Worship is Celebration: ETWC Review Pt 3

After a little interlude I’ll move onto the third part of this review that explores the idea of worship as celebration.

I just returned from a family event where we celebrated the life of my grandfather who passed away a couple months ago. We spent time recognizing him as a person and the way he chose to live his life. We celebrated him in remembering and crying at his graveside, in singing, in laughing late into the night around the fire, and in meals together. I’m excited at the connection between these last few days and this topic.

Ben Pasley writes that

humankind is obsessed with recognizing great things, period. We all want to be in the presence of greatness, and we all want a chance to react to awe-inspiring things.

He goes on to discuss the Seven Wonders Of The World and how people travel all over the world and pay an entry fee in order to experience something that invokes wonder, in order to respond to something great.

We are designed to respond to greatness.

Further on in the book he devotes a chapter to this idea saying that relationship to God can be marked by “wild and loose” love. That it might sound either scary or fun to you, but a renewed relationship with God can be marked by an energetic expression of love to God.

At this point I resonate deeply.

What happens to a crowd whose favorite soccer player scores the game-winning World Cup goal?

Berserk party.

Maybe a berserk party is exactly appropriate in response to God’s greatness and work?
Just saying.

He goes on to stronger language in writing this:

Some shrink back at the though of expressing emotion to the God of the Bible, but that is because they have never met the God of the Bible. They have trusted the barren relationship of others to feed their souls with dusty tradition. They have learned to call an empty house a home. Those who have been forgiven, those who have touched His face, cannot help but burst into loving song and dancing rhythm!

While I may not concur fully that those who aren’t super emotive in worship have never met the God of the Bible,(that may be beyond the judgment of the author), I do believe in the principle of revelation and response. That within the Biblical narrative, those who have a meeting with God tend to fall down and worship him in response.

In the Bible it seems there is an abandoned and natural thankfulness, joy, gratitude, awe and reverence that marks the heart that has “seen” God for who He is and what He has done.

Pasley reminds us that we too can and should worship with energetic expression to God, as those who have been made free.

He closes this chapter with the words of Paul to the Galatians:

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Sounds like we need to get our party on.

Why do we as authentic followers of Jesus love a good Superbowl party but resist expressing emotion to God? How connected is our ability to express emotion to other people to our ability to express emotion to God?

Worship is Conversation: ETWC Review PT2

Part two of my Enter The Worship Circle book review looks at the idea presented herein that worship is conversation.

The author, Ben Pasley, devotes a chapter to the thought that it is possible and attainable to engage in a conversation with God, the Creator of the universe. He confesses to his own journey of feeling as though his attempts to communicate with God were only one-sided:

I used to believe that [God] sat on the other side of a confessional screen listening to me blather on, but He could only speak to me in truisms and bumper stickers.

I’ve felt like that.

(I’m sure now that God doesn’t write Christian bumper stickers – that’s more likely the work of the devil 🙂 )

Pasley goes on to tell that it was a portion of the book of Isaiah that intercepted his desperation. A passage declaring how God has no more forgotten us than a mother could forget the baby at her breast. (Isa 49:15)

In these words written by a prophet thousands of years ago he heard God’s voice speaking to him in the moment.

And it’s not only through the words of Scripture where the author claims we can hear the voice of God.

In nature.
Dreams.
The beauty of the world.
In visions.
In pain and frustration.

In slow, deliberate quietness Pasley finds depth of conversation with God. He utters thanks and lingers on words and phrases from the Scriptures until they “fill the mouth of God in [his] mind”. He spends a lot of  time complimenting and appreciating the things he is discovering about God.

I think we all crave conversations that aren’t rushed. Where we’re not fighting to get a word in. Or where we don’t feel like we’re the only one contributing.

It seems fitting that the kind of conversations we’re all craving – where we know and are known by the other – could come with God.

A fantastic treasure awaits those who come to know that they can hear His voice and feel his touch – it is the ability to have conversation with God.

 

Should we expect to hear from God in similar ways that someone else does? How do you foster conversation with God? Have you had to overcome obstacles in the process? How is conversation with God the same as with another friend?

 

 

 

Enter The Worship Circle

I read a book the better part of a decade ago titled Enter The Worship Circle by a guy named Ben Pasley. He’s a creative who is also responsible for some great acoustic worship albums under the same title. The book stretches you out of the typical in an artsy and sometimes jumbled way, reflecting the post-modernistic charged atmosphere of its  2001 publishing.

