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Please Join Me Here

2009-11-29T13:17:00.003-05:00

I've Changed Addresses and would greatly appreciate your changing with me.

PLEASE CLICK HERE AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FEED.

4 Guidelines for Designing Imagery for Worship

2009-11-26T23:50:00.007-05:00

Chad Brooks, one of our worship designers at the seminary, does excellent work developing theologically thoughtful slides for worship. Here is some of his Advent work for this year. Feel free to download and use.

How carefully are you thinking about the imagery being put on the screen in your worship services? What I like about Chad's work is that so much is imbedded in the layering.

A few guidelines to consider as you think about the visual aspects of designing worship.

1. Do the images (stills or moving) help us to better listen to the Word of God? It's interesting to consider how hearing words helps us see images. The big question for worship design is do our images help us hear words better? Once in a conversation with Marva Dawn she remarked, "Remember, Hebrew religion is aural. Baalism is primarily visual." It's something to consider.

2. How are we using images? Are they being used literalistically (new word?) (i.e. we use slides of creation and cosmos as we sing God of Wonders) Are images being used to do the work of imagination? Are images being used as a source of stimulation? Are they being used to cultivate attention or contemplation? With every image you use ask yourself, Why. Think about it.

3. Is there blank space our pauses in our use of imagery? In a conversation with Jeremy Begbie last week on campus he noted the importance of what he called "the blank screen."

4. Do our images uncritically adopt the media practices of our culture or do they provide an alternative approach? While our worship needs to have connection with culture, it should also provide a thoughtful, implicit and most often subtle critique.

5. How are you thinking about this aspect of worship design? What guidelines would you add to the list?

Who's doing some good thinking on this aspect of worship?

Ministry to the Lord (Part 2)

2009-11-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

See it on WorshipCentral.org here.

Quote of the Week on Prayer

2009-11-07T22:35:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking of this quote ever since I read it a few years back. It grips me and challenges my paradigm of prayer in a really refreshing way. It brings prayer into a visionary futuristic orientation. Why not?

"Prayer and meditation have an important part to play in opening up new ways and new horizons. If our prayer is the expression of a deep and grace-inspired desire for newness of life--and not the mere blind attachment to what has always been familiar and “safe”--God will act in us and through us to renew the Church by preparing, in prayer, what we cannot yet imagine or understand. In this way our payer and faith today will be oriented toward the future which we ourselves may never see fully realized on earth."

Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a world of Action.

Thoughts?

Core Practice: Ministry to the Lord

2009-10-30T20:35:00.002-04:00

I'm going to be a guest blogger for Tim Hughes and Al Gordon at Worship Central during November. I'll be writing mostly about this practice outlined in the article below-- Ministry to the Lord. The article is really too long for a blog post, so print it off and read it at your leisure. it's worth your time. jd

Ministry to the Lord
by Watchman Nee

Let us note at the outset that there is little apparent difference between ministry to the House of the Lord and ministry to the Lord Himself. Many of you are doing your utmost to help your brethren, and you are laboring to save sinners and administer the affairs of the church. But let me ask you: Have you been seeking to meet the need around you, or have you been seeking to serve the Lord? Is it your fellow men you have in view, or is it Him?
Let us be quite frank. Work for the Lord undoubtedly has its attractions for the flesh. You may be thrilled when crowds gather to hear you preach, and when numbers of souls are saved. If you have to stay at home, occupied from morning to night with mundane matters, then you think: How meaningless life as! How grand it would be if I could go out and serve the Lord! If only I were free to go around ministering! But that is not spirituality. That is merely a matter of natural preference. Oh, if only we could see that much of the work done for God is not really ministry at all! He, Himself, has told us chat there was a class of Levites who busily served in the Temple, and yet they were not serving Him; they were merely serving the House. However, service to the Lord and service to the House appear so much alike that it is often difficult to differentiate between the two.

If an Israelite came along to the Temple and wanted to worship God, those Levites would come to his aid and help him offer his peace offering and his burnt offering. They would help him drag the sacrifice to the altar, and they would slay it. Surely, that was a grand work to be engaged in, reclaiming sinners and leading believers closer to the Lord! And God took account of the service of those Levites who helped men bring their peace offerings and their burnt offerings to the altar. Yet He said it was not ministry to Himself.

Brothers and sisters, there is a heavy burden on my heart that you might realize what God is after. He wants ministers who will minister to Him. "They shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood. They shall minister unto me" (Ezekiel 44:15).

The thing I fear most is that many of you will go out, win sinners to the Lord, and build up believers, without ministering to the Lord Himself. Much so-called service for Him is simply following our natural inclinations. We have such active dispositions that we cannot bear to stay at home, so we run around for our own relief. We may appear to be serving sinners, or serving believers, but all the while we are serving our own flesh.

I have a dear friend who is now with the Lord. One day, after we had a time of prayer together, we read this passage in Ezekiel (44:9-26, 28, 31). She was very much older than I, and she addressed me like this: "My young brother, it was twenty years ago that I first studied this passage of Scripture."
"How did you react to it?" I asked.
She replied: "As soon as I had finished reading it, I closed my Bible, and kneeling down before the Lord, I prayed: `Lord, make me to be one who shall minister to You, not to the Temple."' Can we also pray that prayer?

But what do we really mean when we talk of serving God or serving the Temple? Here is what the Word says:
But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the LORD God (Ezekiel 44:15).

The conditions basic to all ministries that can truly be called ministry to the Lord are drawing near to Him and standing before Him. But how hard we often find it to drag ourselves into His presence! We shrink from the solitude, and even when we do detach ourselves physically, our thoughts still keep wandering outside. Many of us can enjoy working among people, but how many of us can draw near to (God in the Holy of Holies? Yet it is only as we draw near to Him that we can minister to Him.

To come into the presence of God and kneel before Him for an hour demands all the strength we possess. We have to be violent to hold that ground. But everyone who serves the Lord knows the preciousness of such times, the sweetness of waking at midnight and spending an hour in prayer, or waking very early in the morning and getting up for an hour of prayer before the final sleep of the night.

Unless we really know what it is to draw near to God, we cannot know what it is to serve Him. It is impossible to stand afar off and still minister to Him. We cannot serve Him from a distance. There is only one place where ministry to Him is possible and that is in the Holy Place. In the outer court, you approach the people; in the Holy Place you approach the Lord.

The passage we ' have quoted emphasizes not only our need to draw near to God; it also speaks of standing before Him to minister. Today we always want to be moving on; we cannot stand still. There are, so many things claiming our attention that we are perpetually on the go. We cannot stop for a moment.

But a spiritual person knows how to stand still. He can stand before God till God makes His will known. He can stand and await orders. You who are leaders need to particularly consider this. Can you be persuaded to call a halt and not move for a little while? That is what is referred to here: "stand and minister unto me." Don't you think that a servant should await his master's orders before seeking to serve him?

The Sin of presumption

There are only two types of sin before God. One is the sin of refusing to obey when He issues orders. The other is the sin of going ahead when the Lord has not issued orders. The one is rebellion; the other is presumption. The one is not doing what the Lord has required; the other is doing what the Lord has not required. Learning to stand before the Lord deals with the sin of doing what the Lord has not commanded. Brothers and sisters, how much of the work you have done has been based on the clear command of the Lord? How much have you done because of His direct instructions? And how much have you done simply on the ground that the thing you did was a good thing to do? Let me tell you that nothing so damages the Lord's interests as a "good thing." "Good things" are the greatest hindrance to the accomplishment of His will. The moment we are faced with anything wicked or unclean, we immediately recognize it as something a Christian ought to avoid, and for that reason, things, which are positively evil, are nearly not such a menace to the Lord's purpose as good things.

You think: This thing would not be wrong, or that thing is the very best that could be done so you go ahead and take action without stopping to inquire if it is the will of God. We who are His children all know that we ought not to do anything evil, but we think that if only our conscience does not forbid a thing, or if a thing commends itself to us as positively good, that is reason enough to go ahead and do it.

'That thing you contemplate doing may be very good, but are you standing before the Lord awaiting His command regarding it? "They shall stand before me" involves halting in His presence and refusing to move till He issues His orders. That is what ministry to the Lord means.

In the outer court, it is human need that governs. Just let someone come along to sacrifice an ox or a sheep, and there is work for you to do. But in the Holiest Place, there is utter solitude. Not a soul comes in. No brother or sister governs us here, nor does any committee determine our affairs. In the Holiest Place there is one authority only - the authority of the Lord. If He appoints me a task I, do it; if He appoints me no task, I do none.

But something is required of us as we stand before the Lord and minister to Him. We are required to offer Him "the fat and the blood." The blood answers the demands of His holiness and righteousness; the fat meets the requirements of His glory. The blood deals with the question of our sin; the fat deals with the question of His satisfaction. The blood removes all that belongs to the old creation; the fat brings in the new.

But such ministry is confined to a certain place: "They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge" (Ezekiel 44:16). Ministry that is "unto me" is in the inner sanctuary, in the hidden place, not in the outer court, exposed to public view. People may think we are doing nothing, but service to God in the Holy Place far transcends service to the people in the outer court.

Ministry Without Sweat

The same passage tells us how they must be clothed who would minister to the Lord:
They shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins (Ezekiel 44:18).

Those who minister to the Lord may not wear wool. Why not? The reason is given:
"They shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat" (verse 18 NKJV). No work chat produces sweat is acceptable to the Lord. But what does "sweat" signify?

We all know that the first occasion when sweat is mentioned was when Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden. After Adam sinned, God pronounced this sentence upon him: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life...in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Genesis 3:19-19). It is clear that sweat is a condition of the curse. Because the curse rested on the ground, it ceased to yield its fruit without man's effort, and such effort produced sweat.

When the blessing of God is withheld, fleshly effort becomes necessary, and that causes sweat. All work that produces sweat is positively prohibited to those who minister to the Lord. Yet today what an expenditure of energy there is in work for Him! Few Christians can do any work today without sweating over it. Their work involves planning and scheming, exhorting and urging, and very much running around. It cannot be done without a great deal of fleshly zeal.

