Posts Tagged worship
Singing Theology
In November, I will be teaching a series called “Singing Theology.” We will be talking quite a bit about music and worship. Over the years, my thinking on this issue has swung back and forth a bit.
On Sunday, our congregation sang people’s favorite hymns. Generally, we worship using music from many different ages. We cherish the great hymns of the faith, but we also include music from our own era as well. There is both depth and breadth to being familiar with all of them.
What was curious to me was the responses. For some people my age and younger, the older hymns must be boring by default. They have no appreciation for the beauty of their melodic lines and the intricacies of their lyrical composition. For others, who are generally much older than me, hymns are “how you worship” and the idea of including anything else is just unthinkable. They might even dismiss all modern music as “choruses” – a word they utter as if having to eat overcooked asparagus.
The message of the Gospel takes many forms, and will take many more before Jesus returns. Some are majestic, others are earthy. But all are glorious when the Gospel is at their core. In fifty years, the people who find hymns “boring” now will be complaining about the modern music of that era. It is a never-ending cycle.
“The Doxology” and “Just As I Am” were once controversial. There were churches who refused to allow the piano as part of their worship, and others who would not accept any song not from the Psalms. We just go around and around on this issue.
What matters?
1. That God is glorified through Christ.
2. That we worship in spirit and in truth.
3. That our worship is theologically sound.
Everything else is flexible.
The Content of Worship
Recently, someone showed me a “new worship song”. They were so excited about the way it made them feel closer to God.
The “new worship song” opened with a pretty, melodic piano piece and was then followed by a single phrase – something like “I want to see you” – repeated five or six times before a big build and then a statement of all the ways the singer feels good when they are worshiping.
This is not worship.
Let me put this in context. Let’s say I wrote a love song for my wife and it went like this:
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
You do the dishes.
You scratch my back.
You take care of the stuff that I don’t want to do.
You give me sex whenever I want it.
You make me feel good about myself.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
Maybe my wife is different than yours, but my wife would haul off and slug me. Then she would not talk to me for at least the rest of the evening except to strongly suggest that I sleep on the couch.
Worship is not about repeating myself and commenting on how great it is that God gets to love me. That is narcissism, not worship.
People might say, “But it comes from the heart!” to which I reply, “Then your heart needs some adjustment because this tells me you are self-centered at heart.”
When we read the Psalms, the greatest book of worship songs ever written, we find a constant theme of God’s glory – very little of which involves the worshiper. Sure, the worshiper speaks a bit about himself from time to time, but then he turns it around and worships God in his divinity, transcendence and power. That bit about the worshiper – that’s not worship, it’s just context. The worship is the part about God.
The content of worship needs to be deeper and truer than our own emotional responses. That’s not to say that worship is not an emotional thing, but when all we can think of is our own emotions and responses, then it is actual self-worship and not God-worship.
Let me encourage you to pursue deeper content in your worship – musical or otherwise. Do not content yourself with putting on a Christian appearance for your sentimental journeys. If you need assistance, just pick up a psalm or two. They will feel unnaturally “deep” but they are after all God’s inspired worship.
Break Away from the Myths
Myths are powerful things. They are stories that might have some grounding in truth but are usually expanded far beyond their original scope. They drive and control the lives of those who accept them as fact without considering whether they align with reality.
Recently, I sent a link to this article from Jon Nicol about worship myths to the musicians in our congregation. Nicol listed three myths that affect small congregations, but there are lots of myths that float around the church – particularly small congregations – that paralyze us.
How do you break away from these controlling myths?
- Do some research and publicize the results. Don’t be intimidated by statements with no facts to support them. Find out whether these myths have any foundation and whether they even apply to you.
- Dream big together. As a ministry team, spend time dreaming. Make sure you clarify that dreaming is not planning. Dreaming is not bounded by budgets and limitations. It is exactly what it sounds like - dreaming. Jesus’ vision for you is bigger than your plans, and in dreaming, we often realize His vision.
- Write your own story. Myths try to write your story for you. Covenant together to write a story with the resources you have, to accomplish something only you can in only that place.
- Become the vision. Never stop learning. Never stop growing toward the vision God lays before you. Never stop failing forward in your quest to realize what He has set for you.
The Blues
When I was learning the guitar, my dad had a whole bunch of blues tablature books. There were some modern players like Jeff Beck and Jerry Garcia, but most of his books were about acoustic, finger style blues.
