Reform worship.

Busy Reforming Worship

2008-09-25T17:26:00.002-05:00

If you're in local church ministry, you're well aware of the amount of time, planning, and launching that goes on this time of year. Just listen to your weekly announcements. I'm sure they're stacked with events, new classes, back to school stuff, the need for volunteers, etc. This is why I have not blogged in a while.

Anyway, this Celtic Prayer has really ministered to me over the past couple months:

Lord, be it thine,
Unfaltering praise of mine!
And, O pure prince! Make clear my way
To serve and pray at thy sole shrine!
Lord, be it thine,
Unfaltering praise of mine!
O father of sould that long,
Take this my song and make it thine!

Thank you Jesus!

You Are What You Worship

2008-09-06T10:59:00.005-05:00

The following thoughts were spurred on by a blog post from my friend Bryan.

Psalm 115:1-8 says,

1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
8 Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.

Take note of the last verse, "Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them." God demands our worship. He requires that we worship Him and only Him. Notice the first verse, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us..." Isn't it interesting how the psalmist so appropriately begins with identifying the worship of self? It was obviously a problem then as it is now. Truly, if we aren't worshiping God we are worshiping ourselves, no matter what idol we have set up in our lives.

And isn't it true that even worship itself can be an idol? I have often fallen into the sin of worshiping worship (or that which, by popular definition, has become known as worship, namely an experiential time of singing songs to God). In that case I am worshiping a golden calf in a sense; a representation of the effects of God or the attributes of Him, but not Him. Did you know Aaron built the golden calf to represent the strength of God? It wasn't intended to be a detached pagan worship experience. The children of Israel demanded the sight of God. Don't we often enter a worship experience seeking the sight of God, the touch of God, or some other feeling from God?

I desire a genuine touch of God, but a true encounter with Him will only happen when He is worshiped for who He is; when His name is glorified. He gives glory to His name, and so we give glory to His name.

The Best Intro for a Theology of Worship Ever!

2008-08-24T13:49:00.007-05:00

...At least it's the best one I've ever read. I can't believe I haven't come across this earlier. It comes from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. They have put together an amazing resource similar to The Book of Common Prayer called The Worship Sourcebook, the prologue of which lists "eight foundational principles for a theology of worship". Here is the conclusion of this one pager:

Conclusion: These norms, which are more illustrative than exhaustive, point to enduring lessons of Christian wisdom drawn from two thousand years of practice and reflection. And because they are so important, these basic norms must not simply reside in books and websites about worship, they must function habitually in the working imaginations of worship leaders and worshipers each week. Those who lead worship and those who gather in the pew have the joyful task of imagining how worship can be truly biblical, dialogic, covenantal, trinitarian, hospitable, and excellent.

Click here to read a concise one page articulation of what we have tried to say in seventy plus posts here at Reform worship.

Praise You Won't Despise

2008-08-11T03:00:00.002-05:00

Ever wonder why there are more accounts of false worship in the Bible than true worship? Flip through the Law and the Prophets and you'll encounter some pretty enlightening stuff, especially in terms of worship offerings and the consistent failure of the children of Israel to please God. The language of abomination and hatred fill these pages of how God feels toward the sacrifices of His people. We don't need to read for very long before encountering Cain's unacceptable offering to God in Genesis 4. Or how about what God has to say in Amos 5:

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

And why else would King David identify a pure heart as one which is humble and contrite, out of which comes sacrifices God "will not despise" (Psalm 51)? He was obviously conscious of another kind of worship, the kind God hates.

But even David's definition of God-pleasing worship is not enough for us to really engage God in true worship. Indeed, all of the popular, contemporary talk of the "heart of worship" only brings us half way down to the root of true worship. If worshipers are left only with the admonition to "worship from your heart," where will that take us? What does that even mean? And yet more Contemporary Praise and Worship songs use this abstract, half-rooted, heart language rather than the language of what, or Who, really makes our offerings of worship acceptable to God...Jesus Christ.

The story of the Old Testament is easy to tell: God creates, man fails to worship God. God re-creates, man fails to worship God. God establishes another covenant (Abraham) and chooses a nation for His own (Israel), man fails to worship God. God gives His people the Law, man fails to worship God. God builds a Temple, man fails to worship God. Do you see the pattern? God sends his people into exile, man fails to worship God. God brings them back and builds a new Temple, but man still fails to worship God. I hope you see the impossibility of man to worship God, because it is only in the knowledge of this that we see the necessity of the person of Jesus Christ. God came down (incarnate) to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, namely worship God: love and adore and serve and live for Him and not ourselves.

Any other offering, any projection of our heart to God apart from Christ, is despised by God, no matter how contrite we appear to be. It is idolatrous, self-seeking nonsense. Jesus Christ, who He is and what He's done, is the only way by which we can humbly worship our Creator. Our songs should be filled with this truth, and we should be filled with joy, knowing our worship is not an abomination to God through Jesus Christ. He is our Mediator, our Intercessor, the True Worshiper. He is the High Priest and the Lamb that was slain. He is our everything, without Whom we could not possibly please God.

It is of highest importance for us to understand this even today, especially today, when so much of our worship is unitarian and ultimately displeasing to God. You may think that simply living in A.D. church times, the New Covenant, assures you rightstanding with God, in worship and being, but I assure you, unless you are participating by the Spirit in Christ's sacrifice to the Father, you are not truly worshiping God. Can we be participants without this knowledge? It seems to me this knowledge is the very heart of the Gospel. Jesus Christ does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The waters of justice have rolled down to us in the death of Christ, making right our sacrifices to God; the ever-flowing stream of righteousness is the blood of Jesus, making the worship of us sinners pleasing in the ear of God.

