Every six years, the 4th of July falls on a Sunday.  As fate would have it, my first 4th of July as a worship pastor fell on a Sunday and this presented an interesting dilemma for me and many other worship planners.

A very wise man (my college mentor Doug Curry) once told me that a worship leader is a church’s gatekeeper of theology.  In other words, we sing what we believe and in turn we believe what we sing!  Quite honestly, we remember what we actively sing better than what we passively hear in a sermon.  That is why I, along with many other worship leaders, carefully examine a song’s message and implications before deciding to use it for congregational worship.

With that in mind, I have to admit that I’ve always been greatly troubled by singing patriotic songs in a corporate worship context.  When it’s the week of Memorial Day or the 4th of July, many feel that we need to sing songs like: “God Bless America,” “America the Beautiful,” or “The Star Spangled Banner.”  Now, I do NOT want to completely dismiss this desire and call it wrong; I have learned in my limited experience in church ministry that there are usually two sides to an issue.  So instead, I’m simply going to argue that there’s a BETTER approach to congregational worship around patriotic holidays.

As Christians, we constantly need to be asking ourselves:  who or what do we worship?  Obviously, Christians seek to worship the Triune God, but we also inadvertently worship other things in our lives because of our sinful nature.  In Matthew, Jesus says we cannot serve two masters:

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Well, this goes not only for money, but also includes other false gods like reputation, comfort, sports teams, celebrities, lifestyles, and…our country.  We CAN love and serve our country, but only if it stems out of our love and service for God.  We cannot and should not love our country in the same way we love God!  Don’t get me wrong, we should be VERY appreciative of our country, but our primary allegiance is to God.  In Hebrews 13:14 we read:

^“For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

If viewed appropriately, patriotism has its place.  However, my opinion is that when we start to incorporate patriotic elements in corporate worship, it’s difficult to for us to differentiate between God and nation.  When we sing “The Star Spangled Banner” in church, suddenly it might seem to blur the line between God and country…in other words, God and nation become one entity.

We should thank God that we live in America.  We should pray for our country in church; in fact scripture tells us to.  (1 Timothy 2:1-2)  But we are NOT better or superior to the rest of the world…and unfortunately we sometimes believe that, and it distorts our perspective on who we ultimately belong to.  We are all God’s children created in His image, and patriotism motivated by elitism is very dangerous.  When we worship as Americans, we should be aware of how we’re worshiping with Christians all over the globe…because our TRUE identity is in God!  It is challenging for all of us, but this is the healthy way to be patriotic.  We should be aware of our sins as a nation so we don’t hold ourselves on a pedestal and worship the country more than God.  In his second inaugural address,  Abraham Lincoln said:

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

As we worship God, we can be thankful for our country as long as we keep everything in the proper perspective!

Many will argue that we should sing patriotic songs in corporate worship because it celebrates God working through our nation.  While I don’t dispute that, I want to suggest alternatives.  I’ve just explained why patriotic worship is dangerous, so how should we worship in patriotic times?  I would HIGHLY suggested reading this blog entry on this very topic (http://www.worshipmatters.com/2009/07/04/should-july-4th-affect-our-sunday-planning/) by the well-respected worship leader Bob Kauflin.  In the entry Kauflin quotes a friend of his:

“If [civil holidays] loom large in the mind of my congregation, I don’t want to draw more attention to it by ignoring it—rather, such occasions become opportunities to help people think Biblically about them and to place them in their proper theological context (e.g., on July 4th: “We’re most grateful for the freedom we have as a nation this day. We’re completely undeserving, and most in the world don’t experience this common grace. However, it should remind us of a greater freedom we have. . .”).”

This is unbelievably wise advice…advice that I incorporated in my planning.  Whether we should follow the civic calendar at all in church (as opposed to the church calendar) is a whole other matter.  If a church does follow the civic calendar, (recognizing holidays like the 4th of July, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc.) than you cannot ignore these holidays.  The void would be so obvious that it’d be distracting.  Instead, we should use the holiday as a tool rather than an obstacle. We should use it as a day of thanksgiving; we should thank God for our freedom in Him, for His provision and for His guidance.  Listed below is the liturgy that I used this past Sunday.  By no means is it perfect, by no means am I saying that only my way is right and everything else is wrong.  Rather, I’m using this as an example of how I believe we can strive for patriotism with proper perspective.

