But I was using that box!

A frustrating thing happened over the weekend. We have small 1/2" binders for our worship leadership team for our 8:30 worship service. In order to keep them organized and transport them from the music library/choir room to the sanctuary I use the box the local office supply store delivered them in. When the binders arrived at the church office, the secretary wrote my name on the box in great big letters with a red marker. In my thinking, that kind of indentifies it as clearly belonging to my area of ministry.

There is room in that box for all of the binders and for a few other things that may be needed for our 8:30 service leadership team. It's just big enough without being too big. In short, it's perfect for what we use it for. After the morning worship service, the team members return the binders to the box so that we always know where they are. It's a good system and it serves us very well.

Sunday afternoon I needed my binder for a couple of songs for our church-wide fellowship. I looked for the box where I had put it after the early service (I had not gotten to put it back in the choir room because I ended up having to move a lot of other things by myself). When I looked for the box, it was not there. Everything in it had been unceremoniously dumped out and the box had been taken ... purloined ... absconded with.

I found my binder and was able to get what I needed for the church-wide fellowship, but I still need that box for moving the binders and a few other odds and ends the few yards between the music suite and the sanctuary. I went to the office supply store this morning to see if they had another one. They did, but it was for 1" binders, so it's really too big to serve as well as the other one did.

I have other boxes that may have done just as well if not better for what the person who commandeered my box needed. I would be more than happy to work out an exchange. I know it's silly to get so worked up about something so trivial as a cardboard box ... but I'm a little worked up. This blog post is an attempt to let off some of the steam without hurting anyone's feelings. I hate frustration (do you know anyone who likes it?), but I'm there. I want my box back. I don't care who took it and I probably wouldn't understand why they thought it was OK to do so; I just want it back.

Emerson's perspective on worship

Dr. Gouge shared this in his welcome to worship on Sunday morning:

"A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will [come] out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshiping we are becoming." ~RALPH WALDO EMERSON~

Louie Giglio, one of the founders and key leaders of the Passion worship movement, noted recently that we are all excellent worshipers. Worship is a part of our DNA as human beings. It is one of the primary driving forces of our lives. The question, Giglio says, is not whether I am a good worshiper. The question is: “To what or to whom am I giving my worship?” The obvious list may be forming in the mind already: entertainment, pleasure, wealth, notoriety, achievement, relationships, experiences, etc.

There is a subtler force at work, however, that may not be quite so obvious. It happens when we allow the things about the worship of God to distract us from actually worshiping God. We will say that we just can’t worship God in certain locations. We will allow the presence (or absence) of certain conditions (or musical instruments) to prevent us from ascribing to the Lord the glory due His name. What are we saying? “Lord, You are worthy of my worship … unless something I see or hear doesn’t meet my expectations.” How narcissistic have we become?

Where Emerson’s quote hit me between the eyes is perhaps even more subtle and hard to detect. It is when I spend much time in and around the things of God, yet neglect to spend time with God. It is quite possible for those of us who are deeply involved in church to miss encounters with God just because we’re busy about stuff. We go through the motions, but fail to truly connect.

I can spend all day at the church working on good things that matter, but if I fail to first focus my attention on God and His work in my life, it matters little in my personal walk with Christ. In Luke 10 when Martha got so upset because her sister Mary wouldn’t help in the kitchen, Jesus said that Mary was the one with her priorities in order. I still don’t understand how they would have eaten if Martha hadn’t been doing stuff in the kitchen, but Emerson is right.

That’s enough to think about for now.

