Trends and Controversies in Worship

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Albums and Albertine

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

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

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

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

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

Christ Plays in Prayer 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whistle While You Worship 2

Worship While You Shop

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

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

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

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

"Where Angels Fear to Tread" Revisited

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mystery, Knowledge, Worship

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone's a Minister

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who Gets to Narrate the World?

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

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

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

Feeling and Understanding in Worship

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

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

Kauflin on Leading Worship

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whistle While You Worship 1

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

Worship While You Drive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Becoming Participants

A couple days ago we had an All Church Meeting. At this meeting I had the opportunity to share a bit about the changes to the structure of our worship services, which we call Celebrations. I specifically wanted to address four major changes that have wrought anxiety and questions from some: Offering Boxes, Corporate Prayers, Weekly Communion, and Praise & Worship at the End. You might find some, or all, or none of this helpful. Here is what I presented:

Celebrations: Becoming Participants
Ryan Flanigan
May 27, 2008

If you have been attending River Valley for at least seven months, you have noticed some major changes in the structure of our Celebrations. Many of you have wondered why the change. What I want to do is address some of your questions and testify to the increased participation and responsiveness of most of you as we have been worshiping God in these new and ancient ways. But before we dive in, let me identify three kinds of worship services alive today. According to Robert Webber, every church falls under at least one of these categories: Traditional Church (TC), Contemporary Church (CC), or Blended Church (BC). I will use broad definitions, which are by no means all-encompassing.

Traditional
Traditional churches are liturgical. You might identify their worship as “high church” or “mass.” They stick to a rigid structure of worship from start to finish, but the general framework they use is four-fold: Gathering, Word, Table, Dismissal. Their style consists mostly of older language usage, proper delivery, robes (or vestments), lots of significant architecture/décor, and old music. Some branches of the TC are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican/Episcopal Church. We are not a TC.

Contemporary
Contemporary churches are non-liturgical. The CC has morphed significantly over the years, beginning with the usage of fiery preaching and altar calls, which is still alive today in many Pentecostal and Southern Baptist churches, to name a couple. The more current CC, though, uses roughly the following structure of worship in their services: Praise & Worship, Announcements, Sermon. Music plays a huge role in the worship experience, a wider use of the arts is incorporated, Communion is a once-in-a-while thing, and overall, the service is culturally accommodating. We are not, by this definition, a CC.

Blended
Blended churches draw worship structure from both the TC and the CC. The extent to which a BC gravitates more toward the TC or the CC depends on what best engages the culture of the local community. In other words, BC’s take from both the TC and the CC what is relevant to leading their own local church into right worship. By this definition, we would fall more in the Blended Church category, meaning we have drawn some of our structure from the TC and some from the CC.

Our Current Structure
In order to better engage you, our local community, in our Celebrations, that is to say, in order to allow you to respond to God in the truest possible way, we have adapted and adopted our current Blended model. At the foundation of our Celebrations is the Traditional four-fold structure of worship (Gathering, Word, Table, Dismissal). A typical Celebration looks something like this:

• Gathering: Opening Song, Greeting and Giving, Announcements
• Word: Teaching
• Table: Communion, Praise & Worship
• Dismissal: Blessing, Prayer Ministry

If you haven’t noticed, every change we have made has been to encourage more active participation and response from you, God-worshipers, and to discourage passive entertainment. The leadership of this church is not here to entertain. We are here to lead this church in true worship of the Truine God. What we do in our Celebrations is meant to aid you in this worship.

Offering Boxes
The first significant change we made in our Celebrations was setting up Offering Boxes, or Giving Stations, instead of passing around Offering baskets. Giving has been up since we have done this. Now, I would encourage us all to make it an even more intentional act of worship by really taking time and putting meaning into giving. Take your tithe or offering, go to one of the boxes or do this at home, do it with your family if you want, pray over your gift, thank God for His constant provision, ask Him to use this for His Kingdom. The purpose of Giving Stations is for us to actively worship God in our giving.

Corporate Prayers
Go to this post, or here's the summary: 1. Jesus teaches us the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. 2. Godly men of history have spent hours putting into words what we oftentimes have a hard time articulating ourselves. 3. There just something about the body of Christ lifting one voice to God in prayer. The danger, and the concern of some here, in using corporate prayers in worship, and not only in corporate prayers but in every act of worship, is that it may become rote and meaningless noise coming off of our lips. The truth is, it is up to us as individuals to engage our hearts and minds in the act. Sometimes even the simple act of joining in with others is enough to stir our hearts into a right attitude of prayer.