Woe is me for I am lost and full of sin
Take the burning coal and touch my unclean lips

Jesus, Savior
Took my sin that I might live forever
Ever worshiping God

Sacrifices please You only if they're right
Place upon my lips, Lord, praise You won't despise

Christ Plays in Prayer 3

2008-08-04T10:00:00.004-05:00

We have been looking at prayer in the context of community from Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. Peterson uses St. Luke's Pentad of Prayers (Five prayers) at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke to show how prayer was the language of the community of believers in the early church; the way they participated in what the Spirit was doing everywhere. I have been applying this to the order and function of prayer within our own community, searching for how we can better be Spirit-led participants in our worship. In the last post we looked at the two prayers of petition, the first and last of Luke's Pentad. Here I will talk about the second prayer, a prayer of praise, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

This prayer comes immediately after Elizabeth blesses Mary. Mary recasts the prayer of Hannah and identifies "three great reversals in the way we experience the world when God conceives new life in us: God establishes his strength and disestablishes the proud (v.51); God puts down the people at the top and lifts up the people at the bottom (v.52); God fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty (v.53)." Peterson points out that Mary's prayer, this biblically-informed response to God's blessing, brings us into the world of God's promised Word being fulfilled before our very eyes. "Prayer enlarges our imagination and makes us grateful, joyful participants in what has been and is yet to come" (274).

In light of Mary's praise we must ask ourselves a few questions:

1. Are we biblically-informed in our praise? Mary knew the history of her ancestry (the Scriptures). Even at such a young age she was well aware of the way God works according to His Word. She was very familiar not only with Hannah's prayer from 1 Samuel 2, when in her barrenness she conceived Samuel, but also with the way God has always and will always work; lifting the needy from the ash heap, exalting the lowly, conceiving new life in the most unlikely people. Mary could not have prayed a more befitting prayer than Hannah's, and she knew that.

2. Do we know the Word? Are we preaching and hearing it from our pulpits? Are we reading and meditating on it every day? I stand by this truth: it is impossible to praise God apart from His Word. He speaks to us NOW through His Word. Or in our preaching are we merely appealing to our people with watered down, self-edifying, psychological principles that we can get from Dr. Phil and Oprah just as soon as from the pulpit? In our hearing are we merely applying God's promises to our wants and felt-needs? Or

3. Are we Spirit-led participants? Have we given up everything in the knowledge that we no longer belong to ourselves, but to God, for His service and glory? Have we received God's blessing of undignified conception with praise on our lips? Without the Spirit's leading we have no way to respond to God, no way to participate in what He is doing; filling the hungry, strengthening the weak, and exalting the humble while putting down the rich, strong, and proud. Spirit-led praying and praising according to God's Word (in response to His Word) will give us greater insight into the creative imagination of God and will lead us into a joyful participation of all that He is doing.

Multi-generational Worship

2008-07-31T06:00:00.007-05:00

In my last post I wrote about some expressed concerns with the Contemporary Church's trend of offering alternate worship services based on style preferences and generational differences. Over the past week I've encountered a few others having similar conversations. First, my friend, Bart Damer, sent me this announcement from North Point's Buckhead Church in Atlanta. Their singles gathering, called 722, has announced that they are making a change in how they do ministry.

The Lord has brought them to a place where they have had to honestly assess why they do what they do, even at the risk of them putting themselves out of a job. They asked themselves, "Are we doing something not already being done to reach those who are not being reached? Or are we merely providing people with an option to attend something that is already happening elsewhere in our church?"

722 is a worship and teaching gathering for singles in a church, sixty percent of which is made up of singles. North Point and Buckhead already have worship gatherings on the weekends, in which they do essentially the same kind of worship and teaching as in 722. In eliminating the alternate service "option", they are encouraging multi-generational worship in one large gathering with many representative styles and age groups growing together and appreciating one another. Northpoint and Buckhead are very influential churches within the Contemporary Church, so I am excited to see what kind of effect their decisions will have on other churches and ministries. Click here to watch the short video of the announcement made by the Director of 722 last week.

Second, Ryan sent me this post from Between Two Worlds. It is an excerpt from Shane Rosenthal's "An Interview with J. I. Packer: The State of Evangelicalism" in Modern Reformation. J. I. Packer, author of the Christian classic Knowing God, is very wise. What he has to say here pertains especially to our topic at hand: multi-generational worship.

Shane Rosenthal: What do you think about a niche marketing approach that has by virtue of the different worship styles - teen pop, alternative, and adult boomer - created generational segregation?

J. I. Packer: We have separated the ages, very much to the loss of each age. In the New Testament, the Christian church is an all-age community, and in real life the experience of the family to look no further should convince us that the interaction of the ages is enriching. The principle is that generations should be mixed up in the church for the glory of God. That doesn't mean we shouldn't disciple groups of people of the same age or the same sex separately from time to time. That's a good thing to do. But for the most part, the right thing is the mixed community in which everybody is making the effort to understand and empathize with all the other people in the other age groups. Make the effort is the key phrase here. Older people tend not to make the effort to understand younger people, and younger people are actually encouraged not to make the effort to understand older people. That's a loss of a crucial Christian value in my judgment. If worship styles are so fixed that what's being offered fits the expectations, the hopes, even the prejudices, of any one of these groups as opposed to the others, I don't believe the worship style glorifies God, and some change, some reformation, some adjustment, and some enlargement of spiritual vision is really called for.