"Contemporary" Communication Not a New Thing (2)

Last week I shared some notes from Chuck Fromm, editor of Worship Leader magazine concerning ministry and worship leadership in the 21st century. Among the things he talked about was how modern technology can overwhelm; but it’s not just modern technology that can overwhelm and distract us from experiencing the presence of God in worship. In the feature article Re-centering the House, Fromm also notes: “We need to understand that some of our ‘traditions’ or ‘procedural knowledge,’ often sub-conscious or transparent to us, may be speaking louder than The Text.” (p. 25)

Whether our preference is for a “contemporary” worship style or a “traditional” one (or even what kind of “traditional” or “contemporary”), or certain furnishings, if we allow our preferences to prevent us from encountering God in worship, they are speaking louder than The Text (see John 1), and perhaps have moved our focus off of Him. Anything, even something good, that we place ahead of Him in our lives in fact becomes a type of idol for us. I have them. You have them. The continuing struggle for followers of Christ is to place Christ at the center of what is important and allow Him to govern the rest. Jesus put it this way, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mt. 6:33, NIV)

Now, a little humor to balance the serious nature of last week and this:

• I planted some birdseed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.
• I had amnesia once – or was it twice.
• I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what?
• Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.
• All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
• If the world were a logical place, men would ride horses sidesaddle.
• What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?
• They told me I was gullible … and I believed them.
• Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto a freeway.
• Two can live as cheaply as one, for half as long.
• Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
• What if there were no hypothetical questions?
• The shampoo promised me extra body and I gained three pounds.
• One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people.
• When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a 20 penny nail.
• A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.
• What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?
• My weight is perfect for my height – which varies.
• I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
• The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
• How can there be self-help "groups”?
• Is there another word for synonym?
• Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all”?
• The speed of time is one second per second.
• Is it possible to be totally partial?
• What's another word for thesaurus?
• Is Lenin's Tomb a communist plot?
• If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain Whales?
• Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.
• It's not an optical illusion. It just looks like one.

That’s enough to think about for now …

"Contemporary" Communication Not a New Thing

Chuck Fromm, editor of Worship Leader magazine, wrote this in the editors notes to the May 2006 edition:

Sensational packaging of the gospel message is not a new thing. One can argue that the lightning, thunder and earthquakes of Exodus 19 represented the original pyrotechnic-illustrated sermon, which ultimately brought home the lesson of Exodus 20:20, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come in this way to show you his awesome power, so that from now on you will be afraid to sin against Him!”

In the modern era, the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, created a sensation with street singing and brass bands. Following in the footsteps of Booth … Aimee Semple Mcpherson [founder of the Foursquare Church], created dozens of innovations in order to attract attention to the gospel message – including the pioneering use of radio and stage plays. … The reformers of the 16th century … dedicated their lives … to putting Scripture into the vernacular via the new technology of the printing press. …

We have a different problem today. It is not the production of God’s Word in the vernacular, not a problem of information; it’s a problem of attention. Once people are in God’s house how can we maintain the congregation’s focus long enough to hear the Word of God? (p. 6)

Fromm goes on to discuss the challenges we have in the 21st century church. Just as Booth’s and McPherson’s communication techniques were shaped by their cultural environment, so should ours be … with a caveat. There can be no doubt that 21st century culture is vastly different from that of just 50 to 75 years ago … and the pace of cultural change is accelerating at a dizzying pace. In the 1950’s and 60’s there was a major cultural shift every 15 years or so. In 2006 it’s every 15 days, if not every 15 minutes. The challenge is staying true to the Gospel while speaking in a culturally relevant vernacular. Fromm also points out that “our habits of listening are formed by the society we live in, not by the hour or so that the average Christian may spend in the house of God in a given week … Learning to use technology to serve God’s Text is not easy. In fact it can become an obsessive, overwhelming task …” [Fromm notes that in true Christian worship, Jesus Christ Himself is our Text … thus the capitalization].

There are all kinds of things that can stand in the way of our hearing The Text in worship. One of the reasons that we have two different worship styles is to attempt to communicate the Gospel in a way that will make it easier for people to hear. “Traditional” for those who are wired that way, and “contemporary” for those who are wired that way. The message is the same, but our methods will change over time. It’s not easy, but it’s where we live. That’s enough to think about for now …

Is that really how we look?