I cut my teeth on stuff like “Black Snake Moan” by Lemon Jefferson and old, old Mississippi blues. My dad used to tell me that the blues was the backbone of all American music, whether it was rock or country or even jazz. For awhile there, I forgot about the blues but lately I have been finding a lot of old stuff, like this video of Lightnin’ Hopkins above.
What drew me to the blues was nothing so noble as desiring to learn the true nature of American music. I read a line in one of his books that went something like this: there are no wrong notes in the blues, just wrong times. I liked any form of music that involved having no wrong notes!
The blues essentially has only two structures. There’s a 12-bar version and a 16-bar version. The 12-bar blues are by far the most common form, and it works like this. In the blues, the most common key is E, so let’s do a twelve bar blues in E.
The musical alphabet consists of seven tones, each with a letter from the alphabet: A B C D E F G. There are also a number of semi-tones. If you’re getting the semitones by raising the pitch of tones, they are called sharps (#) and if you’re getting them by lowering the tones, they are called flats. The semitones are: G#/Ab, A#/Bb, C#/Db, D#/Eb, F#/Gb, G#/Ab. That’s it. You have twelve tones and semitones, and they are the basis of all music.
Almost all blues are in what is called 4/4 timing. That means a bar is equal to four beats. If you stomp your foot four times, that’s four beats.
To play a 12-bar blues in E, you start with an E chord (which is the tones E G# B) and play it for 16 beats or four bars. Then, you switch to an A chord (A C# and E) for eight beats. Go back to E for eight beats, then to B (B D# F#) for four beats, to A for four beats, back to E for four and then to B for four. That’s your 12 bars, or 48 beats.
After that, you just find notes that sound good over the 12-bar rhythm. That’s pretty much all there is to the blues. It is an ultra-simple style of music, and yet I have been playing it for two decades now, and I never get tired. There’s always something new to try, some combination of tones that makes a completely different tone.
You can play 12-bar blues progressions for hours, changing rhythms and leads, putting crazy lyrics to the rhythm and watching where it goes. There’s just no end.
Don’t believe me? All I can say is that 12-bar blues is the basis of all good rock music, from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Roy Orbison. It is the foundation of punk, country, folk and even something as unexpected as bluegrass. It is even the foundation of most gospel music. That’s how influential this one style is.
This Sunday, Nichole will be “debuting” a song she wrote called “Why So Downcast?” based on a psalm and it is built on a simple 12-bar blues. I am challenged and excited by the chance to play with her because I think true blues reflects the penitence and longing of so many of the psalms from Scripture. I think it is worshipful, even though it isn’t your typical church worship song.
See you Sunday at The Road!
Worship Manifesto, post 3
Worship is not simply a response to God’s glory. This is the fatal flaw of so much modern worship music. It spends so much time in emotional response that it abandoned the worship core of God’s glory. It unconsciously substitutes the response for the reason. In the context of the reading of the Scriptures and the consideration of God’s glory, an emotional response is appropriate but it is not the true function of worship.
Worship cannot be generated through mood lighting or great musicians because the source of worship must be the understanding (in part, 1 Corinthians 13:12) of God’s glory in Jesus Christ. Worship is not of this world; it is an attribute of resurrection. Only those raised in Christ can truly worship.
You might ask, then what about the worship in the Old Testament? That is also the song of resurrection, even if it is written in another key. The themes of resurrection run throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, but they are present in the agricultural metaphor of spring time and harvest. They resonate in the narratives of barren women like Sarah, Rachel and Hannah who receive children from dead wombs. Resurrection is the entire point of books like Ruth and Ezekiel. What is the point of Jeremiah’s Lamentation if it is not that there will be a restoration?
And they shall build the old wastes,
They shall raise up the former desolations,
And they shall repair the waste cities,
The desolations of many generations.
(Isaiah 61:4, KJV)
Worship is only possible in resurrection, and resurrection is only possible in Jesus Christ. If we do not celebrate the resurrection, then we celebrate things that are dying and lost.
Worship Manifesto, post 2
Posted by Erik in Church, Definitions, Worship on May 24, 2012
manifesto (ˌmænɪˈfɛstəʊ) — n , pl -tos , -toes
a public declaration of intent, policy, aims, etc, as issued by apolitical party, government, or movement
The Church defines worship in many ways, but none is universal. A liturgy of worship can aid a congregation in worship, but it is ultimately a state of the heart.
Many want to make this a state of complete prostration, others wish it to be conviction while others take it to the extreme of reckless celebration – drunkenness in the experience.