I recently picked it up again and thought I’d write 4 posts on some of the main themes from this meditation on worship:

1. Worship is Connection
2. Worship is Conversation
3. Worship is Celebration
4. Worship is Creativity in Love

1.) Worship is Connection

In different parts of the book Pasley laments that we default toward religion rather than true connection with the supernatural, with God, because it is much more comfortable for us, but far less satisfying.

Religion has attempted to help humanity understand the spiritual, but our real need is not to understand the spiritual, or to categorize it, or to explain it – it is simply to touch it.

One of my favorite pages in the book displays a sketch titled “Religious People Make Terrible Worshipers”.

Bam. Ouch.

Religion = cool
Religion = predictable
Religion = I have a systematic theology that explains this

The complex inner connections that take place within any relationship are anything but dissect-able. And so are the complex inner connections that occur between the human heart and the divine.

Do we anticipate and pursue connection with God?

That we have spoken to and been spoken to by God.
That we have expressed our hearts and sensed the heart of God for us and the world.
That we have reached out to and known God’s reaching toward us.

Maybe as sound and media techs, pastors, leaders, worshipers, and church-ees, we should consider what Pasley explains: that all God offers us is Himself – no product, no gimmick, no how-to-be-successful books. He gives Himself, and that is what – or rather, Who, we all really need.

Worship is Connection.

Check out http://www.entertheworshipcircle.com for more on Ben and what’s going on in the mystical realm of the circle.Or follow on twitter @benpasley @worshipcircle

Cheers

 

Do you think the people coming to church on Sundays expect or desire this kind of connection? Are we doing a good job of facilitating and encouraging God-connection as a part of our gathered worship? As a part of the regular week? How do we avoid becoming religiously patterned with what and how we do things?

 

Don’t Forget To Share The Gospel

When was the last time you told the gospel in your worship service?

There are a lot of considerations in planning a worship service :

“Start with something to call the people to worship”

“Got to include that song because people will really open up their hearts and connect to God”

“The pastor is speaking on this, so I need to connect at least one video or prayer to that theme”

But how often do the people attending our worship gatherings hear, pray, sing and engage with the gospel message?

If the sermon series is based in Proverbs for the next eight weeks, does that mean that we never proclaim the gospel in our worship services until after that series ends? How many unbelievers will sit through those eight weeks before hearing the gospel?

While sermons may focus on different aspects of discipleship and teachings, our worship should visit the gospel message with great regularly.

I’m not suggesting that we should sing “Lord I Lift Your Name On High” every week, although it communicates the gospel excellently. But we should ask ourselves,

“Have we given the people a chance to gather at the foot of the cross and respond again, or for the first time, to the message of the cross?”

Worship witnesses. When we send each worshiper out from our gathering we will make better witnesses of Jesus if we have heard and interacted with the gospel of Jesus, close to our minds, hearts, and lips.

 

What great songs is your church singing currently that tell the gospel story?

 

Mission: Worship

Worship is central to the mission of God.

I believe that the role of evangelism is to create more worshipers of God. Evangelism and mission exist because somewhere, worship does not. So the mission of the church is really about worship.

Paul writes in Romans 15:8-9 saying “I am a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

Sally Morgenthaler in her book Worship Evangelism says, “The biblical goal of evangelism is to produce worshipers, not just to save the lost from the fires of hell or to enlist more recruits.” (pg. 39)

Our priority on worship should be central.

To what are we inviting folks to when we tell them about Christ? Surely we are not simply inviting them to intellectual understanding of his teaching and philosophy. Further, we are not only inviting them to participate in the community of faith. We are inviting them to Jesus himself. To a dynamic and responsive relationship marked by love, adoration, praise, thanks, etc. In essence we are inviting them to become worshipers of God.

And if we are inviting them to become worshipers, where will they learn? Among a people who are devoted to offering acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus.

Worship is central.

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” Psalm 27

 

 

 

Horizont-ical Worship

This morning I had a conversation with a friend and fellow worship team member about two different dynamics of our worship gatherings.

1.) The first dynamic is the element of human connection at a church worship gathering. There are friends, family, acquaintances and strangers (depending on the size of the gathering) who have all met together for worship. At our church this dynamic of our gatherings is an intentionally emphasized value. Like most churches, someone greets you at the door. It is sort of a token, albeit genuine, gesture that you are welcome and noticed. We also take a 10 minute slot of time to greet one another in the middle of our gathering called koinonia. In writing this, I just about described it as a “break” from our worship. However, this is definitely not a “break” from worship, but rather a focus on this first dynamic of gathered worship.