7-4-10  Order of Service

Prelude

Verbal Announcements

Congregational Prayer (Adapted from The Worship Sourcebook)

Our sovereign God, Lover of all humankind, You have given us this good land as our heritage.  As we gather together to worship you this morning, help us always to remember your generosity and to constantly do your will.  Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.  When times are prosperous, let our hearts be thankful; in troubled times, do not let our trust in you fail.  We thank you for your overwhelming provision in our lives and in our country,  for the freedoms you’ve blessed us with, and  most of all, the freedom we have in your son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Hymn 809 God of Our Fathers (vs. 1, 2, 4)

Hymn 686 O God Our Help in Ages Past (vs.1, 2, 3, 6)

Welcome and Greet One Another

Prayer for Offering/The Lord’s Prayer

Offering

Video Finding Freedom

Message

Prayer of Confession

Communion

Hymn 139 Great is Thy Faithfulness

Benediction

Postlude

Through this liturgy, I attempted to direct our attention to our allegiance to God, while thanking Him for this wonderful country that He gave us.  God is our true hope and freedom…nothing else in the world can compare.  So next time we go to sing “God Bless America,” or “America the Beautiful” in church, let’s really examine our motivations instead of mindlessly singing words based on tradition.  Who or what are we really worshipping?  What is shaping our theology?  Who are we finding freedom in?  In closing, I urge you to watch this incredibly moving video that I had our church watch during offering this past Sunday.  As you watch it, thank God for every kind of freedom that He has given us because of his son Jesus Christ!

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/14292/Finding-Freedom

“The worship this morning just wasn’t for me.  It didn’t fit my personal tastes so I couldn’t worship.  Why can’t the worship pastor do musical styles that I like?  And why can’t that darn music be quieter?!”

Ever heard comments like this at your church?  Odds are, if you attend a Christian Evangelical church with any kind semi-regularity, you’ve heard these words before…or spoken or thought them yourself.  Here’s a true confession on my behalf:  I’ve certainly come away from churches thinking something along these lines!

But have you ever asked yourself WHY you feel that way?  Have you wondered if this ok, if this is something that’s consistent with Biblical teaching?  How do we reconcile the urge to make everything about our own personal desires?

As a worship pastor, these are very important questions that I have to ask myself constantly.  There are certainly no easy answers to these questions; it takes  careful and honest self-examination and discernment.  First let’s start by defining the root of the problem:

consumerism-  The conviction that my conscious desires must be satisfied as quickly as possible.  (definition by Syd Hielema, Redeemer University)

I don’t really need to go into too much detail about how consumerism dominates our culture’s way of thinking…especially here in the United States.  Many would argue that our country’s primary moral issue these days is not abortion or homosexuality, but materialism and consumerism.  According to Albert Y. Hsu in “The Suburban Christian,”  Pope John Paul II called consumerism “no less pernicious” than racism, Marxism, Nazism, and fascism.  All too often we find ourselves being motivated by want instead of need.  Building up material possessions becomes our ultimate goal in life and our ultimate security.  We work hard to establish ourselves by way of consuming.  Our social status symbols depend on what we own:  our homes, our cars, our clothes, even our coffee!  Just this past week I bought a new car.  At first, I could have cared less which brand I got.  But as I began looking at ads and reading opinions online, I felt myself being surprisingly sucked in by the status symbols of certain brands.  I started to wonder if indeed a Honda Civic really is “cooler” than a Toyota Corolla, and I began feeling an attraction to the “cooler” brand.  (Luckily, I resisted and went with the more affordable option…the Toyota.)

We are bombarded my marketing from an early age, and according to Boston College economist Juliet Schor, children recognize branding logos by age eighteen months and the average American child sees 40 thousand commercials a year.  A consumerism mentality is SO engrained into our minds that it’s sometimes hard to even be cognizant of it.  We are a people that are used to getting what we want, when we want it, how we want it.  We are so incredibly blessed by inconceivable wealth, yet we take it for granted.  Indeed, it pains me to say it, because I am as guilty as anyone…we are far too often guilty of being selfish.

As followers of Christ, this presents a very difficult challenge.  Hsu remarks:  “The Romanticist impulse redirected spiritual yearnings and reattached them to earthly commodities and products.  So instead of yearning for God or heaven, instead of entering into Christian story, we lay claim to the stories of corporate advertisers.”  It might be a more subtle form of idolatry than the Israelite’s golden calf in Exodus 32, but we can admittedly make our own selfish desires our God at times.  Our culture’s corporations tell us that our consumerisitic desires should be lord over our lives.  This is a very dangerous lie, because we were created to have a very different kind of deeper desire.

