About Mercy Seat’s Liturgies

As part of Mercy Seat’s mission to rethink the Lutheran Church, we believe that the Church’s long liturgical tradition is a way in which we–as just one community–fit into two thousand years of worshiping Christ and celebrating redemption. We also have committed to taking that tradition into our lives and living inside it. For this reason, we commission musicians to set the liturgy to music. Whether it be jazz, alt-country, 60s pop, or soul, our services are continually re-imagining the ways in which the ancient words of our liturgy can work in our lives.

What is a liturgy? The liturgy is the traditional service of the Lutheran Church, from the Lord’s Prayer to the confession of sin. In a Mercy Seat liturgy we take many of these parts and set them to song, so that we sing “Lamb of God, have mercy on us” and “Holy is our God.”

For some, the liturgy is an old concept, something they’ve repeated since they were kids, “Lord have mercy, Kyrie, etc…” The ritual of the liturgy can seem an all-too-familiar husk of routine. For them, we’re trying to rework these words and breathe new life in them.

For others (and much of our community), though, the notion of tradition can seem off-putting. Evangelicalism has told us that spontaneity is the key to faith. For them, we want to emphasize the continual “becoming” of the Church. We participate in tradition–not because our ancestors in faith we’re so much more right–but because we, like them, come to church as part of a continual admission of our need for mercy and grace. The liturgy is a way in which we make celebration, brokenness, and humility part of our routines.

Scott Munson

Thanks to Mercy Seat’s uncommon kindness and belief in cultivating new art, Scott received his first composing commission before anyone had heard his music. His first liturgical mass, The Good News Bad News Liturgy, debuted in the spring of 2008. Since that time, Scott has gone on to perform as a weekly solo jazz pianist in Northeast Minneapolis and to compose a second mass for Mercy Seat, The Sacraments Mass, in summer 2009.
In addition to freelance music production and music instruction, Scott began composing for film in early 2010. Endlessly writing and picking up new instruments, Scott continues work on his own material for eventual recording and live performance.

Chris Koza

Chris Koza is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based singer/songwriter, and has released three albums since 2004 — “Exit Pesce,” “Patterns,” and “A Friend of a Friend” (EP). Music critics have compared Chris’ sound to Wilco, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Beck, and Ryan Adams, among others. He performs live with a band, which includes anywhere from 2-7 members.

Deep into autumn of 2004 Chris released his debut album “Exit Pesce” in an apartment. But it wasn’t until early the following year when a little blurb by Rob van Alstyne of the Pulse Magazine was printed before anyone really took notice of the album, calling Exit Pesce “An under-the-radar-music-stunner-phenomenon”

In April 2006, Chris released “Patterns,” which went on to receive more acclaim, including a Minnesota Music Award for Best Pop Recording (Chris also won the Best Male Vocalist award).

At the end of 2006, Patterns was kindly included in some local best-of lists, coming in at 10 in the Star Tribune’s annual Twin Cities Critics Tally, and at 1 in Chris Riemenschneider’s (Star Tribune Music Critic) top ten local albums list.

In April of 2010, he started his next adventure: transforming the Chris Koza band into Rogue Valley. This magical transformation occurred on the stage of the Historic Fitzgerald Theater.

Listen to an audio preview/interview with Chris:

And now you can hear live recordings of Song of the Earth Mass:

John Hermanson

John is an accomplished string arranger, programmer, multi-instrumentalist and engineer.

Hermanson is a member of the nationally-acclaimed acoustic duo, Storyhill, that sold over 70,000 records independently before releasing a record with celebrated folk label, Red House Records in 2007.

An award-winning producer, John is the creative center of the art rock group, Alva Star, that has had numerous songs featured on MTV, HBO and ABC. Hermanson is also co-songwriter and member of Minneapolis super group, The Hopefuls. His alter ego, John August, has sold over 850,000 CDs in the popular Lifescapes kiosk in Target stores with titles ranging from instrumental guitar to lush strings, electronica to world music.

Listen to an interview with John Hermanson:

Check out some demos of the Is This the Feast of Victory?:

Greg Schaefer

Greg has been involved with music his entire life, but never professionally. He played trumpet through high school, guitar in punk bands during the 80′s, and currently lead the jazz quartet GST. His most exciting project is whatever he’s currently working on. When not playing music, he’s a software engineer and lives in Golden Valley with his wonderful family, feeling blessed every day.

Ben Kyle

Minnesotan via Belfast, Ben Kyle (whether he likes it or not) is a fixture of the Twin Cities music scene. With his band Romantica, he’s shared the stage with Ryan Adams (including a haunting duet of a Romantica song) and toured the country. Their two records, It’s Your Weakness That I Want and America have been critically acclaimed by the likes of Village Voice and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Ben’s Massa liturgy takes his alt-country roots and mines them for an immigrants walk through the traditional Lutheran liturgy.

Wes Burdine

Wes and Mercy Seat go way back. A native Pennsylvanian, Wes was writing liturgies for Mercy Seat even when he had to travel out on weekends to play them at church. Thankfully now he lives in Northeast Minneapolis and works as Mercy Seat’s Liturgical Coordinator. In 2004, he released the album “This is How I Discovered Gold,” which was a lo-fi jaunt through alt-country and rock ‘n’ roll that David de Young of howwastheshow.com called full of “well-crafted, thought-provoking songs.” He followed this up by forming a band (Wes Burdine & the Librarians) and releasing the pop music fueled “Jose Canseco EP.” Rob van Alstyne of The Pulse called it, “It’s the sunny pop music day that follows This Is How I Discovered Gold’s long and tormented night.”

Now, Wes is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota and continues to write liturgies for Mercy Seat as well as playing with the Twin Cities rock outfit, The Small Cities. He also released the best children’s album of all time, recorded for his niece Katie for Christmas of 2009, called Unicorn Rock! (follow the link to download it for free).

For more of his music, you can go to his website.