Scott Wesley Brown: Unified Worship

When I was in high school, one of my best friends was a huge fan of the popular touring band TRUTH. In the 70's the group was comprised of 6 vocalists (3 guys, 3 girls), full rhythm section (keyboard, guitar, bass, drums), and a full horn section (varied from just brass to the inclusion of a woodwind man). His enthusiasm for their music rolled over into the formation of a local band of high-school students attempting to do the same kind of thing. We were from a variety of churches in my hometown (mostly Baptist, but a few Methodists and a couple of Assembly of God / Pentecostal - types). We had the records and the published choral folios that went along with them, and a couple of us trumpet players stayed up until all hours transcribing the brass parts from the records. We borrowed sound equipment from my home church and pooled our resources to buy microphones and cables. Perhaps the highlight of our short career was getting to open for Scott Wesley Brown (he was just getting national recognition at the time).

Following a link from Don Chapman's site, I happened upon a recently published blog on on Unified Worship at http://www.worship.com. The subject caught my attention -- partly because it seems that it may resonate with the yearnings of my own heart for us to be less divided by superfluous issues (i.e. "style") in the local church, and also because our people will be led in ONE combined worship service this Sunday morning (7/29) while most of the leadership staff is away (pray for those that remain). It also caught my attention because it was written by none other than Scott Wesley Brown.

I only skimmed the article this morning because I don't have time to read it in depth (pastoral visits to make with the senior pastor out of town ... truckload of stuff to do before leaving for vacation myself) but I saw enough to know that it is likely good food for thought. He mentions South Africa ... a nation that holds a special place in my heart because of an experience I had there in the Fall of 1999 which also involved helping to moderate a conference session on worship at the BUSA meeting in Bloemfontein.

Anyhow, for my few readers (and you really are few, but I love every one of you) whose leadership DNA pushes you to wrestle with worship issues, I present this link. May it cause you to think deeply and grow. I look forward to reading the article myself, and perhaps commenting on it in the future. Meanwhile, I gotta go ...

Last week I harped (albeit gently) on how our love for each other (or the lack thereof) in the church is the most visible thing that people outside the Christian faith see when they look at us. I’m still wrapping my brain around Francis Schaeffer’s assertion that the world “has the right to judge” us on the basis of how we show our belonging to Christ by our demonstration of love for each other.
This is an old joke, but one that illustrates the point beautifully.

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said “Stop! Don’t do it!” “Why shouldn’t I?” he asked. “Life stinks and I’m tired of it all.”
I said, “Well, there’s so much to live for!” “Like what?” he said, “Nobody loves me.”
I said, “God loves you, you silly ninny.” He said, “How do you know there’s a God?”
I said, “Of course there’s a God. Do you think that billions of years ago a bunch of molecules floating around at random all got together to make all of this?” He said, “OK, I’ll admit that I do believe in God.”
I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.”
I said, “Me too. Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me too! What denomination?” He said, “Baptist.”
I said, “Me too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.”
I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”
I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist or Northern Conservative Reform Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist.”
I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region.”
I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879 or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”
I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over!

That’s enough to think about for now.

Unanswerable Question

As a minister of music, I have always worked hard to plan worship so that it hangs together. One of the ways I do this is by choosing congregational song that is related to themes in the focal scripture for the spoken message. I just talked with the gentleman speaking in our Wednesday evening worship, and he told me he would be forever impressed if I found something to amplify his text. Honestly, I think pastors sometimes have secret competitions with each other to see who can come up with the most difficult text to find worship support for.

Here's the question: What do you have the congregation sing when the text is Isaiah 2:23-25?

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you bald head!" He turned and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria. (Is. 2:23-26, NIV)

Archaic hymnody.

