Thankfulness Does a Worshiper Good

What do you do when worship is not up to your expectations? Songs prove uninspiring, preaching lacks application for you, and maybe you just feel unwelcome for some reason. May I suggest a strong dose of thankfulness? You probably do not need to look very far to find it, and it can turn your spirit toward worship mighty quick. Happened to me the other night while checking email at home.

I almost never do this, but I clicked on one of those quizzes that you see on the internet. It came as a link in an email I received from WebMD so I figured it was ok, and besides, the title caught my attention so I thought, “What the heck? Give it a look.” It was called a Happiness Quiz. Once sucked in I started to answer the questions and then I got to the one that read something like this:

What does more to boost your own sense of happiness? Pleasure or Gratitude?

I knew my answer right off, but didn’t click the response just yet. Instead I just mused on the question. I will spare you the details of what all crossed my mind on the pleasure side of the equation, but as I contemplated gratitude it triggered a 30-minute reflection that morphed from remembrance to heart-filled worship. First thing I knew my eyes grew misty, and then the tears started to flow as I thought about people, places, and things that have meant so much over the course of my life. Gratitude fostered remembrance of so much grace. I started out thinking how grateful I am for family, immediate and extended. Then there was the spinoff considerations of how we have been blessed by church family when needs have so often been met in all sorts of circumstances. I thought of how much wise council I have gotten from pastors, deacons, and friends at just the right times. So many directions for this thinking to go, it is almost endless because everything for which I am thankful brings to mind people, places, things that unleash another flurry of reasons for unbridled gratitude. Even thoughts of times when finances were stark, or when health scares had us on our knees brought waves of thankfulness as I recalled all the ways God provided and faith was strengthened. Of course reflection of this nature brings to mind loved ones who have been so much a part of life’s journey who are now separated from us by death. Again, another wave of heart-stuffing thankfulness to know we will see them again. When I looked back at the computer screen to try and finish the quiz I went back to thinking about pleasures to remake my comparison. That brought to mind how every pleasure, from planning and enjoying our first ever cruise to the smell of bacon and coffee on a Saturday morning to the running embrace of a grandchild to the telling of funny stories at bedtime to those same grandkids and the sound of their incessant giggling. It struck me that even in recalling the pleasures I was basking in gratitude. My answer would be correct. My answer was Gratitude. Click. Yep! The screen said my answer was right. And so right it was and is.

In this month of November, when a day of thanksgiving is officially scheduled, for which I am grateful by the way, I am reminded that for Christian worshipers thanksgiving should be a basic condition of life. It is certainly a prerequisite spirit for worship. The Apostle Paul is especially instructive about this attitude which I believe to be foundational to a true worshiper’s heart condition. Paul reflects the attitude as he thinks of his brothers and sisters in Christ, as he considers all that God has done, and as he considers how he wants to lead those under his influence.

I thank my God every time I remember you. Philippians 1:3

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 1 Thessalonians 3:9

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3:15-16

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:28

Worshipers in the Old Testament were admonished toward a grateful disposition as well. Their worship songbook was loaded with exhortation to praise in a spirit of thankfulness, and the prophets kept them looking toward everlasting thanks.

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Psalm 95:2

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4

The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. Isaiah 51:3

From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased; I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained. Jeremiah 30:19

I may not be happy all the days of my life, but by God’s grace I pray to be ever thankful, and one day to enter heaven’s gates as a worshiper full of gratitude for His unmerited favor!

ROUTINE WORSHIP

 The order of worship in a church service never saved anybody. It is quite possible, however, for the worship order to reflect the shape of the very Gospel that it purports to proclaim, the Gospel that changes everything. It makes sense to me to reflect and embody the Gospel in every way possible in our worship, including the way we order components, and guide worshipers along in a conversation with our loving, saving Lord.   One of the roles of worship leadership is to remind worshipers where we are in that conversation of worship. Let’s face it. This worship thing is strained enough as it is. After all, we are seeking to engage in spiritual connection/communion with a Three-in-One being we cannot see, and do so by faith guided by a book we may struggle to understand or believe. What’s more, we are trying to embrace this engagement together as a corporate body united. Impossible. And yet it happens. As with salvation itself, the engagement is only possible by grace that He gives through faith that He gives (Ephesians 2:8). It would seem important that we participate in routines such as we see represented in biblical patterns of worship.