Whistle While You Worship 3

2008-07-28T13:00:00.001-05:00

Worship While You Clean

I did not originally intend for this to be a part of the Whistle While You Worship series, but its necessity certainly presented itself to me. Last week my wife handed me a brochure that came in the mail. She was wondering if I was serious a few months ago about wanting to hire someone to clean our bathrooms. You see, I had a terrible experience and attitude the last time I cleaned the shower. The chemicals were overbearing, the physical exertion was excruciating, the emotional trauma was almost too much to handle. It was then, on my knees in the shower, that the brilliant idea popped into my head to obliterate this nonsense by hiring a cleaning person. It's a win-win, right? She makes money, while I don't have to suffer. Well, it's been three months, and no, we haven't hired anyone, and yes, it's been three months since I scrubbed the shower. My wife saw how much I complained and hated doing it, so she picked up my slack the last couple months.

The front of the brochure reads, "Life's Too Short...To Clean Your Own Home!" Below the blurb is this photo of a family in their bright, clean home, spending time enjoying one another with smiles on their flawless faces, almost as if to say, "Life is perfect, my family is perfect, my house is perfect, and it's all because we didn't have to scrub our own scum." But there's more to the story this picture implies. It continues, "Life would suck, family would suck, and our house would suck if we had to clean it ourselves."

Open the brochure (which, I might add, is done very well) and read, "We'll Clean Your House...You Live Your Life." This company is capitalizing on the human misconception that cleaning isn't a part of real life. Cleaning is an inconvenient means to the end of enjoying life in a clean home. The problem is, cleaning is a part of real life, demanding our worshipful attitude and God-honoring work ethic just as much as anything else we do.

I can't help but think about all the Scriptures concerning God-ordained, Jewish customs of cleanliness, especially in relation to worship in the house of God. The entire Law involves cleansing and preparation for worshiping God, and much of it pertains to worshiping Him particularly in His house, the Temple. Our lives, our calling as God-worshipers, reflects this very cleanliness and preparation. In a sense, our homes are little God-houses, sanctified for the worship of God. Do we view our homes in this way, as a place of daily worship? If I did understand this, then the very act of cleansing my home would be sacred, heartfelt, and joyful.

Instead, I have been lazy. Laziness is a symptom of my lack of worship. Laziness speaks to the fact that I often don't view my house as a place of worship. Rather, I see my house falsely as a place to merely eat and sleep and nominally enjoy family and friends in between my real life of worship activity. This is wrong. My home is a sacred house of God, demanding my fullest attention down to the smallest detail. Why? Because God lives here.

Trust me, by no means have I arrived. The Lord began showing this to me the other day whilst I was scrubbing the shower tiles and vacuuming the house. I spent about four hours basking in His presence, dwelling on Him, and preparing a dwelling place for His presence. I delighted in Him while I cleaned. And talk about instantaneous fruit of labor, not only did I get a clean house out of the deal, I got a happy wife. In honoring God, I honored my wife, and she absolutely loves a clean house, even more so when I clean it and do it well. Let this be an encouragement to all, especially myself, the next time the opportunity to cleanse the temple arises.

Some people already enjoy the act of cleaning, and some may even make a living cleaning for others. I would encourage you to worship while you clean. Intentionally honor God in what you do. Adore Him as you scrub scum. You are preparing a temple for the most high God, whether it is your own house or someone else's. And for those of you who do hire cleaning persons, feel no shame. But, "whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). The priests had a number of responsibilities in the Temple. I'm sure (at least I hope) if you have chosen to hire cleaners, you have lots of other responsibilities in which you can be worshiping God. Also, be aware that your cleaning person is preparing your house, your temple, for you and God. Honor them for doing so. My hope for all of us is that when Jesus comes into our homes, He won't have to cleanse our temples of filthy idols and pagan worship, kind of like He did in Mathew 21:12.

The next WWYW post will be about our bodies, temples of the Lord, "Worship While You Eat." If I never get around to writing it, you know why.

Christ Plays in Prayer 2

2008-07-25T06:00:00.002-05:00

We are looking at the third section of Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, particularly what he says about prayer in community (read the intro to this series). Using Luke's Pentad of Prayers at the beginning of his gospel I am setting out to identify a biblical order and function of prayer in a worship gathering; how we, the community of Christ, can most effectively participate in the activity of the Spirit when we gather. Today we look at the two prayers of petition out of the five. The first is Mary's prayer, the Fiat mihi, the first of the five.

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

This is Mary's response to the angel's message that she will conceive the Son of God by the Holy Spirit. I cannot say this any better than Peterson says it, so I'll simply quote him, and then comment.

"Prayer begins when God addresses us. First God speaks; our response, our answer, is our prayer. This is basic to understanding the practice of prayer: we never initiate prayer, even though we think we do" (273).

Prayer, whether spoken or sung, begins with God. He speaks his word to us, He sings his word over us, and our response is prayer. In this case, Mary petitions the Lord to "let it be" to her according to His word. She submits to the will of God by "amen-ing" His word. We see here that response is only possible when there is something to respond to. In fact, isn't that always the case? It sounds obvious, but how often do we try to conjure up prayers and praise without first hearing from God?

Not only do our prayers begin with God, they end with God. The last prayer in Luke's Pentad is Simeon's prayer, the Nunc dimittis.

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel (Luke 2:29-32).

What the Holy Spirit promised Simeon had finally come to pass; he held "the purpose and meaning of life in his arms," Jesus. And just as Mary responded to the word of the Lord, so Simeon does. Peterson points out,

"Mary and Simeon...are a complementary pair: the young girl starting out in submission to God's word; the old man ending in submission to God's word. God's word not only initiates all prayer, it provides the grammar and vocabulary of prayer and brings all prayer to wholeness, to completion" (276).