Do you like old hymns? I do. Language and usage changes over time, however, and some of these poetic expressions fall out of use. Some of those that have fallen out of use should have fallen out of use. Some, however, fall out of use for a time (sometimes centuries), only to be rediscovered several generations later. I am thankful that some of our contemporary / modern / emerging / [use whatever adjective applies here] worship song-writers actually spend time and energy looking for some of these and try to bring them back into the lexicon of faith expression. An example is the reintroduction/reincarnation of the ancient Greek Phos Hilaron by the Passion Worship Band several years ago.

Most of the "old hymns" we have in current usage have withstood the test of time and have proven to be valuable to believers in their pilgrimage ... that's why we still use them. I put "old hymns" in quotations because some of what we call "old" are not really that old when we look at the full scope of church history. Most of what people consider "old" only dates back to the mid-19th century. Indeed, some of our people who cherish the "old hymns" balk at the introduction of something from the 12th or 13th century ... because it's new to them.

Some of the older hymns we know actually had many more stanzas than we use nowadays. There are several reasons to be grateful for this. First, we can be grateful that we no longer sing 18 stanzas at one time, although I'm not sure the church ever did that. I remember worshiping in a Dutch Reformed Church in Bloemfontein, South Africa several years ago, and each hymn that was sung was limited to the specific stanza that made sense with where it was located in the order of service. Talk about being intentional with worship planning!

Second, we can sometimes make use of different groups of stanzas and derive more than one hymn from an original source. Can we really? We've already done it. "Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts" and "Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee" are both from the same longer work by Bernard of Clairvaux.

Finally, over time the less well-written stanzas may be weeded out so that we have a refined product more apt to express well the things we desire to say to God. Sometimes the stuff we no longer use just sounds funny to current language practice, as in the description found here.

Worship as Leisure Activity?

My friend RevJATB linked to this article on his blog (http://www.knowtea.com). I haven't read it all yet, but plan to.

Peace

As I was helping my parents get things ready to be removed from the house by the disaster recovery company, I found some books in the attic that they had set aside to give away some time ago, but had inadvertently forgotten. Among those books was a 30-page booklet entitled “The New Super-Spirituality,” published in 1972 by the late Christian apologist and philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer. The primary subject matter is Schaeffer’s analysis of developments in sociological and spiritual trends of the 1960s and early 1970s, along with his recommendations for how the church should respond. Intrigued, I put it in my briefcase to read when time allowed.

I found a little time Tuesday morning to read the booklet. While I disagree with some things Schaeffer said in the booklet, there were some observations that I found particularly cogent. Here’s one:

The world has a right to judge whether we are Christians or not by the way we show an observable love to all true Christians, and therefore our love for each other as true Christians must be evident to the world. Furthermore, Christ tells us in John 17 that the world has a right to judge whether the Father has sent the Son on the basis of whether the world sees love among all true Christians. (p. 24)

Do we realize that the biggest obstacle standing in the way of faith for many unbelievers is the behavior of His followers … especially our behavior toward one another? Remember the Bob Roberts Jr. quote that I shared with you back in June:

The church has been stripped of its power and influence in the West today, not because it has lost its wealth and position in society -- it hasn’t -- but because the church has lost credibility. … We cannot consistently live the message we herald to the world, but never have we been more effective at religious marketing of products that help us appear as if we are living it. As a result, the growing perception is that the church is religious but not spiritual. It has style but not enough substance.

We will ordain two new deacons this Sunday morning and set aside the full class for service in 2007-08. When I read the scriptures I am reminded that the office of deacon is one of service … instituted to help restore and preserve peace among people who were wrestling with division. The anthem planned for 11:00 worship this Sunday (Pepper Choplin’s “Give Us Peace”) is a prayer for peace … a peace in which we must participate by rising above hatred, fear, and pride. That’s enough to think about for now.

Give Us Peace - words and music by Pepper Choplin
© 1998, Pepper Choplin

Give us peace that will reach across the river that is raging wild.
Give us peace that as brothers and sisters we'll be reconciled.
Give us peace.

