Why Singing?

Has the question ever crossed your mind, “Why do we sing together at church?” or “What’s the big deal with singing?” For those of us who are regularly a part of a weekly worship service, we can sometimes forget that what we do as the people of God can seem a little strange to the world around us!  On one hand, we as humans are no strangers to singing and song.  We sing at concerts, football matches, pubs, karaoke bars, birthday parties…etc.  Singing is all around us but no place so much as the gathered church and never with as much purpose as in the corporate worship of the living and true God.  

I think for those of us who lead worship at churches, we can take the question of why we sing for granted.  After all, it is our very job to lead people to sing, and I think we can just come to expect that people will and that they desire to.  We can forget that for some people in our churches, singing is not naturally enjoyable or a talent that they feel they possess at all.  It can be an exercise that some people are uncomfortable with or at the very least unsure of. If you are one of those people, I hope that this will be an encouragement to you. I’m confident that there is deep and lasting joy found in the singing of our faith and in worshipful song to Jesus…even for those who have mixed emotions about opening up their vocals chords and joining in. There are SO many reasons why God’s people are called to be, and must be, a singing people!

Lets look at just a few, and hopefully you will be encouraged to sing all the more…or even for the first time as you gather in corporate worship…

1. You were made for it

You were designed to be an eternal worshiper.  In fact, you were created in such a way as to find the greatest joy in life when you are actively worshiping and enjoying the Triune God.  Worship is all encompassing. It includes every part of our life and yet one of the most beautiful expressions of our worship is when we gather to respond in songs of praise and worship to our God.  We see in Revelation chapters 5, 7 and 19, a picture of heaven erupting in songs of worship at the majesty, the worthiness and the beauty of Jesus.  The worship of God will be sung forever into eternity and when we engage in the singing of our worship here, we are tasting the eternal and tasting what we were made for.  

2. To sing is to obey

We aren’t just simply invited to sing in scripture, we are actually commanded to sing. The Psalms (which are songs themselves) are absolutely filled with the instruction for God’s people to sing!  Psalms 9:11, 30:4, 33:3, 47:6, 66:2, 135:3, 147:7... just to list a few. When God commands us to something in scripture it’s always with His glory and our joy in mind! He created us and knows what we need.  We are also told in Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18-19, to be a people that sing. It seems clear that we cannot look at worship by singing as an option that we are free to take or leave.  It’s much bigger than our preferences, insecurities or selfish desires and there is deep joy found in this obedience.

3. Singing puts scripture in us

Colossians 3:16 says, ”Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”   This is why is it so vital for churches to sing songs that are biblically sound and that have good theology!  Singing is a way that God has designed us to let the word of Christ…the gospel message…the living Word of God, sink deep into our hearts and souls. You most likely wouldn’t be able to quote two sentences verbatim from a sermon that you heard a month ago in church, but you would probably be able to sing back to me some lyrics from a favorite chorus or hymn you have sung.  

4. If you follow Jesus you have a song

What about the people who say, “You don’t want me singing loudly in church! I have a horrible voice and so I just listen.”  As a worship leader I have heard that often over the years and I love what Bob Kauflin says about this in a message he spoke at the 2008 Desiring God National Conference, entitled Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing?  He says this…

“We are called to sing with others, especially in the context of our local church. The question isn’t, Do you have a voice? The question is, Do you have a song? If you’ve turned from your sins and trusted in the finished work of Christ, if you’re forgiven and reconciled to God, then you have a song. It’s a song of the redeemed, of those who have been rescued from the righteous wrath of God through the cross of Jesus Christ and are now called his friends. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God, and our singing together, every voice contributing, is one way we express that truth.”

I love how he takes the focus in this statement from ourselves, to what Christ has done!  It’s not about our vocal ability or personal preference but rather, it’s a matter of letting the joy found in all that Christ has done and will do for us, come out in corporate worship.  We have a duty to lend ALL of our voices be heard because for those of us that trust in Jesus, we have a song worth singing!

