I have had the luxury of using our reader for almost a full year, I guess you can call it a benefit of being on the team for two years. Both times, one of my favorite article is this one. After 6 years of being involved in planning, leading and running worship-I understand how sometimes it just seems to be a task that must get done.
I have a quote written on a piece of masking tape in my bible from Dr. Kalas from last years NSO chapel.
“Becoming familiar with sacred things can hurt us-because the sacred becomes normal.”
Everytime I read this quote it jumps out at me. It really speaks to the situation we have as worship designers. The article outlines four self-images of the worship planner, and I think the last one of “Spiritual Engineer” is the most dangerous. We feel the need to always “out-bling” ourselves at every service. How often have we thought that we can get enough of a holy frenzy going on for the Holy Spirit to come down (I have blogged about this before, you can read the post here). As the article states we sometimes think we have the task of “turning an ordinary moment into a holy moment”, and that is something the church has been facing for thousands of years. But we can’t do that, and this idea always reminds me of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, screaming and cutting themselves in an attempt to call down fire.
In our attempt to make a moment holy we have to daily be stepping back and remembering that we serve the Holy One, and a moment is not just Holy to him, but His entire makeup screams holiness, it is the output that shapes all other outputs of God.
We have to understand our task of “worship”. It is not just music filler before the sermon. And the sermon is not the apex of our worship. We have the goal of completely integrating the entire service as a unitive whole. When we design a service that is fully integrated together and shows the journey through the Biblical Story of a Triune God who desperately loves this world we have accomplished designing worship. Then we are truly focused on God in our entire service, through the announcements to the benediction.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Defining Worship
Tim Hughes has begun a good conversation on his blog concerning the definition of worship. I encourage you all to read the thread of comments and give it some thought. And I ask the question of you: how do you define worship. As I have said on my own blog. The way we define worship determines the way we design worship.
What is missing in the conversation?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Dan's Thoughts
I have struggled with worship services for years. I have attended small churches (25-150), medium sized churches (350-400), a large church (1000-1500), and a mega church (7,000-11,000) and in each church I struggled with the services. As I sit back and reflect on the churches, I feel as if there is something missing, and for years I haven’t been able to put my finger on it.
In the Webber piece (1st in the reader), he talks about how the church’s focus should be on joining in with the story of God (an objective experience). He compares this with the way it really is – us telling God how worthy he is and how much we love him (a subjective experience).
When we travel somewhere, my job is to drive (Stephanie’s job is to fall asleep). So I get tons of time to think about things. This weekend as we drove home, I was rolling the idea of worship as an alternate reality. I had heard somebody use this term, but it had never sunk in. As we were going for a while, I began to realize what is meant here: as we worship we are living our lives completely differently – we view reality differently.
Worship is the understanding reality that all our attempts at power and security are futile. It rejects the upward movement mindset of capitalism, the struggle between economic stratospheres of Marxism, and religion’s struggle with becoming a better, more enlightened being. Worship is the recognition that God is in control, that he is acting within history, He is truly holding all things together, and then submitting our lives to his lordship.
When we make worship about the subjective and not the objective we end up missing the story as we only begin to focus on our needs and ourselves. We become the main players in the story, and God becomes just a deity to appease. As worship becomes about us, we very quickly lose the ability to see the world for the way it truly is. This is because we’re only concerned with ourselves. Worship only becomes self-expression.
When worship is about self-expression, we begin to have “worship wars” as people are concerned with their personal preference. As self-expression drives worship, worship often becomes about performing. It becomes hollow, repetitive, and meaningless. It becomes a race to say the most dramatic, the most expressive, and the most ______ statement possible-even if it isn’t necessarily true.
When worship is presenting an alternate reality it becomes something that is exciting. It becomes something that is alive with possibilities. It becomes hopeful. It drives us to become different people. It connects us with the mind of God. It leads us to new places. It is not repetitive, nor is it hollow. This is what I have been missing all these years…
In the Webber piece (1st in the reader), he talks about how the church’s focus should be on joining in with the story of God (an objective experience). He compares this with the way it really is – us telling God how worthy he is and how much we love him (a subjective experience).
When we travel somewhere, my job is to drive (Stephanie’s job is to fall asleep). So I get tons of time to think about things. This weekend as we drove home, I was rolling the idea of worship as an alternate reality. I had heard somebody use this term, but it had never sunk in. As we were going for a while, I began to realize what is meant here: as we worship we are living our lives completely differently – we view reality differently.