Give us love that will melt away the anger in a troubled land.
Give us love 'til we change the fist of hatred to a gentle hand.
Give us love. O give us love ...

Let us sing together, join the rhythm of our soul
So that peace and hope and love will take control.
Give us peace and love.
Let us raise our voices to sing a peaceful song
Until hate, and fear, distrust and pain are gone.

Give us joy as we celebrate the goodness in everyone.
Give us joy. If we learn to sing together we have just begun.
Give us joy. O give us joy.

Let us sing together, join the rhythm of our soul
So that peace and hope and love will take control.
Give us peace and love.
Let us raise our voices to sing a peaceful song
Until hate, and fear, distrust and pain are gone.

Give us joy as we celebrate the goodness in everyone.
Give us joy. If we learn to sing together we have just begun.
Give us joy ...

Give us hope, give us love to rise above all hatred, fear, and pride
As we reach out to the other side
And we'll find peace, sweet peace.

We'll find peace.

Getting my feet back on the ground.

What a surreal experience last week was! (see previous blog entry) I had to be back by Sunday ... not because my church required it. Multiple times during the week, people told me, "If you need to be gone through the weekend, stay down there." It wasn't just lip service, either ... they meant it. We had gotten enough taken care of that by the time I left there really wasn't a whole lot more that I could do by being there. I'm thankful that I could make the trip. There is more to do, to be sure, but the immediate need and the fast pace of "we've got to get this done before ..." have been met for the most part.

I had to get back by Saturday evening because the Lovely Wife was leaving Monday morning to take 7 of our Acteens to Blume (the National Acteens Convention) in Kansas City, MO. That meant I had to be back in time to tag up with her for the looking after of the household and the boys (Toothpick - age 16; and StickBoy - age 13). I needed more than just a few hours to get my bearings, instructions, etc. She manages the household so well that it takes a ton of input from her to get me even halfway up to speed.

I didn't get much work done yesterday morning because as they were loading up the bus we noticed a tire problem that put them one-and-a-half hours late getting on the road and tied me up making sure they were looked after for that time. I didn't get much work done yesterday afternoon because the StickBoy had an appointment with a cardiologist 45 minutes' drive away (4-year follow-up on a heart murmur that sounds like a VSD but doesn't show up on an echocardiogram). The story was the same yesterday. The sounds are there, but even with improved scanning technology there is still nothing discernable on the echo that would explain it. The cardiologist also said that the more adult-sized the patient, the harder it is to detect stuff on a scan. He offered some other possible explanations, but looking for them wouldn't change the therapy and/or prognosis for a long and healthy life, so it would just be an academic exercise to do more testing to satisfy curiosity. Bottom line? He's healthy as can be, but his heart sounds funny. We'll look at it again in 4 more years.

The boys and I were watching Dirty Jobs yesterday evening (recorded on the DVR ... wonderful invention) while waiting for the potatoes to finish cooking and one of the jobs Mike Rowe spotlighted was coal mining. Late in the piece (after the dynamite) he mentioned the pay scale and noted the danger involved. StickBoy multiplied the weekly pay and noted what it came to per month. I remarked that it was in the same ballpark with what I make (just so he would have a comparative). He then said something about there being comparable levels of danger as well. I noted that my job doesn't involve near the physical risk that coal mining does. His reply revealed a level of insight that I'm still trying to get my brain around. He said that coal mining has a lot of physical danger involved, but that my job is equally dangerous emotionally. Both boys know I've wrestled with the big D, but this was the first time I've heard one of them note that emotional stress is a particular occupational hazard in the ministry. My little boy is growing up.

Having gotten that digested (or at least chewed on it a bit) perhaps I can be effective at something today (Tuesday). I sure hope so. That's enough to think about for now.