At many church worship gatherings folks arrive, maybe say hello to a couple people, sit facing in the same direction for 60-90 minutes, and then perhaps have a brief conversation on the way out. As I’ve posted before, I believe that God-pleasing worship is largely about noticing our neighbor and being engaged in caring for them with God’s love. Israel had failed to remember their neighbors while they continued to offer up songs, sacrifices, and prayers to the God who had blessed them in order to be a blessing to the world. For this and other reasons, both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel were disciplined by God through exile to Assyria and Babylon respectively. It is safe to say that God takes seriously our awareness of each other and those outside our circles as a large part of our worship to him. Reading through Isaiah, Amos, or much of the other prophetic literature will quickly demonstrate this.

I’ll call this the horizontal element of worship. “Worship that finds God also finds its neighbor” Of course worship that finds its neighbor does not have to do so at the actual worship gathering, but can and should in fact find those who are not gathered there at all. But in the actual gathering we can demonstrate and embody what we hope for in people’s lives as they are sent out from the worship gathering.

2.) The second and most significant dynamic of our gathered worship is the aspect of divine connection. This is the invitation God makes to us through Jesus to confidently approach him in faith, and receive the blessing of his presence, while giving offerings of love, adoration, and thanks. Worship as is available to us today is a gift God has made possible through the death of Christ. When he died, the curtain separating worshipers from the Holy of Holies was torn, and a new covenant was made between God and man. His blood shed was the all-sufficient offering to God on behalf of all of humanity, making his presence accessible to all who come in faith. (And then he rose again!)

This is the vertical element of worship. This is the “coming close” that our souls crave and find great contentment and satisfaction in. It may or not be an emotional response, but no doubt these encounters transcend intelligent engagement alone and affect our inner selves. We are left with the sense that we have met with God.

There will no doubt be different seasons where we find ourselves more engaged in one dynamic over the other. At times we sense God drawing us close and find it easy and life-giving to meet with him. At other times it seems that the horizontal relationships with others has the majority of our attention and energy, in ministering to the body of Christ and being ministered to.

Some dangers we face are forgetting one over the other. The horizontal without the vertical becomes the social gospel, good deeds without any connection to the Source of life. The vertical without the horizontal becomes the kind of false worship that Israel offered, devoid of concern for people.

Another danger is in simple socializing passing for this first dynamic of “fellowship” – perhaps that is for another post.

But the opportunity is to become worshipers intent on seeking and finding God, while seeking and finding the ones he is calling us to share him with.

Worshiping At Christmas

Is it safe to say that it is officially the Christmas season? When does it actually start? It’s hard to say. For some it starts  when Starbucks starts selling Christmasy lattes in red cups. For my neighbor it seemed to come a little earlier as they put the lights up on their house in early November.

It’s probably been feeling like Christmas for the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs ever since they realized that they weren’t going to start this season the way they ended the last one: at the bottom of the league standings.

There’s actually a website called www.isitchristmas.com

For local church worship teams, with the anticipation of Christmas comes the incorporation of Christmas carols into the Sunday repertoire. As worship leaders and teams this can be an interesting opportunity and challenge. The opportunity is in that every person who gathers, whether active followers of Jesus or not, are focused on the Christmas season. There are sentiments and Christmas attention that is ready to be developed and informed toward Christ. The challenge is in that Christmas carols can seem commercialized and a little too glossy to help foster a meaningful time of worship.

For those of us who did not grow up in a traditional church or in church at all, it may be that singing Christmas-specific songs was more of a feel-good, hear-them-on-the-radio, or living room experience rather than a worshipful thing. We may not have history with following the church calendar throughout the year in our gathered worship.

But here are a few thoughts on using carols to lead worship throughout the Christmas and advent season.

Christmas Carols tell the redeeming story of God and humanity.

Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
Let Earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing

Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Silent night holy  night
Son of God love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace

The majority of the classic Christmas carols are a depth of theological and poetic riches, specific to this season. Good theology leads us to worship, and many of these songs do just that.

The power of memory

No matter who you are there is nostalgia associated with the tunes and melodies of Christmas carols.

Singing the carols triggers for most anyone a sense of Christmases past – there is an immediate connection between the song and their own story and life. It creates a sense of continuity in our journey through life and faith. We feel connected to our past, and to the God who was with us then and is with us now.

(What about the “modernization” of these tunes and melodies? Does it help our hinder? Do we lose a sense of continuity … ?)