Like it or not there is a routine to worship. I realize that many churches describe their worship with words like fresh, new, exciting, transformative, and the like. I think those expressions are generally just market-speak, but hope they imply an underlying desire by leadership for people to come to know a new, exciting, transformative life in Christ. Christian worship involves certain elements, certain actions. We may mix them up, scramble them around, leave some out then add them back later, move some from live to video, or from aural to visual, from written to spoken, from spoken to sung, etc. Regardless, the elements of worship are the elements of worship. Newness that will make a true difference in one life or in a corporate body, or in the community around us is not our construct, but a grace gift of the Holy Spirit.   There are components of Christian worship that have been practiced since the earliest gatherings. They serve a purpose.

Far too often it appears entrepreneurial leaders engender change for change’s sake. Intentionally or not, critical elements of biblically, historically sound components end up removed or relegated to a place of unimportance in what has become a “new” liturgical pattern for the sake of convenience, ingenuity, or other values that miss the mark of Theocentric (God-centered) worship. The truncated routine tends to look something like this:

Pre-service music

Announcements and Welcome

Songset

Prayer

Feature Song and/or Offering

Sermon

Response song

Closing

Dismiss

Along with this liturgy-lite approach, many churches no longer bother with printed order. Under the banner of a “less is more” philosophy, or “since they don’t see it in writing we can surprise them” approach, the gathered are purposefully (and sometimes literally) left in the dark. Given the consistency of our routine practices, printing or not printing likely has little impact regardless, unless the leaders were to consciously communicate through what is printed as order. To be blunt, I find settings that pride themselves in innovation to be some of the most predictable environments of all. And there are lots of them. The question I would join others in posing is, “what have we given up by abbreviating the traditional worship order?” What I am speaking of by “traditional” is what Kein DeYoung refers to as the “traditional Protestant order of worship…..what churches use to do when they didn’t know what else to do.”[1] I am talking about an approach that engages worshipers in the rhythm of worship, God’s revelation and our response, and in an orderly manner that participates in the shape of the Gospel itself. For those who fear drifting back into long orations by humdrum voices, your innovation can surely be applied remaining faithful to the Gospel shape. Worship acts such as call to worship, praise, invocation, confession, illumination, petition and intercession, passing of the peace, communion or invitation response, sending and benediction can be said, prayed, or sung. We must exercise great care, however, as to what is left on the cutting room floor. By eliminating scripture readings, prayers, acts of fellowship, frequent observance of ordinances, and other sacred acts, I fear we have fostered drive-by worshipers looking to get the worship thing in before returning to other business in “real life.” Checking worship off the to do list is a far cry from the kind of “take up your cross and follow me” sacrificial living intended as Jesus worshipers reflect the light of the risen Savior Who gave all for His Bride, the worshiping Church.

[1] Kevin DeYoung Is the New Evangelical Liturgy Really an Improvement?

YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT WORSHIP – OR DID YOU?

 In July of 2012, President and then also candidate Barak Obama began a political firestorm when he rather inartfully tried to make a point about all that goes together to help make a business, and more broadly the American economic system, successful. Taken out of context, but still on point he said, “look, if you’ve been successful you didn’t get there on your own.” And later in the same speech, “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Well, we Americans pride ourselves in being independent, self-made, pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of folks. Obama’s adversaries made political hay out of the statements. Likewise, the candidate’s allies not to be outdone pointed their nanny-boo-boo fingers back at his adversaries and called them “one percenters” who were filthy rich and born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Don’t you just love politics?

Well, for goodness sake let’s get off politics, but there is a correlation when we think we can pull off “great worship” in our own power. We need a heart check in relation to our worship life and attitudes to see if a “we did it ourselves” spirit is not at the center of some of our worship environment issues. In his just released and much needed book, True Worshipers, Bob Kauflin writes of our inability on our own to worship God. There is perhaps no point so pertinent in our day in Christian worship than this central tenant. Through healthy biblical reflection Kauflin reminds us of the absolute dependency upon God’s own provision for our worship. Though created with perfect orientation toward our Creator, having no need for exhortation to worship since that was initially our very nature, the temptation to be little “g” gods ourselves was overwhelming, and thus the Fall and resultant sin nature that stands at the heart of every problem and issue we have to this day. God’s faithfulness, though, is never failing. He is Jehovah Jireh! He provides. From Cain’s unacceptable offering to the Tower of Babel to golden calves to glitzy light shows and American Idol-esque “worship leaders,” we tend to depend on our own designs in worship. It will never suffice. All the while, God has continued to provide. There is one provision for our access to the Father. He is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE! It is Jesus! “Through Jesus we bring the sacrifice of praise.” (Hebrews 13:15) We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, and spur one another on to love and good deeds in our faithful gatherings, all because of our high priest, Jesus. (Hebrews 10:19-25)

So why do we tend to pattern our worship after entertainment models? Why do worship planners tend to plan and pattern using an entertainment rubric for everything from scripting, to timing, to music. Consumerist lifestyles have become our means of interpreting what is taking place in church. We are certainly capable of assessing whether we enjoy the service, if we like the preacher, or if we agree with the style of music, etc., etc. But so what? The same can be said about a movie or a club. After all, those events are centered around pleasing us. But look to Colossians 3:12-17 and consider the ecclesial lifestyle encouraged. Here is a spirit pleasing to God, on Whom we say worship is focused and in Whom worship is centered.