Nowadays, if there is no sweat there is no work. Before work for God can be undertaken, there is a great deal of rushing to and fro, making numerous contacts, having consultations and discussions, and finally getting the approval of various people before going ahead. As for waiting quietly in the presence of God and seeking His instructions, that is out of the question.

Yet, in spiritual work, the one factor to be taken into account is God. He is the one Person to make contact with. That is the preciousness of spiritual work that is truly spiritual-it is related to the Lord Himself In relation to Him there is work to do, but it is work that produces no sweat.

If we have to advertise our ministry and use great effort to promote it, then it is obvious that it does not spring from prayer in the presence of God. If you really work in God's presence, men will respond when you come into their presence. You will not have to use endless means in order to help them. Spiritual work is God's work, and when God works, man does not need to expend so much effort that he sweats over it.

Let us in utter honesty examine ourselves before God today. Let us ask Him: "Am I serving You, or am I merely serving the work? Is my ministry truly unto you Lord, or is it only ministry to your House?" If you are pouring with sweat all the time, it is safe to conclude that it is the House you are serving, not the Lord. If all your busyness is related to human need, you may know that you are serving men, not God. I am not despising the work of slaying sacrifices at the altar. It is work for God and someone has to do it-but God wants something beyond that. The Sons of Zadok God cannot secure everyone for service to Himself, for many of His own are reluctant to leave the thrill and excitement of the outer court. They are bent on serving the people. But what about us? Oh that today we might say to the Lord: "I am willing to forsake things, I am willing to forsake the work, I am willing to forsake the outer court and serve You in the inner sanctuary."

When God could find no way to bring all the Levites to the place of ministry to Himself, He chose the sons of Zadok from among them for this special service. Why did He select the sons of Zadok? Because when the children of Israel went astray, they recognized that the outer court had been irreparably corrupted, so they did not seek to preserve it. Instead, they made it their business to preserve the sanctity of the Holy Place.

Brothers and sisters, can you bear to let the external structure go, or must you persist in putting up a scaffolding to preserve it? It is the Holy Place that God is out to preserve-a place utterly set apart for Him. I beseech you before God to hear His call to for sake the outer court and devote yourself to His service in the Holy Place.

I love to read about the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch: "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said: Separate me Barnabas and Sau1 for the work whereunto I have called them" (Acts 13:2). We see there that the Holy Spirit commissions men to the work as they are ministering to the Lord. Unless ministry to the Lord is the thing that governs us, the work will be in confusion.

God does not want volunteers for His work; He wants conscripts. He will not have you preaching the gospel just because you want to. The work of the Lord is suffering serious damage today at the hand of volunteers; it lacks those who can say as He did: "He that sent me..."

Brothers and sisters, the work of God is God's own work, and not work that you can take up ac your pleasure. Neither churches, nor missionary societies, nor evangelistic bands can send men to work for God. The authority to commission men is not in the hands of men, but solely, in the hands of the Spirit of God.
Serving the Lord does not mean chat we do not serve people, but it does mean that all service to people has service to the Lord as its basis. It is service Godward that urges us out manward. Luke 17:7-10 tells us clearly what the Lord is after. These are two kinds of work referred to here: plowing the field and tending the flock. Both are very important occupations, yet the Lord says that when a servant returns from such work, he is expected to provide for his master's satisfaction before sitting down to enjoy his own food.

When we have returned from our toil in the field, we are apt to muse complacently on the much work we have accomplished. But the Lord will say, "Gird yourself and give me to eat." He requires ministry to Himself. We may have labored in a wide field and cared for many sheep, but all our toil in the field and among the flock does not exempt us from ministry to the Lord's own personal satisfaction. That is our supreme task.

What are you really after? Is it only work in the field, preaching the gospel to the unsaved? Is it just tending the flock, caring for the needs of the saved? Or are we seeing to it that the Lord can eat to His full satisfaction and drink till His thirst is quenched? True, it is necessary for us also to eat and drink, but that cannot be till after the Lord is satisfied. We, too, must have our enjoyment, but that can never be until His joy is first made full.

Let us ask ourselves: Does our work minister to our satisfaction or to the Lord's? I fear that when we have worked for the Lord, we are often thoroughly satisfied before He is satisfied. We are often quite happy with our work when He has found no joy in it. Blessed are they who can differentiate between ministry to sinners or saints, and ministry to Him. Such discernment is not easily acquired. Often it is only by much drastic dealing that we learn the difference between ministry to the Lord Himself and ministry to the House.

Let us seek the grace of God that He may reveal to us what it really means to minister to Him!

Born in 1903 in Swatow, China, Watchman Nee had many years of fruitful ministry before being imprisoned by the Chinese communists after their take-over of the country. He has long been recognized as one of the most influential Christian authors of our time. His writings are noted for being deeply spiritual and highly devotional, and their purpose is to exalt Christ and build up His body of believers. Watchman Nee's writings include The Normal Christian Life, The Spiritual Man, and The Release of the Spirit.

How our Worship Leaders used to pray. . . .

2009-10-28T10:44:00.002-04:00

Anyone want to give this one a try in worship this week?

Come fire, cross, battling with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs, crushing of my whole body, cruel tortures of the devil - only let me get to Jesus Christ! Not the wide bounds of earth nor the kingdoms of this world will avail me anything. I would rather die and get to Jesus Christ, than reign over the ends of the earth, That is whom I am looking for - the One who died for us. That is whom I want - the One who rose for us...What I want is God’s bread, which is the flesh of Christ, who came from David’s line; and for drink I want his blood: an immortal love feast indeed!

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans 5:3-6:2; 7:3

What happens in worship

2009-10-26T05:27:00.003-04:00

I've been thinking a lot in recent months about what happens in Christian worship. As I said in my last post, these days it mostly comes down to singing and speaking. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The key is what happens within that singing and speaking. I think there are four essential elements-- maybe five that need to be part of every worship service.

1. Assembling of God's people as the physical Body of Christ into the mystical union of Father-Son and Holy Spirit.
2. Attention to the Word of God + Infusion of the Spirit of God
3. Intentioning of the Will (heart + mind)
4. Releasing of God's people into the World with Blessing and Commission.

It's not so important what you call these movements or how they happen as long as you design and lead worship with them in view. Make sense? Looking at your worship from this past Sunday or series of gatherings, how would you describe the ordering principle or governing dynamics?

The DEvolution of Christian Worship

2009-10-24T07:59:00.003-04:00

In the centuries since the Ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit four basic elements characterize worship: 1. Scripture. 2. Prayer 3. Eucharist (Lord's Supper). 4. Giving to the poor.

These days the distinctive reading of Scripture has morphed into what is most often a 45 minute message. Distinctive corporate prayer has morphed into singing. The Lord's Supper has been traded in for some kind of conditioned response of the people. Giving to the poor has morphed into fund raising to cover the growing expense of running the church.

Most worship these days: 1. Singing. 2. Speaking. 3. Responding 4. Giving to the Church

Take a look this Sunday and see if you can note the change.

The Jesus of Nazareth School of Prayer

2009-09-28T22:30:00.001-04:00

The 9 Prayers of Jesus

Matthew 6:9-13. Our Father. . . . . .

Matthew 11:25-26. Blessed are you Abba, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Abba, for this was your good pleasure.

John 11:41-43. “. . . Abba, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. . . . . Lazarus, come out!”

John 12:27-28. “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Abba, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Abba, glorify your name!”

Mark 14:36. “Abba, nothing is impossible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Luke 23:34. “. . . Abba, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Mark 15:34. “ Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Luke 23:46. “. . . Abba, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

John 17:1-26. “. . . . My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Abba, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. . . . .”

How might we find ways to bring these prayers into corporate worship? Doesn't it make sense that we would find ways to pray in the way of Jesus? His prayer life is our very prayer curriculum. Ideas?

Worship Quote of the Week: George Mueller

2009-09-27T00:30:00.002-04:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the non-public worship life of the worship leader. It's so easy for anyone who leads in any dimension of public ministry to develop a highly functional approach to scripture and prayer. (i.e. I approach them with an immediate need to get something out of this for someone else, etc.) The challenge is to move from what I call an "extraction" to an "immersion" paradigm. How do we encounter Word and Spirit in a deeply immersive fashion? I like the way George Mueller gets at it in this quote.

“Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer after having dressed in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing was to give myself to reading God’s Word, and to meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed….

This first thing I did, after having asked in a few words of the Lord’s blessing upon his precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of public ministry, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less to prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is that…my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened…”

The Journal of George Mueller

Spring 1841, Bristol England

ht to worship frequency blog for the quote.

Levite Camp Intern Alums: where are they now? what are they up to?

2009-09-23T05:59:00.004-04:00

Former Worship Design Team Leader, Josh Agerton, is doing some good work down in Auburn, Alabama. I loved seeing this short piece he did to invite people to a bible study. This is the kind of medium meets message invitation-- not the new marketing-- but the new way.

Journey Bible Class from Cornerstone Church on Vimeo.

Worship Thinking Twitter Storm

2009-09-21T07:28:00.003-04:00

Late last week in preparation for the conference I taught at in St. Louis (which was a very good time) I got into a Twitter Storm of ideas. Because I am still thinking those posts through, I want to post them below for any feedback, pushback or conversation they might generate.

what if worship is more about presencing the practices of God rather than practicing the presence of God?

people commonly think of worship as "filling up" and mission as "pouring out." what if it's just the opposite?

re: mission as filling up and worship as pouring out- c Jesus: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me."

What if worship is the practice of God presenced in people and mission is the presence of God practiced through people?

Have we reduced worship 2 evangelistic mission outreaches for seekers & mission 2 evangelistic worship services for believers?

interested in your thoughts. . . . .

If You are in the St. Louis Area this weekend. . . .

2009-09-17T20:40:00.001-04:00

Join us.

NEW FEED LINK

2009-09-09T11:24:00.003-04:00

Hello friends, especially all you who read the blog through a Feed Reader. I have a new blog design, as I already announced, and a new RSS Feed address. Please change your Feed Readers to pull my blog in from the following address - http://feeds.feedburner.com/jdwalt/KXUp - see you on the other side!

Welcome to my new Blog House!

2009-09-07T13:08:00.005-04:00

Come on in.

Free Tours. Tractor Swag coming soon.