On a practical note, as I was reading this section I couldn't help but feel confirmed in the way we use musical praise in our main weekly worship gatherings. We feel the bulk of our music is most effectively placed after the preached word and during the Table portion of our service. This way everyone has heard the word of God, has received communion, and has a whole lot more to respond to in unified thought and expression. This unity is important, especially in the context of the main weekly gathering, because those whom God has put in leadership truly believe they have received from God his special word to be delivered to the church at that time. Having the bulk of musical worship before this word lends toward disunity and an experiential time in which response is dependent upon what each individual has heard from God prior to gathering (or upon what God is speaking through a given song). That's not to say the prayers aren't initiated by God, nor is it to say they aren't true expressions glorifying God. I'm just saying it might be worth reconsidering, especially biblically (according to His word), how we structure our worship in order to better aid worshipers in receiving and responding to God's word in unity.

Aside: Some prayers and praise songs inherently proclaim God's word in them, so as to allow worshipers to receive God's word and respond to it in one swift movement. Also, experiential worship is a good thing when done biblically and when it is the true God one is experiencing.

Trends and Controversies in Worship

2008-07-22T17:30:00.001-05:00

Last month I attended the Willow Creek Arts Conference in Chicago. One of the breakout sessions I sat in was co-led by Rory Noland, well known for his book Heart of the Artist, and Jon Klinepeter, who has been mentored by Rory for a number of years. This breakout was advertised as a discussion in current trends and controversies in worship, specifically to get 20-somethings back into the church. I thought it would be a "how to have an effective alternate service for young people" kind of session, but it turned out to be quite the opposite.

The focus was not on creating alternate environments for different generations, but rather creating one environment that consists of multi-generational worship. I was challenged by the concept. Due to my past church experiences of clashing styles between the youth and elders, I had drawn the conclusion that offering alternate worship environments was the answer. This led me to an approach to worship that is quite different from how the churches I've served in have traditionally done things. So, the natural and easy thing to do was take the 20-somethings and have a gathering that serves our tastes. While this generation-segregation approach may be somewhat beneficial for youth, young adults, and others in order to facilitate life stage community or have life stage specific teaching, a multi-generational approach has benefits of its own.

Now, I understand cultural contexts are entirely different here, but the principle in Numbers 8:24-26 may still apply,

This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the Tent of Meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.

Notice the way the Levites worked. When they reached fifty they took a supporting role. They let the 20-somethings do the work, and supported them, prayed for them and mentored them. The younger people picked up the work; they began to "build upon the foundations" that were laid before them.

Rory made the point that many churches refuse to evolve by refusing to involve the upcoming generations in the worship gathering. When this happens eventually those churches find themselves asking, "What can we do to keep from dying out? How can we get twenty year-olds back in the church?" But all too often those questions are followed with statements like, "Well, they certainly can't bring in those loud drums or electric guitars." Likewise, many times churches find the young people saying, "If we cant have it our way, then let's go do our own thing."

The challenge laid to church leaders by Rory and Jon is to develop worship teams that have a "younger look with an older presence." In Rory's current role he shepherds the worship team, which consists mostly of younger people, and never steps onto the platform himself. He suggested that if you have people in the church who are young and can do the work, sing the songs, and play the instruments, they should be doing so. Those who are getting older in years should love, support, and mentor them.

I think this type of relational bridge and intentional mentorship will build a greater respect in the hearts of younger generations for what the older generations value and appreciate culturally, artistically, and in other ways. They will become more open to incorporating the historical and traditional elements of worship into their own worship expressions. Rory and Jon point out that Millennials (today's 20-somethings) are generally open to having older people around and open to old ideas and traditional practices. They say that younger generations crave this relationship because they are a divorced and fatherless generation. The relationship Millennials desire to have with their parents and grandparents is much different than the relationships between children and parents of the previous three generations. The Baby Busters, or Generation X (born 1965-1976), rebelled against everything their parents, the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) stood for, as did the Boomers against their parents (today's seniors). Millennials desire the values of their parents and grandparents.

Okay, enough lofty sociology. Insert illustration. Here is a tangible artistic expression of this concept, "The Banjo Lesson" by Henry Tanner. Here you see the child is actually playing the banjo, his hands are doing the work, but the older and more experienced man is coaching him along.

Some of the bad fruit that can come from having alternate, style-oriented, generation-segregated services is:

1.) It can fuel an unhealthy sense of entitlement, instead of encouraging the appreciation of ways in which other generations enjoy worshiping God.

2.) It may undermine church unity, because the services rarely come together, and when they do it becomes an argument of worship styles.

3.) It often feeds the sinful nature of our consumer culture.

Jon says that in his experience "the luster of having your own thing [worship service] limits you to your own thing," and that having multiple alternate services causes "the older to miss out on new life and the younger to miss out on rich heritage." Ultimately, Jon feels, "it's not a reflection of the kingdom of God to divide just because I like to worship with guitar and not with organ."

Personally, I believe the heart of a worshiper is to say, "Better is one day in Your house," not, "Better is one day if I can do it my way." In order to keep the church reaching current generations it must include all generations functioning in their proper roles.

I have been challenged to make sure that as I get older, I have people who can take my place; that I can mentor and love and support and champion in their expression of and leadership in worship, while I, eventually, take a back seat; while I, like the the elder in "The Banjo Lesson," let the youngster put his hands to the strings, and cheer him on, even if I don't always like how he does it. This week I'm taking my first step, as I'll be standing off platform, taking much delight in sight a 19 year-old lead our congregation.

