Sorry I’m about 12 hours late from the normal time I post this. Just haven’t had time with our big moving day coming early today.

Speaking of moving, we had a lot of people come out to help us move. We got everything moved out of our old place and into our new place within 2 hours. I was impressed. We’re very blessed to have so many great friends who were willing to sacrifice some time and energy for us today.

I’d appreciate your prayers for our old lease. It ends in January and we’re still in the process of finding someone to take it over but have been unable to find anyone so far.

Blogs

1. A little out of the ordinary for my links (but come on I bought the phone and dig it)….my favorite review of the Droid, though too negative, from a normal phone user.
2. Loved this video’s take on what Web 2.0 means for us today.
3. Insightful post from Rhett Smith on providing understanding for parents as they interact with their kids and technology.
4. Kem Meyer shared an interesting video on the revolution of socialnomics.
5. C. Wess Daniels has some wonderful thoughts on limiting access to the pictures we share of our kids.

News

• Flying over the holidays? Thanks to Google you’ll likely have free wifi at every airport you go to.
• The future of the web….where will we be in 5 years?
• This play is absolutely crazy. Glad it looks like he will be ok after it.
• You know who is an absolute piece of work? Carrie Prejean.
• I bet you can’t run a marathon in something like this.
• How one tweet in England caused a firestorm (no this isn’t about John Piper).

Grace and peace.

This is the first in a series I’ll be doing of questions that some of you asked. If you would like to add your question, go here and do so.

Today I’ll answer a question from Jan.

She asked: So where do you think God is leading you Tyler? After seminary and all, do you have a sense of what God desires for you to do?

I’ve been in seminary for 2.5 years now and I have just as long to go minimum. I refuse to take on loans when my education is leading into a field that does not pay well. So I am paying as I go which is expensive and makes the process take longer.

Since I’ve been doing worship and music in churches since I was in junior high, almost everyone asks me if I want to be a worship pastor. I usually answer by saying this: “That is what I’m doing now, if I wanted to do that I wouldn’t be in school.” But that isn’t to say that I don’t see a role for me in music in the future. But I don’t want to be stuck in that role.

I have a passion and a calling towards the local church. I know I have gifts in music but I also am drawn to the discipleship process through the role of spiritual formation.

I see myself playing a key role in the leadership of a church, but I do not feel drawn (nor do I necessarily agree with) to the role of senior pastor.

Bottom line: I have no idea. I still have plenty of learning to do in seminary and in my current job. I am letting that process shape and mold me into the type of Christian leader I’ll be in the future. Once I get to the end of that process hopefully I’ll have a little clearer picture.

I read an interesting post earlier this week by Tim Stevens about the way one church in Mississippi is organizing their weekend worship and music. Essentially they hire a different worship leader each weekend instead of paying one or two people to be the worship pastor (s). Here is how Tim explains their strategy:

A little over a year ago their church had an open position for a worship leader and couldn’t find the right person to fill the role. So they began to hire worship leaders to come in, a weekend at a time, to lead their band and congregation in worship. It worked so well that they decided to continue doing this–not as a stop-gap measure–but as their intentional strategy. At this time, they have no plans of ever hiring a worship leader. They will continue to outsource.

I’ll be quite honest, I think this church has missed the point of church.

Even if they only hire the same 4 or 5 people (like they say they do) it still makes the worship leader out to be a once a week position.

To me there are 3 key problems with this philosophy:

1. Church isn’t just about Sunday. Placing this much focus on Sunday morning and hiring someone to help pull off Sunday every week is unhealthy. It subtly says to the congregation that Sunday morning is more important in their relationship to God than Friday night.
2. Music isn’t worship. If you are hiring someone to be the worship leader on a Sunday morning you are hiring a qualified musician who is able to lead people. If you are hiring a worship pastor you are looking for something far beyond just music.
3. It places a value on production instead of relationship. The person is hired for Sunday morning to be a home run, not to be with the people of the church throughout the week. It isn’t about shepherding the flock, it is about quality music. Last time I checked the Bible only speaks about leaders of music as also being leaders of a group of people on a day to day basis.

What are you thoughts on this?

I’ve said it plenty of times…social media has a lot of power and a lot of positives. I referred to some of the positives in this post a few months ago.

With all the power for positives in social media, there is an equal and maybe greater power for negative influence. I saw a couple things happen in the past weeks that have reminded me of this in a huge way.

You never know when something you say over Facebook, Twitter, or a blog will come back to bite you. Just ask Larry Johnson, the now former running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. He bashed his coach over Twitter and called a fan some extremely insensitive words regarding sexuality several times on Twitter as well (no I’m not making this up). Yesterday he was released from the team after having been previously suspended by the team. It is likely he’ll be playing for another team by next Sunday, but he has tarnished his image. Read that story here.

Over the weekend John Piper had this to say on Twitter:

And then yesterday he had this “insight” on elders and porn:

Let me say this. I have no reason not to respect John Piper. He has served Jesus faithfully and never, ever compromised preaching the gospel during his service as a pastor and author. He is a man I look up to and learn from quite often.