5. Singing combines SPIRIT and TRUTH

This is a call back to my last post, but in singing worship songs together we are actually taking the beauty of music, and pairing it with the truth of the gospel and scripture.  Music can help to stir our affections and emotions as we combine melodies, instruments and our voices with the truth about who Jesus is, all He’s said and all He’s promised us!  Through song we can take deep truths about who God is and combine them with creativity and the expression of art.  Songs can help us convey our praise, gratitude and adoration of our God in such a way that our souls are deeply stirred. Matt Redman often talks about breathing in the grace of God and breathing out His praise.  Good worship songs help us do this well.

6. Singing creates space for the Holy Spirit to work 

I believe that as we gather together and sing, it is a great occasion for us to be open to the reminding, the encouragement and the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God.  Singing together as the church is a means of grace to us and as we sing together, the Holy Spirit is at work.  As we sing we should pray that the Spirit would remind us of the majesty, beauty and greatness of Jesus. We should expect that He would convict us in the places we fall short and fail God and each other, and we should desire that He would encourage our hearts in the hope we have in Christ.  Through Jesus we are loved, seen, accepted, known and invited to approach the throne boldly and it’s a work of the Spirit to remind, convict and encourage us in this as we sing.

I could write quite a few more reasons, but for the sake of post length I’ll stop here. I finish with an invitation for you.  Please don’t deprive yourself of the irreplaceable joy-filled opportunity you have been afforded by singing out your worship to God. Father, Son and Spirit.  If you have held back or remained quiet in the past, I invite you to try… to start.  You won’t regret joining in the eternal song! 

Spirit And Truth

Years ago when I still lived in Canada, I sat down with our pastor at the time, and we were discussing our family’s potential move from Canada to the US, and how it would be for us. We were coming from a Pentecostal church, and potentially moving to a Reformed church with Baptist roots in Indiana. We were talking about different worship and he described to me a true worshiper as a bird with two wings.  A wing of SPIRIT and a wing of TRUTH. He shared how without both wings equally at work, it’s a hopeless affair! 

It’s hard to believe that conversation is now thirteen years old, and that we have lived in Indiana for 12 years now! Since then, I have kept that conversation close and often have the picture of that bird in my mind. It’s been somewhat prophetic for me.

I think the metaphor works well. It’s what I long for in my own life and in the life of my church…to worship God rightly for who He is and to treasure Him duly with passion, humility, and wonder-filled awe! Sounds simple enough right? You would think so, but in our churches it so often seems to break down in practice around “Holy Spirit churches” and “Bible churches”…as if the two were ever designed to be mutually exclusive!  Why is this? Why all the single-wing flapping? I think in part, it’s because we are people who are easily prone to live in ditches.

It is easy to find churches and individuals who sincerely desire to worship in SPIRIT with a passion to experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Their worship is passionate, expressive and filled with longing for God to move. However, those churches can sometimes do so at the expense of a good understanding of who the Holy Spirit has revealed God to actually be through His word. As a result, their “truth wing” can atrophy.  They can end up being really excited but really ungrounded.

Conversely, it is also easy to find churches and individuals who are strong at worshiping in TRUTH.  Those who hold in very high regard, the words of scripture and good doctrine.  They are concerned (and rightly so) about good teaching, right understanding, and knowing God through His word. However, those churches can sometimes do so at the expense of love, graciousness and vibrancy in their gatherings and lives.  Emotion can end up being an enemy and as a result their “spirit wing” can atrophy. They can end up being “right” with truth but ultimately stuffy and dry in spirit.

Why are so many of our churches segregated along these lines?  I’m guessing that if you go to the gym you don’t just work out one arm or one leg, so why do we see this in the Christian faith? Why is it that we love living in the ditch on either side, instead of walking in the center of the road? Could it be that we all are bent to one side or the other and instead of shoring up our weaknesses, we prefer in our sinfulness, to think we are more right than the “other side”? Thus the bird…the body, is pulled apart.

