Worship 101

I constantly feel like the Sunday worship service is being turned into something it is not. People complaining about styles of music, songs, preacher, they didn't get anything out of it, etc. So, I wrote the following article for our newsletter. It probably won't help, but I needed to get it out of my system.

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When is the last time you walked out of a worship service critiquing some aspect (songs, sermon, communion time, etc.) or bemoaning the fact that you “got nothing out of it”? Or have you ever spoken to someone who didn’t see the need to go to church citing the superiority of their personal relationship with God over that of the body or questioning the spiritual state of the church, assuming that it was full of hypocrites? It seems that we all at some time or another lose sight of why we gather together as a corporate body. I know that I do when I get too caught up on flawless transitions and hitting every note correctly. So I came up with a few reminders that help keep our worship service in perspective.


It’s about the giving, not the receiving
All of us, at least once, have said to ourselves: “Worship is boring and long and irrelevant—what am I really getting out of it?” But that is the wrong question. A better one is: “What am I really adding to the service—am I helping others get something out of this?” We can reflect, meditate, pray, and even study the Bible alone. We can seek to be built up and encouraged by the body. But we can’t expect to only receive at the service. Simply, the church service is not about meeting personal needs, it’s about what we’re offering God and one another as a community of Christians.

God is the audience, not us
We call it a worship service, but a more accurate description for what most of us do today is something like a “spiritual show.” I think many people equate churchgoing with going to the movies. It’s a performance, and their role is to give it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. We treat our worship service like our favorite TV program. As long as the show is entertaining and the characters and story capture us, we’ll stay tuned. But if it loses its edge, we’ll flip to another channel, another show, another church. In a consumeristic culture, we let us be reminded that God is the audience, not us. The choir, the minister, the instrumentalists, the servers, the audio/visual workers, and the people sitting in the pews are all part of the worship service, for which God is the point. When we become the audience we miss out on the purpose of gathering—to give God glory and praise.

Our commitments define us
Tony Campolo says we’re defined by our commitments. If we believe nothing and support nothing, we’re a part of...nothing. If we commit ourselves to the church, we define ourselves as part of the body of Christ. There, we can feel loved, supported, and part of something much bigger than ourselves. This mentality is far different from “putting in our time” or going to church because we are supposed to. Commit to the church and it will change from a burden to blessing.

We must learn to live with others’ differences and unify around our common commitments
The subtle and overlooked message of the “Wherever two or three of you are gathered...” passage is the directive to simply love one another through our differences by gathering. In this disconnected culture, most people have few opportunities to live and love with people who are radically different in age, interest, and perspective than them. Church offers them a chance to connect with others around a common set of desires and commitments. There is no doubt that this church contains people who have varying tastes in music style, song selection, etc. But why do we let such things cause a rift? If we are committed to building one another up in love and glorifying God why does it matter what songs we sing or what instruments we use?

We need others who can share our load
Central to the Christian life is “bearing one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). If we are to grow into the image of God, we must move toward others whether they’re broken or blessed, through tears and through laughter. And we need others to help us lift our concerns to God. The last half of Hebrews 10:25 advises, “Let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” As we join together, committed to one another and to God, we will receive a blessing and an encouragement from the service.


May we be known not for the quality of singing or music, or for having a blending, traditional, or contemporary service, but for having a service of committed believers that are united in the singular goal of bringing glory to God.

So, I have been doing a lot of various things. Nothing major, but it has kept me busy. In addition, my laptop has been down, so I have not been able to multitask (i.e. watch Elijah and write blog posts). So, as you can see, my last entry has been a few weeks. But never fear - I wrote an article for the newsletter that I will post the next few days. Until then, reread something I wrote in 2004, quote it in the comments of this post, and mock it for its sophomoric viewpoint.

Acoustics—Day 4: The Cries of the Oppressed

Parents often become desensitized to the cries of their children. They are concerned but eventually know that things will work themselves out. So action is delayed, put off onto someone else, or frustration sets in. Yes cries can be tuned out somewhat easily. It is no different with the cries of the oppressed, the weak, the starving, and poor.

All is not well with the world as we would like to think on our best days. People are hungry, epidemic diseases are threatening entire generations in Africa, powerful people use cruel measures to meet their agendas and on and on we go. The troubles are not only a world away, but near to us. People are nowhere cared for as they should be.

Their cries have reached God and as the God of the widow and the orphan he is pained.
But it’s not the troubles that are so shocking. It’s the unconcern shown by those of us not affected. The cries of hurting people are rising to our ears, yet we are not hearing them. And we live on in oblivion. But these cries are God’s cries. It is God who is naked and hungry and diseased and alone. And only in our response of compassion and love can we offer God due reverence. The cries of injustice cannot be silenced save by Christians acting in God’s name to relieve their hurt and reform their oppressors.

It is our responsibility to care for our brothers and sisters. These cries will not work themselves out. It requires action. No amount of ignoring, putting it off onto someone else, or throwing up our hands in despair and frustration will help. And the impetus of our actions is not just to solve a problem, but to respond to the life of Jesus. As we seek to become more like Christ, to live like Christ, and to reflect Christ’s love for the world, only then can we begin to make a change.

“What ever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” –Jesus

Acoustics--Day 3: The Song of Creation (is a lament)

We live in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains. It is a beautiful area of the country. Mountains. Trees. Blue skies. Creation is beautiful. God is good. And often we hear that God has created all of this for our enjoyment. But is that it? Is all of this just to make us happy? What is creation saying to us?