Worship seed thought: Doxological Excellence v. Performative Perfectionism

2009-08-31T06:54:00.007-04:00

In worship, as in life, we often mistake the counterfeit for the real thing. (In worship we call that idolatry.) For instance, we often confuse excellence with perfection. Perfection breeds perfectionism which commonly leads to procrastination. The deep fear of not getting it perfect stymies initiative. The problem? Perfection (and it's ism) breeds the idolatry of performance. What we want is doxological excellence. Excellence requires nurturing a context of Creative Love.

Performative perfection keeps the focus on the performer. Doxological excellence forgets self and focuses on the (O)ther.

Perfection is error free. Excellence almost requires failure. Our target: not error-free but effort-full. Doxological excellence comes from holy risk taking. Holy risk taking can only happen in an "environment of grace" and through "relationships of trust."

Can you think of any examples where you've seen this idea at work?

The Many Faces of Worship: Love Chapel Hill

2009-08-21T17:09:00.005-04:00

Matt LeRoy and Justin Simmons, two of our recent graduates from the seminary, are making some good noise over in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They are planting a church called Love Chapel Hill. What I love about that name is that it begins with a verb, moves to an object and implies a you. At the same time, it implies the big YOU. It's full of the mystery of how divinity inhabits humanity in the name of Love. And I love the way they are doing corporate worship-- in public.

So Matt texted me today with a link to their new video. It's up on YouTube now. It's fun and creative. Check it out.

Check out this new church's website here. I'm proud of you guys.

Twitter or Tweeting in Worship. Developing a Theology (Tweeology) of Twitter.

2009-08-18T06:46:00.005-04:00

So here's the question: Is it a good thing or a bad thing to use Twitter during worship?

Ok- so rather than an easy yes or no, let's think theologically about it-- i.e. tweeology. ;0)

For me, the issue in discerning best practice in worship is whether what we are doing cultivates focus and attention or contributes to distraction. My short answer: Using Twitter in Worship can work if it distills attention rather than diffuses distraction.

We have become so accustomed to worship being a "one or few to many" kind of event. We pay attention to and follow a person who is leading music or to a person who is preaching a sermon. Note how the seating is most often arranged (i.e. classroom style).

Social networking introduces us to a range of tools that enable a "many to many" kind of relational and communication dynamic. It seems that this would be good for worship-- wouldn't it?

I guess it depends on what people are tweeting about. Are they tweeting about where to eat lunch after. . . . . . or are they tweeting about flashes of insight occurring to them as a result of being together in worship. I would say the former example cultivates distraction while the latter cultivates attention. A more difficult distinction-- are we using twitter to capture insights for later reflection or for present conversation? Latter seems better to me-- but former may be ok too. See my related poetic (and perhaps cryptic) reflection here.

In my mind, the best worship creates a dynamically alive, Divinely infused context for collective epiphany to occur. Twitter may be able to help us here. Your thoughts?

Internet Monk on Evangelical Liturgy (series worth watching)

2009-08-15T18:42:00.002-04:00

Michael Spencer, a.k.a. The Internet Monk, has begun what could become a lengthy series of posts on what he calls "The Evangelical Liturgy." Here's the first paragraph of the opening post.

I am beginning a series of brief (I hope) posts on the subject of “the evangelical liturgy.” In these posts, I am going to survey the basic elements of a traditional Protestant worship service in a traditional Protestant setting. I will offer abbreviated commentary on each of those elements, with a purpose of explaining and unfolding what I see as the value of a traditional evangelical liturgy.

You can follow the ongoing series via this link. He's up to part 2 as of this posting.

Worship and the dilemma of the Poor and the Door

2009-08-12T03:01:00.002-04:00

Locking Out The Poor from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

I like what Shane is saying here. Let me try and turn it toward worship.

My most common thought about worship and the poor has gone something like this: "We need to get out of this building and get to helping the poor, whom I often refer to as the "needy" or "underprivileged" or other such derogatory term. I mean, who wants to be called "needy?"

I am learning to approach it differently. The ultimate goal isn't to get out the door to help the poor; rather it is to bring the poor through the door. (and all that this would signify) In fact, true worship gets rid of the door altogether. Think about the parable of the wedding feast-- the one where Jesus commends them to go to the streets and bring in the poor and the lame in order to "fill up my house."

Steve Fee wrote a song some years back called "Madly." The chorus went like this, "Let what we do in here fill the streets out there." I like it, but the more I reflect the more I would change it to, "Let what we do out there fill the seats in here."

So here's the question: Would the guy on the corner with the "Will work for food" placard feel at home or out of place in our sanctuaries. Maybe the biggest challenge we have isn't on the outside but on the inside.

Deep Thought of the Week: Worship and the Knowing Beyond Knowledge

2009-08-10T19:09:00.009-04:00

Here's how most of us are accustomed to approaching life.

1. Think.

2. Understand.

3. Know.

This approach will lead to knowledge, but not necessarily knowing. Too often, our worship gatherings create contexts for gaining knowledge. Could this be one of the driving rationales for building worship sets around sermon themes?

True worship creates a context where the opposite approach happens.

1. Know

2. Understand

3. Think

Consider the following 2 prayers from Paul for the Ephesian Christians:

^1:17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

^3:14For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Think about it. . . . ;-)

On Vacation. No Posts Until Week of August 10

2009-07-29T22:03:00.002-04:00

A Poetic musing on the role of preaching in worship.

2009-07-29T07:50:00.002-04:00

FARMStrong has been on a bit of a poetry fast, albeit unintended. Here's a piece I've been musing over which I think is on its way to poetry. I think a lot about the nature of real preaching. In an age where many preachers are aspiring to become "Communicators," we may be losing the deeper realities of the sacred genre of speech known as "preaching." check it out. I call the piece

ALL YOU CAN EAT.

true preaching reveals the place where Word and Spirit meet
affording an encounter with Divine Realities
eyes seeing the story
ears hearing the Kingdom
mind comprehending Mind
pen scratchings cannot capture it
paper cannot possibly map the course of God-Words
recordings can't remember the Living Voice
like storing water water in cupped hands
Spirit musings never fit into an mp3

so put down your pencil
and lift up your heart,
don't get the tape
Lean forward.
Listen Now!
and realize
the stream of heaven
is not download-able
not for canteens
immediate consumption required
open bar,
all you can eat buffet.

It's got a ways to go for sure. What am I trying to say here? Preaching was never meant to fill a storehouse with knowledge, but to create a context for the comprehending of Love. What are you seeing/hearing in these musings?

And speaking of poetry-- here's something completely different. ;-)

Worship Quote of the Week: The Lewis Admonition

2009-07-27T07:29:00.002-04:00

In the trajectory of that last post on novelty v. innovation in worship-- here's a quote I call "The Lewis Admonition." I share it with our worship design team every year in our training week (a.k.a. Levite Camp).

A worship service works best when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. . . . The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. but every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. . . . Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god. A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. . . . There is really some excuse for the man who said, ‘I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was’Feed my sheep’; not ‘Try experiments on my rats’, or even ‘Teach my performing dogs new tricks.’" C.S. Lewis.

HT to Chad Brooks, our Team Leader, who reminded me of this via a comment to the last post.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Lewis Admonition. And someone tell Clive those things will kill him!

Worship Design Thought: Are we choosing novelty or innovation

2009-07-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

In worship, familiarity can breed contempt, but predictability creates a sense of trust. There's a fine line.

Familiarity = Announcements + 30 minutes of singing + 40 minutes of preaching + 10 more minutes of singing.

The common mistake: engaging in novelty to break familiarity. Think about the last time you experienced "novelty" in worship. (i.e. motorcycles, parachutes, silly songs with Larry, etc.) I heard one worship leader say it this way, "We never want people to know what's coming; keeps them on their toes."

On the other hand, predictability is one of the gifts of Tradition.

Tradition = Biblical call to worship, corporate praying, the reading of God's Word, corporate-personal postures for expression, structured silence, holy embrace of one another, Prophetic Preaching, Creedal Affirmation, Preistly blessing, Apostolic sending, etc.

The problem: we allow Tradition to slip into the rut of familiarity, leading us to novel solutions. It doesn't have to be this way. The answer isn't novelty, it's innovation. We must learn to innovate and improvise on the Tradition in ways true to God and true to people.

It's another reason worship designers and leaders must grow in their capacities to think theologically about their calling and craft.

Guitar in worship = Innovation

Guitar hero controller in worship = Novelty

Summing up: Moving from Familiarity to Predictability in worship requires choosing careful innovation over attention grabbing novelty.

The Many Faces of Worship: Interstellar Edition

2009-07-22T13:13:00.002-04:00

Here's a story on the famed Apollo 11 mission that missed both the elementary school text books as well as the 40th anniversary celebration. It turns out that Buzz Aldrin celebrated the Eucharist on the surface of the Moon. Check out this quote.

“In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.’ I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O’Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly. …I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.”

HT to Omar. Read the whole story on Eric Metaxas blog.

Worship Quote of the Week

2009-07-21T10:19:00.003-04:00

Blaise Pascal, born in 1623 in Clermont, France, lived a short life of profound significance. From an early age, his insatiable thirst to learn could not be quenched. He early achieved fame as a mathematician, a scientist, a physicist and a philosopher. Among his inventions were the calculator, the hydraulic press and the syringe. At the age of 31, he experienced a mystical encounter with the living God after which he left his studies behind to pursue theological wisdom and understanding. He died of stomach cancer before finishing his most famous and celebrated theological work, The Pensees. After his untimely death at the age of 39, his servant found a parchment sewn into the lining of his coat with an inscription describing his encounter with God. It follows:

In the year of grace, 1654, on Monday, 23rd of November, Feast of St Clement, Pope and Martyr, and others in the Martyrology. Vigil of St Chrysogonus, Martyr, and others.

From about half past ten in the evening until about half past twelve.

Fire!

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,
Not of the philosophers and scholars.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
God of Jesus Christ.
"Thy God and my God."
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except God.
He is to be found only in the ways taught in the Gospel.
Greatness of the Human Soul.

"Righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee,
But I have known Thee."

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have separated myself from Him.
"They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters."
"My God, wilt Thou leave me?"
Let me not be separated from Him eternally.

"This is eternal life, That they might know Thee, the only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."

Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.