Worship is the understanding reality that all our attempts at power and security are futile. It rejects the upward movement mindset of capitalism, the struggle between economic stratospheres of Marxism, and religion’s struggle with becoming a better, more enlightened being. Worship is the recognition that God is in control, that he is acting within history, He is truly holding all things together, and then submitting our lives to his lordship.
When we make worship about the subjective and not the objective we end up missing the story as we only begin to focus on our needs and ourselves. We become the main players in the story, and God becomes just a deity to appease. As worship becomes about us, we very quickly lose the ability to see the world for the way it truly is. This is because we’re only concerned with ourselves. Worship only becomes self-expression.
When worship is about self-expression, we begin to have “worship wars” as people are concerned with their personal preference. As self-expression drives worship, worship often becomes about performing. It becomes hollow, repetitive, and meaningless. It becomes a race to say the most dramatic, the most expressive, and the most ______ statement possible-even if it isn’t necessarily true.
When worship is presenting an alternate reality it becomes something that is exciting. It becomes something that is alive with possibilities. It becomes hopeful. It drives us to become different people. It connects us with the mind of God. It leads us to new places. It is not repetitive, nor is it hollow. This is what I have been missing all these years…
Thursday, July 3, 2008
WORSHIP DESIGN READER: Check-in
Team,
I am wondering if you have been able to crack the cover of the Worship Design Team Summer Reader yet. If so, please post a comment on which article(s) you have read. It will help me know how to engage the conversation here in the coming days. Sound good?
THE SERMON: Reading Practices
Hello ChAlSiPaDaJeDa
Love that word.
I've loved your posts on THE SERMON so far. I want to refine the challenge though.
We are 18 days in to the 30 day challenge. For the next 22 days I want to challenge you to read the sermon aloud to yourself. It is important for your own ears to hear the Word as well as for your mouth to speak it. I want to take a step back from interpretive or application oriented work or comments. In this phase we aren't so interested in what it means as what it actually says and how it says it, it's progression, it's cadence, it's feel and so forth. I want you to focus on reading and hearing the THE SERMON. And I want you to make a post oriented around your experience of the text and any observations yielded by this process. This is what I would call the "walking around the text" process. We are surveying THE SERMON like a work of art, beholding its beauty, listening for its rhythm, hearing its wisdom and submitting ourselves to its mastery. Make sense? I'll try to make a post soon to give you an example of what I am getting at.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Love your enemies
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)
I have been meditating on this verse and God has been teaching me through it. Here is what I am learning.
God is the ultimate source of love. He loved us into creation. It's His love that won victory on the cross for us, and it's His love that will be consumated when the Bride, the church, is ready.
Hate is an attribute of Satan. But love through Christ is the conquerer.
I think we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because as children of God, living in His will for our lives, if someone is our adversary, then their brokenness is possibly being used and manipulated by the enemy for Satan's advancement.
By praying and loving our enemies, we unite with God in His love. Through prayer in His love, we have the authority to cancel Satan's plan of division, additional pain, and further brokenness. Through loving and praying for our enemies and persecutors, we can be agents and ambassadors of God, working in his healing redemptive plans for God's kingdom advancement.
In this time between the Fall and New Creation, battles are being waged. We are given the opportunity to choose which weapons to use: Love and Prayer, or Hate and Gossip. Both have power. When the time for a battle arises, which weapons will you choose?
I have been meditating on this verse and God has been teaching me through it. Here is what I am learning.
God is the ultimate source of love. He loved us into creation. It's His love that won victory on the cross for us, and it's His love that will be consumated when the Bride, the church, is ready.
Hate is an attribute of Satan. But love through Christ is the conquerer.
I think we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because as children of God, living in His will for our lives, if someone is our adversary, then their brokenness is possibly being used and manipulated by the enemy for Satan's advancement.
By praying and loving our enemies, we unite with God in His love. Through prayer in His love, we have the authority to cancel Satan's plan of division, additional pain, and further brokenness. Through loving and praying for our enemies and persecutors, we can be agents and ambassadors of God, working in his healing redemptive plans for God's kingdom advancement.
In this time between the Fall and New Creation, battles are being waged. We are given the opportunity to choose which weapons to use: Love and Prayer, or Hate and Gossip. Both have power. When the time for a battle arises, which weapons will you choose?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
knock, knock.......
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened."
