Unceasing Worship (part 2)

Here’s an intersting thought from Unceasing Worship.

If we took music out of worship, would we have the same problem and the same set of solutions?  I do not think so.  It is not pleasant to realize how much of a burden is placed on ministers of music and worship because of the dependence on style change as the core of the solution.  Ironically enough, while a music minister is expected to make distinct style jumps from one service to the next, the preaching pastor my do nothing more from one service to another than to take off his or her robe or move from the pulpit to the chancel floor.  How out of proportion!  How perplexing to think of the burden we have placed on music, this fleeting human construct!  The problem is not with any one style but with the reluctance of people to rub up against a multiplicity of styles, for it is the rubbing - the creative friction - that could bring about the stylistic syntheses that the body of Christ so desperately needs.

Traditionalists have much to answer fro in their reluctance to understand that tradition does not mean stasis but change.  In their reaction against contemporary styles, they fail to understand that what they have gotten used to was once contemporary and often objectionable.  Contemporists likewise fail to understand how blunted their tastes are when only "their music" seems to do the trick and when what they are doing has, ever so quickly, frozen itself into a tradition.  So we end up with two kinds of shorsightedness, one supposedly old, the other supposedly new, and both wish fulfilling.  The separation of worhsip into preference groups is everyone’s fault, in that narrow musical satisfaction has turned out to be more important that style-proof outpouring.  I encourage people of all practices to become intently and intensely curious about each other’s ways.

Hard hitting to both sides I think. My question is, how do you change what is?  We will never experience perfect worship on this side of heaven, but yet we are called to be a Body of Christ.  How do you do that when the Body tears itself apart in the process?  No answers here, just more questions.

Unceasing Worship

I was reading Harold Best’s Unceasing Worship today and this following passage was so good to read.  It was one of those thoughts I had to chew on a bit, and I hope you agree.  This is from a section where he draws a comparison from the concepts ofin and about. He uses the example of the musician who thinks in music from experience as opposed to someone who thinks about music from a theory standpoint.  Here is an excerpt:

Going even further, my knowing about Jesus does not necessarily mean that I am in Jesus.  I am not even sure that knowing Jesus is the same as being inJesus; otherwise, how can the unbelief of his earthly brothers and sisters or Iscariot be explained?  Certainly one of the greatest obstacles to a sweetened and purified spread of the gospel is explained by the difference between witnessing to people from within the truth and simply stating the facts of conversion with little understanding of how radically extensive conversion is.

So we have this differntiating word in.  It goes as far as any word in describing the richness of continuous outpouring both within the Godhead and from him, toward every particle and person in his creation.  With respect to our ultimate condition, we are either in Christ or outside of him.  There is no middle ground.  Outsideness is not vagueness or ambiguity.  A lost person is not only outside of Christ but also in Satan.  Lostness is not a vacuum, nor does it imply that there is no service, no master, no hierarchy.  Lostness is a choice demanding an exchange of gods as outpouring continues.  The question then is, outpouring to whom?  If I am to evangelize, I will do so knowing that I will be talking to a continuous outpourer, an inverted soul, whose only hope is to find his or her outpouring converted and washed clean by turning from bing in Satan to being in Christ.

There is only one worship war that can be properly described as such.  It is the war between God and Satan, in chich being in Christ or in Satan is the bedrock issue.  Our petty skirmishes about worship, as ignoble, silly and demeaning as they can become, are nothing compared to the violence and tearing of the real and only war.  This war is simply not ours at our dithering local level.  It is the Lord’s and if we were to better understand this one splendid fact, we would be placing far less emphasis on what we do, what style we do it in, what we keep and what we throw out, and what latest poll or societal "insight" we choose to use as our template.

Boy, it just keeps going on from there, but my hand is cramping up.  I would highly recommend getting your hands on this book and pouring over it.  Do so with the Bible next to you.  Dive in, struggle with the text and ideas.  Don’t take anything he says for granted, but rather investigate and wrestle with concepts presented.  Thoughts?

KSU Orchestra Concert

So Jodie and I went to the KSU orchestra concert tonight.  Couple of thoughts.  First of all, I hadn’t really realized that I haven’t actually sat and listened to a concert like that since college.  When the strings started warming up, I realized just how much I really missed it.  The orchestra really sounded good (except for the violinist behind Anna).  The Bach was a wonderful descent into counterpoint, and I found myself sitting there, absorbed in the sound.  The Schubert was nice, and I really enjoyed the final piece.  I couldn’t help but notice that the audience was well trained, knowing when to applaud and not, etc..  It’s really great to be in a city where we can go to concerts (for free) on a weeknight without having to make a huge deal of it.  Dr. Brown would be proud.  I couldn’t help but sit and notice "stylistic characteristics" throughout the whole concert.  Thanks to Anna for inviting us, Jodie and I are so excited to keep going to stuff!

Sunday Worship

I love to worship on Sunday mornings.  In particular, I love third hour. I’m sure you would be surprised, but I love third hour not necessarily for the reasons you might think.  I love third hour for the volume.  Not typically a numbers guy, when you pack a sanctuary seating 500 with well over 400 and then those 400 sing their hearts out, you get an incredible volume from the congregation.  Like the kind of volume where you can hear them better than you can hear yourself.  There’s the best part, with that kind of volume, I don’t feel like I’m leading per say, but rather participating.  Someday, we need to get all three hours together so that everyone can experience what happens with that group.