(For an interesting read on the power of memory concerning faith read this blog.)

There is a time for everything

As pastors and leaders, part of our role is to help people recognize the changing seasons of life, and respond appropriately to them. At Christmas there is an expectation within us to be told the Bethlehem story, to meditate on it, to wonder at it, and to sing it. It feels strange to do this in July. But in December, the time has come! If not now, when? There is a time for all things, and at this season, the time to sing the story of Christmas has come. When we do, the joy and hope that came to Earth in that specific time and place in history fills our hearts today, wherever we may be.

In this Christmas season we have the opportunity to bring rich poetic theology through these songs, redeem them from the commercialization of the season, and help people connect to the story of God. That he is Emmanuel, God with us.

Green Worship Team

How many copies of paper does your worship team print and recycle every week? (This is assuming that your team’s music sheets aren’t simply deposited into the nearest garbage can with the used plastic communion cups.)

Chord charts are typically 1-2 pages in length. If you’re using lead sheets that probably goes up to around 3.

At our church we typically do about 7 songs each Sunday, and there are usually 6 people in our band who are using written music.

Since we use chord charts that equals around 63 sheets of paper between the members of our bands each weekend gathering.  Multiply that by 52 weeks of Sundays and that takes you to 3276 sheets of paper over the year.

I found around 100 church listings online in the city of Abbotsford where I live.

If each church used the same amount of paper for their worship gatherings that we do, that would equal 327,600 sheets of paper. Let’s say that with differing types of worship and liturgy that there would be less paper involved in some church’s gatherings, and round it down to 300,000.

That’s a lot of paper wasted. That represents about 4 full trees. This isn’t to mention all of the other paper materials our churches may use unnecessarily.

I have a friend who believes that God is green and I tend to agree with him. We should be concerned with the Earth God created and gave us to care for.

Here are a few  practical things worship ministries can do to be green:

1.) Keep a binder of chord charts in plastic sleeves. Reuse your music – you’ll probably want to remember the notes you’ve made on them anyway for next time you play that song.

2.) Use a worship planning website for team members to access music digitally. They can print music if needed to keep in a binder or just practice off of their computer or mobile device. This will also save your church’s paper and ink budget significantly as team members are responsible for their own charts.

3.) Multi-service churches reuse bulletins. We’ve started keeping a box at the doors for 1st service attenders to drop their bulletin into so that they can be used again by someone in the 2nd service. There are usually quite a few people who use these boxes, cutting down on the number of copies we need to make.

4.) Carpool. Team-members who live nearby each other can share rides to early morning practices – this also helps keep families from ending up with two cars at the same event.

God cares about what he has made, and entrusted it to us to be good care-takers. Let’s do it!

What other things can our churches and ministries do to be environmentally careful?

Assuming The Best In Worship Leadership

For those who lead from a public platform there is often the post-presentation question, “Did anyone engage or resonate with what I prepared?” I had a conversation with a young worship leader recently about the minutes after leading a worship service, sitting down wondering if anyone was with you.

As worship leaders and teams it is sometimes easy to count on the affirmation of physical expression to guarantee that you haven’t lost the people. When it’s not there, or it is few and far between, it can be easy to slip into a few different reactions.

 

Bad Reaction 1.) INDIGNATION

This reaction says, “Those un-spiritual people – they really need to mature and get out of their comfort zone. Don’t they realize how much work we’ve done to prepare this time for them? They aren’t very grateful.”

Bad Reaction 2.) INDIFFERENCE

This reaction says, “Well, I am just going to worship and if anyone comes with us, great. If not, that’s their loss. The Holy Spirit will have to work in them so they can grow as worshipers.” This is the passive response that will never help anyone grow or participate in gathered worship, or see how they can continue to worship all week long.

Bad Reaction 3.) BEAT THE SHEEP

This reaction says (literally to the people), “Jesus died for you, the least you can do is sing to him! Come on! Let’s go!” It makes 99% of the congregation dig their heels in by either sitting down or putting their hands in their pockets. The other 1% are guilted into singing with abandon, afraid that the worship leader will harass them further if they don’t.

Recently I was talking to a friend who had just resigned as worship pastor at a church he served for a number of years. He said that rather than developing a negative feeling toward the people’s lack of response as he had done, he wished he would have assumed each weekend, that the people had come to worship. They just didn’t meet his expectations.