Albums and Albertine

2008-07-18T21:00:00.004-05:00

I frequent Bob Kauflin's blog, WorshipMatters. His latest entry is "Listening to Music - Erosion or Accumulation?" In it he quotes Russ Bremeier of Christianity Today and what he has to say about two kinds of music albums: 1.) the ones that "erode" with time and 2.) the ones that "accumulate" your liking.

As I was reading, and before Russ mentioned this particular album, I was thinking to myself, "You know, I really like Brooke Fraser's album Albertine." Then, sure enough, he names that album as an "accumulator".

Then, as Bob was commenting on Russ' note, he confirms Albertine as one that has accumulated his liking over time. And before I read Bob's last paragraph, I thought to myself, "I bet Bob is going to say something about the lack of gospel content in Brooke's album," and he does.

I bought the album for my wife a couple months ago, since she is a big fan of Hillsong United, and Brooke Fraser is one of their worship leaders. (BTW, I buy my Praise & Worship CDs from www.goldusa.com. You should check it out. If you can find lower prices for CDs, let me know.) I have listened to Albertine at least twenty times and absolutely love the artistry. This doesn't happen very often, but I liked it the first time I listened to it, and it has grown on me even more over time, especially musically and poetically. And like Bob says, the lyrical content is less gospel-centered and more typical Hillsong depth (although her songs are not meant for Praise & Worship). This doesn't bother me, though. I simply noticed it, as did Bob.

If you love leading Hillsong songs, and you're wondering what I mean by "typical Hillsong depth," Bob pretty much nails it when he says, "When it comes to songs for corporate worship, I haven’t been a big Hillsong fan. Their songs can tend to be strong on the music side, weak on the lyrical side, and heavy on the subjective side." And if you're still wondering what that means, read my series of "Contemporary Praise and Worship" posts. Regardless, I highly recommend Brooke Fraser's Albertine.

Christ Plays in Prayer 1

2008-07-14T10:00:00.001-05:00

The third section of Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places concerns the spiritual theology of biblical community. (I highly recommend this book to every Christian, no matter where you are in your walk with Christ.) On pages 272-76, Peterson writes about St. Luke's Pentad of Prayers, and how Luke, "whose task is to maintain and develop the organic continuities between Jesus and the his company of followers, frequently brings us to prayer." Peterson writes,

"If the Holy Spirit - God's way of being with us, working through us, and speaking to us - is the way in which continuity is maintained between the life of Jesus and the life of Jesus' community, prayer is the primary way in which the community actively receives and participates in that presence and working and speaking...Five prayers [at the beginning of Luke's gospel] articulate a language of listening and believing, a language of receptive and responsive participation as God speaks the life of Jesus and the Jesus community into existence."

What I want to point out in addition to the community forming and sustaining power of prayer, which Peterson superbly explains (read it!), is the order and function of prayer in a worship gathering, how we, the community of Christ, can most effectively participate in the activity of the Spirit when we gather. Further, I will break down prayer into the common dichotomy of "praise" and "petition" (even though I believe the mystery of prayer warrants much deeper reflection than this). Here is Luke's Pentad of Prayers:

The Fiat mihi (Luke 1:38)
The Magnificat (1:46-55)
The Benedictus (1:68-79)
The Gloria in excelsis (2:14)
The Nunc dimittis (2:29-32)

The first and the last prayers are related in that they are both petitions. The middle three are praises, each of which have been put to music and are more commonly sung corporately than spoken.

Before we dive into the five prayers, I should point out that Peterson in the quote above speaks of prayer as "a language of receptive and responsive participation." Take a look at a previous post entitled "Receive and Respond: The Purpose of Musical Worship." Also, here is a quote from another post called "Getting Old," in which I identify a couple reasons why our church has adopted the historical four-part worship structure for Sunday morning Celebrations: "We have moved the bulk of our music to the Table portion of the service. This way we have already received the Word and Communion and have a whole lot more to respond to in musical worship."

And so that this post ends now, I will make this a series of posts going through each of Luke's five prayers. Stay tuned.

Whistle While You Worship 2

2008-07-10T06:00:00.007-05:00

Worship While You Shop

A couple days ago I went to Wal-Mart to grab some deodorant and milk. Here is a typical Wal-Mart shopping experience for me: I drive (in a worshipful way of course) through the parking lot, dodging carts, potholes, people, and cars (going the wrong way in a one way); I park, enter, grab a cart, nod at the greeter, and beamline it to the first thing on my list; I never make eye contact with other shoppers, never smile, never show any care for anyone but myself, my consumer needs. After all, my life is so much more important than everyone else's, but not that this shopping excursion is a part of my life anyway; I'm just getting stuff to help me live for real.

I have been pondering how I might worship God in everything I do. Like driving was (and sometimes still is - see the first post in this series), shopping hasn't really counted in my mind as an actual life event. It's just something that has to be done, so I take off Christ and, like a robot, soul-less and lifeless, git 'er done. Shopping has just been something that happens "on the way" to my real life events. How foolish of me to disregard what happens "on the way" to what I consider most important in my life (family, ministry, my relationships). I wonder how many times in the Gospels and the book of Acts Jesus and the disciples were "on their way" somewhere, and they considered their journey just as important as their destination. I wonder how many lives were touched and transformed by their awareness to what was always happening around him. How foolish of me to think the Spirit of Christ is only at work in events that I think are important.