My seminary has changed a good deal since my graduation. Rarely now do I give time to reading the magazine they send to all the alumni. Often it just doesn't pique my curiosity. The most recent one that came had as its focus communicating the gospel in contemporary culture. Since that's one of the reasons we have our cutting edge contemporary service, I do my best to read as much as time will allow me to about worship and culture. One article had this story early on:

GQ magazine sent one of its reporters last year to a Christian music festival in Pennsylvania to check out what is going on among the "Religious Right" subculture. "Christian rock is a genre that exists to edify and make money off of evangelical Christians," the author concluded after scoping out the evangelical version of Woodstock. He remarked that the most essential quality of Christian popular music was its parasitism. "Remember those perfume dispensers they used to have in pharmacies -- 'If you like Drakkar Noir, you'll love Sexy Musk?'" the journalist asked. "Well Christian rock works like that." (footnoted: John Jeremiah Sullivan, "Upon This Rock," Gentleman's Quarterly, February 2005, 132)

He points our that Christian pop music recruits "off-brand" performers to ape and mimic current popular artists, to "edify" believers all over North America. Oh, and to make money off of them, too. It is hard not to wince at the magazine's assessment.

(Russell D. Moore, "Pop Christianity and Pop Culture

on Mars Hill," THE TIE, Spring 2006, p. 2)

I agree ... it IS hard not to wince at the magazine's assessment. If that is the predominate way the world we are trying to reach views one of the ways in which we're trying to reach them, then ... [pregnant pause ... audible heavy sigh].

I'm not sure yet what to do with that information. The point of it all is helping people to connect with God. It's not just about adding energy and contemporary sounds to our worship and trying to speak the language of the culture (a language that is changing more and more rapidly now than it was 20 years ago). While those may be a part of the mix in a given minstry situation, they are merely part of the style and sometimes we look on them as the content. The current issue of Worship Leader magazine has some interesting perspectives on a similar subject as the above quote.

There are things going on in the world around that we have got to be aware of ... but what does that mean for the substance of worship? It goes deeper than just what songs we choose to sing for worship and how we dress and whether we use projector screens or not. The current physical trappings (whether we like them and want them, or don't like them or don't want them) can easily draw our attention away from the purpose and focus of worship.

When God called me to do this stuff, it was a much simpler time. Nostalgia? Maybe. Feeling old? Probably. Feeling challenged? Definitely.

What do we do? How should we do it? No easy answers ... but worthy of searching ... worthy of prayer ...

Musings – White-hot Worship of God

The quote that was used in worship in the 11:00 service Sunday morning was one that grabbed my attention. Pithy statements like that deserve meditation, so I asked Ed to send it to me so I could do just that. I have yet to spend long on it because we are very short staffed here this week and I feel like a one-armed paper-hanger.

“All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.... When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.” ~ John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad

One winter in Wilkesboro, we had scheduled a touring youth choir to lead us one Sunday morning. They had come up to the Boone area on Saturday to ski and were going to spend the night in Wilkesboro, share with us on Sunday morning in our 8:30 service, then head back to Alabama. Being from warmer climates, however, they did not realize that diesel fuel congeals below a certain temperature. When they got ready to leave Boone, their bus would not start. They were stuck and could not get to us for Saturday night and Sunday morning. As I was chatting with one of our early arrivers that Sunday morning before the 8:30 service, I let him know of the change of plans. His response left me almost speechless: “Well, who’s going to entertain us in their place?” I don’t remember exactly how I responded, but I know I said something about the purpose of worship. If worship were a variety show, I would have scrambled to fill the slot; but worship is about us connecting with God, not seeing how entertaining we can be to each other.

We tend to become dissatisfied in worship when we allow things other than God to occupy our central focus. God is ultimate, not man. As I have written before, it is His opinion of our worship that matters most. Some re-reading that I’m doing lately reminds me that God intends for our worship to be a celebration of what He has done for us, what He is doing in us, and what He will do in the future. There are so many things we allow to get in the way of that … song preferences, style preferences, furniture arrangement, clothing, time … the list is almost endless.

The challenge for us as worship leaders is to create an environment that enables us to more easily focus our attention on God. The challenge for us as worshipers is to broaden our appreciation for ways in which that can be accomplished. That’s enough to think about for now …