I have separated myself from Him:
I have fled from Him,
denied Him,
crucified Him.
Let me never be separated from Him.
We keep hold of Him only by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day's training on earth.
"I will not forget thy words."

Amen.

Ever think of sowing something like this in the lining of one of your jackets? I'm considering it. ;0)

JESUS IS LORD!

2009-07-19T20:22:00.000-04:00

The 3 most important words for worship. . . .

2009-07-17T09:25:00.004-04:00

They declare our most central creed. They form our most basic call to worship.

They define God. They define us. They speak of the past and they tell of the future.

They orient us with primacy, supremacy and ultimacy. These 3 words define the first thing and they define the last thing.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.

The 3 words?

You tell me. Take a shot at it. What are they?

Now, what would your worship gathering look like this weekend if they became explicitly central, implicitly core, and foundationally clear? How would you do it?

Go for it.

The Many Faces of Worship: "If Only"

2009-07-15T09:40:00.003-04:00

You will need 8 minutes and 11 seconds for this one. It's the power of a movement-- our movement-- only they aren't aware of it yet.

I watched this with my youngest, Sam (3). No kidding, about half way through he started dancing too.

If only. . . . . . .

Observations????

Take me out to the ballpark (i.e. worship service)

2009-07-13T20:50:00.006-04:00

In a gentler age, a trip to the baseball park yielded an excellent place for conversation and reflection. It seemed like silence punctuated each pitch. Yes there was the occasional organ "Charge!" and the signature antics of the local announcer, and of course the cheering of fans at a base hit, but for the most part, watching baseball was an experience in quiet observation and intimate conversation. Have you been to the ballpark lately? Between every pitch a loud base-thumping version of something like, "Who let the dogs out! Woof! Woof! Woof!" blares out of the speakers. There must be a hundred buttons in the press box, each signaling a different noise effect. There's simply no silence any more. It changes the nature of the ballpark not to mention the game itself.

I suspect the same might be said of worship. Back in the day, the simple liturgical structures, lent themselves to more quiet spaces. With the advent of the worship band, things began to change. Between music and speech, there's simply no empty spaces any more. In fact, silent spaces are often viewed by pastors as awkward transitions where people don't know what to do and feel uncomfortable.

Here's a best practice for worship design and leadership: Be Quiet. Create intentional space for silence and lead people into that space. Teach worshippers the essential dynamic of "Stilling and quieting the soul." (see Psalm 131 Some scholars believe the word "Selah" appearing throughout the Psalms calls for a silent reflective pause in the Psalm. There's plenty of biblical precedent. Be Quiet. Find a way to weave this into worship regularly. Someone I think does this well is Matt Maher. What if you tried tithing the time-- 10% of the time be quiet. In an hour that's only 6 minutes and yet that seems like an eternity to us doesn't it.

So what happens when we are silent in worship?

Praying the Story in Worship

2009-07-09T21:13:00.006-04:00

I once wrote a book called Praying the Story, yet I speak of it so little here. I recalled this material in a worship service just the other day. As the pray-er stood to pray, the Spirit took us somewhere. He remembered segments of the biblical story in ways that convinced me he had been there. These stories lived in his heart and mind, becoming his very own memory. He prayed them in first person, referencing "us" instead of them. Amazing-- the Spirit transported me there too. It went something like this,

"Lord God, you saw us there at the waters edge. You saw the awful armies of Pharaoh breathing down our necks. The only way through was an impossible way. But you reminded us that nothing is impossible with God. You made a way through the sea. And you know us Lord, that we still find ourselves in that spot today, between dying and death. We can't make the house payment. Pharaoh is gaining on us. We can't beat the cancer. The waters cry doom. (insert any variety of suffering circumstances here). But you are a God of the impossible. We say it with Sarah. We shout it with Jeremiah. 'Nothing is impossible with you.'

We were there that awful night, watching your son on the ground as he cried out, 'Abba! Nothing is impossible with you.' Pharaoh of the Pharisees chased him. The waters of death mounted. And Jesus, we remember what you said. "Not my will but your will be done!" [[you see where this is headed]].

What do I learn from this way of praying? 1. To pray like this that story must become my own memory. 2. From the inside of this Story, we can see the living God-- far better than through a series of abstract qualities. 3. This way of praying isn't escapist, but rather it locates us squarely in the midst of our circumstances, identifies us deeply with those who have gone before and grants us the gift of standing in a place I call "Covenant Leverage."

I'll have to develop that idea in a future post, so for now-- what do you think about this? Make sense?

Designing Worship: Asking the best first question

2009-07-08T16:58:00.006-04:00

In one of our recent conversations, Zion Dreamer posed some sharp practical questions about worship design. She asks,

When you meet with your design team - what is your opening question or statement?

From my observation of worship services, most worship leaders, pastors and designers approach worship with this first order question: How can we create an environment and/or shape an experience where people will encounter the presence of God?

It's not a bad question; nor is it a wrong question. I just don't think it is the right first question. What question do I ask first? Thanks for asking. Here it is:

How can we remember the Live Story of Father, Son and Holy Spirit such that we become reoriented inside of it, encounter God and engage in his mission in the World?

Can you see how these questions might lead to very different outcomes? Your thoughts?

The Many Faces of Worship

2009-07-03T13:24:00.003-04:00

You are not even going to believe this one. It's the Postlude (exit music) from Trinity Wall Street (Episcopal) Church.

Another HT to The Firstborn Son.

Worship Quote of the Week

2009-07-01T07:11:00.004-04:00

Seeker-oriented contemporary churches argue that worship does not need to present the whole gospel. The purpose of worship, they say, is to get people in the door. Then, after they have gained a hearing, they present the gospel in small-group settings. This argument may be good marketing, but it fails to understand the biblical purpose of worship. Worship brings glory to God because it remembers God’s saving deeds in the past and anticipates God’s culmination of his saving deeds in the new heavens and new earth.

Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), 85.

Here's what I like about this quote. Anytime we attach any agenda to worship, no matter how good, we start down the road toward idolatry. We don't witness to non-Christians by worshipping. The Spirit witnesses to people through our worship.

The difference-- the former will quickly lead us down the path of marketing. The latter comes through fastened attention and loving adoration of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Worship Leader of the Week

2009-06-28T22:19:00.004-04:00

Ok Friends. Let's start the week with a little fun. How about a caption contest for this one? Look closely. ;-)

And there's more where this one came from!

HT to Omar A.

Is your worship reaching God?

2009-06-22T08:31:00.004-04:00

How would you know?

Seriously. . . . . what would be the signs? Please respond in the comment field.

*This is not a right-wrong answer kind of question, but one that is searching for some pondering and reflection. Take a stab at it.

Internet Monk laments the state of worship in Evangelical church

2009-06-14T09:17:00.003-04:00

Michael Spencer over at Internet Monk posted a stinging critique of the present state of affairs in the Church as relates to worship and music. It generated quite a storm of comments, mine being #144. imagine that. I like what he is trying to say here, but I think the polemical nature of his post provokes the wrong conversation. Here's an excerpt to give you an idea:

Does anyone- I mean, really, seriously- have any idea what is actually happening within the worship culture of evangelicals?

We have, within a matter of 50 years, completely changed the entire concept of what is a worship service. We’ve adopted an approach that demands ridiculous levels of musical, technical and financial commitment and resources.

We have tied ourselves to the Christian music industry and its endless appetite for change and profit. We have accepted that all of our worship leaders are going to be very, very young people. Traditional worship - a la Tenth Presbyterian in Philly- is on the verge of becoming a museum piece.

The reformed- of all people- have led the way in this revolution. I attended a seminar last week where a room full of reformed were instructed in why the optimum worship leadership option was “the band.” Not the choir, the worship team, etc. But “the band.” Does anyone realize what that means for public worship?

Check the whole post and comment battle here-- and see what you think. I'd love to see your takes here.

Worship Star. A satyrical commentary in song on the rise of the Celebrity Worship Leader

2009-06-12T00:31:00.002-04:00

The views portrayed in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or commentator. (thanks to Neil Smith for the link)

But let's be honest-- isn't there something a bit oxy-moronic about "Famous Worship Leader."

One more thought. It's not so much the present day "Worship Stars" that I'm concerned about. Most of the ones I know didn't seek out fame nor do they exploit it. My concern lies in what I think this video is all about-- the thousands of persons who follow and imitate these so called "worship stars." It's amazing how God exaltation can so quickly become self exaltation in the name of God. How can this be avoided?

Practicing Pentecost: The Curriculum for Summer

2009-06-09T08:11:00.006-04:00

Hurry, then, to have a share in the Holy Spirit.
He is present when you call on him,
and if you call on him it is because he is present in you.
He is the rushing river that brings joy to the city of God.
He will show you what God the Father keeps hidden
from the learned and the wise of this world.
God is Spirit and those who adore him must adore in spirit and in truth,
so too it is fitting that those who long to understand him and to know him
must seek in the Holy Spirit alone
the insight of faith and the meaning of Truth pure and simple.
In the darkness and ignorance of this life, to the poor in spirit,
he is light that enlightens,
he is love that enraptures,
he is gentleness most moving,
he is our access to God,
he is the love of the one who loves,
he is dedication, he is devotion.

William of St. Thierry

In the days following Pentecost (i.e. summer) I try and give my attention to learn more about and contemplate the Gift of the Holy Spirit. I am finding that about 90 days a year (that's the idea anyway) of that kind of focused reflection and practice helpful and meaningful. How have-do-are you learning about the Spirit (i.e. reading, practice, stretching.)

Pixar: A Study in StoryTelling vs. Terminator: A Study in Special Effects

2009-05-31T22:50:00.007-04:00

On Worship, Story Development, and Special Effects. This evening we took our family to see UP, Pixar's latest, and some say greatest, film so far. Pixar has enjoyed so much success not because of great animation but great stories. The stories tap into such profound plots and do so in such multivalent, multi-leveled ways. Last week I saw Terminator: Salvation. Despite it's storied beginning, the Terminator series laid an egg with this one. The impossible to follow story literally duct-tapes itself together with beyond spectacular special effects.