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do,whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I am afraid I agree with Paul Tripp who says for many if not most church members, “church is a place that they attend thankfully but that constitutes no essential aspect of their living.”[1] God does not ask us to check in on worship now and then to see how we like it. Through the apostle He says offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God – this is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

[1] Paul David Tripp Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do (Crossway Books 2015)

IS WORSHIP REALLY ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE?

How often do you hear these two words used together, “worship” and “experience?” Churches consistently promote their Sunday gatherings using this terminology. Senior Pastors and search committees looking for a worship leader often give top consideration to someone who can “give us a great worship experience from week to week.” In fact, one of the largest conferences for worship leaders wears the very moniker, “Experience.” I have friends who have taught at that conference and many more who have attended. I get it. We are human after all, and who doesn’t want to have a great experience? Who doesn’t want to hear their favorite band or learn new songs? Plus most worship leaders are all too aware that their people prefer that they try to inspire them rather than be prophetic or try to confront them with convicting truth.  I mean, granted Old and New Testament use sacrificial terminology in relation to worship, but who is going kick off the Sunday morning gathering by stepping up to a microphone, playing a couple of power chords and yelling out “Are you ready to sacrifice?!?!?” Not a winning technique for an opener.

Robert Webber warned against worship practices influenced by the culture of narcissism. One example of deepest concern for this writer is the tendency for so many worship songs to focus on ourselves. Of equal concern is an entertainment-inspired approach to how worship music is presented. Seems obvious to me that worship that prioritizes my experience is worship that has become about me. We seem to have been fooled into thinking that if our songs are about how much I love Jesus, how much I want to serve him, and lift him up, how I will praise him and magnify him, then this is great worship. God is made the object of my affection and this becomes the measure of worship, how strongly I feel gratitude and express it to God. The same cultural influence that has fooled us into thinking that marriages are built on love measured by feelings has likewise placed the heart of worship in the feelings of the worshiper. But the heart of Christian worship is God’s story, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His birth, death, and resurrection. Worship brings glory to God because “it recalls God’s saving deeds in the past and anticipates the culmination of his saving deeds in the new heavens and new earth.”[1] Worship centered in Jesus Christ calls us outside ourselves. John Piper says, “God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God.”

I hope you will not misunderstand the point I am trying to raise. Surely, our affections are stirred at the mere thought that the God of the universe desires relationship with us. That Jesus would die on a cross to make the way for relationship possible is overwhelming. To contemplate the power of His blessed resurrection and the resultant victory over sin and death is certainly reason for unbridled celebration on our part. The challenge of Christian worship is that it is spiritual by nature. Our participation is a spiritual act of faith. Again, our culture has sought to associate spirituality as something we feel, a sensation or group of sensations. Dating all the way back to the ancient church, however, the pattern for Christian worship has centered in Word and Sacrament through which God’s vision for the world is proclaimed and enacted. Modern culture, Enlightenment thinking, and fierce individualism seem to have moved us away from our roots. Renewed worship will surely return us to a faith-based practice of Word and Table trusting Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to reveal and enact God’s Word and His intention for the world. Inclusion in His work as citizens of the Kingdom will likely result in joyous expressions at times as well as deep lament and concern at times as we await His return and the completion of His re-creation. Meanwhile worship centered in Him will shape us as His disciples to be more like Jesus.

Worship transforms us from people who live for ourselves to people who live for him who died and was raised again.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Worship transforms us from being the served to be the servants.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)

Worship is to help us take our eyes off the temporal and remind us of the eternal

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

[1] Robert Webber Ancient Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Baker Books 2008) 85.

WORSHIP FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Imagine what it would be like if you had one of those out-of-body experiences, but over a worship service. Instead of hovering at the ceiling in an emergency room where you look down on your body laid out on a gurney being zapped with paddles from the crash cart, imagine you are floating above the church worship center on a given Sunday and you get to observe worship and worshipers, including yourself, only from the outside. Do you think you would be questioning what the people including yourself are feeling? What if your position outside the church looking in on worship placed you where if you looked one direction you saw the church at worship and the other direction you saw a bright reflection and a silhouette of Jesus, knowing the Father is there as well, although you could not see Him?