I would summarize my thoughts on Piper’s two tweets with this one word: curious. If it isn’t curious, then maybe confusing. I don’t really understand what he is saying, but if you take them at face value he has done a horrible job of referencing Scripture with context (Ez. 8:12) and he has completely offended those who do feel addicted to porn.

The bad part of all this with Piper is that he has absolutely no idea people have been offended or confused by his tweets on porn. He obviously doesn’t check his @ replies because he has never replied to anyone on Twitter, nor has he responded with any sort of follow up after those 2 note worthy statements. So not only has he turned many on Twitter against him, he is not engaging with them in any way. 2 strikes.

I know a lot of people who are truly offended by Piper’s remarks and my only hope is that they continue to be rooted in grace as they reference him (here is a response to Piper that goes too far for me).

I’ve even been guilty of stupid statements on social media myself plenty of times. I said this on Twitter last week:

I meant nothing racial about it. Just about every winner of every major marathon has been from Kenya or Ethiopia in the past 20 years. BUT several people wrote me a message on Twitter warning me that I was dangerously close to offending many with my statement, because it was a stupid thing to say. I apologized to all of those people and kept the lesson learned in my memory bank.

This is just one example when I’ve done something completely stupid on Twitter or this blog. I could name plenty of other examples.

Too often we flippantly say whatever random thought passes through our brains without thinking of the repercussions.

Have you seen the power of social media turn on you in a negative way?

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about hierarchical leadership in the church and the need for the church to move toward a shared leadership model.

Here are some things I’ve read that have stood out to me:

“A leader who leverages power is illegitimate. A leader who relies only on authority will never lead change; at the best, he will be a competent manager proficient in technical strategies” (Kevin Ford).

“Nothing distinguishes kingdoms of man from the kingdom of God more than their diametrically opposed views of the exercise of power. One seeks to control people, the other to serve people; one promotes self, the other prostrates self; one seeks prestige and position, the other lifts up the lowly and despised” (Chuck Colson).

“Authoritarianism is evil, anti-social, anti-human, and ultimately anti-God (for self-deifying pride is at its heart), and I have nothing to say in its favor” (J.I. Packer).

I’d prefer not to argue about what structure of church leadership is best or most biblical. I do that enough in my seminary classes. But I am curious what your thoughts are on one thing:

Why are most churches run the same way as most large organizations and businesses?

(If that confuses you, let me explain a bit more…Most large organizations have a CEO and a few people with power, though less power, who also play key roles. All of those leaders are superseded by some sort of a board that usually amounts to a group who do whatever the key leaders think should happen. Switch out the titles and you have how most churches are run.)

I got up way too early yesterday so I could be sure to get my hands on the Droid that came out for Verizon. I’ve never had a phone that had apps or could check email or could use the internet. It is a really weird shift to be able to do all those things all the time, whenever I want. The phone change also reminds of the need for boundaries in internet usage. Anyone else get a Droid or going to get one? So far I’ve been really pleased.

Watch out for Nebraska to pull an upset on Oklahoma tonight….or not.

Blogs

1. Interesting article titled, “Is the Bible actually true?”
2. Incredible story of a former KKK leader who learned to love those he previously hated. Hated is probably a kind word compared to what it truly was.
3. Jason Boyett wrote a thought-provoking post on the ways he is annoyed during times of “worship.”
4. How you can “dislike” items on Facebook using Firefox.
5. Check out some of what Eugene and One Days Wages is up to.
6. How biking is shaping the upcoming culture in Portland. Does any church in Portland understand this?

News

• A church in Dallas has announced plans for building a $130 million campus downtown. Yes…you read that correctly. And no, I don’t think that is cool.
• Looks like Google might be making a play to get into the music business.
• Listen to the new album by The Swell Season once through for free. Definitely worth a listen.
• I could think of better places to crash land a plane.

Blessings to you.

This will be the last post in this series you can catch out the other posts if you want:

Part One // Part Two // Part Three

A Theology.

At this point it would be good to examine two different types of worship that James Torrance labels “Unitarian worship” and “Trinitarian worship.” At face value Unitarian worship is about worshiping God the Father and about us bringing a sacrifice to him. The problem with Unitarian worship comes when this question is posed: what, in and of ourselves, do we have to offer God that would be pleasing to him? The only answer is: nothing, absolutely nothing. Trinitarian worship is a bit more complex; through the power of the Holy Spirit we are connected with the Son in his worship of the Father. In his book, Experiencing the Trinity, Darrell Johnson offers the following:

“I am often asked to identify myself using one of the theological or ecclesiastical labels of our time. Am I Evangelical? Conservative? Reformed? Charismatic? If I must identify myself, I prefer the label ‘Christo-centric Trinitarian.’ For as I love and worship and obey Jesus Christ, I keep ending up at the feet of the Triune God. And then, all I want is all that the Father is, and wants to give me, and all that the Son is, and wants to give me, and all that the Spirit is, and wants to give me. What I want is to be alive in the intimacy at the center of the universe.”

