Why should we expect the Kingdom? (Essentials Green)

For: The Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt

Why should we expect God to move within a service? Why should we lead worship with an expectation of the Kingdom coming? I think the short answer to these questions is that if we don’t expect it, we won’t recognize it when it comes or we will be unprepared to receive it.

Now I want to say a quick word about what Kingdom expectation is. The kingdom is the time when Christ rules the earth and following that when the war with the dragon is over. That is an event in the future at the end of the world. But God doesn’t make us just wait till then. He gives us small tastes of what it will be like when that time comes. This can be experienced when we help the poor; when we serve each other; and when we are passionately worshiping the King.

The second part of Kingdom expectation is the word “expectation.” I love how Dan Wilt defines it: Hope in action (1). This means that we hope something will happen and so we prepare for it to happen.

So what does this look like in a service? For starters it means that we are flexible to what God’s doing in the service. This might mean changing a few songs in the middle of the service or completely throwing out the set list. It means that we pray for God to move and then watch closely to see if there is any evidence that he is.  These are just a few way that we can bring kingdom expectation into our services. By doing these things I hope that we will be able to recognize it and be completely prepared for it.

Cultural Relevance? What’s with that? (Essentials Green)

For: The Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt

Why worry about cultural relevance? Really, aren’t Christians supposed to be “in the world but not of the world?” The answer to this question is so that non-Christians don’t think that we are out-of-the-world weirdos. Let’s face it, many people think that Christians are conservative ideologues who consider all music other than hymns and Gregorian chants to be Satanic. Now I don’t consider hymns and chants to be bad, but stylistically they are light years away from what people listen to on popular radio (or any other medium for that matter). I believe that we still need these styles for some people as it is part of their culture, but we cannot allow ourselves to be stereotyped which people then use to try and discredit us. Now in order to be relevant to the culture, we need to know what our culture is. The two key criteria I am going to look at for determining what culture(s) we are in are age and geography. I’m going to start with age. I’ve heard it said that whatever technology is the latest and greatest when someone is thirty or forty, that is the technology that they get “stuck” at. I think it is similar with styles of music. The older generation tends to have more people who like hymns and the younger generation tends to have more people who like rock. Now obviously there are exceptions to that rule, I personally like some hymns done on pipe organ and my grandparents never seem to be uncomfortable with the rock that I play with my band. However the important thing to remember is that both age groups need to worship and in order to be accessible to them we need to be relevant to their culture. The other criterion, as I said, is geography. Most genres of music are associated with a certain region in the world: southern gospel from the southern states; country from the American mid-west. The issue churches face today is that because of globalization and the internet through which music styles are now be exported, there may be several different style preferences represented in the congregation. Some large churches have resolved this problem by offering different services with different styles. However this option is not usually available to smaller churches. The solution will be unique to each church. I believe churches should look at the demographic they are targeting and what they are listening to. I would pick the most popular style that the group likes as long as you have the musical ability to achieve that style. That last phrase is important. Unless you have musicians who know how to play jazz, you are going to have a hard time creating a service where jazz is the main musical style. This goes back to integrity. Some people can’t play jazz and they should not be forced to try because they won’t own the music. Another thing churches should look at is if there is a style that is not being represented by any churches in their community. This could be an opportunity for the church to bring the light of Jesus to a group that might not be interested in the other churches. For example in my own community, I know a number of people who listen to rap, yet I have not heard of a single church who offers a service where the worship is rap. The final thing to remember is that the worship is not the only thing to draw people to the church. Preaching and programs play a big part. But worship is still important to consider. As I said at the beginning of the paragraph, the solution will be unique for each church and we need to carefully and prayerfully consider what the best style is to provide accessible worship to our local community.

Intimacy (Essentials Green)

For: The Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt

Intimacy. What’s the first thing comes to mind when you hear that word? Chances are, you think of the first honeymoon night for two newlyweds. For most people, intimacy equals sex. True, sex is a big part of intimacy between a husband and wife. It is the second deepest level of intimacy. But intimacy is more. If you are intimate with someone it means that you are open with them. You don’t keep any secrets (except maybe birthday and Christmas presents!).  On a low level of intimacy, you might share something you are struggling with, with a good friend. On a higher level, you share all that you are struggling with as well as your body with your husband or wife. On the highest level you share all that plus your every thought with your Creator and King.