Scripture indicates that creation is more than just a passive pleasing sight for us to take in. The created order is actually making quite a bit of noise. Clapping, singing, shouting, praising and storytelling are just of few of the activities that the trees and forests and oceans are caught up in. And all of this activity has a greater purpose than just to please us. It all works together to bring glory to God. But there is a problem. The song of creation has changed over time. No longer is it this wonderful, beautiful song. The creation is crying out. Paul says in Romans that all of creation is groaning out in pain as if it were in childbirth. The song of creation is no longer a love song.

But the creation is not taking it lying down. The creation is lamenting. It is saying “God save me! I am not how I am supposed to be.” If you think Adam taking the fruit in the garden just affected our relationship with God, you have missed it. The creation feels the effect of the fall every bit as much as we do. It is suffering right along with us. It is wasting away right next to us. And it is seeking restoration as much as we are. It is crying out. Can you hear it?

Just as God heard the cry of the Israelites in their bondage in Egypt and acted, just as he heard the cry of his people in exile and restored them, just as he hears us crying out for forgiveness and brings his grace, God has heard the cry of creation and wants to see it restored. He’s reclaiming creation. He has entered into it and renewed his plans for the world. The day he sent Jesus into the world was the day restoration began—not just spiritual, but physical, complete, whole restoration.

Jesus is God’s way of refusing to give up on his dream for the world.
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus]. And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (col. 1:19-20)

In Jesus God is putting it all back together again.

The creation proclaims the glory of God. Yes, and we praise God for that. Creation also screams in pain as we abuse and rape it in our own selfishness. How can we praise God for creating the world all the while contribute to its destruction. How can we be attentive to the joyous sounds of nature without heading its agonizing cries? In short we cannot. Scripture testifies to God’s great power and beauty, but it also calls us to care for what God has made. Can you hear the song of creation? Can you respond to its lament?

Acoustics—Day 3: The Voice of Others

Consider your response when someone tells you they hear voices. Immediately we assum they are crazy, insane, ready for the nuthouse. It is just not a normal thing to hear voices. In fact, our society encourages isolationism—a removal of self from our surroundings. So even though voices ring out across the world, we only hear what we want to hear. After all, hearing voices makes one crazy.

And yet Christians are told to listen for God but few receive and audible voice. So how do you know when you have heard the word of the Lord? What does it sound like? How do you know for sure? Burning bushes are on short order. Angels aren’t delivering messages. Has the word of the Lord ceased?

And then there are those who think they have heard the word of the Lord. We all know that hearing without doing is worthless. So how do you know when the word of Lord has taken root in your soul? As we look around to those who have made great impact on our world they were listening and responding to the word of the Lord. Their lives reflected an inward appropriation of that word. They lived out what they heard. And we will know when we have heard the word of the Lord when we can’t help but live it out. When it is a fire in our bones. When our heart is united with the heart of God.

But that is just crazy talk. Voices? Words from heaven? Fit for crazy loin cloth garbed prophets. So what do we do with Jesus regularly ending his sermons with, “He who has ears, let him hear”? Jesus encourages listening and hearing voices, and perhaps that is what endeared him to people. He would take time to listen and understand people instead of dismissing and ignoring.

As persons made to live in relationship it is necessary that we listen to the stories of our friends. And as a people with a story to tell and an invitation to extend it is crucial that we pay attention to the stories of those we welcome. We might be surprised at what we hear. There are few challenges as great as maintaining godly interpersonal relationships, and yet it is through other people that God so often chooses to speak to us.

Can you hear the cries of those around you? It’s God speaking.

Acoustics—Day 2: The Clamor of Culture

We are bombarded by messages from our culture. The loudest reverberations in our lives come from the agents of popular culture. Granted many of the messages disseminated thereby are unwholesome and anti-Christian, but many are not. Most are promoting a lifestyle that you should engage in so that you are happy, fit in, and contribute to society. Companies tap into this ideology and sell products that ideally help you accomplish such a lifestyle. And most of us buy into it to some degree.

Sometimes unknowingly the agents of culture can be bearers of the Truth, for, as Arthur Holmes stated, “all truth is God’s truth.” Thus comes the regular debate of Christians: “What do we do with culture?” We can’t ignore it. We can’t just rebel against it. We can’t stop it by protesting. We shouldn’t buy into it. So what do we do?

As Christians we are responsible for sifting through the messages we hear and separating the light from the dark. Or as Paul writes in Thessalonians 5:21 “Test everything, hold onto the good.” Whenever and wherever we find truth, we must claim it; we must also respond appropriately to those messages we deem untrue.

The solution revolves around taking every thought captive and turning it over to God. We develop a filter that can see God’s truth in a variety of cultural places. Truth about God and our place in this world can be found if we just tune our ears to hear it. It may be unexpected. It will also probably not be in the trite Christianized versions of culture (I am talking to you Lifeway and Family Book stores). There is a lot of noise from our culture. It can be redeemed. It can be used to explain the gospel. Or it can be ignored and we can allow it to affect us unaware. What’s your filter like?

Acoustics--Day 1

Today begins camp and begins the task of both discerning and evaluating the influences in my life and the lives of the campers. The theme is “Acoustics.” There is plenty of noise floating through the air—TV, Radio, News, Music, etc. So do we as Christians have a filter for hearing properly what we hear, or do we take it in without another thought? And if all truth is God’s truthm then God’s word can be heard in many places. How are we hearing it? This is the question that will drive the week and challenge us to hear the important messages, discard the worthless ones, and then act accordingly.