As you look down on worship what would you likely be thinking? Do you think our declarations like this one below would be convincing?

“Worship is all about God. It’s not about me.”

• If we were looking in from the outside would our worship practice show us to be truly concerned with God’s glory? Would you see your church and you determined that God’s narrative be told and retold and that He would be the center of our activities in gathered worship?
• Would the worshipers be answering Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17, that we would be one in unity?
• Would worship show us honoring others above ourselves? (Rom 12:10)

If you were the one planning and guiding worship for your church and then were hovering above the sanctuary during worship would you be confident, knowing God is looking on? What do you think He might say about the amount of scripture being read in the worship?   How do you think He might respond to the songs and the singing? As you think in your own mind about floating around that room what do you see reflected on the faces of individual worshipers? What is the sense of hospitality being expressed to each other and to those who are visiting and know little about worship, or about God? Does the worship and the environment do much to make much of what God has done in the past? Is there a recapitulation of God’s story of the world in creation, calling to Himself a people, incarnation when Jesus was born, died and was raised from the dead? As you look upon the room of worshipers is there a sense of anticipation of Jesus’ return? Does the tone of the singing and the content of the songs as well as the spoken message include a sense of certain victory and triumph? Is there an atmosphere where response is expected and strongly encouraged? If you are observing a revivalist atmosphere what do you see in the time offered for public response? If you are observing a Eucharist is there a sense of covenant and thanksgiving in taking the bread and the cup?

Imagining the out-of-body experience may seem silly, but it could be helpful to give a notion of the important question for gathered worship, “What are we doing here?” I am fascinated to read about worship, whether it is the glimpses we have from the New Testament, or the description from the 2^nd Century words of Justin Martyr’s First Apology where he was clearing up rumors that had even caused persecutions based on misunderstanding that in worship Christians sacrificed an infant and drank its blood and ate its flesh. I am convicted when reading the God-centeredness of liturgies recorded from Eastern or Western traditions through history, and prayerful as to how the Holy Spirit might lead us in our day toward a much clearer centralization in a Trinitarian worship shaped by holy scripture. I am strengthened reading of Reformation worship and seeing the pursuit of adherence to scripture. When I read about worship during periods of awakening or about the work of some gifted evangelists I am inspired to reflect on personal spiritual commitments made in church revival worship. Reading about movements under dynamic preachers like Spurgeon, Moody, and Billy Graham causes me to yearn for next generation evangelists. In a sense, these observations might be compared to the imagination exercise I mentioned before. Perhaps it would good for us to occasionally exercise our imagination in this way as one means of assessment as to our worship atmosphere, and the role we play in it. After all, God really is looking on, but more than that, worship is about and for Him, and He really is there with us.

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN? WHAT ABOUT WORSHIP?

There’s nothing new under the sun. If so then why do so many churches talk about their worship and worship leader using terms they seem to think will give onlookers the impression that what happens in their worship is all about new? Lots of churches promote their worship using words like fresh, innovative, creative, unique, trailblazing, and unconventional. When it comes to “youth worship” some push the atmosphere of their particular worship “experience” using words like edgy, slammin’, natty, and raw. And honestly, is it really all that unique? Kinda reminds me of the gag motivational poster I once saw displaying lots of snowflakes that says, “You’re unique! Just like everybody else.” All that newness gets a little tiring afterwhile. One might say, “It gets old.” (You see what I did there?)

Speaking of old, when considering our worship should we not think of all time, past, present, and future? Robert Webber, strongly emphasized worship “doing God’s story,” as the heart of the content of worship, which surely indicates that looking to the past would embrace not only biblical times, but give consideration to the faith community through all time. Seems to me it could serve us well to contemplate ways God has been at work in the worshiping church throughout history. What about in the Age of Enlightenment, when faith and reason first seemed at odds? Where did we see God at work in those days? How did His people respond? What can we say about times of great calamity like the plagues, wars, cultural and civil unrest, or periods of political oppression? What’s more, what about our own churches’ past? Could our own worship and mission be served by revisiting the early days of our congregation’s existence? A pastor friend recently decided to read church minutes to check out some of what his older deacon leadership kept trying to tell him. He found a proverbial goal mine in what he read as he realized the visionary passion of the church’s early leaders. He even began to intersperse quotes from these pages into his sermons to help the church find its way toward embracing a stronger missional presence in their community.