Augustine wisely stated, “Our hearts are restless Lord, until they find rest in thee.”  And, let’s not also forget the words of Colossians 3:

¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^{[b] 7}You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

And Matthew 5:6 reads:

⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

As Christians, our deepest desire should be a fuller, more complete relationship with God.  Admittedly, it is very difficult to be aware of misplaced desires.  And that is why when we worship together as a congregation, we have a hard time turning off our consumeristic mentality.  Christians are a diverse people with many different preferences, musical tastes, beliefs, and ethnic backgrounds.  Of course we all are comfortable with different things.  But that does NOT mean that everything needs to be done OUR way.

In an excellent Christianity Today article entitled “Here We Are to Worship,” Brad Harper and Paul Metzger warn us: (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/31.32.html?start=2)

“Worship is not about a search for meaning or experience, but an acknowledgment that meaning and salvation are found in God’s incomparable act of redemption in Christ. Methodist pastor Craig Rice agrees: “As long as the church continues to confuse the hunger for God, extant in every human heart, with the same yearnings that drive a market culture and a consumerist society, its worship will remain irrelevant at best and an outright impediment at worst.”

There is no question that authentic worship will meet people’s needs. The problem occurs when worship forms are focused on meeting people’s felt needs. Each week, the church is filled with people whose felt needs have been defined for them by a consumer culture that generally urges them to focus on self-fulfillment. The role of the church in worship is not to meet felt needs but to show people that their real needs go deeper.”

As worshippers in a church body, we feel like we are entitled to a certain experience that the church is giving us.  If the church isn’t fulfilling this desire, then we are prone to thinking the church is doing something wrong.  Syd Hielema notes that “As worship planners/leaders, we are pastors to a community that needs the Holy Spirit to help it repent of superficial, godless desires and wake up deeper, more true desires.”

How do we do this?  What does corporate worship free of consumerism look like?  HOW do we liberate ourselves from consumerism and worship God in the fullest, most holistic way possible?

Stay tuned for part 2!

This song articulates so well what I’ve wanted to articulate in my first year of ministry.   May we never become complacent in our love for Christ so that our faith becomes stale!  As someone who has been a Christian since a very young age, it’s hard for me to contemplate what life without Christ would be like…and sometimes that actually makes things tricky.   But there have been so many “aha!” kind of moments in my life where I catch a glimpse of God’s work of salvation…and those moments can be thrilling.  No, our faith journey won’t always be exciting and dramatic, but we should ALWAYS retain a sense of wonder, awe, and reverence.

This song asks for God to aid us in our worship, something that is theologically so important to me.  We can’t truly understand the wonder of the cross without God working in us!

So I urge you to watch this video and follow along with the lyrics…and make this song your personal prayer!

O precious sight, my Savior stands,
Dying for me with outstretched hands.
O precious sight, I love to gaze,
Remembering salvation’s day,
Remembering salvation’s day.
Though my eyes linger on this scene,
May passing time and years not steal
The power with which it impacts me,
The freshness of its mystery,
The freshness of its mystery.

May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.
May I see it like the first time
Standing as a sinner lost,
Undone by mercy and left speechless,
Watching wide eyed at the cost.
May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.

Behold the God-man crucified,
The perfect sinless sacrifice.
As blood ran down those nails and wood,
History was split in two, yes,
History was split in two.
Behold the empty wooden tree,
His body gone, alive and free.
We sing with everlasting joy,
For sin and death have been destroyed, yes,
Sin and death have been destroyed.

May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.
May I see it like the first time
Standing as a sinner lost,
Undone by mercy and left speechless,
Watching wide eyed at the cost.
May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.

May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.
May I see it like the first time
Standing as a sinner lost,
Undone by mercy and left speechless,
Watching wide eyed at the cost.
May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.

But last week was a first for me.  I was given the opportunity to preach for the first time…at a high school baccalaureate service in an area church.  I don’t ever envision myself preaching instead of leading worship, but it was real eye-opening experience for me.  I think most people don’t ever stop and think just how difficult it is to prepare a meaningful message that speaks to the hearts of many different kinds of people.  Sometimes we are easily prone to critiquing a pastor’s message instead of critiquing our interaction with the topic.  There’s a lot of pressure on senior pastors…we except them to spoon feed us sometimes when we don’t do that for ourselves!