My Parents' House

Monday evening I got a call from my Mom letting me know that on Sunday afternoon late their house was hit by lightning and caught fire. The charge entered through the main electrical service panel in the storage room off the 2-car garage, and that's where the fire started (best we can tell). I drove down on Tuesday to see what I could do to help with the immediate needs. They have already begun working with the claims adjuster, signed a contract with the company to do the clean-up, and secured a contractor to do the rebuild (they were signing that contract when I arrived).

Looking at the fire damage was a surreal experience. Mom's van was burned to a crisp (there is nothing left of the upholstery ... just the metal seat-frames), as was the boat and everything else in the garage. Once the fire reached the van (and the gas tank thereof) and the boat (and the gas tank thereof), things had to have gotten extremely hot extremely fast. There is nothing left of the plywood ceiling of the garage, although the roof trusses and the roof itself (mansard roof on the house) maintained structural integrity. There used to be many, many tools in the storage room on pegboard on the wall. The pegboard is gone and I couldn't see hardly any remainder of the hand tools among the rubble. I wasn't dressed for plundering this afternoon, though. What used to be Dad's circular saw and power drill were easily identified, and I saw one adjustable end wrench ... but that was about it.

The door into the house (raised panel with 9 panes of glass on the upper half) is interesting. The panels on the lower half didn't survive, and the heat was intense enough to melt the panes of glass. The first room in the house is a utility/laundry/mud room only about 6 feet by about 12 feet. Six feet from the outside door in a direct path across the utility room is the door to the breakfast room. To the right of that door there is (was) a hall tree (for jackets, umbrellas, etc.) perpendicular to that sat the washer and dryer side by side with cabinets above. Opposite the washer and dryer (on the left as you enter from the garage) is a broom cabinet and small counter and sink. Above that sink is a window that used to look outside, but now looks onto the porch (more about that later). The utility room and the breakfast room took the most heat. The cabinets are toast, but it looks like the china and crystal in the breakfast room cabinets survived. It looks to me like the once lovely hardwood table and Queen Anne chairs are probably all beyond salvage.

The skylights on the porch (we call it that because it began life as a screened-in porch ... OK, it actually began life as an open patio ... but now is glassed in with central heat and air) were mostly melted. The ones closest to the breakfast room are in now-hardened puddles on the floor. The ones farthest away show signs of heat-induced deformation. The ones in between are the most interesting ... hanging in ribbons of once molten plastic. There is oily soot everywhere. Bose wave radio ... probably done for. TV ... same story. All the plants that were on the porch ... even those farthest away from the heat (and the porch is a good 30 feet from one end to the other) were baked to death. It doesn't look like any of those survived.

The next room in beyond the breakfast room is the kitchen. The plastic parts of all of the appliances are in various stages of meltedness depending on what type of plastic they were and how close they were to the garage. But there was a sealed glass jar on the counter with home-made M&M cookies in it that were still very edible. I had a couple and didn't die. Again, oily soot all over everything in varying degrees.

In the rest of the house, it's mainly smoke damage. The family photos on the walls of the main hall will survive fine (once they're cleaned). Other than the hall tree and the furniture in the breakfast room, it looks like all of the furniture will survive. The bedrooms upstairs show little or no evidence of anything catastrophic having happened.

This is not meant to be a detailed description ... just a thumbnail sketch of how things looked when I first saw them this afternoon. I may not blog any more descriptions either. I don't know. The most important thing (that I probably should have written at first) is that the folks are fine and dealing with the "what now" issues admirably. I'm amazed at everything Mom has been able to accomplish thus far ... and Dad is following orders fairly well. We consider it a blessing from God that everything of sentimental family value came through almost completely unscathed. As far as we can tell right now, absolutely nothing irreplaceable was lost. Furthermore, they both seem to have a peace about them that passes understanding (hmmm...).

To all who read my blog, I would appreciate prayers for my folks. To those who knew about it before reading this, thanks for your prayers already. They are in good hands with great family and wonderful neighbors and friends and church support ... and for the next few days, they have me with them!