A few years ago I assisted a church celebrating its 100^th anniversary as a congregation. Old photos made into a digital display were used to backdrop the worship environment. People came to church dressed in the fashion of the early 1900’s. Hymns of the day were sung in a manner reminiscent of the period. Children and youth were purposefully included in worship participation. Pictures of former pastors were placed in prominent display and their tenure was reviewed in the morning service, recognizing a couple of them who were still living and present. Through the planning process I recall ongoing caution by some of the church leadership wanting to be sure the church did not slip back into “glorifying the past,” as they feared “getting stuck again” as they felt the church had become before the church’s current pastor had come to save the day. Certainly “getting stuck” can be a problem for any of us in our spiritual lives, and as a church. We all could probably give examples. It seems equally or I would say even more dysfunctional, however, to ignore or disconnect from our own past, and more importantly, disrupt God’s people from remembering how His Spirit has worked in the past to bring them where they are at present. Our need to remember is to see what the Lord has done, not to just become nostalgic. Some nostalgia can be positive if it is tempered by biblical truth and stirs true spiritual sentiment, but it can also be toxic if it fosters just staring at an older version of the root problem of all unworthy worship, which is self focus. In other words if we end up worshiping our past selves even as we are wont to do in our current culture to worship our “best selves, thinking that is our goal, then we are surely offending God with our worship. There is only One worthy of our worship, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. His story, His truth, His hand at work in all times must be themed in our worship. One of the many reasons I am a strong proponent of the use of hymns from all periods is that it holds prospect to bring to remembrance those tensions present in past times. Even through outdated imagery and language, guided by prudent leaders, hymns help speak the past into our present and provide hope for future certainties. Consider the tyranny of being slave to what I will call “nowness.” Worship songs selected only from a radio playlist, or created only by living artists in present day risks ignoring 1400 years of hymnody, which means neglecting centuries of God’s work among His people. Thankfully some modern songwriters like David Crowder are finding ways to integrate ancient hymns into their writing, and modern hymnwriters like Keith & Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend are carrying forward hymnwriting with great integrity and popular appeal.

Worship that truly does God’s story brings together past, present, and future. All time is under His Lordship. Remembering the past, anamnesis, and looking to the future, prolepsis are central to worshiping the Lord of all time and space. In so doing we offer our hearts, our “living bodies” (Rom 12:1) as our spiritual act of worship, and trust Him for eternal resolution. By His Spirit He is alive in and among us as we sing, pray, listen, read, partake, fellowship, and enact ministry and mission. The ancient church taught us lex orandi; lex credenda; est, Latin for “the rule of prayer is the rule of faith.” Another way Webber states it is “show me the way you worship and I’ll show you what you believe.”[1] Now is the time to rejoin the song that proclaims the “old, old story of Jesus and His love,” that hails the “Gladsome Light” (Phos Hilaron) and looks to a day “every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord!” as we sing around the throne, “Worthy is the Lamb!”

[1] Robert Webber Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Baker Books 2008) 104.

SHUT UP AND WORSHIP

 The world is noisy. Just as we are consumed with our incessant busy-ness, we seem likewise to be obsessed with filling every moment with sound. And frankly much of that sound is loud, even to the point of damaging our hearing, physically and spiritually. Rather ironic isn’t it? Some of the sound is just filler that seems aimed at simply avoiding silence. Certainly I have experienced that dynamic in public worship, and have even had pastors caution me about “dead time,” usually referring to what happens between songs, or other components of a worship service. Our fear of silence, however, may be more telling and even indicting than we are ready to admit. But rather than addressing the value, and frankly the need for silence in public worship at this point, I would encourage you to consider the role of silence, quiet, and solitude in our spiritual lives. I would especially want to raise alert to this need for pastors, worship pastors, and other spiritual leaders of the church. We need times of silence and solitude. Some might ask, “who cares?” The answer is we all should care. Those with responsibility to lead out in worship are inviting others into the most core activity of humanity. Worship is the very reason for which we have been created. We need seasons of silence to allow for transformation from our false self to the new self in Jesus Christ.

As we are swept up in the world’s cultic practices of busy-ness and noisiness our values begin to look like everyone else. The obsession is every bit as pronounced in ministry as it is in any other vocation. How often do we ministers feel the need to look busy. It’s not that we are not busy, because we certainly are, and we make certain that we cram every moment with busy-ness, regardless of the value of our activities. More meetings, more rehearsals, more phone calls and emails, more visits, more, more, more=high worth. That is what we tend to think. Likewise, more soundbites, more repetitions, more digital techniques=more emotive result. Since volume gives a sense of power, then in many instances more volume = more spiritual energy.