So this particular shopping experience was different. It was hard, and I really had to focus, but my entire attitude shifted from cold self-centeredness to joyful Christ-centeredness, as I asked God for an awareness to what His Spirit might be doing. This act of worship naturally put a smile on my face, caused me to keep my head up, to make eye contact with people I crossed paths with, and, I believe, ultimately brought glory to God. I guess I'll bring the dwarfs' whistle ditty out of the car now and into the store, "Wor-ship-while-you-shop" (whistle).

One more thing, I do think there is a difference between what I'm talking about and simply being nice. I nice person can be thoughtful and kind and "Christian" and still be self-centered and (since we're talking about shopping) consermeristic, materialistic, etc. My point is that we all, the cold-hearted (me) and the warm-hearted alike, can and should be more aware of what the Spirit is doing "on the way." This is just as much an act of worship as singing worship songs in church, and it may even be more glorifying to God considering the evangelistic nature of this kind of worship. I pray that you and I would be more conscious of what God is up to in everything we do. And I pray that joy would fill our hearts, even in the inner most crevices of the earth.

"Where Angels Fear to Tread" Revisited

2008-07-07T21:00:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite Matt Redman albums is Where Angels Fear to Tread. It came to me at a very formative time of my life (age 22, college years, personal reformation). I was immediately drawn to several songs on the album. Most worship albums have zero or one song I can use in leading worship. Of the eleven tracks on this album, I have led seven in corporate worship, the best of which include "Blessed Be Your Name," "Making Melody," "Wonderful Maker," and "Lord, Let Your Glory Fall."

Well, I hadn't listened to the album in about four years, but just revisited it last week. This time through, my attention was drawn to one of the four songs I wasn't particularly fond of several years ago, the title track. And after four years of learning more about God and worship, I heard its truth through different ears. Here are the lyrics to "Where Angels Fear to Tread":

If it wasn't for Your mercy
If it wasn't for Your love
If it wasn't for Your kindness
How could I stand?

If it wasn't for Your cleansing
If it wasn't for Your blood
If it wasn't for Your goodness
How could I stand?

Yet I find myself again
Where even angels fear to tread
Where I would never dare to come
But for the cleansing of Your blood

With You there is forgiveness
And therefore You are feared
Jesus, it's Your lovingkindness
That brings me to my knees

And I find myself again
Where even angels fear to tread
Where I would never dare to come
But for the cleansing of Your blood

In the beauty of your holiness
Here in the beauty of your holiness

This song is not as much a worship song as it is a song about worship. The truth Redman declares in these words is that he cannot possibly worship God without what Christ did for him. He is saying it is absurd to think he can approach God apart from the cleansing blood of Jesus. He knows that without Christ, God's holy wrath burns against him. But in addition to the terror of God's holiness, it becomes beautiful to the one who has received His mercy and forgiveness. This is a song about rightstanding before God through the sacrifice of Christ our Mediator. This is what I call a "gospel" song, or a "Christ-centered" song.

I would also classify this as one of Redman's "teaching" songs. His next album, Facedown, has more songs of the like. It was almost as if at a certain point in Redman's life he was learning tons about God and worship and simply couldn't get it off his mind, so he ended up filling his songs with these theological truths. We already talked about one of these songs in this blog, "Breathing the Breath." Another "teaching" song from Facedown is "Gifted Response," an amazing song about Trinitarian worship. I highly recommend all of Redman's "teaching" songs and all of his albums for that matter.

Mystery, Knowledge, Worship

2008-07-03T06:00:00.011-05:00

A couple days ago I read a post from desiringGod.org (thanks Paul) entitled "Knowledge Increases Mystery" by John Piper. Read it for yourself, but he makes two points. The first is his, and the second belongs to Jonathan Edwards: 1.) "God is more honored by worship that rises from what we know about him than by worship that rises from what we don’t know about him," and 2.) "Increased knowledge does not equal decreased mystery. It’s the other way around."

I am reminded of what the Preacher says in Ecclesiastes 1:18, "He who increases knowledge [of the world] increases sorrow," because the more he knows of the world, the more meaninglessness he sees. At the same time, it can be said, as Piper says, that he who increases knowledge [of God] increases worship, because the more he knows of God, the more meaning he sees. And what is completely flabbergasting in all of this new-found meaning is that the mystery of God increases, too, as Edwards points out, which in turn causes us to fear Him and awe Him and search for more knowledge of who He is. It's a worship circle, or better yet, a spiral moving from the inside out: mystery, knowledge, worship, greater mystery, greater knowledge, greater worship, and so on.

This also reminds me of a lesson in Eastern Orthodoxy. In contrast to the Western mind's view of theology as "faith seeking understanding," the Eastern mind views theology as "mystical contemplation," where doctrinal truth always emerges with experiential reality. The Church is not as defined as it is lived. Church is being and becoming the divine life. It is transfiguration, transformation. (This brief description comes from a Greek Orthodox teacher, Dr. Helen Theodoropoulos, GOA, Loyola University, Chicago.)

Many in the Western Church today (i.e., Western Europe, United States, etc.), are adopting this Eastern way of thinking and living, being and doing church. It is quite popular among postmodern, post-Protestant, post-everything Christians. There is much to appreciate and learn from the Eastern Church, especially, in my opinion, their architecture and visual art in worship, their welcoming and joining of kingdom worship, and their high acknowledgment of the Trinity in worship. I'm afraid, however, that much Eastern worship is stuck in a different circle: mystery, worship, same mystery, same worship. Where is "the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God," as Paul speaks of in Romans 11:33?

In sum, although I find value in some Eastern ways of worship - it is never good to throw out everything just because I disagree with something - I do see a danger in their overwhelmingly experiential worship, where mystery trumps knowledge. Yes, God is mysterious, but we ought to be seeking to know Him, searching his inscrutable ways, and not merely settling for mystery for mystery's sake.