In John chapter 4, we read the story of Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman. During the course of the interaction, the woman is trying to steer the conversation away from her own sin and to bring up an old worship disagreement between Jews and Samaritans about where real worship can happen. Jesus then says this…

“23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

For those of us who call ourselves worshipers of Jesus, this passage should be really important for us! I don’t know about you, but if this is the worshiper that God is looking for, I want to be all about discovering what that looks like in my own life and in the life of our churches!  I love how John Piper speaks of SPIRIT and TRUTH in his 1984 message entitled, “God Seeks People to Worship Him in Spirit and Truth”.  He says…

“Together the words “spirit and truth” mean that real worship comes from the spirit within and is based on true views of God. Worship must have heart and worship must have head. Worship must engage your emotions and worship must engage your thoughts. Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full of unspiritual fighters. Emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates flaky people who reject the discipline of rigorous thought. True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine.”

Jesus said that The Father is looking for worshipers who worship in spirit AND truth, not spirit OR truth.  We must be people and churches that strive to find the balance and give equal weight to each wing.  It is crucial that we worship the God of scripture, rightly with understanding. We don’t get a pass on having good theology and good doctrine.  It does matter!  It is also crucial though, that we respond rightly to who God is and what he is like.  If good doctrine doesn’t produce hearts enflamed by the Spirit, overflowing with humility, and awe-filled wonder then we are missing the point! We must have Holy Spirit-empowered, passionate, full-of-life response to truth.  Each “wing” needs the other desperately! As Piper says, “Worship must have heart and worship must have head!”  There is no true worship when one wing is strong at the expense of the other.

At the end of the day the goal is not to be right and it is not to have a moving experience…the end goal is God himself and we worship Him on His terms….in SPIRT and in TRUTH.  If we commit to the balance, the result will be that we will have lives of worship that are meaningfully true and good, producing in us awe, wonder and a treasuring of Christ.  We have fought for this at Calvary over the years and it is bearing beautiful fruit! We are seeing truth-filled and Spirit-empowered times of worship shape us when we gather together.

So yes, let’s seek to know Him rightly and to dive into truth, and yes, let’s let the Holy Spirit make that truth fan a flame of wonder, awe and passion in our hearts!  Both wings, working together…same body.  Let’s fight for that in our lives and in our churches!

Invitation To Worship

In the last post, I had mentioned the word INVITATION quite a few times and so I thought it might be good for me to expound on the idea of INVITATION and how it has really shaped me.

If at its core, worship is a response… and I believe this statement to be true with all my heart, then I think every one of us needs to wrestle with the question, “A response to what…and how exactly?” We could just say that our worship flows out of our hearts, as a response to all that God IS and all that God DOES and that would be absolutely correct! However, I think there is richness when we dive into the details of who God is, what He’s like and all that He’s said and done!

As I said in the outset, one of the realities that has really shaped the way I have worshiped privately, and have tried to lead publicly over the years is the idea of INVITATION. Seeing God as a God of INVITATION behind all that He is and what He’s done has really helped me in my thinking of worship as response, and how I should then lead others to respond. Maybe I would say it this way…

worship is what flows from our hearts as we continually respond rightly to invitation from God.

In Matthew 22 we read Jesus’ Parable of the Wedding Feast, where He compares His Kingdom to a king sending out an INVITATION to a wedding celebration. We read that having been ignored by the original invitees, the INVITATION goes out to everyone else that would come!

I guess the question for us is, what have we been invited to, how do we respond and how does it shape our worship? To see God through the lens of INVITATION is to go right to the beginning and start with fresh eyes…

From the very beginning of creation God has extended the INVITATION for all of creation to reflect His glory and goodness. Mankind was invited into the perfection of God’s creation in order to worship and enjoy their creator. Even after the fall we see the whole of the Old Testament as God’s continual INVITATION to His people, where he makes ways for them to continue to enjoy Him and experience His goodness, despite their fallen-ness. To see God from this framework shatters the false narrative that the God of the Old Testament is just vindictive, angry and upset.

Furthermore, we see the greatest cosmic INVITATION of all, through Jesus! God WITH us, God COME to us. Through His life, death and resurrection, we have been extended the INVITATION to find freedom from ourselves, peace with the Father and life in The Spirt. This is the Gospel! In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus Himself invites us to follow Him and to find rest for our souls as we do.

