Anything But Routine and Ordinary January 9, 2009
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From Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation by Allen P. Ross:
The words of worship flow so easily from our lips that we seldom stop to think about them: we casually talk about knowing the Lord; we say we talk to God and in one way or another we hear from God. We attend churches on Sundays to have, as we say, fellowship with God and each other. There we celebrate the belief that he is our God with songs and hymns, but even these have become so familiar to us that our minds drift to other, more immediate concerns. And when we approach the Lord’s Table, to eat with God as it were, we often do not have enough time to appreciate what it means. In short, our worship services have bcome time-bound and routine. We have been so successful in fitting God into our important schedules that worship is often just another activity. But it should be anything but routine and ordinary.
After all, this God we say we know is the sovereign Creator and Lord of the whole universe, the eternal and ever-living God, all wise, all powerful, and ever present. Our attention to the Lord must not be an ordinary part of life; our worship of him should be the most momentous, urgent, and glorious activity in our lives. But we rarely see the splendor, the beauty, and the glory of worship because we are not drawn out of our world enough to comprehend this God of glory; consequently, our worship is all too frequently unexceptional and at times irrelevant.
If we could grasp the incongruity of speaking so casually about God, we would be overwhelmed and could never again worship comfortably in the same ways. We would think it too demeaning for God and too flattering for us. On the one hand, here we are, finite human beings, concerned chiefly with staying healthy and amking a comfortable living. We spend our days in familiar routines with an array of anxieties and uncertainties threatening our sense of security. We genuinely would like to focus on worship and service, but more immediate concerns occupy our time. And on the other hand, there is God, the sovereign and ever-living Lord. He is the inconceivable and incomprehensible source of all existence; he is the invisible majesty who reigns on high. This God we claim to know is the one before whom thousands upon thousands of angels and archangels stand, never ceasing to laud and praise him as the holy and glorious majesty. This Lord merely speaks, as he did at creation, and myriads of angels wait to carry out his will. He is completely unique, truly glorious and incomparably holy – there is no one like him, anywhere, at any time. And there is no measure of the magnificence and beauty of his holiness, for all his works are amazing, good, and glorious. And we say we know him!
Worship Matters, Part 4 October 1, 2008
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Another excerpt from Worship Matters:
We can’t claim to fulfill the greatest commandment in song while neglecting the second greatest commandment in life.
God calls us to set an example in love. The love he calls us to is grounded in his character, not ours. It’s more than our culture’s idea of being tolerant or experiencing sexual attraction. Our love is fleeting, slef-centered, and polluted. God’s love is eternal, sacrifical, and holy.
God describes love as being “patient,” “kind,” humble, polite, thoughtful, forgiving, hopeful, and enduring (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Are those your attitudes after a worship service where the mix was bad and the vocalists were out of tune? When members of the church criticize you, do you respond with blame-shifting and accusations, or do you respond with patience and humility?
How would your wife [or husband] and children evaluate your example of love? Your pastor? You church? Non-Christians? When we fail to set an example in love, our ability to lead others in worship is seriously compromised.
How do we grow in love? The best place to start is remembering the love that God showed to us through giving his Son for us at Calvary. “By this, we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16).
“Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). In that way, we’ll be leading others in worship with our lives.
Worship Matters – Part 3 September 25, 2008
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The next excerpt in the series from Worship Matters deals with skills. Keep in mind, Kauflin is not undervaluing skill and development, he is merely placing it in its proper place:
While God values skill, he doesn’t accept our worship on the basis of it. Even if I can play the most complex chord progressions, write better songs than Matt Redman, or play a song flawlessly, I still need the atoning work of the Savior to perfect my offering of worship (1 Peter 2:5).
We worship leaders can struggle with discouragement when we miss an entrance, play a wrong chord, or forget the lyrics. We can feel elated when everything goes well. But God isn’t listening to the sound of our music of the quality of our performance. He’s hearing the sound of our hearts.
Years ago I heard a pastor say, “God isn’t looking for something brilliant; he’s looking for something broken.” We’ll never impress God with our musical expertise or sophistication. What impresses God is “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17) that recognizes our weakness and puts our faith in the finished work of Christ.