I got to thinking that it is true. The people who come have come to worship. They may not have come to worship the way that strokes my insecurity or need for affirmation, but they have come because they desire to meet with God. The Psalmist expressed this very thirst on paper (papyrus?) in Psalm 42:2 and it resonates still today among the people of God, gathered in His name.

So what do we do when it seems there is dryness and no life in our gathered worship?

1.) POINT TO GOD THE FATHER, SON, SPIRIT

Worship is always a response to the revelation of God. So let’s read scriptures together that tell us who He is and what He’s done. Let’s sing songs about Him, what He is like, what He does. Let’s tell the stories of what God is doing among us in our communities of faith and then celebrate and thank God. As Matt Redman writes, “Worship starts with seeing.” Let’s pursue and cast a large and compelling vision of God, who is high above our thoughts or understanding.

2.) REMOVE DISTRACTIONS

If you are effectively pointing to Jesus and yet there is still a lack of response, there’s a good chance that there are some environmental distractions that are making it difficult for people to get on board with what is happening. Walk around your gathering space and think about what people experience while they’re there. From the time they walk in the door to the time they leave, what distracts? Are the lights helping or hindering? Are the lyrics projected in time for them to sing? Do the worship leader and team look like they want to be there? Does your room smell bad? Do your ushers smell bad? 🙂 Sound operators, media operators, singers and players are environmental architects, creating spaces for open conversation with God.

3.) PRAY

Our battle is not against people, but against spiritual obstacles and enemies. 2 Corinthians 10:4 So our prayers are effective in gaining ground ahead of the people, for the people. Our worship teams regularly spend time together at our practice praying for those who come, that the walls and barriers would be removed and there would be spiritual freedom.

4.) TEACH

This is where the worship leader steps into the role of worship pastor. Maybe not in a paid, vocational sense, but definitely in practice. Encouraging, teaching, and equipping the people to grow as worshipers of God is very pastoral and hugely needed. Taking moments to give specific directives, scriptural insights and nuggets of teaching is one way to help move the people into deeper waters.

Let’s assume that God is drawing hearts – that part isn’t up to us. He is doing it.

Let’s rather focus on fanning the flames and sparks of worship, thankfulness, and love toward Him.

The people have come to visit with God.

Talk Show Host Worship Leader

  As a worship leader I spend time thinking about how to help people have a  meaningful corporate time with God. There are a thousand factors that      come into play in this endeavor, of which many books are written.

This week I had an image come to mind that is helping me to define the role of the corporate worship leader.

I was watching the movie Slumdog Millionaire  that tells the gripping story of a pair of brothers who, through tragic circumstances, find two very different paths in life through the slums of Mumbai.  The youngest of the brothers finds himself on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, staring opportunity in the face, for the first time in his life. As the young man advances through the stages of the game, gaining more and more popularity among viewers, the gameshow host becomes more and more threatened by him. At one point off-set he angrily screams, “It’s MY show!”.

I started thinking about the role of worship leader as a tv show host. Now, you may not think of  David Letterman, Oprah or Bob Barker as being good role models for our leaders of worship. Maybe Alex Trebek is.  However I think there are some interesting comparisons.

The idea of host has implications of hospitality. The tv show host engages the audience, the participators of the gathering. He or she invites them into the experience with their body-language, their tone, their inclusivity. They are the ones who are the voice, the face, the personality facilitating what is happening throughout the crowd. Their thoughtfulness of their audience make it easier for those attending to feel “at home”, like they have a place there. Worship leaders need to recognize they are operating in a “we” experience and go to lengths to make everyone feel like a part of “we”. Hospitality says “us”, not “you guys”.

The host comparison also implies that there have been preparations beforehand. Whether the show host is interviewing a celebrity or asking the participants to “spin the wheel”, they are prepared. These preparations guide the direction of the entire experience, and in a sense lead everyone participating toward some kind of outcomes. The talk show host prepares good questions that people care about. The worship leader’s preparations should be intentional and have outcomes that are relevant to the people they are leading.

The host knows that they are secondary to the guests. If Jay Leno interrupted Bono to talk about his own thoughts and opinions on AIDS in Africa, everyone would wonder how he had lost the plot and want Conan O’Brien back. In the same way, the worship leader knows they are only there to stimulate  attention toward the real star, Creator God. They should avoid grand-standing at all costs, because even though they are the face of the experience, they aren’t the reason people have come.

Worship leaders should think about their role in terms of hospitality, thoughtful and prayerful leadership/ preparation, and elevation of the real Guest and reason for the occasion.

Now go get some tips from George Stromboulopoulos.