As the church is born, we see the INVITATION continue! The INVITATION to mission (to become inviters ourselves) and the INVITATION to walk in this new life by what we call the means of grace (See the last post). We are invited to discover life in the Holy Spirit, the adventure of living to spread the gospel, the power of prayer, the transforming nature of scripture, the deep joy of diving into gospel-centered community and the riches of leaning into the never-ending well of God’s grace. And then we are invited to extend this INVITATION to others! This has been so helpful for me as a worship leader.

More and more, I see my job as a worship leader to simply extend God’s INVITATION to be worshiped and enjoyed. More than anything I want people to find joy and satisfaction in God’s presence as we corporately worship. However, my desire to see them find that joy can never come from a place of demanding or frustration. I’m not the Holy Spirit and so all I can do is let worship flow from my own heart and continue to encourage and invite others to join, just as God has pursued me with INVITATION.

Are there people in your life you long to see experience the Gospel and the freedom found in Jesus? People you long to see become worshipers? Friends? A spouse? A son or daughter? Family members or maybe a coworker? Maybe these thoughts will help. Continue to graciously invite as God has graciously invited you. Avoid frustration, demands and weariness. Trust in the Holy Spirit and just extend INVITATION!

If worship is a response to what we have received and what has been revealed…from God and by God, then a people that are overwhelmed by the goodness and glory of His INVITATION, and are answering that INVITATION will produce overflowing hearts resounding with WORSHIP!

Taste and See

Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in Him!

-Psalm 34:8

Can God’s goodness ever truly be known by us until we have actually tasted it? I love how this verse equates the tasting of God’s goodness with seeing God’s goodness. There seems to be this implication that there is a type of seeing that only comes after one has tasted. It’s a seeing that is newly acquired and informed by experience! It is one thing to know about something but it is an entirely different thing altogether when that knowledge comes alive with experience! The verses in Psalm 34 that lead us up to verse 8 seem to exude this! The Psalmist is actively praising the Lord, delighting in Him and giving testimony of God’s goodness, all while inviting others to join in. The progression in the first eight verses is blessing and praise, boasting in God, proclaiming His goodness, inviting others to join and then testifying to what He’s done. It culminates again in verse eight with an invitation to discover what he has discovered. To TASTE and SEE. It is the invitation of a man who has tasted the goodness of God and has been given new sight in it’s dawn!

I love how C.S Lewis talks about praise in the ninth chapter of his book, “Reflections on the Psalms”. He begins by sharing his inner wrestling match with the idea that God would command the praise of Himself and that on a purely intellectual level, how hard that can be to digest. That is until he realizes (and in the process helps all of us to realize) that all goodness experienced, “spontaneously overflows to praise”.

“I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.“

- C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

The key discovery for all of us, and I think what the Psalmist had discovered, was that we can never be more alive and full of joy than when we are regularly experiencing (tasting) the joy found in treasuring our God above all else. It is the only tasting and seeing that leads to lasting satisfaction because we were truly made for it! The real human tragedy is that we often spend much of life tasting all of the “goodness” we can squeeze out of creation, neglecting to go to the source of it all. This is a tasting that never leads to a true seeing or knowing. It’s fleeting and empty.

At Calvary Church in Valparaiso, we often talk about the means of grace given to us by God. Firstly, God has extended to us the greatest invitation that has ever been, in the gospel of Jesus Christ. An invitation to have His life, true life, become our life. Confessing our need for a savior, and believing that He is in fact the Lord over all, is the primary way we taste His goodness. We deserve nothing and yet are offered everything in Christ. All other means of grace are simply invitations to soak in, to be reminded of, and to savor and treasure Him! (more thoughts to come on INVITATION in another post)

We have been invited to soak in His word, we have been invited to gather together in corporate worship, we have been invited to partake in community to experience His love through one another and we have been invited to pray and to commune with the very Creator of the universe! These are all opportunities to TASTE and SEE that God is good. It is no wonder that Christians who don’t take God up on His offer with these means of grace, never seem to truly get a taste that leads to a seeing, which erupts in worship. True worship flows out of a heart that has been made alive by the power of the gospel. A heart that has tasted the goodness of Jesus and has seen His glory.