Cornelius Plantinga Jr says that sin is anything that disrupts shalom. Is it possible that we have cluttered our worship, our churches, and our own individual lives in a sinful way in that we have disrupted God’s shalom by our busyness and noise? We often replace Sabbath with more work. In those instances one has to ask “where is our trust?” Is it not being transferred away from faith in the Holy Spirit over to faith in our own efforts? In talking about the compulsive minister Henri Nouwen says “compulsive is the best adjective for the false self.”[1] Worship leaders and pastors often find ourselves in a revolving door of efforts to please people in order to prove our worth. The Worship Leader works hard and amps up the performance to draw attention to his or her worth in a manner reflective of celebrity personalities or entertainment productions. Pastors speak at every possible opportunity to make their presence (and popularity) known, attend every meeting to demonstrate their managing control, or make every ministry visit to keep their worth before their members. The activity becomes overwhelming.  Burnout is a likely and expected result. Our thinking may be that such burnout is justified because, after all, we were serving in the kingdom. We may have just been serving the image of our false self, the self we think others expect. How do we break the pattern? Time to turn to silence.

Nouwen calls solitude “the furnace of transformation.” Without it we remain victims of our culture as our false selves. It is in silence and solitude that our false self is often revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, and through confession and renewal we can discover our new self in Jesus Christ. Here we come to know anew what it is to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Jesus himself pulled away to pray. He spent time with the Father and reminded us in Matthew 6 to go to our closet and close the door. Solitude and silence protect our souls. The fire of genuine spiritual nurture is fueled in the quiet place where the false self is exposed for who and what he/she is. Here even the most righteous-looking minister confesses “prone to wonder, Lord I feel it.” He who knows the journey of solitude and silence returns to the noise of the world holding to the internal silence of peace and confidence in Jesus. Our best worship and ministry is led from this position of inner silence and strength.

[1] Henri Nouwen The Way of the Heart: Connecting with God through Prayer, Wisdom, and Silence (New York: Ballantine Books 1981) 13.

DON’T BE LIKE THE SELF-FOCUSED WORSHIP LEADER ME

 Have you ever been in worship as a participant in the congregation and been distracted by what appeared to be self-focus by the worship leader or preacher? That sounds harsh and could even sound judgmental, but discernment in our spirit usually speaks up for some reason. Worship Leaders, have you ever, like I have, finished your leadership responsibility and felt you needed forgiveness for drawing too much attention to yourself? Platform responsibility carries that potential danger.

Have you seen those crazy Direct TV commercials with famous actors and athletes like Rob Lowe, Andrew Luck, and now there are two Peyton Manning renditions. One is Peyton Manning, alongside Skinny Legged Peyton Manning, and Peyton Manning alongside Really High Voiced Peyton Manning. At the end Peyton says, “Don’t be like this me” pointing to the “really high voice me” who is singing Camptown Races in castrati-land with a barbershop quartet. I don’t know about you, but to me these ads are pretty funny. Granted, I still have Cable TV, but I enjoy the entertaining commercials.

Do you know of pastors and/or worship music leaders who seem to be almost two different people on platform and off? Some talk about having an alter ego, not referring to the psychotic kind, but just having a kind of stage persona that kicks into gear on the platform. Indeed, in most evangelical churches it takes a certain level of platform confidence to go about the duties of leading worship music or preaching in an effective manner such that people remain interested. For some the difference between “platform me” and the “real me” can be dramatic. In far too many cases, if we are not very careful (and prayerful), the platform me fosters a drift whereby we lose the sense of what worship is about and who it is to please. Worship Leaders and Pastors, have you ever assessed what goes on in your own mind and spirit and felt like you didn’t know who that was? Did you ever feel like you needed to pause and, like the commercial, say, “Don’t be like the worship-leading me?”

• Intentionally surrender yourself anew to the desires of God before taking the platform for any leadership role.
• Prayerwalk the worship space before anyone else comes in and consider those who will be sitting in the chairs or pews and pray for their spiritual edification and their participation in worship
• Check your motivations for every part of the worship service, but most especially anything intended to embellish given material. For example ask the why? Question seriously about modulations, repetitions and extensions, or if you preach, about self illustrations
• If worship services are videotaped review those with prayerful honesty as to what you see in yourself as you lead
• Have an accountability partner who can go over planned worship items, or can even view video footage with you and give open and honest input regarding appearances and motivations
• Develop a closet prayer team of a few individuals who will pray for your humility and servant spirit before during and after the worship service
• Use a journal and chronicle your experience of worship leading soon after each service has dismissed. Take special note of how often your journal entries include an assessment of how well the people sing and otherwise participate in worship.