Everyone's a Minister

2008-06-30T06:00:00.004-05:00

In the same way that everyone in the church is, or ought to be, a worshiper of God, everyone is also a minister of God. Those who lead musical worship aren't putting on a performance or doing all of the worshiping for the congregation. Rather, they are leading the people in a worship response of their own. Likewise, ministers, particularly paid pastors, aren't paid to do all of the church's ministry. Rather, like lead worshipers, their job is to lead (disciple, train, equip) the people as ministers of God.

A common misconception among churchgoers (clergy and laity alike), which may be a reason for so much pastoral burnout, is that the job of pastors mostly has to do with taking care of churchy tasks, especially focusing on Sunday morning execution, and little to do with building up a church of ministers to do the work of God. Why is this, when Scripture is clear that all followers of Christ are ministers?

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Pet. 2:9-10).

The people of God are His royal ministers, each and every one of us. So why is it that so many "Christians" (churchgoers) don't see themselves called to be ministers of God?

I think a major reason is that the separation between clergy and laity has gradually become so wide that oftentimes clergymen get exalted far above laypersons in calling, duty, influence, and expectation. We must alter our perception here and understand clergy and laity as equals in the Kingdom of God if we're going to close the gap. Both clergymen and laypersons are followers of Christ and ministers of God. The only difference is clergymen are usually paid, and they're responsible in God's eyes for leading and training laity to minister the gospel to the world.

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ "(Eph. 4:11-12).

Realistically, if it were merely my job as a paid pastor to plan and execute Sunday morning Celebrations, I would work ten to fifteen hours a week and use the freed up budget money to pay my would-be volunteers. If Sunday morning is all there is when it comes to ministry, then churchgoers are right to simply check church attendance off their list every week and expect the paid ministers to do all the work. But that's not my job, and that's not what the church is or what it does. The church is the means by which the gospel will go out to the ends of the earth, not solely through the work of the paid pastors, but through the church, those who are being raised up as ministers of the gospel.

So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" (Eph. 3:10).

Who Gets to Narrate the World?

2008-06-27T06:00:00.002-05:00

I just started reading Bob Webber's final book, Who Gets to Narrate the World: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. In it he shares his thoughts on what he deems the most pressing issue in the world and the evangelical church today: the external threat of Radical Islam to the Christian Story, and the internal threat of a culturally accommodated American church that he fears will not be able to stand up, spiritually, against the growing evils of Radical Islam.

I can tell you firsthand that Bob was truly, deeply concerned about this issue. He couldn't stop talking about it in his classes. Every week he pounded into us the necessity of proclaiming the God-story in our worship, the "best damn story" ever, in which God is the "Cosmic Narrator" of the world. I'm not sure how accurate his assessment is of the external threat of Radical Islam to the Christian story. Prophetic? Maybe. Bob has prophesied quite accurately before, especially concerning the direction of the evangelical church. But in this book he is more vigorous than ever against the cultural accommodation of the American church. This is what resonates most in me. So far, the book oozes classic Webber. Here's an excerpt from the Introduction:

"The church has been influenced by current business models, by market-driven advertising and by the spectacular. The consumer model has especially affected worship, which is the true measure of the church. Jesus has become a product to sell, and worship is the primary channel for sales. Most churches do provide more in-depth Christian instruction in small groups and home studies. However, there are a good number of people who never get past the window dressing of worship entertainment, where they continually feed on pabulum rather than the meat of God's Word and sustenance of communion. The substance of worship - remembering God's saving deeds in the past, culminating in Jesus Christ, and anticipating the overthrow of all evil at Christ's coming - has been lost" (18).

Feeling and Understanding in Worship

2008-06-25T06:00:00.002-05:00

Tim Challies lends his thoughts on the necessity of both feelings and understanding in worship in a post titled "Betraying God in Worship" (Thanks Michelle). Here's an excerpt:

"True worship relies on both feeling and understanding, or as Jesus said, on spirit and truth. Worship that is devoid of feeling and emotion will be dead worship, for the God we serve is worthy of feelings that express His worth. He evokes these feelings in those who love Him. It is the very height of hypocrisy to pay lip-service to God when I do not truly feel affection for Him. At the same time worship needs to be thoughtful. While it engages my feelings it must also engage my mind. My feelings must have their basis in what I know about God so that the more I know about Him the greater will be my feelings of affection for Him."

Kauflin on Leading Worship

2008-06-23T08:00:00.004-05:00

Bob Kauflin is the Director of Worship Development for Sovereign Grace Ministries. He is quite insightful when it comes to the subject of worship. His blog, Worship Matters, is one of the few I frequent. Well, I just listened to most of a very long interview of Bob by Mars Hill Worship Pastor Tim Smith. You can watch and listen to the whole thing here (it's about 1.5 hrs. long), or, throughout my highlights below, you can go to Bob's blog and listen to the short interview snippets he chose.

One of the first things that stood out to me was Bob's response to Tim's question about goals in leading worship (Bob's snippet here). Bob's immediate response was "To magnify the glory of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit." He went on, "I'm not called to lead a worship experience. I am called to build a worshiping community...The body is built up when the church gathers, so that when the church scatters we continue to worship God in our whole lives, until the next time we gather." He references 1 Pet. 2, where Peter says in verse 5,

"You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

At the end of that section, verse 12, Peter gives a reason for offering spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God,

"Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."