I find that to be the case with worship. We often rely more on special effects than on story development. Think about it-- lights, cameras, fog, newest songs, fast moving imagery on 17 screens, 18 effects pedals at the lead guitar's toe tips, and did i mention lights?? In fact, today's worship leader increasingly describes his or her task as "leading people through a seamless experiential encounter with the presence of God." Hmmmm.

How about this past Sunday? Did your worship service give any attention to developing the story of Pentecost-- the birthday of the Church-- the universal celebration of the sending of the Holy Spirit? Or was it just another week of lights, screens and sentimental songs?

I noted a feature in the movie credits today I'd never seen before. Pretty quickly after the credits began scrolling I saw the title of "Story Development Supervisor," followed by a host of titles and names underneath. Soon after came "Story Development Manager" with another team of laborers. Still yet came "Story Development Coordinator," and another team. Not only did these positions and work teams come prior to all the animators and special effects teams, they they seemed to outnumber them as well. Could this be Pixar's secret? Attention to Story Development?

What if we started approaching the worship life of the church in this fashion? Story Development. What if the worship leader became a kind of chief story development officer? How might that work? What could it look like?

The Academy of Flight. Graduation Poem

2009-05-24T11:27:00.006-04:00

What if
instead of mortar boards
the Graduates flew?
Black robes stretching out
like bat suits;
Utility belts of Truth
holding it all together.
"Not Possible!" you say.
That's Hogwartz Hogwash!"
"Gravity Rules!"

But what if
Heaven's Gravity is greater
overcoming the Earthen bound
lifting the humble from the dust
making humans fly
in the aeronautical tradition
of the Graduate
of Golgotha.

Several years ago I began a practice of writing a poem during the often lengthy graduation services I sit through twice per year. It helps me be reflective in what can be a quite redundant ceremony.

God Flies: Part 2.

2009-05-22T21:27:00.007-04:00

Absurd: wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate....

What difference does "The Ascension" make. I keep thinking about it. Noone ever really talks about it? My hunch is that it will not be mentioned at your Church this Sunday and yet you probably heard a lot about the resurrection 40 days ago on Easter Sunday. Why not?

Does it go too far for us? Human beings "flying"??? It's absurder. We will readily talk about Jesus being born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit. (absurd) We will wax eloquent about unbelievable miracles like walking on water. (absurd) We have no problem staking our very life and faith on Jesus actually rising from the dead, as in "rigor mortis." (absurd) We will readily talk about him walking through walls and suddenly appearing out of nowhere. (absurd) So why don't we talk about him flying up to Heaven? Is it beyond absurd? as in "absurder!"

I would suspect, in the eyes of a child, this would be the most amazing thing of all-- a person lifting-off and flying! I mean, what kid doesn't want to fly?

But us adults-- we don't make much of it do we? It's absolutely absurd!

Most popular tourist site in Washington DC? US Capitol?? no. National Air & Space Museum. yes. Why-- Human beings are more enthralled, amazed and taken away by the idea of flying, than any other phenomenon.

Could it be that the force of "gravity" exceeds the force of "faith?" It's true isn't it, "What goes up. . . . . . . must come down." But what if it's just the opposite? "What comes down. . . . . . . must go up."

I call it the gravity of Heaven. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up." Heaven's gravity is the supernatural force pulling humility up into true humanity. There are a million implications. One of them: one day we will have the capacity to fly. It's Absurd!

Think about that a bit and give me your thoughts.

Note: this isn't headed toward 19th century Rapture theology-- I promise. ;-)

God Flies! part 1

2009-05-20T13:19:00.004-04:00

With Ascension Day coming tomorrow (Thursday 5.21) I've been thinking a lot about the Ascension. Here's my question: What difference does it make? In my own experience people don't talk too much about it. Yet I've heard theologian types claim it is the most central reality in the life of Christ.

So why does it matter? There are other ways Jesus could have gotten to the right hand of God. He could have simply said "Beam me up," or something like that. He could have disappeared in the night when noone was looking. So why does this little account in Acts 1:1-11 matter? This must have huge implications for the practice of Christian worship.

I've got so many thoughts about it, but before going into those, I'd like to hear what you think. I promise not to critique responses.

Worship, Theology and Art

2009-05-13T09:24:00.004-04:00

Jeremy Begbie is a fantastic teacher in the area of worship, thelogy and the arts. Here is a 15 minute demonstration of his craft worth your time. He's coming to spend some time with us at the seminary this fall.

I will be interviewing Dr. Begbie in November as part of his visit. As you listen to this presentation, write points of conversation and inquiries you would have for him. (comment field) This will help me prepare.

The Many Faces of Worship: Streets Edition

2009-05-09T22:15:00.001-04:00

BTW, this is not a Church Service.

Time Flies: Worship as collision of past and future in the present

2009-05-07T21:28:00.005-04:00

In our worship design and leadership we must work to strike a balance--- no, not a balance--- but a chord. Yes, we must work to strike a chord between the past and the future; between remembrance and anticipation. (The Bible words would be "anamnesis" and "prolepsis," but that's not important for now). What is important is the way memory and anticipation work in Christian worship.

In worship-- which is to say the gathered Body of Christ presencing in the communion of the Son and the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit-- our Spirit empowered remembering mysteriously ushers the past into the present moment. At the same time, our Spirit empowered anticipation mysteriously ushers the future into the present moment.

Worship is a collision of the past and the future in the present, making for a reality bursting with revelation; a panoramic unfolding of the view of God's mercy.

The secret to this is Jesus himself, who in his death redeems the past, bringing all of fallen creation into the present and who in his resurrection pierces the veil of the future, pulling the essence of eternity backwards into the present.

Time Flies!

The Kingdom comes in this collision. It happens in the abiding place of the Cross. The collision shows us in sketch what the consummation will bring in full living high definition color.

How do you respond to this almost inconceivable statement?

Worship and Neuro-theology

2009-04-29T21:08:00.003-04:00

Check out "Faith is More than a Feeling: The Problem with Neurotheology is that it Confuses

Spiritual Experiences-- Which Few Believers Actually Have-- With Religion, a short article in this weeks' Newsweek Magazine discussing the connections or lack thereof between neuroscience, spiritual experience and God.

Those who follow this blog know of my ongoing interest in this conversation. One of the big questions I have for Christian worship and worship leadership is whether it leads us into an experience that is escapist in nature or toward a deeper immersion into the Life of God. I summarize it as the contrast between Narnia and Nirvana. Narnia is a deeper place of reality. Nirvana is only a deeper place in our own spiritual experience. Is worship an escape into an existential experience or entering into an encounter with eternal reality. It is quite easy to confuse the two. Is worship about being led to my "happy place," or being radically reoriented around the reality of the God we know in Jesus Christ? Or are these the same place after all???

So how do we tell the difference? In the end, I posit there is only one way to tell where authentic worship happens: Examine what happens outside the worship gathering. Are worshippers loving others in ways that go against their self interest? As the article points out-- Saints aren't canonized because of their religious experience, but for their extravagant sacrificial love.

How about it? Does the article shed any helpful light on the subject? What questions does it raise for you?

Worship Central: Resource

2009-04-28T08:07:00.002-04:00

I had a great time with Tim Hughes and Al Gordon out in California last week at their Worship Central America gathering. Tim and Al lead worship at Holy Trinity Brompton in London and continue to grow a ministry of encouragement and equipping to worship leaders across the World.

I was looking on their website today to see what had been put up from the conference when I found this recording of my teaching with them at the Chicago conference this time last year. In the recording I outline a job description and suggested curriculum for a worship leader around the following headings: Theologian, Priest, Pastor, Prophet. I also do some teaching on Romans 12:1-2, offering a large framed theology of worship. Yes-- I had two days of material for an hour of teaching and so I hardly get it covered. However, it gives you a sense of some of my worship thinking.

Worship Central Training Conference-- Join Us

2009-04-23T06:28:00.003-04:00

I'm enroute to the OC (to be part of a worship conference put on by Tim Hughes and Al Gordon at Worship Central. (U.K.). I'll be teaching a couple of sessions entitled, "Crafting a Theology for Doxology."

Worship Leaders ARE the primary practical theologians of the Church. Noone shapes the people of God more than the ones who envision, design and lead their worship. While you probably do not need a theological degree, you must cultivate a life of theological learning and training. This session will explore a theological vision for worship design and leadership with practical guidance for weekly worship gatherings. As well, we will explore how a theological mind shapes a doxological heart in both worship leader and worshippers

If you are in the area, please sign up and come.

LEVITE CAMP Today

2009-04-17T06:07:00.003-04:00

Join us Today from 10-2, Royal Auditorium for the final spring session. (prior participation not required).

Special Guest Teacher, Marcus Green, from Great Britain will lead us in this extended session. His first book, Salvation's Song, is worth the read.

I'll get back to more regular conversation next week.

The Many Faces of Worship: Easter Edition

2009-04-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Harrowing of Hell

2009-04-11T03:01:00.001-04:00

Here is George Mackay Brown, poet of Orkney, in his poem entitled “The Harrowing of Hell:”

He went down the first step.
His lantern shone like the morning star.
Down and round he went
Clothed in his five wounds.

Six steps follow:

on second he meets Solomon;

third David;

fourth Joseph;

fifth Jacob;

sixth Abel

On the seventh step down
The tall primal dust [Adam]

Turned with a cry from digging and delving.

“Tomorrow,” ends the poem,

“the Son of Man will walk in a garden
Through drifts of apple-blossom.”

(“The Harrowing of Hell,” in Northern Lights [London: John Murray, 1999], 24.)

Holy Week Poetry: Intermingled

2009-04-08T07:22:00.001-04:00

For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

intermingled life and death
fusion of your blood and breath
the human God of Love Divine
heals lineage of our broken line

intermingled joy and pain
behold the son of goodness slain
sealed by stone in earthen mound
while resurrection rends the ground

My Son! My Joy rise up to reign!
The end of death makes suffering's stain
a work of art in wounded clay
revealing script of passions play

O suffering God grant me a share
to humbly speak the Garden's prayer
to bid Your life in me be born
my striving temple's veil be torn

my body now entombed by flood
intermingled water and blood

resuscitated by your death
intermingled with the Risen breath.

John David Walt, Jr.

