Dress, and other odd reasons for false confidence

13 09 2011

Reading Phil 3 today.  This jumped out at me:

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh   -Phil 3:3

I don’t worship by my flesh. I worship by the spirit of God and I glory in Christ Jesus.  This seems like it’s detached from what we do in America, but I don’t think it is. Paul is saying that those who are of the circumcision think they have some extra access to worship God because of their physical circumcision. This is just funny to think about. They think because the end of their penis doesn’t have the extra skin from birth, that they have extra favor with God. Weird. But to give them credit, it made sense in their day. It was a sign of a covenant between them and God. But what about now? Paul says that WE are the circumcision(the people who have a covenant with God) because we worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus.

It’s all about who is “special” to God. Who gets his attention. Who he notices more. Who he favors. Who’s “in”.

And we are still concerned with this today. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to be near to God and wanting his favor.  It’s how we go about getting it that can get twisted. See, the jews of the day followed all the religious laws and thought that they were earning favor with God.  What about today?  What do we do to earn favor with God?

The first thing that comes to mind (because I lead a worship service every week) is church clothes. There is nothing wrong with signs of honor, I do it everytime I go on a date with my wife, but there IS something very wrong when we genuinely believe God sees or favors us more because of our clothing.  We are coming before the God of the universe. Do we really think that a collar on our shirt or a crease in pants is going to earn us enough points to enter into his presence.

No way Jose. Ain’t happenin’.

He’s God. He’s holy. You can’t come before him just because you cleaned up a bit. And without the blood of Jesus, you would be utterly consumed in His presence (and not in a good way).  Thinking our clothes or hair is going to somehow earn us favor or even saftey in the presence of God is like jumping into a shark tank with your “briar proof” jeans. It just ain’t gonna cut it.

But “It is we who are the circumcision [figuratively], we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh” that can enter into his presence freely.  James 4:6 says that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. That’s why that 20 something that just came to Christ (you know the one, he doesn’t know that the “F” word is not an acceptable adjective anymore) encounters God in incredible ways while the prideful, albeit nicely dressed, church folk seem to struggle to hear from God at all.

So in the end, it’s not about dress or not dress. That’s just an example. We strive to earn God’s favor in countless other ways: work, language, good deeds, being nice, etc.  But what God is after is a heart change. A humbling before the incredible work of his son Jesus and a realization that only be His sacrifice do we have access to God.  And only by the Spirit of God can we worship the father at all (remember John 4?).

So, today I don’t want to feel like I need to measure up to come before God.  I want to worship by the Spirit of God. I want to glory in Christ Jesus, not myself, because, lets face it: I don’t have all that much to glory in on my own. Oh, but in Jesus, nothing is impossible. He can use me and mold me and give me an incredible destiny. Thank You Jesus.


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Categories : Bible Teachings, Teachings on Worship

2. It’s too loud

6 05 2011

Don’t have a lot of time this afternoon, so I’ve decided to address the glaring, yet simple complaint with today’s worship music: “It’s too loud”

I think this one can be summed up in 2 words: BAD MIX

I’ve been in traditional Easter services where the Orchestra is pushing 110 Db and the entire senior community is present and loving it!  So, I think we can say with confidence that when people complain about a 4 piece band running 95Db that the real issue isn’t volume, it’s the mix*.

I have run sound enough to know that when the average person complains about the mix, they generally don’t say things like, “I’m suffering from listening fatigue” or “The cymbals seem harsh, can you roll back the highs a bit” or “The vocals are way out front. Anyway to get them back in the mix.”  Nope, it’s will almost always, “This music is too loud” or, more specifically, “The drums are too loud!”

So, if your a senior or worship pastor:
Invest in some great FOH engineers. Acoustically treat your room. Isolate your gear(you can’t run your rig like The Edge unless you have 10,000 people in your venue). Invest in good equipment. And I promise you this: it will go a long way in unifying your church in terms of music.

If your a congregation member:
Administer some grace, churches aren’t run on elaborate budgets (at least yours probably doesn’t), and it’s likely your leaders are doing their best.  And in the meantime, feel free to offer constructive,  heartfelt, criticism and loving, authentic encouragement. (And try to do more of the latter than the former).

What do you think?  Do you agree? Do you disagree?

*This is a general statement. Sometimes, it’s just TOO LOUD!