There is a lasting goodness. A goodness that is all satisfying, full of joy and absolutely complete! So much so, that this goodness extends to every season of our lives. Times of celebration, times of mourning. Times of laughing and times of weeping. This lasting goodness is found in the knowing and treasuring of our God alone and there is no substitute. He has extended to us, every opportunity and invitation to experience His goodness and all we must do is to TASTE and then SEE. This will produce for us, hearts overflowing with thanksgiving, praise and worship!

What About Them? (The Problem Of Comparison)

This morning I was reading in John chapter 21, where Jesus had appeared for a third time to his disciples after his resurrection.  In verse 15 Jesus begins a conversation with Peter by challenging Peter to "feed his sheep". Jesus then goes on to let Peter know that he will have to possibly suffer in death for God’s glory.  

I find it fascinating that Peter's first inclination was to look back over his shoulder to John, the "disciple Jesus loved",  and to say, "What about him Lord?”.  Jesus basically tells Peter to just worry about himself and his own calling to follow.

I find passages like this refreshing because for me, it puts flesh and bones on the people in scripture.  I can so relate to Peter at times!  It can be so tempting to look at other people and wonder, “What about them Lord?”…“Why do they get to have the success?”…”Why don’t they have to walk through difficulty?”.

So often, we are prone to look to a fellow brother or sister in Christ and to watch the race that they are running compared to the race that Christ has called us to run.  We can find it so hard to stay in our lanes, being faithful to the race that Christ has called us to.  

We compare talents, we compare successes and we compare life circumstances.  More often than not, the temptation comes when we are in a season of difficulty, when we're struggling, or when we are called to walk through a tough set of circumstances.  It can also be tempting to compare when we see others experience blessing.

At times, we all want to ask, “Why me and not them?" or “Why them and not me?”.  Comparison can be an awful thing because if it remains unchecked, it can create a bitterness in us and an addiction to looking at others lives and situations rather than being faithful to our own calling.  It causes us to totally lose our effectiveness.

This morning I needed the Holy Spirit to remind me that I am called to follow Christ and to run the race He has set for me.  In Hebrews, the author reminds us that we are called to run our race with perseverance throwing off sin that so easily entangles and ensnares us.  I need to fight the urge to look at others and to compare the ways God has blessed them.  My own race alone is more than I can handle on my own without trying to imitate and compare with someone else's race!

Let's remind ourselves today that God has called each of us to live for his glory no matter what He brings our way.  Let's be confident that our God is refining us in a way that is totally unique from anything else and anyone else.

He has plans for each of us individually to prosper and not to harm us. Plans for good!  Our God is good and we need to be able to trust Him enough that no matter what he allows to enter our lives, we can rest in the fact that he's bringing about good, that he loves us more than anything we could imagine and that we are called to persevere for his glory and our good.

If we can begin to see life this way, then we can look at other's lives and the things God has called them to. Rather than compare, we can then encourage them in all joy, with all sincerity.

This morning I am choosing to be confident that my God is working all things together for good in my life.  I’m choosing to embrace the road He has me on and to resist the comparison game.  I’m also choosing to be an encouragement to others as they run the race God has called them to.

Come Bless The Lord

So, I finally got around to asking a couple of my friends to help me do some acoustic videos for Majesty & Mystery!  Come Bless The Lord is the first one, and I hope and pray that it blesses you and that it causes your heart to turn to praise!  This song was written, based on Psalm 103 and it is basically a charge to our souls to praise our God in view of all that He is and all that He has done.  When we get a glimpse of God's greatness and His goodness, we cannot help but to worship with thanksgiving!  Hope you enjoy!

Thanks,

Kurt

A Place For Fear

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

―C.S. Lewis - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

This is probably one of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis! It makes me think deeply about God and His nature.  There is so much truth contained in this little quote, and for me it paints a beautiful picture.  All goodness, and all glory!  Susan had a picture of what Aslan would be like...an Aslan that she would feel safe and comfortable with.