So all that to say, as a worship leader, I’m VERY glad I got to step in the preacher’s shoes and see things from that perspective.   I feel like that added perspective can greatly aid me in my ministries.

I was hoping to attach a recording of my sermon, but I guess you have to buy a space upgrade on WordPress to do it.  So instead I’ll just show you the text:

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Five years ago, I was graduating from high school, and I was feeling the same mix of emotions you are probably feeling right now.  I was very excited about finally heading off to college, but I was nervous about leaving my family and friends behind.  More than anything, I feared the unknown…there were so many new experiences ahead that were certainly going to make life unpredictable.

That’s why a graduation gift my parents gave me brought great comfort:  it was a photo frame with a picture of me in it receiving my high school diploma, but on the frame itself was etched the words of Jeremiah 29:11:

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

When I looked at that picture frame, I thought I knew exactly what that meant:  God wouldn’t let bad things happen to me; sure there’d be bumps in the road, but ultimately God would keep things under control, and I’d be comfortable. As I progressed through college over the course of the next 4 years, I kept that picture frame next to my bed.  And when I experienced struggles on my own for the first time: homesickness, questions about the existence and reality of God, doubting my career goals and my choice of my major, I would look at the frame at night and start wondering just much God was really on my side.  Wasn’t God supposed to be providing me a prosperous future?

If we read Jeremiah 29:11 in context, this verse will take on a much different meaning, and a much more God-centered meaning instead of a me-centered meaning.  If we back up a few chapters we’ll find that Israel has just been taken captive by Babylon because of their wicked ways.  A prophet named Hananiah approaches the prophet Jeremiah and boldly proclaims to the remaining people that God will restore Israel in 2 years by bringing back all the captives and material possessions that were stolen.  Clearly, this must have been incredibly joyful and relieving news for all who heard…except one problem:  Hananiah was lying.  He was telling the people what they wanted to hear and it surely made him quite popular.

But God was not pleased.  In fact, Hanniah dies because of these false words.  THEN in chapter 29 we find God communicating to Israel a very different kind of message; and not necessarily an encouraging one.  In essence, God tells Israel “you better settle in and get ready to stay a while because you’re going to be in captivity in Babylon for 70 years.  Don’t listen to these false prophets at all.”

This must have been an EXTREMELY disheartening message to hear…quite the opposite of what Hananiah had to say.  The lives of the people of Israel had been turned upside down and they certainly had been suffering in many ways.  But in the midst of all this, God says to the people of Israel:

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. ^[b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

We typically use this passage as comfort food; self-serving words that make us feel warm and fuzzy. But for Israel, these words had to have been difficult to swallow.  In this passage, God brings the focus back on Himself, reminding Israel He DOES have plans for them but they weren’t the plans that they were hoping for.  Can you imagine thinking something was going to happen in 2 years only to find it’d be 70 years?!  I mean, imagine if suddenly today your principal told you that you wouldn’t be graduating now; you’d be graduating decades from now.  Without a doubt, this would be gut-wrenching news.  God had a very different timetable than the people of Israel; he would restore Israel which WAS very very good news, but it’s not in a way anyone would have preferred.

Have you ever looked back at times in your life and suddenly realized how God had a perfect plan?  Sometimes in retrospect, things become so much clearer to us.  As I mentioned before, my freshman year of college was a little rough.  I was unhappy with my school and I was struggling with my faith.  I was seriously considering transferring, and I was starting to look at other schools.  I could not WAIT for the school year to be over.  But after that year, things turned around in a big way…through many series of events, I actually began to love my school, make deep and meaningful relationships with incredible friends, and I worked out major questions of the Christian faith.  Now, I feel so incredibly blessed to have attended Messiah College, and I will forever consider those 4 years highly influential in forming who I am today.  God used my college experience to draw me closer to Him…and although at first I wanted out, God eventually turned the situation into the most formative experience of my life.  I thank God to this day for how His perfect plans unfolded in my life.

We need to be careful that we don’t convince ourselves that our hopes and plans are the same as God’s.  Sometimes we’re far too much like Hananiah and we think God’s ideas of hope and prosperity will be what we what we want to hear.  God does have better plans than us…but they’re not always the easiest ones.

