Bob Kauflin has taught me more about worship than anyone else.

Which is why I asked Bob to answer a few questions about the what, why, and how of corporate worship. If you don’t know Bob, he is the director of worship for Sovereign Grace Ministries and also blogs at Worship Matters. Bob is a wise man, and worth listening to.

So without further ado, an interview with Bob Kauflin in three parts.

So often I come in on a Sunday morning and I don’t feel like singing. How would you encourage someone in my place?

When I don’t feel like singing it’s usually because I haven’t been thinking much about who God is and what He’s done for us in Christ. Some situation, relationship, or event seems more important to me than the fact that Jesus came into the world to save rebellious sinners and reconcile them to God, and that I’m one of them. How can I not want to sing about that!

So the first thing I’d do is confess my distraction to God. I can tell him that I haven’t been loving him with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then I’d receive his full and complete forgiveness through Christ. God doesn’t hold my sin against me. Jesus bore it on the cross. Then, I’d start to think about the words I’m singing and direct my thoughts towards the greatness and goodness of God. If for some reason the lyrics aren’t helping me, I’ll start rehearsing the basic truths of the gospel and the promises of God. Before too long, my perspective changes and I feel like singing again.

TO BE CONTINUED…

There’s something we often overlook in the midst of conflict: God’s glory.

“If we begin to get a glimpse of the vast glory of God, we will realize that many of our conflicts are like two ants arguing about which is taller while standing in front of Mount Everest.” –Chris Brauns

Next time you’re in a conflict, make your goal the glory of God.  God’s glory is infinitely more important than being right, winning an argument, or getting someone to see our side.

Ask yourself, “What do I need to do to bring glory to God in this situation?”

photo by Marko_K

Is your church healthy?

There are all kinds of ways to answer that question. Is the Word of God regularly preached? Is it gospel-centered? Does it affirm the historical truths of Christianity? All good, necessary questions.

But let me throw out a church health question that you might not think about? Is your church full of messy people?

When the gospel is truly preached, sinners get truly saved. Jesus saves drug addicts. Jesus saves homosexuals. Jesus saves wealthy, self-righteous entrepreneurs. Jesus saves struggling couples. Jesus invades the darkness and rescues helpless sinners.

When these folks get saved, they bring their struggles into the church. This makes the church messy. In fact, the church is full of people who are being transformed from sinful messes into the image of Christ.

If the church isn’t messy, it probably means one of two things. Either, the gospel is being preached and sinners aren’t being saved, or people aren’t being honest about their sin.

Because when the gospel is preached, things are going to get messy. Wonderfully messy.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

Little things.  We can think they don’t matter much.  Little acts of kindness, little deeds of service.  Or little compromises, little sins.  Do these little things matter?

“Life is largely a mosaic of little events and little deeds. It is the decision we make when a cashier at the supermarket gives us too much change, or the waiter at the restaurant understates our bill, that reveals whether we are honest or not. It may seem as if I tend to trivialize life by frequently using illustrations of sins that some consider not too big an issue. But the truth is, it is in the minutia of life where most of us live day after day. We seldom have to say no to an outright temptation to adultery. We often have to say no to the temptation to the lustful look or thought. And as some unknown person has said, “He that despises little things shall fall little by little.” — Jerry Bridges

Think small this week.  What little thing can you do for the Lord?  What little thing can you do to bless someone?  What “little” sin should you confess to someone?

I’ll never overcome this particular sin. My child will never come to faith in Christ. What if God doesn’t provide for me this time? Is my life going anywhere? Does God really have good plans for me?

We let thoughts like these push us around, discourage, and steal our joy. The only way to fight back against the bully is through active faith in God and His promises. Samuel Ward says,

But what good is this faith if it is not used? It is like a soldier, with a sword at his side, not drawing his weapon when he is attacked. If a discouragement overtakes, cannot faith say to your soul, ‘Why are you disturbed? Know and consider in whom you believe.’ (Living Faith)

Are you pulling out the sword of faith and fighting discouragement, or are you letting discouragement have its way?

So here’s the questions of the day:

• Are you actively putting faith in God and his word, or are you letting discouragement push you around?

• What scriptures have encouraged when you have been discouraged?
  

UPDATE: The contest is closed. Winners are announced in the side blog. If you won, please email me your shipping address. Thanks for playing!

For the past three months, I have been raving about Sojourn Music’s latest release Over the Grave. It is BY FAR my favorite worship album of 2009.

Today I wanted to introduce you to one of the main men behind the project, Mike Cosper, the Pastor of Worship and Arts at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Mike graciously agreed to answer a few questions about the album and also to give away five copies.

Could you describe the “Over the Grave” album?

Over the Grave is our first attempt at reworking and reimagining the hymns of Isaac Watts. The idea was to dig into Watts’ work and tap into the incredibly rich resources he provides. We wanted to focus on concepts for which we’d struggled to find songs – death, judgment, resurrection, and substitutionary atonement. We also wanted to musically “paint the picture” of those texts in modern sounds, so it’s a dark, aggressive, and passionate record.

Why did you choose to do all songs by Isaac Watts?

We’ve been singing modern arrangements of hymns for a while. The stuff that the two graces have been putting out (Indelible Grace and Sovereign Grace) has been a tremendous help. We noticed as we entered that world that many of our favorites were Isaac Watts. So I began to read through his hymnals and read about his life. It’s an amazing story. Watts life began with his mother nursing him on a stool outside a prison, where his father was being chained up for refusing to deny Sola Scriptura and refusing to conform. He grew up to be a brilliant pastor who knew that what people sang shaped what they believed, and he went to great pains to teach deep doctrine in his songs. In the process, he became the father of the modern hymn, and frankly, the father of English contextualization.

The album is super creative. What kind of sound were you trying to get with the album? What were you trying to avoid?

First and foremost, we were trying to create sounds that helped people imagine and emotionally participate in the texts. We also wanted to try to branch away from the four-on-the-floor rock songs that typify modern worship. Neil (one of our musicians and the record’s producer) is an absolutely brilliant musician and had a vision for a sound that was almost cinematic. At the same time, we tried to do things that we could pull of in our services. On that front, for the most part, we succeeded. Most of the sounds are fairly seamless with what we try to do every week at Sojourn.

How do you hope the album encourages people?

I hope more than anything that people hear the texts and hear the bold proclamation of the cross throughout the record. I hope it simultaneously shines a light on our sin and the abundant provision of grace by our great God. Secondary to that, I hope that people just enjoy the music, and that it has staying power in their iPods and car stereos.

Okay, now here’s how you can win a copy of the CD.

• Share this post on Facebook or Twitter using the handy buttons below.
  
• Leave a comment saying, “I must have this CD or I will scream,” or something like that.
• I’ll choose five winners.

“There is in each of us an envy; O how hard a matter it is to rejoice in the gifts, graces, and labours of others, and be content in circumstances, when God casts us by as unworthy, and uses others to glorify his name! We are troubled if others glorify God and not us or more than us, or if they are more holy, more useful, or more serious…We should be content to be abased and obscure provided Christ is honored and exalted.” – Thomas Manton

At times I envy others more gifted than me. I’ve envied pastors who are more “successful” or can preach better than me. I’ve been jealous of other song writers. This is sick. It reveals a fundamental defect in my motives – I’m living for my glory, not God’s. If all I cared about was the glory of Christ I would rejoice when he gifts others or uses them in greater ways than me.

Do you ever struggle with spiritual envy? How do you fight it?

Photo by wackystuff