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Categories : For Worship Leaders, Teachings on Worship

What is a worship leader? (Part 1)

28 06 2010

Before I came to a methodist church, I had a pretty isolated view of what a “worship leader” was. Isolated in the sense that I only understood it in the context of the last 10-15 years. (I didn’t care much about worship leading when I was 10).  I remember one morning at my production meeting, someone informed me that our associate pastor was leading worship at the traditional service.  The problem was, I had never even heard this person sing or play music, but that’s not what they meant.  Depending who you are, this may or may not come as a shock, but there was a time in the recent history of the church when “worship leaders” didn’t exist in the sense they do today.  Worship wasa broader term and a worship leader didn’t inherently imply music.

I think there is something wise and biblical we can glean from this understanding.  Bob Kauflin quotes Don Carson on worshipmatters.com as saying this:

To call a person a worship leader takes away the idea that teaching, preaching, listening to and devouring God’s word, and applying it to our lives, we are somehow not worshipping.

So true. Teaching, preaching, learning are all aspects of worship

So, modern day “worship leaders,” what are we?  How to do we fit in the midst of biblical church leadership?  Is there a specific anointing for those leading music in the church?

This week, I’ll be taking a look at this.

Cole

(Thanks to Bob Kaulfin at worshipmatters.com for his incredibly blog entries and resources on this topic)


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Categories : Bible Teachings, For Worship Leaders, Teachings on Worship

Our Role as Worship Pastors (Part 1)

19 03 2010

When I became a believer I was in High School and I was a part of a youth group at a small baptist church.  Shortly after, the youth pastor found out that I played guitar.

“Next week, have ‘Faith like a Child’ ready to go! Your leading worship”  He says to me. (If you haven’t had the pleasure, check the song out HERE.)

I didn’t have itunes, though I think Napster had made it’s way onto the scene by then, so I learned it as best I remembered from when the sunday morning.  The next wednesday came and I played my 1 song I had learned. It was terrible. I think most people were just confused at what was happening and honestly I was a little confused as well.  I had been given a task: lead worship.  But no one had stopped to tell me what my role in leading worship was. Am I just a musician?  Am I a cheerleader?  Am I a performer?  This leads me to our topic.

What is our role as worship pastors?

The way I see it, we essentially have 5 main roles:
Worshiper, Leader, Teacher, Pastor, and Musician

Let’s start with worshiper and we will get to the others in later posts.

Your #1 responsibility as a worship pastor is to be a worshipper yourself.  A worship leader who lacks passionate and intimate personal time with the Lord has no business leading people in the very thing he or she lacks.  This is about as basic as we can get, but I still think it’s worth saying. I can’t tell you how many students and even adults I’ve seen that are simply taking cues from Steve Fee or Kim Walker, repeating their prayers, repeating their new songs, and imitating their demeanor on stage.  The funny thing is depending on how deep and enthusiastic your people on, this can work at some level for a while before it surfaces as fraud.  But like we talked about in the Wilderness Power post, these incredible leaders God has raised up in the church are leading from an overflow of intimacy and time with the Father.  And it is IMPOSSIBLE to imitate, reproduce, or counterfeit (well) that overflow. So where are you today?  Do you practice what you preach? Let’s always ask God to examine us like David did at the end of Ps 139:

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!


And on a practical side, what does this look like?  What are some ways we can be practitioners of what we are encouraging?

1. Sing a new song to God in your quiet place. God loves your songs, and he especially loves the song that is an overflow of what He is doing specifically in You. Look at psalms like Ps 105 where the psalmist remembers the SPECIFIC workings of God in his people. Or Ps 30 where David recalls the Lord’s salvation in his life.  Sing to your God and your Dad a new song.

2. Love on someone. Hebrews 13:15-16 says this:

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

With what sacrifices is God pleased? Both! Loving him (fruit of lips) and loving others (do good/share with others).  Jesus even said that the 2nd most important law in the whole Old Covenant was to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31), second only to loving God will all you are!  So love on someone today. It can be anything from buying a stranger a cup of coffee to housing someone who doesn’t have a place to stay.  You could even pray for the sick!  Jesus is our example as a worshiper and the gospels talk about him loving people WAY more than they do about him singing.

3. Worship through your worship set. So, you’ve put together songs for your church on sunday. A great way to fuse the practical with the spiritual is to take that worship set you’ve planned, get with the Father, and offer those songs up to Him.  You will never be more connected with a worship set as when you’ve encountered God in the midst of it before you ever lead your people in it.

I hope this helps. As I post the other 4 parts to this series, I’ll link them at the top of this page.

Blessings,
Cole


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Categories : Bible Teachings, For Worship Leaders, Songs and Music, Teachings on Worship


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