Weekly Communion
This has been the most questioned change, and fair enough, considering the vast history of Communion being overused and abused. In fact, the Contemporary Church intentionally avoids taking Communion often. We believe that attitude is more reactionary than responsible. It seems in the Book of Acts that the early church celebrated the Eucharist every time they gathered. They simply couldn’t get enough of it. And we ought to rejoice in the same way. Yes, Communion is a reminder, but it is also a joyful feast of forgiveness. If we approach the Table in the right attitude of heart, it becomes a very meaningful act of worship, as often as we eat and drink. Someone in this church said to me a few months ago, “You know, I was a bit skeptical about this whole Communion-every-week thing, and was just waiting it out to see how people would react. And then I began to really think about it…and of all the lousy things to complain about in this world, how stupid is it to get bent out of shape over taking the Lord’s Supper every week. Now I absolutely love taking it.” Additionally, in order to encourage even more active participation, we come forward to receive the bread and cup more often than not. It’s just another little change to encourage more activity and less passivity.

Praise & Worship at the End
We have moved the bulk of our musical worship from the beginning of our Celebrations to the end. This way we have already received the Word and Communion and have a whole lot more to respond to. We have seen a tremendous increase in worship response from just about everyone since we have made this change. There seems to be a much greater connection happening in our hearts and minds, and sometimes even out bodies. Our Worship Ministry volunteers have sacrificed a large chunk of their time for the sake of leading this church in a better worship response.

What it comes down to is, who is the audience? Then we plan and structure things around what best glorifies God and creates ways for us to enjoy worshiping Him. Our Celebrations are for God. True worship is for God, not for us; active, not passive. True worshipers are participants, not observers; givers, not consumers. Our purpose is to be the church, not to be churched. Our spirituality is finding our place in God’s story, not fitting God into our stories. The last thing we want is a church full of “checklist Christians,” just checking off church attendance from their list every week. Following Jesus requires action. How else can we passionately pursue God? We have been hearing testimony after testimony about people who absolutely love being a part of this church. Onlookers have noticed how we actually like going to church. I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely loving being a part of what God is doing here. I can’t get enough of it.

Please email me if you have any questions about this: rflanigan@rivervalley.net. And visit my blog: www.reformworship.com. I am obviously very passionate about this, and I want more than anything what God wants for this church.

The Great Divorce (Part 2)

As one might imagine, I was quite convicted after reading the conversation between the Ghost of the artist and the Spirit at the foothills of heaven(see Part 1). I have since shared this passage with some of my fellow musicians and friends, and we all shared some of the same convictions.

”Looking comes first”

I must look and reflect. I must live in the understanding that my art and music is intended to show glimpses the truth that I have seen. I need to spend adequate time “looking” before I try to write or sing or paint. Even if the subject of my art is not necessarily God, I need to know that whatever measure of talent I posses is a gift from Him and not intended to glorify myself but give people a glimpse of the greatness of God.

“Light itself was your first love: you loved paint only as a means of telling about light.”

My forms of artistic worship must not be the end, but a means to the end of God's glory. The songs I sing must find their end in God and not in themselves. I struggle with finding myself being “drawn away from the love of the thing I tell to the love of the telling.” I want the music I play to be cool, perfectly executed, and inspire people, and I often get consumed with the art instead of God. This is why as an artist I must have the Lord's grace. Without it I would likely yearn for my own reputation and eventually my own destruction.

“When you have drunk of it you forget all proprietorship in your own works. You enjoy them just as if they were someone else’s: without pride and without modesty.”

I long for this perspective. Sometimes I find myself wondering what people think of my songs, and my pride stops me from receiving any constructive criticism. More often than not, when people compliment my work, I respond with modesty and sometimes even insult it saying, “It's not that good.” I need to keep in mind that God has given me certain talents, and in insulting these gifts, or treating them as my own, I sin. I must view them as God's. Our sin nature will cause us to be drawn to pride and modesty. The only way to overcome is to “drink” of God's truth.

"Do you mean there are no famous men?"

"They are all famous. They are all known, remembered, recognized by the only Mind that can give perfect judgment."

I struggle with the desire to be known. In our culture we are obsessed with famous people. Everyone wants to be the next American Idol. In the end it doesn’t matter if millions of people know who we are or hear our music if we are not known by the One who gives "perfect judgment." We must know that “it is God who works in [us], both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

Feel free to comment on how you keep a healthy perspective of your Art and how you have struggled and/or overcome the struggles of being an artist.

Rote?

Corporate prayers, especially the Collects from the Book of Common Prayer, are becoming a regular part of our worship celebrations. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Jesus teaches it. In Matthew 6 Jesus tells his disciples to pray like this:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.]

The Collects, a collection of well-thought-through prayers written by great men of history, are for the most part crafted using the structure of the Lord's prayer. For example, here is the layout of the prayer for Ascension Day, which we prayed corporately today.

• First, we address God--Almighty God.