Worship can be found in all of these things, to some extent, but worship’s core is the person of Jesus Christ. At the very core of worship must be the gospel – that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, come to redeem and restore all of creation.
It is not enough to view His work as a punctuation point in the midst of a larger story, to be “saved” and then along the way become “holy.” Worship’s core is the reality that Jesus’ redemption and restoration of creation is ongoing, active and present, and that while there is a personal element to this redemptive work, it is not solely or even primarily focused on the individual.
Worship is knowing that Christ is not simply imminent (overhanging and coming soon) but also immanent (present and active), that the restoration of creation is not just happening in individual hearts and will one day happen in all creation but that the work in the hearts of men and women is one and the same with the work in the creation.
At worship’s core must be the conviction that Jesus is not just my Savior but that he is creation’s Savior, and that the gospel preached to us is not that of the individual but of all things (Revelation 21:5).
Worship Manifesto, post 1
Posted by Erik in Church, Definitions, Worship on May 23, 2012
manifesto (ˌmænɪˈfɛstəʊ) — n , pl -tos , -toes
a public declaration of intent, policy, aims, etc, as issued by apolitical party, government, or movement
I am endlessly fascinated by the machinations of the modern church, in our varied attempts to justify our own existence. When we feel that sentiment is pulling toward social engagement, we become activists. When it is pulling toward leadership and programming, we become businessmen. When it pulls toward conversionism, we become evangelists. There is a constant tension in the church, pulling in all directions at once and creating a ministerial schizophrenia that makes us feel as if we are relevant and active while in reality paralyzing us. There are so many competing models and paradigms that there is no longer one focus. And sadly, when we try to reclaim that focus, all too often we simply reframe the competing ideas without accomplishing anything of significance.
Today, we declare that we will center our focus on Jesus – the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2); the Savior, Apostle and Head of the Church (1 John 4:14, Hebrews 3:1, Ephesians 5:23, Colossians 1:18; the express Image of the Father (Hebrews 1:3); the Only Begotten Son and the Firstborn of the Resurrection (John 1:18, Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:18). And we declare this focus to be worship.
We declare that our intent as the Church of Jesus Christ is to worship God in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24); to be reborn and remade through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 8:29, Philippians 3:10); to walk in new life (Romans 6:4); and to discover a new, shared vocabulary of worship and praise (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16).
Childlike Wonder
I wouldn’t trade being the father of a little girl for anything in the world. My sister has five sons (ages 11-1), and I have a couple of friends with lots of boys. I wouldn’t mind having a boy as well, but Ariel is a tremendous joy.
Her friend Paige comes over a couple times a week so they can go to karate together, and today when Paige’s dad dropped her off, Ariel was out in the field checking out a dragonfly. The two of them laid on the grass for a good ten minutes, talking softly while they watched the dragonfly. Eventually, it took to the air and alighted on Paige’s hand. This, of course involved lots of girlie squeals of excitement. Then it flew off.
As I watched the girls, I was struck by how seldom we adults revel in the simplicity of the moment. Ariel is far from what I would consider sedate. She talks almost ceaselessly and like all children of her generation, she requires almost constant input of information or activity. But when something grabs her heart and imagination, she is attentive and alert. She and Paige were completely focused on the dragonfly. It was a new, wonderful experience.
What happens to human beings that we lose that childlike attention, that absolute faith in the moment? Why is it necessary that we be born again to see the Kingdom of God (a phrase Jesus uses in John 3, and incidentally is used incorrectly by almost everyone else)? Why must we come to Jesus as children rather than as intelligent, accomplished adults?
I think Jesus wanted us to have an attitude of marvel and expectation in every moment with him. He wanted us to let go of the way we think the world works so he can unpack the marvel of the moment – what grace looks like just now; how divinity is revealed in this glimmering second. He wants us to live with that kind of eager absorption that children have in the moment that something new is revealed.
What is worship if it isn’t constant celebration of the moment of Jesus’ revelation? That rebirth in the presence of the Kingdom? What is confession if it is not the sudden recognition of my own bland, pale righteousness in the moment that I see Christ’s glory?
In the moments when I am walking with Christ and he is revealing things, I’d rather be like a little girl watching a dragonfly than like a grownup pastor who has it all figured out.
Music Flashback
This is from November 2010, right before the merger. It is interesting in a couple of ways – not just how the stage and band has been shuffled and reformed but also the congregation that is gathered (although we can only see the backs of people’s heads).
I love our musicians and cannot wait until my wife is singing again!
Raise Your Voices
Worth watching and considering.