* * * * *
Valuing skill to highly can yield some ugly fruit. It becomes an idol. We arrogantly think our church’s worship is better than the church down the street. We over-rehearse and get impatient when others make mistakes. We minimize spiritual preparation and devote ourselves entirely to musical issues. We evaluate failure or success solely on the right tempos, in-tune vocals, and well-executed plans. We take pride in our polished performance rather than being humbled by God’s mercy.
After a time of corporate worship, I’m always a little disappointed when someone says, “I loved your keyboard plaing!” I don’t want them to even focus on my playing, except as it helps them see God’s character and works more clearly as we sing.
God wants us to realize that the point of our practice isn’t to receive the praise of others. It’s to bring him glory.
Worship Matters, Part 2 September 16, 2008
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The following excerpt from Worship Matters deals with the importance of good theology in the practice of corporate worship:
Where do we find a right knowledge of God? In the revealed truth of Scripture. A worship leader who barely knows the Bible can’t be a faithful worship leader. But how do we get our arms around everything the Bible says about God? It takes thoughtful, disciplined study.
That introduces two words many Christians are uncomfortable with – theology and doctrine. Sadly, doctrine and theology rank fairly low on the popularity scale these days. But biblical worship is impossible without them.
Theology literally means “the study of God.” It includes our concept of God as a result of that study (or lack thereof). So every Christian, musical or otherwise, is already a theologian. The question is, am I a good theologian or a bad one?
We’re good theologians if what we say and think about God lines up with what Scripture says and affirms.
We’re bad theologians if our view of God is vague, unbiblical, distorted, or based on our own opinions.
Doctrine is a word meaning “what is taught.” Doctrine is everything the Bible teaches on a particular topic, such as worship or holiness or the church or spiritual gifts. Paul told Titus that a leader in the church “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that hey may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9).
The study of doctrine isn’t opposed to studying the Bible; it is studying the Bible. It’s how we find out what God is like, what he wants us to believe, how he wants us to worship him.
So that means we need to be reading. We need to be studying. Because we’ll be learning about God for the rest of our lives.
Worship Matters, Part 1 September 9, 2008
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Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at excerpts from Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin.
God wants us to love him more than our instruments andmusic. More than our possessions, food, and ministry. More than our wife and children.
More than our own lives.
That doesn’t mean we can’t love anything else. Or that we shouldn’t love anything else. But we can’t love anything in the right way unless we love God more. Our desires will be out of whack. We’ll look to temporary pleasures like concerts, video games, and sports to fulfill eternal desires. We’ll love things that aren’t as worthy as God to be loved.
How do I know what I love the most? By looking at my life outside of Sunday morning. What do I enjoy the most? What do I spend the most time doing? Where does my mind drift to when I don’t have anything to do? What am I passionate about? What do I spend my money on? What makes me angry when I don’t get it? What do I feel depressed without? What do I fear losing the most?
Our answers to those questions will lead us straight to the God or gods we love and worship.
That’s why as worship leaders our primary concern can’t be song preparation, creative arrangements, or the latest cool gear. Our primary concern has to be the state of our hearts.
The great hymn writer Isaac Watts once wrote: “The Great God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therein. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God.“
A matter of infinite importance. Is it a matter of infinite importance to you?
Unquestionably it is to God. And when it becomes a matter of infinite importance to us, we’re beginning to grasp the heart of leading worship.
Vice Masquerading as Virtue September 2, 2008
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The following is an excerpt from an article by Emil Turner, the Executive Director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. It’s implications for corporate worship are important.
In the early 7th century an Irish monk wrote the Aipgitir Chrabaid or “Alphabet of Devotion”. This book would have been used in monasteries in Ireland and would have worked its way into sermon material for monks and itinerant preachers. It is one of the earliest documents in the Irish language. One section is powerfully relevant today.
“It is proper that we do not let vices beguile us in the guise of the virtues”, wrote Colman mac Beognai. Bulls-eye! Counterfeit virtue is circulating widely. This monk wrote that:
- Laziness (laxity) takes the disguise of compassion. Doing nothing looks more holy than opposing sin. We can always say we are “waiting on the Lord”.