This passage has really been come alive for me these last couple of weeks.
I was thinking about the different levels of attempting to obtain something and how they relate to comfort levels. For instance, you can ask for something from any comfort you so choose. You don't even have to get up and out of your chair, that's why they invented the iPhone 3G :) . You can also ask for something in an impersonal, anonymous way. No one else has to know about what you are trying to obtain or how really important this is to you.
Seeking is a little more intentional. It implies a little more sense of urgency than simply just "asking" for something. Yet I think this could still be done comfortably and, if you really wanted to, without anyone knowing what you're seeking for or disclosing how urgent the matter really is or how you really feel about it.
Knocking on someone's door however? Now that's a personal, all-up-in-someone-else's-face kinda thing- it's full disclosure. That is unless you like to go knocking on folk's door wearing a ski mask while attempting to disguise your voice (I don't recommend this btw, especially at night). There's not much comfort here. You got to get up and go to be able to do this. It’s an act of letting your guard down and letting others see what you are really in of. It’s being willing to forgo comfort for the sake what you are wanting to obtain.
What does this say about our lives as worshippers? I had this thought that maybe it’s that we can be as comfortable as we choose to be. After all, worship does not depend on us. When we worship we are participating in Christ’s worship of the Father that’s already and ever will be “in progress.” So we can’t make worship “become” worship even more than it already is. Yet there is just something about this knocking business, something about not letting ourselves approach our participation as worshippers in a comfortable and casual sort of fashion that just seems richer. There is also something about letting our guard (pride, religiousness, tradition, etc) down, and allowing a full disclosure of ourselves before God and the people of God in worship that just seems like its what we were meant to do, it is certainly something Jesus does.
Another thing, Jesus says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” I had this thought that this works the other way around too. In other words, when we choose to knock on the Father’s door and not simply approach Him in an impersonal or anonymous way when we gather to worship, He’s more than glad to open up the door for us his children and invite is in to feast with him. His Son has already provided the meal and the table has already been prepared (by the power of the Holy Spirit) =). It’s the perfect fellowship-the Father, the Son (with us!!), and the Holy Spirit. It’s certainly a great place to be. And all it takes its a knock. So, I say lets knock-and knock with confidence....
This passage has really been come alive for me these last couple of weeks.
I was thinking about the different levels of attempting to obtain something and how they relate to comfort levels. For instance, you can ask for something from any comfort you so choose. You don't even have to get up and out of your chair, that's why they invented the iPhone 3G :) . You can also ask for something in an impersonal, anonymous way. No one else has to know about what you are trying to obtain or how really important this is to you.
Seeking is a little more intentional. It implies a little more sense of urgency than simply just "asking" for something. Yet I think this could still be done comfortably and, if you really wanted to, without anyone knowing what you're seeking for or disclosing how urgent the matter really is or how you really feel about it.
Knocking on someone's door however? Now that's a personal, all-up-in-someone-else's-face kinda thing- it's full disclosure. That is unless you like to go knocking on folk's door wearing a ski mask while attempting to disguise your voice (I don't recommend this btw, especially at night). There's not much comfort here. You got to get up and go to be able to do this. It’s an act of letting your guard down and letting others see what you are really in of. It’s being willing to forgo comfort for the sake what you are wanting to obtain.
What does this say about our lives as worshippers? I had this thought that maybe it’s that we can be as comfortable as we choose to be. After all, worship does not depend on us. When we worship we are participating in Christ’s worship of the Father that’s already and ever will be “in progress.” So we can’t make worship “become” worship even more than it already is. Yet there is just something about this knocking business, something about not letting ourselves approach our participation as worshippers in a comfortable and casual sort of fashion that just seems richer. There is also something about letting our guard (pride, religiousness, tradition, etc) down, and allowing a full disclosure of ourselves before God and the people of God in worship that just seems like its what we were meant to do, it is certainly something Jesus does.
Another thing, Jesus says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” I had this thought that this works the other way around too. In other words, when we choose to knock on the Father’s door and not simply approach Him in an impersonal or anonymous way when we gather to worship, He’s more than glad to open up the door for us his children and invite is in to feast with him. His Son has already provided the meal and the table has already been prepared (by the power of the Holy Spirit) =). It’s the perfect fellowship-the Father, the Son (with us!!), and the Holy Spirit. It’s certainly a great place to be. And all it takes its a knock. So, I say lets knock-and knock with confidence....
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