This understanding of worship being an encounter with the Trinity has plenty of Biblical support, none bigger than in Ephesians 2:18, “For through him (Christ) we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

As I think through my previous times of leading worship (we can discuss the validity of that title another time) my worship was often more Unitarian, or at best, semi-trinitarian. Neither of which provide a full understand of how we ought to worship God.

My times of singing and playing music and bringing the congregation into God’s presence often become about me isolating one part of the Trinity to focus on, and then I do my best to pull off a music set with excellence. All this is done with a heart that is pure, but I often become what Robb Redman would call, “a producer of the sacred.”

My focus on providing a sacrifice of excellence often trumps my reliance on the Spirit to connect me with the Son. If worship is truly not about us, then my focus on excellence has got in the way of a truly worshipful connection with God. If excellence, from a human standpoint, has a limited role in worship then it should also be said that our disagreements over style, song choice, and volume have absolutely no role either.

If worship is truly not about us, then it provides us with an opportunity to join in a subversive act. This subversion is the shift we need in today’s worship understanding. I love how Marva Dawn talks about this:

“The focus (during worship) was on us, instead of on God and what he reveals. Such worship fosters the basic perspective that faith depends on how well we notice God’s glory, rather than on the gift of God’s revelation that God’s grace enables us to receive.”

The pragmatic side of me looks at this idea of Trinitarian worship being a subversive act and I wonder how that plays out in our churches. I don’t think it changes much of what we specifically do during our weekend gatherings, but it does provide a context in which worship can truly be an interaction with Christ, to the Father, by the Spirit. In this context the song, the style, the volume, the clothes, the people on stage, .etc; none of it matters in the least.

This is the way it should be because worship is not about us it is about Him.

Thinking through a normal week of my job, this seems unattainable, but it sure would be wonderful. Today’s church needs this in a big way. The weird thing is that it isn’t anything they can do.

What is your theology of worship?

I’ve written a couple of guests post that went up this week that I thought I’d share with you. Both are written on the topic of shared leadership but come at the topic from different angles.

I figured all of you would enjoy reading some of those posts and joining in the conversation that is going on already with those posts.

• The first post is part of LeadershipWeek on Ben Davis’ blog. You can read it by going here. Ben has a cool series going on with a lot of different people writing on the topic of leadership in the church. I was really honored to be a part of that.
• The second post is for a print and online magazine based out of Salem, Oregon named ReThink Monthly Magazine. You can read that post here. Make sure to check out the other great articles they have online as well. Rethink has a great thing going and they haven’t even been around that long.

I’m going to close the comments on this post to encourage you to comment over on these posts. If you have any questions for me about the posts just use the contact page (up and to the right, on the main tab bar) to send me an email.

I currently read 90 blogs.

I read about 40 blogs of friends and family and then 50 other blogs of people I enjoy reading and learning from.

I know…you are thinking I’m crazy to be reading all of those blogs.

The honest truth is that it isn’t that hard.

I use Google Reader and it takes care of most of the work for me.

If you read this blog and aren’t using a feed reader (Google Reader is a feed reader) then you really should be. In fact, if you read blogs at all and you aren’t using Google Reader you are spending a lot more time than you could be if you used it.

Watch this video on how to best use Google Reader and then be kind and subscribe to this blog on it. If you would rather read posts over email, you can get my posts over email by going here.

(If you can’t see the video go here)

I want to thank each and every one of you who comes by the site. To those of you who already are subscribed to this blog, thank you very much. I’m grateful for your willingness to read all of my posts and engage in the comments as well.

Part Two

Worship in the New Testament.

If I could summarize the shift in how worship is presented in the New Testament from the Old Testament it would be with this: Jesus.

The book of Hebrews provides a beneficial outline for coming to this conclusion. The Old Testament placed great value in worship through the priesthood, sanctuary, sacrifice, and covenant, while in Hebrews Christ is presented as superior in all those areas.

Our main role in worship is to respond to this superiority of Christ (Hebrews 10-12). Many will say that the Old Testament valued external worship and the New Testament placed great value on internal (heart) worship. This, however, presents a great problem for the believer.

The Bible presents one God and therefore one holistic way of worship, not a worship that changes as the book continues. Rick Muchow connects this well,

“Jesus understood that worship includes living a life that honors God, the way you respond to temptation has a profound impact on your worship. When the devil confronted him in the wilderness, Jesus responded by talking about worship: ‘You must worship the Lord your God, serve only him.’”

Worship in the New Testament places great value on not only a heartfelt connection with God, but also on obedient living.

Many will also say that the Old Testament was merely a foreshadowing of the worship we are able to engage in today. James Torrance seems to echo that sort of statement as he connects the dots in how the priesthood is viewed in the Old and New Testaments. He says,

“The New Testament writers saw this as a foreshadowing of the mediatorial ministry of Christ. Firstly, he comes from the Father to be the true priest, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh…Secondly, he consecrates himself for this ministry of leading us into the presence of the Father.”

What we must do now is unpack the implications of Christ’s role in our worship and in turn, the role of the Trinity in our worship and how that should affect our theology of worship.