What motivates Jon Watts and his music ministry?
Jon Watts stopped by Pendle Hill recently and talked with Shirley Dodson about "Dance Party Erupts during Quaker Meeting for Worship," a music video he filmed at Pendle Hill. The video has spurred rich conversation about Quaker belief and religious experience, especially concerning Christianity and Quakerism. Here Jon talks about the roots of his beliefs and inspiration for his music ministry.
How did your music ministry develop?
JW The idea of harnessing Spirit – of becoming a channel – has always been inherent for me in artistry. When we say "good music," we mean it is alive, the Spirit is there. The first thing I learned as an artist is that no person can make good art on their own. Even though I didn't have a spiritual name for it at the time, the practice of listening was essential. Faithfulness to the Spirit is elemental to making good music. Without Spirit, the music is bad. There were times when I recognized that I was forcing it.
How did you learn to listen?
JW It was in my process of trying not to force it that I learned to sit down with a pen only when a song is calling me to write it. I'm not a good songwriter, but the Spirit that moves through me is a wonderful songwriter. I needed to learn to let myself be that channel.
What inspired your recent YouTube music video, which was created at Pendle Hill?
JW I started writing the song “Friend Speaks My Mind” during my senior year at Guilford College when I was writing biographical songs about George Fox and James Nayler. I felt drawn to look back at my own experience biographically and to channel myself as a character growing up in Liberal Quakerism. I finished the song when I was a resident student at Pendle Hill. It was recorded in the Flower House and released on my CD The Art of Fully Being. My Quaker upbringing was a whole lot of fun - quirky, inane. I worked hard to capture that in the song.
This music video was my first ever. I received a nudge a year and a half ago to make this really ambitious music video. I waited, prayed, and tried to remain unattached from the outcome. Then this past spring I was traveling throughout Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and I had a filmmaker lined up for a specific weekend that just happened to be the same weekend that my Mom and her resident student class were having a reunion and there was a work weekend at Pendle Hill. I called Walter [Sullivan], thinking it was probably too good to be true, and asked him what he thought of filling the meeting room at Pendle Hill on such a busy weekend.
I was surprised when I got a call back from Walter, who said that I could use the space at the same time that everyone from the work weekend would be on break. My Mom worked hard to get folks from her resident student class out and I brought a few carloads of YAFs (Young Adult Friends) from West Philly. It was certainly a "way opening" experience. The video is faithful to the energy of the song. It was an experiment in taking my music to a new medium. We filmed it in only 45 minutes, so I'm pretty happy with it.
You grew up in a Quaker family, attended a Quaker camp, went to a Quaker college, and spent a year as a resident student at Pendle Hill. How have these experiences shaped your ministry?
JW Yes… growing up amongst Friends has made me a cultural Quaker, a Quaker insider, someone who speaks the language and knows the acronyms. But it’s my transformational experiences at Guilford and Pendle Hill that cause me to say I’m a convinced Quaker and a practicing Friend. Those institutions helped me foster my personal relationship with the Spirit, which affected my ministry deeply. I am not just an individual with a message that I think it is a good idea to spread.
Convincement has led me to servitude – if God asks me to put down my guitar, I put down my guitar. Faithfulness is the most important thing, and what God feels about my ministry carries more weight than anything. Guilford and Pendle Hill have taught me how to ground my ministry in that faithfulness, using tools like support committees, clearness committees, and elders.
What stands out for you now as most meaningful about your time as a Pendle Hill resident student?
JW Pendle Hill was the closest I’ve come to living into the experience of establishing God’s kingdom on earth, to feeling naked and unashamed before God with loving witnesses surrounding me. I wouldn’t say we established God’s kingdom, but it’s the closest I’ve gotten. I was disappointed after Pendle Hill that I couldn’t continue to go deeper. My calling after Pendle Hill has been to not leave my people behind. I’d had this experience, and I had to see what I could bring back to my people, my culture. In part it’s been painful. I’ve had to make compromises.
Pendle Hill was absolutely essential to my spiritual development. I feel I owe a great deal to that organization and I want to see it thrive, to give that gift to everyone who’s open to it. My time at Pendle Hill was only a year but we were able to go so deep. I feel a great sadness that my experience at Pendle Hill stands in such stark contrast to my experiences outside of Pendle Hill, but we need to work from where we are at.
What do you see Quakerism offering to the world?
JW Quakers in the 17th century had a radical message for their time: Everyone has direct access to God. That is – you exist! You have a spiritual voice; you don’t have to be a lemming. The message today is similar, but the emphasis should change. In a culture where we have become hyper-individualized, the emphasis should move from “everyone” to “God.”
What I’d like to see Quakerism offer to this culture is that there is something deep and beautiful in being faithful to something larger than yourself, and this isn’t necessarily oppressive and doesn’t mean putting aside your own interests and those of your community. I find that it is much more satisfying to please God than to please yourself.
Related information
http://www.facebook.com/jonwattsmusic
The Art of Fully Being by Jon Watts, in the Pendle Hill Bookstore