The truth is that all of us are probably guilty when it comes to making God into our own image.  We all have a natural disposition when it comes to viewing God. We, as fallen people, can tend to believe He is exactly what we think we need, or want Him to be.  Whatever our bent, we can be very good at making a god that suits us, and justifies our natural inclinations rather than letting the truth of who God is inform our lives and our worship.

One thing that has struck me lately in scripture, is how many times men and women are told not to be afraid after they have experienced the glory of God in some way.  Throughout scripture, when humans come into contact with God’s immense glory, their first response is to be afraid and or to fall in worship.  Whether it is the voice of God from the mountain, a messenger of the Lord to men like Joshua and Gideon, shepherds seeing hosts of angels, or disciples seeing Christ transfigured and hearing the voice of God. In every case, the people involved needed to be told not to be afraid and this fear led them to humble worship and holy awe.

One of my favorite occurrences of this is in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ resurrection (Matthew 28:1-10). The women go to the tomb and there is a violent earthquake because an angel of the Lord “comes down” from heaven!  I mean…picture that!  The guards are so afraid, they fall down as if dead!  It is impossible for us to even comprehend the sheer terror and glory in this scene!  Then the angel turns to the women, and immediately tells them not to be afraid. "Jesus is not here, he has risen."  As they turn to leave the tomb, suddenly Jesus appears and greets them!

What’s fascinating is that the women's first response upon seeing the resurrected Christ, is not to leap into His arms in joy, or to gush all over Him. They knew Jesus well and had spent much time with Him!  Yet they don't approach him with a casual familiarity. They are face down, clutching his feet in worship! When confronted with heaven’s glory they are appropriately awed and it leads to pure worship!

Sometimes I wonder if there is a certain humility we are lacking in many of our worship services.  Is it possible that we can get a little too comfortable and familiar with it all?  Could it be that we are worshiping a god we have created?  A god who is safe for our sin nature?  I worry that in many of our churches we gather yet fail to see or feel the weight of it all. I worry that at times we see Jesus as our “bro” or a “dispenser” of love and grace while failing to see His glory and majesty!  Should we be afraid of God?  No, but we are to fear Him.  There is a difference. Scripture tells us that we are to approach the throne boldly!  But as we come boldly, could it be that we are coming proudly or casually?  There is nothing casual about our God and we have to see His goodness in light of His glory. This produces true humility and true adoration in worship.  I am not saying that we need to see God as a harsh dictator. That would be the opposite ditch on the side of the road.

We can’t view God’s love outside of viewing His glory, and we can’t only regard His glory outside of seeing His love.  We need to maintain the balance that brings true humility in worship. A balance that lets us feel our smallness. When we view what we have been given by Christ, in light of His immense glory, it produces genuine worship in Spirit and in Truth.  Our God is not contained in our comfy boxes and we belong, like the women at the tomb, humbly worshiping at His feet.  He loves us more than we can grasp and He is good beyond measure! When you consider such lavishness from such glory, directed towards such undeserving people, it is staggeringly humbling and all that is left to do is to fall and worship.  As we view God, let's not get comfortable.  Let's be humbled and awed that this immensely holy God, full of glory, saw fit to call us His own and to find us with His grace.  Let's not be afraid, but in Holy fear, pray that the realization of who He is,  would drive us to worship!

The Most Attractive Thing

Is there something about yourself that you like?  A quality you possess that you would point to and say, "I like this about me."?  Is it your looks, your personality or an ability you have?  Maybe you are gifted at something uniquely over others, or maybe you have worked really hard to grow a talent you have, or to get to a position you now hold. The truth is that we all struggle from time to time with wanting to have an attractiveness about us.  We want to be seen, to be loved and desired.  We want to matter.  This is not only true for us individually, but it can also be seen at work in a larger context of the church today.  We have this message...this good news but how do we get people to listen? How do we wrestle with the always elusive term… “RELEVANT”?  