Ordering Worship: Part 4. (the freedom of order)

2009-03-31T08:58:00.000-04:00

Throughout human history, give people the choice between order and freedom and they invariably choose order. It most often eventually leads to tyranny. (think about this the next time you go through security at an airport).

But order is good, isn't it? The problem really isn't with order is it? The problem is the way we misunderstand the notion of order. To pit order against freedom creates a false dichotomy. The problem isn't order; it's control. Control counterfeits order. That's why we resist order. We've seen too much control in the name of order (think legalism). We hate control because it means a progressive loss of freedom. When control absolutizes itself we get slavery. This is the nature of idolatry. Human beings set up systems to control or manipulate God toward the end of their own security and they wind up becoming slaves to the system they created.

I used to think the opposite of order was chaos. Now I think it's control. Chaos is the predictable outcome of control. Freedom is the surprising fruit of order.

However, there is one way to choose both order and freedom simultaneously: Worshipping the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

thoughts? comments? make sense?

FARMStrong On Location at Our Nation's Capitol

2009-03-31T08:56:00.002-04:00

READER gets out of the Shire.

2009-03-27T03:01:00.000-04:00

Northland, A major Church in Orlando, joined with us this season in our Common Text Reader. They have worked some wonderful innovations with it. Check the reader out here in a magazine-pdf format.

The Many Faces of Worship: Look what's sweeping the Church

2009-03-25T03:01:00.000-04:00

Looks like this one is making the rounds. and spiraling downward.

see here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT . . . . . .

BUT THEN I FOUND THIS.

AND THIS.

AND THIS.

FINALLY SOMETHING ORIGINAL!

AND AFTER ALL THAT, I FOUND THIS:

I'M SPEECHLESS. WHICH IS PROBABLY A GOOD THING. ;-)

Common Text Journey: "Every Word that Comes from the Mouth of God"

2009-03-23T03:01:00.000-04:00

We are doing some special features with our Spring Reader. I'm not sure who out there is following the features on the OnLine Reader. If so, disregard these posts. If not, find about ten minutes and check it out.

THE GOVERNING DYNAMICS OF WORSHIP DESIGN

2009-03-20T09:29:00.004-04:00

"I need to look through. . . . . to the governing dynamics." John Nash (no comparison intended. ;-) )

Worship Quote of the Week: Marinating in the Story

2009-03-19T03:01:00.000-04:00

I recently watched, Painting with Words, a short documentary on the celebrated historian and pulitzer prize winning author, David McCullough. When he writes the stories of famous historical figures (i.e. Andrew Jackson) you get the strong sense he actually knew them. The documentary explores his writing process. He said the first thing he does is to marinate his mind in the life of the person he's writing about through immersive reading. Interesting choice of words. Now consider this exhortation from Robert Weber along the same lines with respect to our work.

As pastors of the Word, there is a strong need to soak ourselves in the Triune story of God with its detailed exposition of the central role of Christ in the greatest drama of human history—the drama of God who becomes one of us to rescue the world. This theme of God's rescue of us all—not inspirational topics, motivational speakers, or massive therapy sermons—needs to be recovered as the central message of our church. Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God's Narrative. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), 121.

I'd be interested to hear how you all go about this kind of marinating or soaking in the Story.

Levite Camp Session 3 Tomorrow: u r invited

2009-03-19T03:00:00.000-04:00

Ordering Worship: Part 4

2009-03-17T03:01:00.002-04:00

Here's a discussion question:

What is the opposite of order?

I'll ring in with my thoughts in the comment section or perhaps in the next post. Please share your thoughts and rationales.

The Feast of Saint Patrick

2009-03-17T03:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Common Text Journey: The Fasting that is Feasting

2009-03-16T03:01:00.000-04:00

Ordering Worship: Part 3

2009-03-13T22:40:00.003-04:00

I want to continue this conversation about worship and order. Questions abound on this issue. Why does worship need an order? Why not just open ended spontaneity? Doesn't order constrict the freedom of the Spirit? Isn't this just tradition? Where is it in the Bible? An Order of Worship is for more high formal liturgical churches isn't it; for people who have bulletins?

The bottom line: We all operate in worship out of some kind of order. Call it what you will, written down or not, pre-planned or off-the-cuff, over time some consistent pattern will emerge.

We've been talking about the four basic movements of worship: God gathers a people to himself. He speaks his Word to them. They respond in covenant obedience or disobedience. (most often in a covenant meal or ceremony) God sends them out into kingdom work or exile. The four movements of this order come from the storied way God works with people. Take a look at this chart. (click on it to enlarge)

The Many Faces of Worship

2009-03-10T03:01:00.000-04:00

Hat tip to Rob Mehner.

Ordering Worship: Part 2

2009-03-09T03:01:00.001-04:00

After my last post, i realized I made some big assumptions that people already agreed that we needed a particular kind of order for worship. So do we? Why not just order it in a way that makes the most sense to twenty first century worshippers? Why not switch it up regularly?

So what do you think? What's the point of an order for worship and is this different than order in worship? How might a set order be a benefit? a liability? Why should it matter? What difference does it make? And if we agree on the need for an order of worship then how should we arrive at it? Where would we find it? What would guide us?

I've decided to spend a few posts discussing these questions and related issues. So for starters, I welcome you to inform the conversation with your own assessments and assertions.

ON EARTH as it is in heaven: Practical Tip of the Week

2009-03-07T03:01:00.000-05:00

We don't much print bulletins anymore in our worship at the seminary but we do pay close attention to the order or framework of the service. Good design requires careful stewardship of the movement and flow of the worship and how the various elements work together to focus intention and sharpen attention.

There is an ancient pattern or order to worship moving us through four large movements.

Here's how we frame it:

The Spirit gathers us.

The Word addresses us.

The Father welcomes our response. (or welcomes us to his Table)

The Son sends us out with commission.

Note who gets the verbs here. As you plan worship, think about it from this perspective. What kind of things does the Spirit do to gather us? How does God want to address us through the Word? What kind of response might the Father welcome in light of the Word? What would it look like in our service for the Son to commission us and send us out?

It might lead to a quite different plan than if we ask these questions: How do we want to begin the worship? What is the theme of the pastor's sermon? What do we want people to do or to walk away with or apply to their lives? How do we end the service and transition to the next thing?

We'll unpack these questions in more detail in coming posts. In the meantime, I welcome your thoughts.

Learning More about the emerging Passion City Church

2009-03-04T18:41:00.004-05:00

Here's an interesting interview in Christianity Today online about the new Passion City Church in Atlanta. The interview feels a bit antagonistic and yet I think Louie handles it well. It will be exciting to see how an itinerating worship ministry will settle in and make a home for itself in a particular place.

As you will see in the interview, there is a bit of a cynical edge out there about starting a "Super Star Church." Yes, there is something a bit oxy-moronic about the term "famous worship leader." But when you think about it-- the people they are really trying to reach will have no idea who they are. It's not as though Beyonce and Lil Wayne are planting a Church. (though that would be great) Knowing these guys, I can assure you they aren't working out of a celebrity mindset. This is about friendship. And for my money, that's how the Kingdom works.

Think I should send in my resume? I could definitely lower the fame quotient several notches. (i.e. "dork it down") ;-)

The Many Faces of Worship

2009-03-01T03:01:00.000-05:00

Enough Said.

Hat tip to Josh Agerton.

The Many Faces of Worship (Streets Edition)

2009-02-27T03:01:00.002-05:00

While in Orlando, I got connected to this outfit called "Rosa Loves." They make T-Shirts, 60% of whose profits go to help individual people in desperate situations. The story of the individual is actually printed on the underside of the t-shirt, to be worn directly over the heart. I learned about it through a friend wearing the T-shirt featured in the picture. In asking about his t-shirt, I learned about the story of Hussein, a little boy in Iraq who needs a heart surgery that will cost $4,000. They can't afford any of it.

Some may say this is the commodification of compassion. I'm not so sure. It strikes me as a fresh way of storytelling that spreads like a contagion, inviting participation in the plotline of love. It's a face of worship isn't it. "As you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me."

Check out the website. It's worth looking around. And maybe order a t-shirt. Just don't wear it on the same day I wear mine. ;-)

The Many Faces of Worship (Ash Wednesday Edition)

2009-02-26T19:50:00.004-05:00

A First for the White House (at least captured on photo). Reassuring at a certain level.

My Beloved. Traveling Music for the 40 days

2009-02-25T03:01:00.000-05:00

This is a little, simple song I wrote a couple of years ago on my front porch. As the spring opened up I found myself immersed in the Song of Songs. The real song at the heart of the Song of Songs comes down to 5 Hebrew words. They translate like this: My beloved mine. I his. The last time I heard these lyrics sung was in the 80's standard, "His Banner over Me." It occurred to me that we weren't really singing the simplicity of these lyrics very much any more. And we completely burned out that 80's tune. This is the song at the heart of the Song of all Songs and we weren't really singing anymore.

One spring morning on the front porch swing I sang out these words as prayer and this simple melody flowed out. (The great Willie Nelson was right when he said, "The air is filled with melodies. We need only reach up and pull one out.") As I sang the 5 words, my mind ran to Psalm 40 and I began singing each of those first several lines as verses to this new-old song. At the end I added a doxology, "Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit, three in One. Praise the Father. Praise the Son. My beloved mine I his.

As I journeyed through those 40 days of Lent to the Cross, I imagined Jesus singing this song to his Father on that lonely road. "My beloved mine; I his." This song captured the "joy set before him." As my life slowly and progressively becomes "crucified with Christ," and I can more honestly and humbly whisper, "and I no longer live but Christ lives in me," this is my song. Someone out there in YouTube world put this song to a series of texts. Listen and Watch and Pray.

A few years back on a visit to Austin, Texas, to see Chris Tomlin, I shared this song. He liked it immediately and the song began its long road to a record. Chris worked with some of the verses and invented a powerful bridge. He invested a lot in the song, pulling together a choir and making a great recording. The song was slated to be on the Hello Love album right up to the last minute when it was pulled in favor of another one. It wound up finding a spot on the iTunes version as a "bonus" track, free for those who purchase the entire iTunes record.

Perhaps that's fitting. The Song of all Songs must be free and yet a bit hidden. Off the beaten path, it must be searched out and found. I know it took me years and years to find it. The singer most always discovers this song like a treasure buried in a field. The lyrics stand the test of time while the melody moves with the age. "My beloved mine; I his." This song rings out the very heartbeat of the cosmos; the anthem of creation, and the essence of redemption.