- Severity takes the guise of righteousness. Being mean is a poor substitute for being holy.
- Fear takes the guise of humility. We are not humble if fear makes us act that way.
- Stinginess takes the guise of caution and moderation. No one wants to be known as stingy, so we’d rather be thought of as cautious and careful with our money.
- Wastefulness takes the guise of generosity. Real generosity occurs only with what remains after you’ve met obligations.
- Anger takes the guise of “zeal for the Lord”. If a person is always upset and angry about what others are doing, keep your distance.
- Instability takes the guise of flexibility. When you have no convictions about what you are doing, it is easy to be flexible.
What is impressive about this brief essay of medieval Christianity is that it is so relevant today. Counterfeit holiness is external and not internal, and often appears to be more religious than genuine holiness.
Holiness comes from the heart. And God is never fooled about it.
That Glad Reunion Day July 30, 2008
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A reminder to look toward the glorious consummation of Christ’s Kingdom:
There will be a happy meeting in heaven I know,
When we see the many loved ones we’ve know here below,
Gather on the blessed hilltops with hearts all aglow,
That will be a glad reunion day.
There within the holy city we’ll sing and rejoice,
Praising Christ the blessed Saviour with heart and with voice,
Tell how we came to love Him and make Him our choice,
That will be a glad reunion day.
When we live a million years in that wonderful place,
Basking in the love of Jesus, beholding His face,
It will seem but just a a moment of praising His grace,
That will be a glad reunion day.
Glad day, a wonderful day!
Glad day, a glorious day!
There with all the holy angels and loved ones to stay,
That will be a glad reunion day.
By Adger M. Pace (1940)
Style and Content – 2 June 24, 2008
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There have been some great comments and conversation regarding the previous post. A common thread appeared, which begs this question:
What is Aldan Union Church’s context? How do we faithfully contextualize the content (text) in our setting? In other words, what does the worship at Aldan Union Church need to be to be more faithful?
I look forward to hearty conversation…
Are you bored in congregational worship? June 18, 2008
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Excerpted from an article by Robert Webber:
For most, “intelligible worship” and “intellectualized worship” are not the same. Worship that is intellectualized is usually dead, failing to engage the heart and mind. Its language is typically explanatory.
I’ve worshipped in many settings where worship is continually explained: “We just did this, and that leads us to our next act of worship, which will be this.” Explained worship is driven by comprehension, management, and control. It intellectualizes the relationship with God, which normally is cultivated through worship’s mystery. Consequently, its transcendence—or meaning—is undermined.
Let me create an analogy. When someone visits you, you greet that person with words of salutation and symbols, such as a handshake or a hug. You create an ambiance that expresses welcome and pleasure. You wouldn’t say, “We just greeted each other with words of welcome and a sign of friendship, now we are ready to enter the living room and converse.” Such an explanation would be awkward and insulting. It devalues the words and signs used to express the importance of the relationship.
This analogy transfers to worship. Worship establishes, maintains, repairs, and transforms our relationship with God. But this relationship, which is expressed in words, signs, gestures, and the like, is severely damaged through explanation. Explanation removes worship from the mysterious and numinous realm, where relationship truly lies, to the intellectual realm, where worship becomes an object to be understood and analyzed. Worship thus becomes dry, intellectual, and non-engaging.
The antidote to intellectualized worship is to understand the work of worship to be prayer.
Prayer—the meeting between God and God’s people—creates the atmosphere of worship. Prayer cannot be explained. It lies in the realm of mystery and bears the quality of transcendence, only intelligible as mystery. The moment it is explained, intellectualized, and analyzed it is removed from the transcendent to the common realm. Most worship is too common, and that’s why it’s boring. Don’t break boredom with entertainment; break boredom with worship as an engaging prayer.
Prayer April 4, 2008
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Orders of Corporate Worship – April 13
Thinking and planning for the future is important. Please be thinking and praying about what the future of worship at Aldan Union Church will look like.