Now, I’m not by any means saying you will all live lives of terrible suffering and despair and that God will make you go constantly go through things you don’t want to go through.  Instead, I’m saying that the more we seek after God with all of our hearts, the more our plans and desires will conform to God’s.  Psalm 37:4-6 reads:

⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:

⁶ He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

We need to delight ourselves in God so that our desires truly do become His desires.  If we do that, we will start to understand more and more that God’s plans and purposes for our lives ARE perfect.  That way, when trials and struggles come, (and they always will) we will have true peace and comfort…the kind that only comes from knowing and loving God.

God DOES know the plans He has for you.  He DOES have plans to give you hope and a future and plans not to harm you…and His ways are always perfect.  God HAS created you for a unique purpose and if you let Him, God will use you in mighty ways and you will get to experience the joy in serving Christ with your life.  God’s purpose for your life may be bigger than your plans!

And don’t take my word for it…in the Bible we find countless characters who found out that God had bigger plans and purposes than what they ever could have realized:  whether it was Abraham finding out that he would be the father of a great nation…even though he didn’t have  a son, Moses leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt despite his weakness in public speaking, Mary , Jesus’ mother despite being a young girl, Paul despite being a persecutor of Christians.  No matter WHAT hardships you think might be preventing you from fulfilling your purpose, keep in mind that God is fully capable of working things out for his purposes.  He can and will do this.  God’s plans for you are perfect.

In closing, I want to let you in on a secret.  I still have that picture frame by my bed, and I still look at it every night before I go to bed.  But now, I look at that frame in a different way…I look at that frame and realize things won’t always go my way…but things will ALWAYS go God’s way.

Wow.

As many people know, I’ve been extremely dedicated to Lost since it first came on.  Like many others, I’ve been obsessed with trying to figure out the answers to all the mysteries of the island.  I’ve spent years reading message boards and blogs and talking to friends and family about the plot twists, characters, themes, and philosophies found in Lost.  And I’ll just say it straight up:  I LOVED the series finale.  I was absolutely blown away and very moved.

Say what you will about Lost; it certainly has countless plot issues and inconsistencies, and perhaps the writers weren’t always truthful with us.  Maybe they used ambiguity as a clever tool to make things seem exponentially more profound than they really were.  Maybe we were were cheated out of closure and finality.

But over the course of the past 6 seasons, I found that as I journeyed along with the characters, MY perspective and mindset changed.  When the show started, the mystery kept me addicted, and it’s what fueled my obsession with the show.  I always felt like I had to know all of the answers to all of the little questions, like:

-Where is the island?

-What is the island?

-Are the characters actually dead?

-Is Jacob good or bad?

-How does this time traveling thing work?

-What was Walt special and why did they let that plot line drop?

-What was up with that cheesy looking yellow light?

-Most importantly…HOW did Vincent survive the entire time on that island?!

As season 6 drew to a close and I prepared for the season finale, I realized that this show wasn’t primarily about solving all of the mysteries. Somewhere along the line I realized the show was about the process and not the end result.  The show was called Lost mainly because the characters were all “lost” within their respective lives with various flaws.  The characters themselves never completely figured everything out.  They never got all of the answers.  And yet, THEY GREW, and slowly worked out, in essence, their salvation/redemption.

-Jack found deep purpose and meaning in his life

-Sawyer learned how to love and trust others again

-Sayid realized he WAS a good man

-Jin and Sun rediscovered how to love one another again in the deepest way possible

-Ben admitted he was selfish and won forgiveness

-and so on…

If I had to sum up Lost with one word it’d be this:  redemption.  Through wrestling with big and small questions, by coming face to face with who they really were, the Lost characters found redemption.  I find Lost to be a very accuarte allegory for life.  I find myself wrestling with so many big and small questions on a regular basis, and can be SO consumed with them that I really do feel lost.  But through the questioning, wrestling, and doubting, God refines me and redeems me one day at a time.  In order for God to work in us, (like Jacob did with the Lost characters) we must first wrestle with who we are, who God is, and why we’re here.  We must live the questions.

As the Lost characters learned to work through their redemption and wrestle with questions, so have I.  And THAT’S why I found the series finale so breathtakingly beautiful.  As we saw Jack dying (in a rather sacrificial, Christ-like way I might add) we also saw the end result of the redemption of all the characters.  As they all gathered in the church in their purgatory-like world, they prepared to go off into some heaven-like world together.  I thought that scene painted a striking image of what full redemption looks like.   The sight of Christian Shepherd walking through the doors into the bright, heavenly light was awe-inspiring and filled with hope.