I offer it here as a song for the 40 days ahead; traveling music as we head to the Cross and onward to Easter.

For you musicians, the chord chart may be found here.

The Common Text Project: Join us in the journey of the 40 days.

2009-02-24T22:50:00.003-05:00

Please consider joining us in the journey of reading Scripture together over the next 100 days. Our spring reading project begins tomorrow. You may read online here. I'll be blogging these texts from time to time, particularly as it relates to how the ancient calendar of the Church helps to narrate us into the Story of Jesus.

Here's a short clip to introduce the journey.

Our Worship as God's Response to Himself

2009-02-22T03:01:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago I made a claim some may have balked at. I even wondered myself if I had committed heresy. Here's basically what I said:

Worship, in my understanding, is God's response to Himself through his Son by his Spirit in and with his people. Isn't this what it means that we are created for the praise of his glory? For us to worship is to be swept up in a participatory fashion into the Trinitarian movement of Love. Our participation is a gift not from us but to us and through us. We don't bring the gift. We bring ourselves as an offering-- bodies coming together as a living sacrifice. God brings the rest. Listen to our friend, the late Bob Weber, on this point:

Worship is not that which I do, but that which is done in me. That is, worship, which reveals Christ, forms me by making me aware that Jesus is my spirituality and that worship is to form my spiritual life into the pattern of living into the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), 93.

If Christ is "in me" and "in you" does it not make sense that he adores the Father through us-- that our worship is not so much about "our response" but his supernatural Love moving in and through us?

A friend shared this metaphor with me the other day that captures it. We've all seen children put their feet on their parents shoes and hold on while the parent walks around. In worship, it is as though we are putting our feet on the feet of Jesus while he dances with the Father and the Spirit.

Thoughts? Push Backs??

The Many Faces of Worship: (Streets Edition)

2009-02-21T03:01:00.001-05:00

This one's worth your 5:11. Here's a picture of what worship looks like in the streets. It fits the Revelation-Response pattern for sure. And there's a lot more here than meets the eye. It's pretty stunning. This is the famed magician "Penn" of "Penn & Teller." Take a look:
Hat tip to Beth Ann Cook, who sent this my way.

Thoughts? ? ? ?

Welcome Dr. Tim Tennent. Asbury Theological Seminary President Elect

2009-02-20T00:55:00.002-05:00

We have a new President at our seminary. Dr. Tim Tennent. It's a new day. Get a sense of Dr. Tennent via this video interview.

The Story of Worship and Mission: Part 9

2009-02-16T03:01:00.001-05:00

He comes to his threshing floor.

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. Matthew 21:12-15.

The place of worship had ceased to be a place of mercy. This is evidenced by the presence of the blind and the lame who were apparently being stepped around like furniture. The threshing floor is the place of judgment-- where wheat and chaff are separated. The good news is that the place of worship becomes a place of pre-emptive judgment. The place of worship holds out the possibility of repentance, a true turning to God, which leads to our redemption as opposed to destruction.

Now think back through the scenes of this unfolding story and make some theological connections. They are manifold.

The Many Faces of Worship

2009-02-14T03:01:00.001-05:00

Yes. . . . . I'm afraid this really happened in a worship service. ;-)

Hat tip to Tom Fuerst.

Chris Tomlin Critique Response

2009-02-12T10:30:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week a friend sent me a link to this blogpost by a quite distinguished professor of theology at Regent College in Van Couver, Canada. The post excoriates Chris Tomlin as a songwriter and borders on an ad hominem attack. After sleeping on it, I decided to post a comment to the growing trail. My comment is somewhere down around #58. I welcome you to read it, but would prefer if you have a response directly to me to make it here on my blog rather than on his. Of course, if you want to respond to him, you are free to comment on his blog as you please.

The internet is a dangerous place. ;-)

The Story of Worship and Mission: Part 8

2009-02-12T03:01:00.001-05:00

Remember Leviticus and the intricate connections between laws re: worship and laws re: showing mercy to the widows, aliens and poor.

Remember Ruth (widow and alien) gleaning behind the harvesters and later meeting up with Boaz on the threshing floor.

Remember the lineage: Obed--Jesse--David--Solomon. . . . . . . . Jesus

Remember David who purchased the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite and there offered sacrifice to the Lord, pleading for the stopping of the plague.

Remember Solomon building the Temple (the sacred place of worship) on the foundation of this very threshing floor.

Now remember John the Baptist, the last and greatest prophet according to Jesus. Note his language and metaphor which is both symbolic and literal at the same time.

"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matthew 3:11-12.

Do you see where this is headed? Observations???? Predictions???? Stay tuned. . . . . .

The Story of Worship and Mission: Part 7

2009-02-10T03:01:00.002-05:00

Finally, we get back to the Worship and Mission series begun here some months ago. If you are just joining us or need a refresher, click here, scroll to the bottom and read your way up through the six part series so far. Part 6 in particular will bring you up to speed. Despite the fact that we've lost momentum, if you will tune in, this series will surprise you in what could be a powerful fashion. In the series we are establishing a biblical trajectory for the union of worship and mission.

We left off with David purchasing the threshing floor from Arunah the Jebusite. Many scholars believe that this is the same threshing floor where Ruth met Boaz, and extended the mercy of redemption. This same threshing floor became the foundation of the Temple constructed by Solomon.

Remember-- Levitical law readily interweaves concerns for proper worship in the tabernacle with care for widows, orphans, aliens and the poor. (i.e. leave grain in the fields). Ruth, an alien widow gleaned behind the harvesters in the field of Boaz. Ruth and Boaz connect on the threshing floor. They give birth to Obed which downstreams generationally to David. David purchases the threshing floor from Arunah the Jebusite. Solomon builds the temple on the site of the threshing floor.

Coming Soon. . . . . . . John the Baptist, makes an amazing connection profoundly linking the past with the future. . . . . stay tuned. This is going to blow you away.

The Many Faces of Worship

2009-02-08T03:01:00.001-05:00

Hat Tip to Matt Maher, my brother from another Mother.

Headed to the Westside for the Grammys

2009-02-07T03:01:00.000-05:00

The Tiff and I are en route to Los Angeles this weekend for the Grammy Awards Telecast on Monday. Our friend and Tiffani's boss, Chris Tomlin is nominated for one of the coveted awards. (Best Pop/ Contemporary Gospel Album). It's a tough field with Stephen Curtis Chapman, Brandon Heath, Leland and CeCe Winans. Should be fun.

What is the Presence of God?

2009-02-05T03:01:00.001-05:00

I hear this a lot. Someone will be telling me about a recent worship experience. "Man, the Presence of God was so thick in that room last night." Or they may say, "The Presence of God really came down," or "fell." Another said, "We really experienced the manifest Presence of God in that worship time."

I'm not questioning these assertions. I'm only asking you to offer your reflection on what you think they are trying to say.

What is the Presence of God? And how do we know when we are in it?

Worship as Gathering v. Worship as all of Life

2009-02-03T03:01:00.001-05:00

I get some push back from some readers who assert that we might not ought to be spending so much time talking about what happens in a worship service but to spend more time talking about life as worship. I hear that. This quote below caused me to remember the assertion.

In the church God's presence is in the assembled people, in their song, Scripture, water, bread, wine, and oil. God is not an absent, ethereal essence who sits in the sky and demands worship. God is the God who acts, who lives and moves and has his being in the world and among the people. Affirm that all of life, not just part of life, is sacred. Affirm that God is disclosed in every detail of human existence. Then, stand inside the Bible and God's story and let it teach you to look out into the creation where God is signified everywhere yet particularized in Jesus, the ultimate icon of God.
Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God's Narrative. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), 126.

So here's my question: What difference do worship gatherings make to the notion that all of life is worship? What is the purpose of a worship service? What is the relationship between a worship service and the rest of life? What should the relationship be? If all of life is worship, then why do we need to have worship services?

The Many Faces of Worship

2009-02-02T03:01:00.000-05:00

I didn't say what kind of worship and whose face.

Ok, I debated this one. And this may not be the best example as I have seen some far more extreme examples. Take a look particularly at :35 and 1:17 of the 2:20 clip. Look familiar?

I just come for "the worship."

2009-01-28T17:34:00.003-05:00

It happened again the other day. . . . . I was talking to a friend about where he goes to church on Sundays. He said this, "I go to (fill in the blank) for the worship and then I leave and go to (fill in the blank) for the teaching."

why is it that people tend to refer to the musical or singing part of the service as "the worship" and presumably everything else in the service as something other than worship? let's unpack that and analyze what may actually be being said.

This just in. Interesting NY Times story on Chris Tomlin

2009-01-27T14:51:00.003-05:00

Check it out.

Here's my question: What captures this NY Times reporter's attention?

Learning to Read again. . . . . in worship.

2009-01-27T03:01:00.001-05:00

The way we approach and read Scripture may be the single most important factor in Christian worship. Most often, I experience Scripture being approached in worship services like a treasure chest. It's highly valued and the task is for the leader to reach in and pull something out that is relevant to our every day lives. We approach the Bible as a functional text, like a handbook or worse, a rulebook. I call this the extraction approach. I'm searching for the immersion approach.

Rather than asking what we can extract from this book to make our lives work, what if we asked a different question: How might we become immersed in it's Story, swept up into its movement, captured by it's central character and enthralled in its mystery. It's a different way of reading, altogether. "It's a different way of reading, altogether." (pardon the airplane joke if you didn't get it.) Consider this keen observation:

The apostolic way of reading and preaching Scripture is to see Jesus Christ as the subject of the entire Bible, the subject of all history. He is the single overarching story of all time. He is the meaning of the entire narrative of human history. He is seen everywhere. He is in every event. . . . The Bible nourishes us . . . because it reveals Jesus Christ . . . who now lives in us and calls us into the new humanity.
Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), 119-120.