Intimacy with God is what we were created for. Without it we are incomplete. And it’s the church’s job to facilitate this relationship. When we worship, we should be trying to get as close to God as possible. No matter what. Does the church do a good job at this? Sadly, I don’t think so. Too often we hear of “seeker friendly” services where the goal is to not offend or scare people away. Often this means that worship is toned down, focusing on the celebration songs and shying away from the meditative and prayer songs. I don’t think it works either. When we stay shallow in worship we don’t allow intimacy with God to fill the hole people have in them.

Tomorrow I hope to right a blog post on integrity which is another worship value close to my heart.

The art of lighting (Essentials Red)

For: The Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

 (To my classmates from Essentials Red: I addressed this in my answer post but I wanted to expand on it some more so here’s the expanded version)

All churches have some sort of lighting. At the very least they have natural lighting from the sun. Sadly most churches only use lighting for people to see with. I feel that this is a big mistake because lighting can be used as a very strong instrument to inspire people to worship. Now not everybody will have be inspired by the same type of lighting. I, for example, am inspired by big light shows. However other people would find the flashing and waving lights distracting. Other people would be inspired by seeing  hundreds of candles in a candle lit service.

People throughout history have used lighting in their worship. For example the flames of the menorah used in the Jewish Temple. I am sure that the light it provided was not just for seeing. fast forwarding into the reformation and the present day we see stained glass windows appearing I believe to create beautiful colors in the churches. And now we have light shows which frequently are timed to the music, marrying two powerful influencers together to inspire worship.

Finally, we see that light has spiritual overtones as well. In Genesis, light is the first creation and is called “good”. In Exodus we see the absence of light as a punishment for the Egyptians. Fast forwarding to the New Testament we see Jesus’ face “shine like the sun” during His transfiguration. Later the world goes dark as He hangs on the Cross. In John we are told that the Light has come into the world and “the darkness has not overcome it.” In 2 Corinthians we are told that Satan disguises himself as an Angel of Light, implying that light is good. Over and over again we see light being good I believe it is a great folly to not use it in our worship of God.

Baptism (Essentials Red)

For: The Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

Baptism. For years I believed that it was merely a different way of declaring your faith. A way of publicly saying that you belong to Jesus. And I reasoned that since I declared with my mouth that I was a Christian, I didn’t need to be baptised. Water baptism wasn’t the important part anyhow. Being baptized by the Holy Spirit was the important part. Basically I believed that baptism was a nice symbolic action that meant absolutely nothing.

This understanding of baptism caused me to butt heads with my step-grandfather, a Baptist. He believes that if someone is truly a Christian, and they have an opportunity to do so, they will be baptized. I.E. If they have an opportunity to be baptized, but are not, they cannot truly be a Christian.

I have come to the belief that both these views are wrong. Although I still believe that baptism is not a requirement for salvation, it is still an important point in the life of a Christian. As one of the seven main sacraments, baptism can be defined as “an outward sign that conveys an inward grace.” (1) Basically baptism is an action that tells part of the salvation story, and when we perform this act we glorify God. And why would we want to glorify Him? Because we have an inward grace given to us by his merciful love. What I’m saying by this is that baptism, while not needed for salvation, should still be practiced. Not as a benefit to the community (by declaring your faith), but as an act of worship between a Christian and his/her Saviour and King.

As a side note, I intend to get baptised as soon as I’m able.

1. Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship History, 23

Corporate Prayer (Essentials Red)

For: The Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

I love how Dan Wilt describes prayer: “Prayer is a form of singing without music.” (1) Often the worship time in many churches consists of music and the sermon without a lot of prayer. When there is prayer it is often appears as the introduction to the service or the closing to the service. While these are valid times to pray how often do we pray aloud, in a group, during a (large) service? I am sure a lot of pastors give the reason that in such a service, it is ”dead” time without any of interaction between the congregation and the worship leader. This is indeed a problem with spontaneous prayer.