Youth Worship

I just got done leading youth worship over at the annex, and I was struck by a couple of things.  First of all, what a great job Vaughn is doing with the youth at Grace.  I think it is so important how he is proceeding with high expectations of theology as he works through spiritual disciplines. This may sound odd, but the three or four songs over in the annex are great worship for me.  I think it’s the opportunity to sit off to the side in the back, leading from an acoustic guitar with not amplification or microphone. It is so healthy for me to lead from the back.  It gets me out of the spotlight, cuts the separation I feel when I’m on a stage and allows me to worship as a part of the community of believers.  I think it’s great that there is a talented group of kids here at Grace that match my volume of singning, so I don’t feel like I’m dragging them along kicking and screaming.  Finally, there’s just a simplicity to the time that I long for.  No complex orders or arrangements.  No need to keep the band together. What an awesome time!

"Worship Wars" Part 2

Yesterday I talked a bit about worship as a concept. Today I want to talk about music in worship. I would reemphasize that music does not equal worship, but music in the church today has become a battle often called the worship wars. What concerns me most about these “worship wars” is that I feel like we’re missing the point. I came across an article the other day that was explaining how we were missing the point on music in the church because contemporary music was off in its purpose. The gal had put this chart in her article:

Definition	Religion/Christianity	Business	Entertainment
People	sinners/redeemed sinners	consumers	fans
Leadership	pastors/elders	CEO	directors/actors/singers
Purpose	honor & glorify God repository of truth	sell the product	please the crowd
Atmosphere	reverential/serious	reverential/serious	flippant/fun/easy
Style	contemplative/slow	efficient/pragmatic	fast paced/upbeat/trivial
Results	long term/eternal	temporal/transitory	quick fix/temporary
Demands	introspection/discipline	competition	none/indulgence
Authority	God/Bible	profit/money data/results	feelings/likes
Orientation	Word/substance	money	earthly kingdom
Real	spiritual kingdom	earthly kingdom	earthly kingdom
Rules of Conduct	formal/structured	orderly/methodical	informal/relaxed
Tools	Word/Spirit sacraments/prayer	economic formula investment of money and time = yield	props/lighting/band
Goal	spiritual maturity complete in Christ	satisfy the customer	attract an audience

Here’s my problem with charts like this. What is the Biblical basis for these statements? Don’t get me wrong, there are several statements that are very true in the categories like people, leadership, purpose, authority, etc., but these too are earthly observations. Where people go wrong in charts like this are in spots like atmosphere. Where in the Bible does it say that worship must always be reverential and serious? I have heard 1 Corinthians 14:20 quoted as a justification. Paul says, “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” The problem with using that verse is that it totally blows away the context of this passage. Paul has just spend the last chapter explaining the use of spiritual gifts in the church. The church in Corinth was apparently engaging in some wild church practices, and Paul was addressing this church. Matter of fact, just a few verses earlier, Paul says, “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law says.” Out of the context of this letter, this statement sounds incredible, and we certainly would not use it to muzzle the females in the church. So why should we apply verse 40 broadly to our worship? I would make an equal case from 2 Samuel 6 where David brings the ark of the covenant back into Jerusalem. Starting in verse 14, it tells us, “and David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.” When David’s wife reacts to this outpouring of joy with scorn, David replies, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord - and I will make merry before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes…” So would I use this passage to say that worship must always be unabashedly joyful? Heavens no! Rather I think that these two passages along with passages from the entirety of scripture make available to the worshipper a broad range of reactions and emotions. To say that hymns are the music of God is just as wrong to say that praise choruses are the music of God. I have a feeling that when we are singing before the throne, anything that we could come up with in this fallen world will pale in comparison. My problem with the “worship wars” is that it has caused people to draw up lines saying things like, music must be dignified always, or on the other side, music must be current and relevant. I would say that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to either, but rather avail ourselves of the full spectrum of music that is available to us. We need to let go of our generational prejudices and worship the Lord our God together. All of that being said, I am a realist, and I realize that this is an area where a congregation needs to grow together with time. I think that it is irresponsible to suddenly throw a century of tradition out the window for folks. The bringing together of these generations by necessity must be a process, not an abrupt change. May we grow together in Christ graciously!

"Worship Wars"

I’ve been working on writing a worship philosophy for Grace Baptist Church for a couple of months now.  I think it would be good for the congregation to know where I’m coming from with worship.  In preparing to write this philosophy out, I’ve been reading a lot of books and blogs on the subject of worship.  What concerns me so much about the worship discussion is that so often we miss the boat completely.  The first major misconception is that worship is the music that happens on Sunday morning.  Wow, do we as a people miss the point when we think this.  I’m not saying that the music on Sunday morning isn’t worship, it is (otherwise, my job wasn’t very aptly titled).  What we as a church miss is that music on Sunday morning is just a small chunk of worship.  Expanding out, the whole service on Sunday morning should be an act of worship, from the announcements, to the fellowship, to the Word preached faithfully, to the offering, to the music.  Beyond that, all of the Lord’s day should be an act of worship.  We should be worshipping with our very lives!  David Peterson, in Engaging With God, defines worship as “… an engagement with [the living and true God] on the terms that He proposes and in the way that He alone makes possible.” Notice that nowhere does David mention an engagement on Sunday morning.  Harold Best explores this idea of living a life of worship in his book,Unceasing Worship.  In it, he gives a great definition of worship as, “… the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god.”  What I like about this definition is that it draws to light the idea that we possibly can worship other things in our lives.  What chosen gods have you replaced with the One living and true God.  Jesus tells us in Mark 12:30 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” We will never reach this standard on this side of heaven, but the Lord is constantly transforming us to this goal.  How we can look forward to standing before the throne of heaven, singing “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” Until that day, let us commit to not just praise God on Sunday and ignore Him the rest of the week.