Many churches have awoken to the fact that if they are going to be effective, then they need to be attractive.  In a movement led by churches like North Point in Atlanta, many churches are giving much more thought to their attractiveness.  They are thinking through what they are actually saying to the culture around them by what they offer, what they say, and how they appear.  At Calvary Church, where I lead worship, one of our stated values is “RELEVANT”. However, when we talk about being RELEVANT, we are trying to get at way more than the songs we sing, the words we use, the coffee we serve and the production value of the service.

In many modern, growing churches, you will find much attention being payed to these things…lighting, haze, coffee, good signage, overall ambiance, a welcoming, easily accessible atmosphere, and oh..the all important “excellence”.  Much of the growing church has realized that we need to take seriously how we are perceived by the world around us.  All of this, can have an important place and deserves our attention, but is there a line?  We SHOULD care about how easy or difficult we make it for people to walk into our churches and hear the gospel, but can we go too far?

I think we can lose perspective if we aren’t careful, and don't get me wrong, I’m on the side of lighting, good music great atmosphere and good coffee! I can't help but wonder though, if sometimes in churches across North America, we can lose sight of the place they are supposed to hold, compared to the value of faithfully presenting the gospel.  Are there cases where we are going too far and are trying to make Christ himself more attractive with our add-ons, losing sight of the fact that it is Christ that makes US attractive?  Paul hits the nail on the head when in Romans 7:18 he states that good is not found in us. While we may have the mind to want to be good, we lack the power to produce anything good on our own strength.(paraphrase)  We don't have in ourselves, what people really need.

Are there situations where because of our desperate desire to be "normal" and "accepted", that we go to far?  In 1 Peter 2:7-8 we are told that Christ, who is the cornerstone, is both a stumbling block and an offense to some.  The gospel message is the ultimate hope for all to hear, but we need to remember that it is also controversial, counter cultural, and offensive to our very sin nature!  Christ himself said that he did not come to bring peace but a sword. (Matthew 10:34) In other words, when you have a segment of people living for Christ, you will always have another group opposed to it.  It can ruin families and friendships.  It can cost you jobs and social status. Culture will not embrace people living for Christ and following His commands because Jesus commands us to be people who are radically loving, extremely gracious, full of the Holy Spirit and a people committed to living lives of holiness.  If we are doing that well as a church there will be opposition.

I guess where I come down on this topic is that YES, let's be committed to making our churches places that are welcoming, culturally relevant, and a safe place for people to come.  Our churches should be harbors of safety!  We should be loving because Christ loved us. We should be gracious because we were shown grace and because we were welcomed in, totally undeservedly! We should be the most welcoming people and places that exist.  However, OUR striving to be RELEVANT should stop at the gospel message itself.  We can present the good news of Christ in RELEVANT ways, but let's never think we must add to or take away from it to make it "easier" for people to hear. At Calvary Church, when we state RELEVANT as one of our values, it is with the understanding that the Gospel IS the most RELEVANT thing to every human heart. It doesn’t need our bobbles and decorations added. Jesus is the hope for every longing of every heart!

Let's never be so concerned about being liked by culture, that we begin to try to frame the gospel in a more "appealing" manner.  If we begin to try to make Christ more palatable to the world around us, we have failed miserably.  We are not in the business of making God attractive to people!  He is in the business of making us attractive for Himself first and then to a lost world. We are to be light and salt and the only way that we can be, is if the world sees the glory of God shining through our lives. Let's serve good coffee, make a great atmosphere, and welcome people with open arms, but our ultimate focus should be on becoming more like Christ!  Because, at the end of the day, the world doesn't need to see us or our shallow attempts to sell them anything, they need to see Jesus. He is by far, and forever will be, the most attractive thing we have to offer!

God In His Place

Do you ever wonder why it can be so easy to give time and effort to some things, but when it comes to our relationship with God and His worship, it can seem, at times,  an uphill battle?  I’m sure we can all identify with being so preoccupied with ourselves and our stuff that come Sundays, it's all we can do to "jar" ourselves awake spiritually for a couple of hours. I would venture to say that for many of us, this is all too common and we find ourselves stuck in a holding pattern, living out a faith that is stale, wondering what is wrong. Why do we find worship and relationship so hard at times, and why doesn't it get easier as the days and sometimes years roll by?  So often, God’s people try to "get by" from Sunday to Sunday and can't seem to live a consistent "everyday" faith where our hearts are always engaged in the worship of God.