The last few moments of Lost was like ending an incredibly good book.  I wanted to turn the last page very slowly and savor every word of it.  I knew I just expereienced something very special and profound and yet couldn’t completely articulate it.  By the end, I couldn’t believe how I just didn’t care anymore about the plot questions.  Now, all I know is I look forward to the day where all my flaws and insufficiencies are completely redemeed by our Lord and Savior.

“Show me your purpose for me at Tech, and on this earth.  But, if you choose not to, I will still praise you and walk where you lead, not because I am selfless, or holy, or determined to sacrifice myself for what is right but because you are the delight of my heart; and I cannot live without you.”

Wow.  I am so incredibly challenged by this prayer, because this is what real faith and worship looks like.  I don’t know if God ever revealed His purposes to her, but we can certainly speculate that He did not, and that she died without having that knowledge.  But she realized we don’t worship God because of what we get out of it…we worship because that’s what we were created to do;  it’s how we function the best!  She admits she’s not selfless, but this is such an incredibly selfless prayer…one that I wish I could pray increasingly with more authenticity.

I pray very often that God will more clearly reveal His purposes for my life.  I’ve been asking myself a question recently:  if I knew that God decided not to clearly reveal those purposes, would I still worship Him the same?

What a scary question.

There is SO much to unpack in this article…I’ll certainly dive into many of these topics in weeks and months to come.

Worship Leader or Worship Pastor? – By Ross Parsley

Just because we lead people in worship doesn’t mean that we are fulfilling the role of a worship pastor. Anybody with a guitar, a tour bus and a good song can lead people in worship, but when the bus pulls out of town all you’re left with is a great experience. God certainly uses these experiences, but the challenge of authentic transformation happens in the trenches of weekly coaching, encouraging, and serving the people in your own local church family. This is the value of a worship pastor.

Heart or Skill?
Psalm 78:72 describes David as a man who led Israel with integrity of heart and with skillful hands. Heart and skill are two primary issues that every worship pastor wrestles with, not just for themselves but also for the people they lead. Both are biblical mandates that take a central role in the job description of a worship pastor (Ps. 33:3; Pr. 4:23; Mt. 6:21).

Unfortunately, many of our worship ministries are obsessed only with skill. We practice and practice, running the song list over and over at a Thursday night rehearsal and then play it again on Sunday hoping that something different will happen. Most worship leaders in America hold a part-time or volunteer position and lead a team of volunteer musicians, so it’s no wonder that we tend to overemphasize excellence and give more time to developing skills than to healing hearts.

But a worship pastor is one who is not willing to focus on skill at the expense of people’s hearts. Worship pastors know both must be addressed but also realize that worship is fundamentally a function of the heart, and when a heart is transformed in worship, everything else follows.

When I was a younger worship leader I felt as though I had multiple personalities as I led. I was totally consumed with directing the band, giving signals to the choir, making sure I was singing the right part and leading the congregation through the songs. But I also just wanted to worship. I wanted to genuinely connect with God, hear His voice and follow His leadership and direction within the service I was leading. For a while, you could visibly see the struggle as I led services. It was a very awkward thing for people to watch and for me to experience.

But the more experience I gained, the more I realized that my leadership became an act of worship that actually inspired others, and my worshiping heart resulted in skilled leadership that people wanted to follow. We become worship pastors when we blend these two functions into one, so that people cannot tell the difference.

Director or Discipler?
The duties of a worship pastor can be difficult to figure out because many of our responsibilities often reflect the job of a producer, music director, or a service programmer. But worship pastors find ways to go beyond the logistics to the love they have for people. The starting place is our worship team. If we can’t pastor our own team effectively, we’re not going to be able to pastor our congregation. People will smell the disconnect. They will sense that our team is not cared for or are spiritually immature, and they won’t respond to us. This is a difficult challenge in view of the fact that we are working with some of the most insecure, emotionally sensitive, performance-driven people on the planet. It requires intentionality and commitment. But once our teams are heart-healthy, trained and connected, we get the experience, momentum and credibility to encourage and coach our whole church family in worship.