There is however a solution: Crafted prayer – prayer that is written out for the congregation to read aloud as a prayer. Of course the idea of liturgy terrifies the evangelical church. How can we allow crafted prayers become part of our services when we know that God requires spontaneous prayers? (forgive the sarcasm) Is a crafted prayer really any different than selecting worship songs each week from a limited repertoire repeating their choruses over and over? Which brings us back to the description at the beginning of the post. If prayer is a form of singing without music, a crafted prayer is a song without music.  Just as singing songs written by professional song writers is a valid form of worship, so, praying crafted prayers is a valid form of worship.

This is not to say that we should drop spontaneous prayer. Spontaneity, when led by the Spirit, is a good thing. But crafted prayer is just as valid as spontaneous prayer. Spontaneous prayer should be encouraged but as this will not always happen we could plan crafted prayers into our services so that this language of worship is not left out.

1. Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship History, 15

The Christian Year (Essentials Red)

For: The Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

So I return to my blog…..

This is my first post for the Essentials Red online course in Worship History and Creative Vocation. We are going to be studying eight “languages” the Church has used to express its worship through the centuries.

This week we were studying how the Church has used the languages of time and space. In this blog post I’m going to look at the language of time specifically as it relates to the christian year.

One thing that I found interesting this week is the idea that we forget because we are a fallen race. Because of this remembering the story of God’s love becomes worship (1). The Christian year is a great way to remember the events of Jesus’ life.

• Starting in Advent we prepare for the coming of Christ. Part of this process is remembering why Jesus needed to come and  repenting from our sin.
• Christmas in the historical Christian year was not a one day event but rather a twelve day celebration (no doubt this is where the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” came from). It’s a celebration of the fact that God loved us enough to send his only son into the world to save us from our sins.
• Epiphany is one of the holidays that I didn’t really know much about. It’s a celebration of  Jesus’ manifestation to the world not just to the Jews.
• During the period of time between Epiphany and Lent we celebrate Jesus revealing himself as God’s Son though his signs and wonders.
• Lent, like Epiphany, is one of the holidays that I didn’t know about. I knew that people usually fasted something during it but I didn’t really “get it.” It is, even more so than Advent, a time to repent from our sins.  During this time we also mourn our brokeness and fast as we focus on the coming events of the Holy Week
• Passion or Palm Sunday is a cool day. We look back at the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, but also look forward to the day when “every knee will bow and every tounge confess that Jesus is Lord” of which the Triumphant Entry is just a preview. It’s a celebration of what’s past AND what’s to come.
• The Great Triduum is the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the Holy week. Maudy (Holy) Thursday is the day of the Last Supper and is commemorated in some churches through communion and ceremonial foot washing. Good Friday is the day of Jesus’ crucifixtion and death, the day he took the penalty for our sins. and Holy Saturday was the day he lay in the ground.
• Easter, like Christmas, was not originally a one day event. It was a fifty day period of celebration starting with Easter Sunday and finishing with the day of Pentecost. It’s a time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• After Pentecost is the length of time after the Day of Pentecost till Advent starts the Christian year over again. We celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit through sharing the good news of Christ. (2)

I hope that by reading this you get a better understanding of the Christian year. I have to say that I am excited to understand some of the meaning behind Epiphany and Lent and celebrating them in the coming year.

1. Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship History, 5

2. Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship History,  8-9

Let your Kingdom Come

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

This is a new song that I wrote for my Essentials Blue online course.

In the first week of the course I commented on the lack of songs talking about social justice. Since then I have realised how many more songs there actually are. That being said I decided to write another one. The first two lines of the Chorus are based on the Lord’s prayer followed by a prayer to let us help bring the semi-present Kingdom into its fullness. This is then echoed in the second half of the chorus with different words.  Musically I kept the chorus major because I wanted it to excite people to action. It should be exciting to be bringing the Kingdom of God to the earth. The verse starts our low and minor, talking about pain. then it talks about the noble quest for justice and truth and gets more positive. The second half of the verse talks about the answer to this pain and quest and musically echoes the first half. I pray that this song will serve you and your congregation well.

 

 

The song is Copyright (C), Clifton Bond, 2009

Worldview

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

The basis for my worldview is God. It follows that to understand a God based worldview I need to understand God’s nature. God’s nature is multifaceted: He is the God who creates; The God who reigns; The God who relates; and finally the God who saves (1). These four theological ideas are revealed in scripture and are integral to the worship artisan’s (2) worldview and understanding of theology (3). These characteristics of God form the foundation of my world view and shape my response to God and his creation.