There are many reasons for the state of our worship, or lack of, but I'll venture a guess that all the reasons and life patterns that lead to a poor worship life originate in an improper view of who God is, that results in a failure to give Him the place He is due in our lives. 

In the book, The Pursuit Of God by A.W. Tozer, there is a chapter dedicated to the relationship between God and man, Creator and the created. Tozer states that the difficulties we have in worship can be traced to an upset in the proper relationship between God and man. We’ve skewed it. He touches on many things in this particular chapter but what I want to primarily focus on is our view of God and how it relates to our level of worship.

It seems to me that one of the gravest situations today in our churches is that we at times, have taken God and re-made him. We have created a god that we can understand and explain and that we feel comfortable with.  A ”safe” God.  We have tried to create a God that waits on hold for us while we do what we want.  Then, when we feel like being spiritual, we expect Him to show up and meet our needs.  The problem here is obvious: God is the great "I AM," not the "I Am…whatever you need me to be."   Tozer puts it this way, "When He (God) speaks in the first person He says, "I AM"; when we speak of Him we say, "He is"; when we speak to Him we say, "You are". Everyone and everything measures from that fixed point." (I have paraphrased Tozer's language a bit.)

There is no changing Him and there is no re-making Him.  God is eternal, unchanging, sovereign, infinite and so far beyond our human minds. He has chosen to reveal Himself to us through his Word (written and spoken), through His Spirit and through all of His works.  Still we find Him beyond grasping.  He simply is who He is.  Why do we think that we, in our frailty, can change this God to suit our needs? God is to be taken wholly, with NO exceptions. He is the Master of the universe, Creator of the galaxy, the most high God, and Savior of our souls. He deserves ALL glory, ALL honor and ALL praise. Any failure to ascribe Him what He is due (Psalm 29) is a failure on our part to recognize Him rightfully.  

This is what it is to worship Him in truth. Until we rightly acknowledge who He is, we will never be able to have a meaningful relationship with Him and meaningful worship of Him.  It starts with a heart that is hungry, and a willingness to take stock of our own lives.  If we are not willing to seek God on His terms and to live our lives in that light, then we have no right to expect Him to work in our hearts and in our churches.  But, just as David said to his son Solomon as his life was ending, (1 Chronicles 28:9)  if we acknowledge God for who He is and seek Him, He will be found.  What hope for us that with God, earnest seeking will lead to genuine finding!

The Creator of the universe desires relationship with you and me, and this is no small thing. Unfortunately, we so often become too busy with ourselves to take God up on this offer.  Why, oh why, do we expect God to work around our schedules and at our whims?  You and I have been extended the most glorious opportunity ever conceived. Let’s view ourselves in the proper light, and humbly seek His face because He desires it.  Not when it suits us, but as part of our very being.  Let our lives be bent toward the pursuit of Him, and let us live out our days knowing who we are, in light of who God is. Let’s strive to have God in His proper place in our lives.

It's Here!!

So, it is kinda hard to believe that it is all here!  The album, the website and this blog/news page!  The release of this project marks a milestone in my life that has been a long time coming!  It's a long story for another time but let's just say that God has been so good and His timing is perfect! My hope with "Majesty and Mystery" is that the songs will simply just be sung, by God's people, in God's presence for God's glory!  

I can't begin to be thankful enough for all of the help I had to make this project a reality! From musicianship, to production, to photo and video, I have had some amazingly talented people take part in this album to make it what it is!  It takes a village!

I am worship leader and at the end of the day, that is what I want to be found doing...leading people to see God's beauty. To see His greatness and His goodness!  My hope is that the songs will bless others as much as God has blessed me while writing and recoding them.  They all represent something I have discovered or have had to learn about Him along the way.  The good news for song writers like myself is that my God is infinite and I will never be done discovering His goodness so future material will never be a problem!

For now my prayer is that we would see just how Majestic and Mysterious our God is and that it would draw our hearts to praise.  I hope these songs will do just that!