There is likely always some mix of motives in the platform leadership of worship, but it seems to me we must surely at the very least recognize the danger here, and move slowly and deliberately in planning and preparing for worship leading. After all, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10)   and Paul says,  ^“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

Fellow Worship Leaders, let’s ask ourselves the hard questions and seek wisdom in reflecting on the answers. Be not afraid to face up to those things that we do that really are to please our fellow man, to hush the critics, or worst of all, to draw attention to ourselves. We must root out the real resons for what we do and why we do it. That which stands true to the Word, and is offered to God in Spirit-inspired direction will not return void. Even the simplest of songs or most basic of sermons will prove far more powerful, even if we do not see those immediate results, than the most dazzling of performances that are given to show how good we think we can perform.

Lord, help our leaders to be humble before You, and to lead Your people recognizing that this is the Bride of Christ. May our services of worship reflect You more and more through the humble, Christlike spirit of our leaders as they grow to be more like You. May we find our leaders joining the spirit of what we read in 2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

WORSHIP IN THE EVANGELICAL TRADITION – IT’S PERSONAL

 I grew up the son of a Baptist Pastor. One of the things I learned early on was that Baptists believed in the necessity of a personal relationship with Jesus as Savior. At its core Christianity was personal. I grew up in the glory days of Baptist programming, and I am really glad that I did. We had programs for developing music skills and learning about God through what we sing, which eventually led to understanding that whatever talents we had were gifts from Him to be offered back to Him in worship, ministry, and mission. We had programs for learning the Bible and sharing our witness. We had a program teaching the most basic fundamentals of personal faith and doctrine. It was in this latter program that I learned much about God, Man, Sin, Church, Creation, and Last Things, and about personal disciplines. All of these programs contributed to programming me. The programs, however, in and of themselves were missing the most fundamental component of Christian living. Worship. Warren Wiesbe reminds us that many things the church does are good, but divorced from real worship they are powerless and will not yield fruit.[1]

When I mention the word worship some think of music. It is, of course, much more. Some think of preaching. Worship is more. Many people think of worship as only the hour on Sunday morning when the church gathers for a worship service. Worship is a life style of obedience. With our emphasis on personal relationship we evangelicals in general and Southern Baptists in particular sometimes miss the corporate understanding of worship as a body of believers covenanted together and gathered in a place and time to join the saints of all places and times in the eternal act of Christian worship. By the same token in our efforts to build our churches and draw large crowds I fear we have often lost our sense of the personal nature of worship even within the corporate setting. Although corporate worship is more than just the collected individual worship experiences of individual worshipers, in the evangelical tradition, even gathered or corporate worship serves to position individual hearts and minds to personally commune with the living God. Within the gathered body there are many individuals who are choosing to lend their hearts and lend their voices to corporate praise. Others may continue the struggle to yield to the heart of worship, and for them we pray.

Regardless of the size of a church it is imperative that neither sensitivity, corporate or personal, be lost. We are giving ourselves to the whole, many members one body. At once we are also in spiritual battle as individuals. Humbled before Him we trust His power, His Spirit. I could never fully explain it, but as our friends, our families, and particularly our children observe our humbled spirit yielded as spiritual response in worship the Lord’s presence is made known. Paul says others take notice and see. “So he will he fall down and worship God, exclaiming ‘God is really among you.” (1 Corinthians 14:25) Others around us, and I believe especially those who know us best, have some sense of the positioning of our heart and spirit as we sing, as we pray, as we listen, as we respond. Robert Wenz says “He has made us to live in a material world yet calls us to worship himself, the God who transcends the material world. He calls us to worship by faith, believing that the unseen kingdom and the unseen King are as real and more permanent than the sensory world we live in.”[2]

Imagine if we had a tattoo placed on our face when we committed to faith in Christ. Then surely church members, family and friends, and our children would know whose we were. Instead our identity mark is baptism as our first act of obedience, and we take a towel to our dripping selves following that ceremonial act. Where genuine faith takes hold that mark remains and serves as identity in our own hearts, in the minds eye of all those who observed our baptism, and in our response to other Christian acts as a worshiper. All these responses are personal. When we sing with head and heart, it’s personal. When we listen with open Bible prayerful to hear a word from heaven, personal. When we take the bread and cup and share it with our brother or sister affirming covenant, personal. And others see.

Sunday I had the glorious privilege of baptizing my second grandchild, my oldest granddaughter. Stepping with her into the warm baptismal pool was a joy that defies description. Entering those waters I felt in a sense I was once again entering into my own baptism. The Lord Who saved me has claimed the life of another grandchild. The moments of lowering her little body to stir the water emboldened my own faith and my prayer for her and for family yet to come. Hearing the congregation continue their songs of redemption while I dried and dressed in the dressing room stirred my own chords of song. Tears dripped from my eyes onto my shoes as I put them on my feet. These were tears of spiritual joy, a moment of emotional worship before I headed back to be seated with family. I had just baptized my granddaughter. It was sinking in. It was personal. It was worship. Lord, let me walk in your way that others will see only You.