Bob notes that our sacrifice of worship is living our lives among the pagans in such a way that they will glorify Christ when he returns. So, Bob's goal in leading worship isn't to create a mere experience for worshipers, musical or otherwise, but to build up the community of worshipers so their entire lives, both in and outside of the church gathering, will please God and testify to others the glory of Christ, so that they might glorify Him in return.

Next, Bob briefly touches on physical expression in worship. I would highly recommend taking the time to listen to Bob's snippet here (6.5 mins. long), so that you can see the passion with which he answers this question. In a nutshell, Bob says, "We want to demonstrate, in a way that has integrity, in a way that is reflective of the culture we come from, that Jesus Christ is worthy of our deepest, purist, and strongest emotions. If who He is an what He's done - the fact that He became a man, lived a perfect life, died as a substitute in our place, rose from the dead, ascended to His Father's right hand, where now He intercedes for us before the throne - He is worthy of affection, emotion, expressiveness..."

The bulk of the interview centers on music and the role it plays in the worship of God (Bob's snippet here). Bob breaks it down into three views of music in the church:

1. Music is a god, has the power to control us, and serves as a source of satisfaction in itself, used almost like a drug. In many churches, musical worship has be come a fix. It is an idol.

2. Music is an enemy, it is so powerful we have to minimize its effects: no instruments, awful sounding, unattractive, just to make sure no one in this church is going to fall victim to musical masochism.

3. Music as a servant, or friend. It is a gift from God designed to develop and deepen our relationship with him and with each other. What people notice in your music is the glory of Jesus Christ. Your excellence is used to serve the church.

That should be enough to chew on for a while. Overall, I found this interview to be very helpful in my understanding and practice of worship. I hope it does the same for you.

Whistle While You Worship 1

2008-06-09T11:00:00.004-05:00

Although I do have a few worship songs within which I whistle, that is not what I mean when I speak of whistling while you worship. What I mean is having a Christ-centered, worshipful attitude of heart when doing anything and everything in life. Imagine if all Christ-followers had the same positive attitude in everything as the seven dwarfs had while they worked. Okay, not the fairest comparison, but catchy enough. And yes, this is another of my attempts to expand the common Contemporary Christian understanding of worship from singing songs to a Spirit-led lifestyle of participating with Jesus as He glorifies our Father in all things.

Worship While You Drive

I begin this series with the one everyday activity I have the most trouble doing in a Christ-like way - driving. I hope you're not the person who flies by me in your SUV at 55mph in a 35mph zone, because if you are I've probably cursed you. And I'm sorry for slandering you, "Miss I don't have enough time to put on my makeup at home so I must proceed to apply it in the car and forget to go when the light turns green." And if you're that guy in the pick-up who speeds up and rides the bumper of the car in front of you because it goes against your manly nature to let me merge, worse thoughts about a human being seldom surface in my mind. Oh flesh!

(I suppose I should take a moment to thank those of you who have kindly waved me on, let me merge, driven defensively upon seeing our baby visor, and who generally prefer others before yourselves. I like you.)

Is there anything spiritually formative about driving? Surely, there is a way to follow Jesus on the road, and not just morons. This conversation isn't worth embarking upon if we don't view driving as a real life event, i.e., if the purpose of driving is only to get ourselves to and from places where we actually worship Jesus. But it is an actual life event with self-sacrificing, God-honoring potential. So, how do we turn this around to make it a worship activity? Well, a legal u-turn can be found in Galatians 5:13-26:

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

1. Prefer one another. Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law, and His Spirit resides with us, freeing us to love and serve one another. As much as this means we ought to be as concerned and careful around others as we are for ourselves, this also means we must forgive others when they have been careless or reckless around us. Forgiveness is probably the hardest part of this for us to live out, but it may help us to recall how often we are in need of forgiveness for our own recklessness and how infinitely Christ has forgiven us for our inadequacies. This is not to say we need to be so defensive and cautious that we ourselves become a hazard, but rather drive with the perspective of Christ's freedom and forgiveness on our minds. If we do, we will naturally worship Him by preferring one another on the road.

2. Obey the law. Here we are not talking about the Old Testament Law that Christ fulfilled. Only Christ could obey that Law, and we are pardoned from its chains through Him. Rather, we're talking about the law of our land, which intends to protect us. This is not a law we have to strive hard to keep. Christ has freed us to serve and obey through Him. When we drive in this freedom, we will naturally honor Christ and our earthly authorities by keeping the law. As careful as we are while treading in the "presence of God" in more formal settings (church, etc.), we ought to tread with such concern as an act of worship everywhere we go, including in the car.

3. Drive by the Spirit. Look at the kinds of words Paul uses to describe walking by the flesh (above). Can you identify? Ashamedly, I can, especially with the language Paul uses at the top of the passage about being consumed. There are times on the road when someone does something so irritating to me, that I'm literally consumed with anger the rest of the car ride. It brings all kinds of stress and discomfort into the car, especially when my wife is with me. Now, look at how Paul describes walking by the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...if this isn't convicting in light of driving I don't know what is. Living out this fruit while driving will certainly lead to God-honoring driving and a genuine worship encounter with Him, but it can only happen if we have been made alive to the things of the Spirit, and we choose to walk by the Spirit.

Many people view church as "the" place of worship. However, a life of sacrifice - denying self and following Jesus - is tested and proven when we're not "worshiping" at church. It's hard, but we can worship God while we drive. At least once a day I have to sing out loud while driving, "Wor-ship-while-you-drive," followed by the dwarfs' whistle ditty. I literally have to force my flesh into spiritual submission. So, let us remember the fruit of the Spirit while we drive. If they're non-existent, that's a good indication that we're driving (and probably doing other things) in the flesh, and hence, not worshiping while we drive.