How might we do this? First we must rediscover the wisdom and beauty of the ancient patterns of reading Scripture in worship, most notably the use of time-tested, pre-selected weekly texts centered around Jesus. Second, we have to recapture a way of following Jesus through the totality of his life in the midst of our "real time." If his story controls, our agendas fade. This is the only way our agenda can be subverted. The best way I've seen this unfold in worship is through ordering our entire sense of time around this story. (i.e. our calendars and our clocks). We need to rediscover the wisdom and beauty of the ancient ways of doing this and find creative ways to contextualize these practices in our 21st century reality.

Inauguration Prayer from Bishop Gene Robinson

2009-01-26T15:01:00.000-05:00

To complete the trifecta, here's the inauguration celebration kick-off prayer from the Right Reverend Gene Robinson. Thoughts? Observations? Analysis?

"A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama
By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God's blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will...

Bless us with tears - for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger - at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort - at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience - and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility - open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance - replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity - remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand - that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN."

Inauguration Benediction of Joseph Lowery

2009-01-26T03:01:00.001-05:00

Now let's turn to the benediction/prayer/charge offered by Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery. Observations? Analysis?

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou, who has brought us thus far along the way, thou, who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.
Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.
We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day.
We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration.
He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national, and indeed the global, fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.
Our faith does not shrink though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.
For we know that, Lord, you are able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor, of the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.
We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union.
And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.
And as we leave this mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.
Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.
We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone.
With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

Rick Warren's Inauguration Invocation

2009-01-24T15:00:00.005-05:00

I've heard mixed reviews on the invocation offered by Rick Warren at the recent inauguration ceremony for President Barack Obama. Not that I'm in the business of reviewing prayers, but this was a particularly interesting one and a quite unique situation. I will print the text of the prayer below (as transcribed) and invite observations, analysis and other ponderings about the prayer, it's features, it's perceived appropriateness and so forth. Did he hit the mark or miss the moment? Because actual words make up only 10% of communication, take a look at the short clip capturing the prayer above.

Let us pray.
Almighty God, our father, everything we see and everything we can't see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story.
The Scripture tells us Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership.
And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.

Still to come-- Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer and Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowry's benediction prayer.

And don't forget about the YARDSALE. you won't believe what's out there now.

Presidential Inauguration as Worship?

2009-01-23T03:01:00.002-05:00

All of the elements were in place for a bona-fide worship service. Take a look at the order:

The gathering, (2 million strong pressed into the Temple Courts)
Prelude (Military Band)
Processional (distinguished guests)
Entry of the President Elect (all standing)
Call to Worship (Senator Feinstein)
The Invocation with the Lord's Prayer. Pastor Rick Warren. (we'll get to that in the next conversation)
The Anthem. My Country Tis of Thee, sung by Aretha Franklin (renowned witness)
Declaration of Intentions and Vows (in God's name- hand on Bible-administered by high priest --aka supreme court judges)
Special Music, (Anthem featuring historic Shaker Tune)
The Proclamation with Scripture (1 Cor 13) President Barak Obama
The Response of the people (raucous cheers, banner waving, tears, prayers, pledging allegience etc.)
Benediction (Rev. Joseph Lowry)
The Amen (Thrice repeated by all the people)
Recessional
Postlude
Presidential Potluck ;-)

A few questions: (first what am I missing?)

1. Who was the god and how do you assess that?
2. If it was a particular god, what does the separation of church and state mean?
3. What faith was lifted up and celebrated?
4. What story or stories were being remembered in the service? Which was primary or most prominent?
5. What are the implications of these fascinating dynamics?

Resist the temptation to engage in soap-box ranting or raving here, try to engage in careful and thoughtful analysis. Pretend you are an anthropologist who discovered the DVD recording of this service 1,000 years later. How would you analyze what was happening on this day?

Worship and the Tournament of Stories. Part 1

2009-01-22T03:01:00.004-05:00

How do we make sure we are living out God's Story in the World and not just our own stories in God's name? Our worship will make all of the difference. The big distinction: Which story are we remembering in worship? Is our own story or our faith community's story the primary narrative? If so, we will read Scripture in a way that serves those stories. We will pull things out of Scripture and drop them into our story in a way that serves biblical notions of holiness or Christian behavior or good marriage or building campaigns or financial giving (stewardship) or financial gaining (prosperity), to name a few.

OR is the epically cosmic and personally intimate story of Father, Son and Holy Spirit the big consuming story that has our attention. If so, we will read Scripture in a way that draws us, our lives, our families, our communities, and all our needs and problems into the story of Creation and Fall, Israel and Jesus, the Church and the Final Consummation. This way of reading and worshipping trains us to see the vision of God's Kingdom and to live as though it were a present reality. (i.e. to walk by faith.)

The outcomes of these two ways are vastly different. The former will lead to getting some good things done in a pragmatic, biblical and often Christian way. Downside: we stay in control. The latter will lead to an impractical abandonment of our lives in love to God for the World. Downside: we lose control.

Consider this quote below. Part two will follow soon.

The story of God is still being written. Our present is given meaning by the past work of God, and God's future casts its beacon backward so as to remind us how our present life and witness have consequences into eternity. On the other hand, this perspective presses the importance of the church's coherence with the biblical drama, its mandate to continue this particular narrative and in particular ways. It is, after all, the story of God, not our story. With so many chapters having already been written, and with the final chapter already firmly in place, the options for intervening material are limited, if we are to continue this story. Accordingly, our task is to align ourselves with these landmarks on the biblical terrain--or, better, to write ourselves, to inscribe ourselves, into the biblical narrative, so that our sense of past, present, and future is congruous with the story of the universe found in Scripture. Christian faith is lived at the confluence of personal, ecclesial, and blblical narrative. Joel Green, The (Re-)Turn to Narrative from Narrative Reading, Narrative Preaching, citing Gabriel Fackre, 'Narrative Theology from an Evangelical Perspective," in Yandell, Faith and Narrative, p.188-201.

AND DON'T FORGET. . . New items daily on the YARDSALE.

Worship and our Lost Story

2009-01-19T17:33:00.002-05:00

It happened again this week. No matter where I go to speak in the context of a worship service I get an email like this.

J.D., we need to know your themes so we can get that to the band so they can choose songs for the worship sets. Are you looking for something soft and intimate or loud and celebrative? (i.e. the youth pastor version of this question: do you want them up or down?) "What kind of response are you looking for? Any particular response songs come to mind?

I experience it almost universally in worship services I attend, and to be sure, I have done it plenty of times myself. I can often tell what kind of "key word" search the worship leader utilized to select the songs. Pastor to Worship Leader: "I'm preaching on the holiness of God this week. I need some good songs." Worship set: 'Holy Holy Holy,' 'Holy is the Lord,' 'God of Wonders,' and (choose your favorite song that uses the word 'holy.') I'm still waiting on this one. Youth Pastor to Worship Leader: I'm preaching on the perils of masturbation this week. I need some good songs." Worship Leader to Pastor: "uuuuuhhhhhhh." Worship set: 'Give us clean hands,' .................... 'Oops! I did it again!' .........

What if we moved away from this sermon-centric model of worship? What if we agreed that worship can be tied to no other agenda; no matter how relevant-- not our sermon series, not the altar call, not the stewardship campaign, not the 'idol gives back' routine, not the Super Bowl for crying out loud. What if the musical portion of our worship ceased to be a 'platform' for the speaking portion? What if we ceased forcing our worship services to motivate, or worse, shame our people into applying our three points to their already over-applied lives?

What if our worship, week after week after week, became a moving story (more like '24' or 'Lost' which inspire a religious-like following). What if our worship, including the sermon, (which is an act of worship) became "Story-centric," cohering around the mighty acts of God and particularly around the pre-existence, conception, birth, life, death, resurrection, appearances, ascension and reign of Jesus Christ; and all of this constantly bathed in the Spirit empowered reality of Pentecost? What if 'going to church' re-oriented us to (situated us inside of) the real story going on in the Universe, reminding us of who we are and why we're here?

What if we poured all our creativity into that kind of worship design and leadership? What might happen?

Check out my YARDSALE.

2009-01-17T12:14:00.004-05:00

Because I've tried to focus this blog in a particular way around a conversation about Christian worship I don't put much of anything else up here. And yet I am interested in a lot of other things. I recently opened a new site called YARDSALE, where you can find the kinds of treasures (and trash) I previously posted in the "14 Stations....." posts.

So check it out-- subscribe-- and enjoy. Because in French, "internet" means "to share." ;-)

Training Sight to See the Beatific Vision

2009-01-15T03:00:00.002-05:00

Here's a good quote for Epiphany:

Second, the church's assemblies mst again become places of seeing. We are told by Scripture that in the Kingdom this world's dimness of sight will be replaced by, as the old theology said it, 'beatific vision.' It is a right biblical insight that God first of all speaks and that our community with him and each other [and it is of first importance] that we hear him and speak to him. It does not, however, follow, as Protestantism has made it follow, that to listen and speak we must blind ourselves. In this age, accurate hearing is paired with dimmed vision: it is precisely a promised chief mark fo the Eschaton that accurate hearing will then be accompanied by glorious sight. And in this age, the church must be the place where beatific vision is anticipated and trained. (Robert Jensen, How the World Lost its Story. p.135. (essay in collection).

This thought invites a lot of other thoughts and inquiries.

1. Would you consider your worship gatherings places of "seeing?" Most worship gatherings I go to these days settle to be places of feeling and thinking.

2. How are we cultivating and training our people to "see" and to "behold" the 'beatific' vision?

3. What is the 'beatific' vision?

4. How are we utilizing media and electronic imagery to inspire and train this kind of sight? How do we use such means to "substitute" for this kind of sight?

5. What are the limitations?

6. How might we be misusing electronic media and imagery?

7. What if one of the main questions we pondered about our worship experiences was, "What did I (we) see?"

8. Your question here?

Epiphany and The Blind Leading the Blind

2009-01-13T08:40:00.000-05:00

One thing we want never to characterize worship leaders and designers: "The blind leading the blind."

Think about it. In the midst of the seduction of Eden, we get this exchange:

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Then this:

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

How does one become aware of blindness while their eyes are open?

Now look at this. In the midst of the Epiphany of Emmaus we get this exchange. (Luke 24).

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him......

25He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ[b] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

.....When he

was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

Anybody want to take a shot at some theological/doxological analysis from these "eye-opening" texts? Any "epiphanies" ????