• Then, we tell of who God is or what He has done--whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things.

• Next, we beseech God--Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages.

• The prayer closes with a salute to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

2. The Godly men of history who wrote these prayers labored for hours and sometimes days over each one of them. Sometimes reading these great traditional prayers helps us put into words what we know and feel in our hearts but may have a hard time articulating ourselves.

3. There's just something about the body of Christ lifting one voice in prayer to God. We're already used to singing songs together, which is essentially the same thing, only with a melody. Lifting our voices together in prayer as the community of God attests to the communal character of God most beautifully represented in the unity of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The danger in using corporate prayers in worship, and not only in corporate prayers but in every act of worship, is that it may become rote and meaningless noise coming off of our lips. The truth is, it is up to us as individuals to engage our hearts and minds in the act. Sometimes even the simple act of joining in with others is enough to stir our hearts into a right attitude of prayer. What I encourage our congregation to do is pray the same prayer, which is always printed in the bulletin, throughout the week; to engage the mind and heart, to meditate and contemplate, to make more of it than just a Sunday morning one-time thing.

The Lord's Prayer itself has the danger of becoming mechanic and thoughtless, as I'm sure many of us have seen and experienced. I encourage all of us in our personal devotions to use these prayers as templates for deeper prayer. Read the first line. Stop. Dwell on it for a bit--Our Father in heaven...Wow God, you are our Father, intimately involved with each of us, yet you are in heaven, infinitely greater than anything we could ever comprehend...

Get it? It's up to us whether these prayers and other acts of worship become ritualistic or full of meaning.

The Great Divorce (Part 1)

Here is an excerpt from The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. My thoughts will follow in Part 2.

"God!" said the Ghost, glancing round the landscape.

"God what?" asked the Spirit.

"What do you mean, 'God what'?" asked the Ghost.

"In our grammer God is a noun."

"Oh-I see. I only meant 'By Gum' or something of the sort. I meant . . . well, all this. It's . . . it's ... I should like to paint this."

"I shouldn't bother about that just at present if I were you."

"Look here; isn't one going to be allowed to go on painting?"

"Looking comes first."

"But I've had my look. I've seen just what I want to do. God!-I wish I'd thought of bringing my things with me!"

The Spirit shook his head, scattering light from his hair as he did so. "That sort of thing's no good here," he said.

"What do you mean?" said the Ghost.

"When you painted on earth-at least in your earlier days-it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too. But here you are having the thing itself. It is from here that the messages came. There is no good telling us about this country, for we see it already. In fact we see it better than you do."

"Then there's never going to be any point in painting here?"

"I don't say that. When you've grown into a Person (it's all right, we all had to do it) there'll be some things which you'll see better than anyone else. One of the things you'll want to do will be to tell us about them. But not yet. At present your business is to see. Come and see. He is endless. Come and feed."

There was a little pause. "That will be delightful," said the Ghost presently in a rather dull voice.

"Come, then," said the Spirit, offering it his arm.

"How soon do you think I could begin painting?" it asked.

The Spirit broke into laughter. "Don't you see you'll never paint at all if that's what you're thinking about?" he said.

"What do you mean?" asked the Ghost.

"Why, if you are interested in the country only for the sake of painting it, you'll never learn to see the country."

"But that's just how a real artist is interested in the country."

"No. You're forgetting," said the Spirit. "That was not how you began. Light itself was your first love: you loved paint only as a means of telling about light."

"Oh, that's ages ago," said the Ghost. "One grows out of that. Of course, you haven't seen my later works. One becomes more and more interested in paint for its own sake."

"One does, indeed. I also have had to recover from that. It was all a snare. Ink and catgut and paint were necessary down there, but they are also dangerous stimulants. Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him. For it doesn't stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower-become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations."

"I don't think I'm much troubled in that way," said the Ghost stiffly.

"That's excellent," said the Spirit. "Not many of us had quite got over it when we first arrived. But if there is any of that inflammation left it will be cured when you come to the fountain."

"What fountain's that?"

"It is up there in the mountains," said the Spirit. "Very cold and clear, between two green hills. A little like Lethe. When you have drunk of it you forget forever all proprietorship in your own works. You enjoy them just as if they were someone else's: without pride and without modesty."

"That'll be grand," said the Ghost without enthusiasm.

"Well, come," said the Spirit: and for a few paces he supported the hobbling shadow forward to the East.

"Of course," said the Ghost, as if speaking to itself, "there'll always be interesting people to meet. . . ."

"Everyone will be interesting."

"Oh-ah-yes, to be sure. I was thinking of people in our own line. Shall I meet Claude? Or Cezanne? Or-----."

"Sooner or later-if they're here."

"But don't you know?"

"Well, of course not. I've only been here a few years. All the chances are against my having run acr