When we embrace the scriptures, one fact is clear: God has made Himself known to us. He has done this is several different ways: Through sending his Son into the world; through the giving of His word; and through the echo of His voice in our inner ear telling us of himself (4). These revelations speak to us in four areas. The echo tells us that there should be justice (5) and that we should work toward it. It also tells us of that beauty is not just an illusion (6), but an objective truth. And finally, it tells us that we are built for relationships, especially a relationship with God (7).

Through God’s revelation of himself, I perceive Him and His creation, but I do so from the human condition. When humans were created, we had a specific purpose: to reflect God’s character to creation (Genesis 1:26). Unfortunately, we made poor choices starting with our original sin in the Garden of Eden and following through even to my life. These choices have tarnished our reflection of God’s character and separated us from God. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This redeeming act of love started the restoration of the fallen world. Because Christ died we are able take our place in the new Earth as Imago Dei (8). As redeemed children of God our character imperfectly mimics God’s. As God is creator, we are sub-creators, creating many contrivances to glorify Him. As God is King, we are his image bearers and are ambassadors of his love. As God is Trinitarian, we are community builders who try to build relationships within and without the church. And finally, as God is our Saviour, we are salvific storytellers (9) Telling the story of God’s rescue mission.

Worship of God is my response to this creative, trinitarian, saviour King. Worship is multi-faceted and reflects God’s and our ideal characters. We worship God the creator as sub-creators, marvelling in the beauty of creation and imitating His creation through the arts and technology and scientific exploration. We worship the Trinity as community builders who strive for relationship. We worship God as image bearers when we care for the world in the areas of social justice and the protection of environment which is really God’s creation. Finally and most importantly, we worship God the Saviour as salvific storytellers by telling the salvation story and witnessing to God’s love (10). These practical activities bring God’s Kingdom to earth which will be fully here when the world is fully restored to its pre-fall condition.

As we worship in all that we do, we become like what we worship (11) – a God who is creative, Trinitarian, saviour King. In worshipping God, our reflection of him becomes a little less tarnished.

1. Dan Wilt, Essentials In Worship Theology, 10-19
2. Dan Wilt, Essential Worship Theology – The rise of the Worship Artisan, video
3. Dan Wilt, Essentials In Worship Theology, 10
4. Tom Wright, Simply Christian (New York: Harper Collins, 2006), 3-4
5. Tom Wright, Simply Christian (New York: Harper Collins, 2006), 3-15
6. Tom Wright, Simply Christian (New York: Harper Collins, 2006), 39-51
7. Tom Wright, Simply Christian (New York: Harper Collins, 2006), 17-38
8. Dan Wilt, Essentials In Worship Theology, 27
9. Dan Wilt, Essentials In Worship Theology, 28-34
10. Dan Wilt, Essentials In Worship Theology, 43
11. Dan Wilt, Essentials In Worship Theology, 8

Imago Dei

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

When governments in the world wish to communicate something important, delicate to another country and to make sure the message gets through, they often choose to do it through their ambassador to that country. To the citizens of the foreign country, ambassadors represent the reality of their country and convey the interests and position of their home country.

As Christians we are the ambassadors of God’s kingdom to the world (2 Corinthians 5:20). To the citizens of this world, both man and beast, we are to represent the reality of God’s kingdom; proclaim his message and explain His desires.  As there is really only one being in our country’s government, God, we must care about what God cares about so that we can perform these duties. I addressed this more in my earlier blog post entitled “Injustice?”. 

I now want to explore this in a different angle, one that addresses nature more. Many Christians say that we don’t need to worry about the environment because the world isn’t going to end that way anyway.  But if we truly are the ambassadors of God, we should take care of the world, which according to Genesis was one of our original purposes (Genesis 2:8) there are lots over other references to this too: Noah’s covenant, Abraham’s covenant etc.  Even Solomon had a zoo which implies his interest in nature. Therefore, one aspect of properly delivering God’s message to the world as his ambassadors is to care about the environment in addition to working for justice.

1. Video: Essential Worship Theology, Week 3, Dan Wilt
2. N.T. Wright, Simply Christian (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), 148