How To?
Begin with building genuine relationships with your team outside of the rehearsal or Sunday morning schedule. We shouldn’t just use our team and their talents; we must disciple our team and empower their gifts. Pray for one another at every rehearsal and teach them from the Scriptures, not just on the subject of worship, but other important life topics. Try to model an appropriate level of vulnerability with your team. You don’t need to share every hurt or mistake, but you should let them see the human side of your journey. This example will draw that same honesty and love out of them, and you will create authentic fellowship and community. Make your team a safe place to ask questions and share problems. Don’t be a spiritual policeman. Take time when you get together as a team to do what you’re actually called to do-that is to worship. This will bond you together as a team while exercising your pastoral muscles and prepare you for the challenge of pastoring your entire congregation.

Event or Evolution?
Worship leaders tend to fixate on the next big event rather than the evolution or process their people are experiencing. If the sacrament of worship is part of a larger discipleship plan to move people from casual followers of Christ to passionate, mature disciplers, then we must be willing to direct more of our energy into the journey of the individuals we lead. This means potentially less emphasis on event-driven ministry and more emphasis on how your family of believers is evolving and maturing in their faith.

A worship pastor should be prepared to identify the potential he or she sees in others. Their role should be to empower the gifts they spot in their teams, preparing, training and challenging the people they work with to greater maturity. They must be willing to confront issues and be secure enough to deal with conflict by speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15).

This isn’t a microwaveable process. It happens in small increments over a long period of time. It cannot happen in one great meeting. It must manifest itself in small exhortations between songs, short Scriptural challenges and transparent worship moments Sunday after Sunday. And it can only happen when leaders involve themselves in the lives of the people they serve every week.

An event-driven paradigm is too pressurized and makes our services too stressful and potentially over-hyped. We short-circuit the process God has for us when we embrace a quick-fix mentality. But an evolutionary process paradigm creates an environment of accepting people where they are, patiently developing leaders while being confident that God is at work (Phil. 1:6; 2 Cor. 3:18).

Leading by Loving!
People always reflect the values of their leader. We all reproduce who we actually are. If you want your team to fall in love with their congregation and develop a heart for people rather than just an ear for music, then you’ve got to fall in love with them. Loving the people on your team as well as those in your congregation is what creates the fertile soil for God’s presence to flourish (1 Jn. 3:16-20). In fact, falling in love with your people will cause you to know God better (1 Jn. 4:7-8) and foster an environment where people will experience God’s love in greater measure (1 Jn. 4:12). This kind of love and service builds an authentic community where people can trust one another and grow together in stability and confidence. When we settle that this is what we’re called to-loving and serving others-we find that we have indeed transitioned from worship leaders to worship pastors.

Ross has led worship on several Integrity Music recordings including My Savior Lives, I Am Free, and his newest release, Counting on God. Ross is currently the lead pastor at  a new life-giving church in Austin, Texas, called ONE chapel. They are currently developing a launch team for a 2010 start and are excited about birthing a new community of believers who will engage God’s grace to serve a city in great need.

A few weeks ago, I read the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis for probably the 5ooth time.  But for some reason, something really didn’t sit well with me this time…

First of all, let’s re-visit the passage:

The Tower of Babel

¹ Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As men moved eastward, ^[a] they found a plain in Shinar ^[b] and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel ^[c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

I’m really having difficulties with this narrative.  And I gotta be honest, I don’t like it.  WHY would God purposely destroy unity?  God obviously knows that doing this won’t stop humankind from accomplishing great feats.  We have produced incredible technology in our history, and we have become continually full of ourselves and separate from God.  So HOW did this really help?  Is humankind really better off because of this?  Wouldn’t the world be MORE united if God hadn’t done this?  Would we really be a more sinful race if we all spoke the same language?

I mean, it’s not like God was concerned that people were going to overthrow his lordship and reign over the universe.  So why was this necessary?

Sometimes the Bible baffles me, and unfortunately, there are no answers to questions like these.

Recently I’ve really been aware of how I don’t fit into any of the dominant worship music cultures.  Don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying this to brag.  In fact, quite the opposite.