[1] Warren Wiersbe Real Worship: Playground, Battleground, or Holy Ground? (Bake Books 2000) 8-16

[2] Robert Wenz Room for God? A Worship Challenge for a Church Growth and Marketing Era (Renewing Total Worship Ministries 1994) 161.

WAR ROOM AND WORSHIP

 Last week I went to see the latest of the Kendrick Brothers’ movies, War Room. I will spare you my review of the film, since I am no movie critic. Nor will I serve as spoiler for those who may be planning to see War Room but have not yet gotten to the theater. Rather, since I think the theme of the movie is pretty obvious, I want to draw attention to an important dynamic of worship that watching the movie prompted.

I would invite you to consider the battle in worship, and think as well about the critical importance of prayer preceding, during, and following times of worship. The term, “Worship War” has been used to describe a conflict over music styles, a sadly common recurring dynamic in churches, especially over the last three decades. You know the drill, some people desire a specific style of music to predominate the song selection list for Sunday worship, and another group wants a different style, still others want a mix. The surface skirmish that has torn at the fabric of many churches is merely a symptom of the true war of worship taking place in the will of humans, within faith communities, in culture, and in the cosmos.

The war of which we speak is at the center of our existence ever since the Fall in the Garden in Genesis 3. We see the spark of the war in the desire of an angel to be exalted above the one true God, in order that he might be worshiped himself. Our own self-centeredness finds roots in this foundational separating sinfulness. Throughout the grand narrative of the scriptures we find the battle raging. We will not rehearse those battles here, but rather call to your attention the predominance of that theme in the whole of the biblical narrative, as well as throughout Christian history right up to present day. More pointedly, now I would like to draw your attention to the battle as it rages in present day worship practice and invite your consideration of a strategy for waging war effectively.

1. The battle is at the core of the substance of worship, not the style in which it is practiced. While I would concur with those who believe the stylistic expressions in gathered worship reflect motivations that drive their use, I am convinced discussion at the point of styles of expression themselves yields little if any fruit. Such discussion has little to do with shaping worshipers as reflections of the one true worship leader, Jesus. The essential struggle has to do with the centrality of the Triune God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and whose desire is to be known and worshiped in all of His eternal beauty, having forever been and knowing He forever shall be the one true God. In opposition we have the competing desire of other centralities – ourselves, our church as an organization, nationalism, moralism, emotional gratification, etc.

2. The battle must be informed by the past. Robert Webber warns, “we live in a society that has lost its own heritage.” He goes on to note “when the past has been lost or neglected there is no certain future.”[1] When worship ignores the past we risk presenting an unanchored gospel. While we fully trust the Lord to be at work in the now, we strengthen faith and sharpen sensibilities by reminding ourselves how He has worked in days gone by. In worship we gather up the stories of biblical, historical, and personal significance to foster continued sensitivity to incarnational reality.

3. The battle is fierce in the present. Current conflict is the most intense because we are presently in it, we face it now. Whether things seem good, or things seem bad the battle goes on. Individually, collectively as community of faith, and culturally there is a continuous war and as Martin Luther penned, “and He must win the battle.” When things are good we struggle to give Him the praise and not turn it in on ourselves, give it to the preacher or the musicians. When things are going badly we struggle to find faith, or to trust the ultimate benefit. Jesus was the suffering servant, and following Him will, of necessity, place us on that same road at times.

4. As warriors we be confident in ultimate victory. Isaac Watts gave us one of our victory marches, We’re Marching to Zion. The worship war calls for a recurring tone of triumph because the ultimate battle belongs to the Lord, and He is victorious in the finished work of Christ. Remembering what great things the Lord has done, with deep faith in His grace in the present moment, we look to the ultimate reward and “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

Worship is war. It is waged in us personally, corporately, and cosmically. We do not have the power within ourselves to win over evil. Satan’s influence is all around us. He disguises himself and deceitfully seeks us out to destroy and distract from the battlefield. He hates when we worship in spirit and truth for it renders him powerless. The battle occurs in prayer before, during, and after worship and is itself at the very heart of what it is to worship. Engagement with God is only made possible by Jesus’ shed blood that tore the curtain of separation away that we can enter boldly to the throne of grace, and His resurrection empowers us over death, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father, leaves the Holy Spirit with us to interpret and pray even when we have no words.

[1] Robert Webber Who Gets to Narrate the World: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals (IVP Books 2006) 16-17.