielder of a samurai sword. And, of course, I'm the husband of one terrific wife! I teach New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary's Orlando campus, where I'm
basically the "Paul guy." Now that this book is done, I hope to do more writing about the apostle. I also am Pastor of Worship at Orangewood Presbyterian Church (PCA), here in Maitland, FL ... and I absolutely love waking up Sunday mornings to sing God's praises with his people (with a terrific team of musicians!).
What was your motivation behind this project? It simply seemed to me that for all the
attention we give in the church to the mechanics of praise - where are we on the scale of "traditional" to "contemporary"? are we too loud, too soft? are we pursuing "excellence" enough? - the great WHY of the thing is seldom understood. After years and years of leading
worship, I thought it was important to try to explaining the theology of the whole thing. How does the Bible's story line make so much more sense because song is at the heart of it? And how do we worship the God of the Bible by honoring His voice in one another's?
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I hope this project will help folks better
understand an under-appreciated side of Jesus, and therefore love him more. I believe we only have a partial Savior if we do not know him as a Singing Savior. For too many of us, Jesus is just a legal sharpie who figured a way to get us
out of our problem with God's Law. For others, he's a heavenly grump, come to whip us into shape for heaven. In reality, Jesus came to rescue us from sin and death so he could include us in his own joyful, eternal communion with his Heavenly Father. That's why we need to imagine him as a Singing Savior, the way the writer of Hebrews 2:12 does: singing praises "in the assembly" (that is, in the church) to the Father. I hope folks will value more highly their place in his choir.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? Well, I write a lot about music in this book, so it's only fair to let you know that my musical influences range from Bach to U2, with a little Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul, and Mary in between. No writer makes the Christian worldview more imaginable to me than C.S. Lewis ... but J.R.R
Tolkein, G.K. Chesterton, and Charles Williams are close behind. No theologian has shaped me more than John Frame (now my colleague at Reformed Theological Seminary/Orlando) ... a close second is Richard Gaffin at Westminster/Phila.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: That's about it ... except to thank
Christianbook.com for allowing authors and
artists to tell their story! Oh, and check the website www.reggiekidd.com for features and thoughts related to the book, and please drop me a line if you want to let me know how you like the book: mailto:reggie@reggiekidd.com.