I don’t want to get into the contemporary vs. traditional debate…not yet…I’ll certainly weigh in on that debate in future posts.  But if you are an Evangelical Christian in the U.S., you’re very aware that there are MANY different kinds of worship music styles out there, and very often, it can define a church’s personality.  “Contemporary” can look VERY different from church to church.  Some churches would call themselves contemporary and might be doing worship songs written in the early 90s, (think Shout to the Lord) while others still call themselves contemporary and all they do is Hillsong and Chris Tomlin, while rocking out to electric guitars.  Traditional can look VERY different from church to church…some churches might have elaborate organs with 100-person choirs and orchestra, and sing only classically-influenced music, while others might have just a pianist playing American folk hymns.  Some churches use primarily gospel music, some primarily use chant.  Some have worship bands.  Some sing a cappella.  But more often than not, church musicians identify with some sort of niche within the worship music soundscape.

And with every kind of musical style comes a certain culture.  I think you know what I’m talking about…contemporary is regarded as being more laid back and informal.  You dress a certain way.  You have to have a certain amount of coolness and charisma.  The experience can be more about the emotion than anything else.  And, it’s usually for younger generations. With traditional music comes a certain amount of formality, possibly stuffiness, intellectual stimulation…and this is typically viewed as old.

Yes, these are stereotypes…but they are stereotypes that reveal partial truths which sum up the differences between various worship music cultures.   There are clearly positives and negatives to all worship music cultures, but when people cling to one of these cultures, they lay claim to security and comfort.   There is a sense of belonging and identity.  And of course, this is a very important thing for a worship leader/church musician…or for a musician in general, for that matter.

Sometimes I wonder why I can’t identify with anything?  I LOVE music.  Period.  I love all kinds of styles, but when I’m with pop musicians, I don’t feel like I fit in.  Same goes for classical musicians…I don’t feel like one of them.  I feel too poppy for classically trained musicians and too classically trained for pop musicians.

Does a musician need a niche?  Does a worship leader need to pick a worship music culture to define them?  Am I having an identity crisis?  Do I have a split personality?  Do I actually have to let my musical tastes define me?

Three quick theories, then I’d love to hear if others have opinions on this:

1.  I’m young and just starting to mold my identity as a musician and worship leader.  Maybe I’ll gravitate towards something later in my life and become more focused.

2.  I have to admit, I bring some of this upon myself.  I consciously embrace a variety of styles because I believe it’s fulfills a clearer picture of the Church.  My theological beliefs motivate me to try out various worship music cultures.  But can’t I do this without feeling like I have no musical identity?

3.  Maybe I DO have an identity…just not a mainstream one.  Maybe I just haven’t figure out what it is yet.

I have to preface this by saying a few things.  This is not meant to be a political commentary, nor am I making any partisan statement.  If that’s how you interpret this post, then you’ve missed the point.  I am by no means a political expert, and so I don’t intend on making this a political critique.  Posting a topic even semi-related to politics is very dangerous, because it can certainly open a can of worms, but I feel like this is an absolutely critical topic, and one we can’t ignore if we consider ourselves followers  and worshippers of Christ.

There is an incomprehensible amount of fear and hate in our country right now.  And now, more than ever, with Facebook, Twitter, and internet blogs we can access people’s opinions very easily.  In fact, we’re bombarded by people’s opinions every day.  Whether the opinions are vailid or invalid is inconsequential.  What’s becoming scary is how people are handling their opinions.

There seems to be a lack of civil discourse in our country right now, and of course I don’t have emperical data for this, but it sure seems like it’s more evident than ever.  What’s even more alarming is that so much of this is coming from Christians…many of whom might have good intentions, but are “reflecting the political divisions of our culture instead of our unity in Christ.”  An excellent example of this happening just recently is a joke Facebook group praying for the death of President Obama.  Yes, I understand that this is a joke…but it is a very distasteful joke that crosses the line and directly opposes the gospel of love that Christ taught.  ANY joke that calls for the murder of our country’s leader is ultimately shameful and wrong.

Shouldn’t Christians be different?  Can’t we embrace the gospel of love that Christ taught us and learn to discuss hot-button topics with grace and civility?  If we can’t, how ARE we different from the rest of the world?

I urge you to read this document from the Sojourners blog:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1iiXwi/go.sojo.net/campaign/civilitypledge

How good and pleasant it is when the people of God live together in unity. -Psalm 133:1

We pledge to God and to each other that we will lead by example in a country where civil discourse seems to have broken down. We will work to model a better way in how we treat each other in our many faith communities, even across religious and political lines. We will strive to create in our congregations safe and sacred spaces for common prayer and community discussion as we come together to seek God’s will for our nation and our world.

Together, let’s re-commit ourselves to unity, love, and civil discourse.