Beyond Sunday Worship

Worship Podcast

Why I love simplicity

I am going to do a couple posts on why I love simplicity in worship and why I love complexity in worship (if you’re confused as to what that means, keep reading).

Tonight during our ‘Hour with God’ at Allison Park Church, we had a time of worship with just an acoustic guitar and a lot of voices. Why do I love this? Sometimes we can overproduce worship to the point that we lose the heart of it.

From a leader’s perspective, you’re so focused on the right sound, the coolest arrangement, and trying to please everyone. From a worshiper’s perspective, you’re just waiting for your favorite song so you can REALLY worship. We tend to be consumer’s of a product and not consumed by the beauty of God.

We all know this is NOT what it’s about. When you strip everything away it is easier to focus on the beauty of Christ and engage your heart, while not relying too heavily on external emotional supports.

I love simplicity. But I also love the complex, creative side for a number of reasons. That is coming soon.

DS

Healthy Tensions in Worship

Bob Kauflin’s new book, “Worship Matters“, is a fantastic resource for worship leaders and pastors alike. Part 3 of this book lists some ‘healthy tensions’ that we as leaders need to balance in our ministry. Here they are for your contemplation:

  • Transcendent and Immanent
  • Head and Heart
  • Internal and External
  • Vertical and Horizontal
  • Planned and Spontaneous
  • Rooted and Relevant
  • Skilled and Authentic
  • For the Church and for Unbelievers
  • Event and Everyday

What do these mean to you?

Song Story – 'Glory of Your Name'

I’m sure many of you have heard this song on the blog and on my myspace by now. ‘Glory of Your Name’ was birthed out of a desire to define what congregational worship is all about. During the time of this writing I was struggling to encounter God corporately. I had great personal devotions and moments with God by myself, but was completely distracted with other people and, quite frankly, not enjoying it one bit. Still, in my heart I knew it was biblical and God called us to do it. But why? Ponder these thoughts:

Come gather everyone to join in heaven’s song
Glory be to God
Draw near from far and wide to sing and prophesy
Glory be to God

We speak to every nation
Jesus will reign forever
Come and rejoice, come and rejoice

We join now with all of history and all eternity to sing
The glory of Your name
You’ve risen and reign forevermore, Holy One we live to see
The glory of Your name

One name, one way, one God who’s worthy of praise
Glory be to God
Your praise will reign, throughout the nations all will sing
Glory be to God
Glory be to God

These are truths that I need to remind myself. We need to worship corporately to come together in unity. We need to speak faith to one another. We must be reminded of unchanging Truth in the midst of our changing circumstances. We need to rejoice in the greatness of God. And the awesome truth is that we’re not the first or the last to do this. We join with all of history and all eternity in magnifying the greatness of our God through Jesus Christ.

So be it.

Another interesting fact about this song: I wrote it during a time when I couldn’t sing in the slightest bit. Not that when I sang people passed out and windows shattered, but because I had a mystery disease that no doctors could diagnose. I didn’t have enough muscle strength to sing. Crazy, huh? Thinking back to that time brings tears to my eyes. Writing like this helped bring me through to the other side and helped me trust in God’s power.

Song Stories

My excitement continues to grow. Mastering for the album is taking place in two weeks. Music is such a diverse art. One individual hears a sound and is disgusted with it. Another hears the same sound and is crying tears of joy. Some like country, jazz, rock, pop, metal, hardcore, the list goes on. The bottom line is that music effects people. My personal heart and vision for this music is more than simply entertainment, though I do listen to music for entertainment at times. I want it to be a journey into the Word of God and hope it stirs you to love it and do what it says. Certain music through the years has influenced the way I view God and has been a soundtrack for the ministry I do everyday. I pray this music effects you spiritually. You may not like the sound. You may love the sound. One sound of music rarely, if ever, is everyone’s preference. But I pray you feel the passion, hear the Word of God, and feel the tears through which many of these songs were written.

Over the next couple weeks I am going to post some song stories for you to know the background of why they were written. Mini Bible studies, if you will. They all have a purpose and a story.

Thanks for reading (and listening!).

The Bible is the Most Relevant Book

I was convicted this morning about the importance of reading the Bible. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But sometimes I don’t want to.

I would rather read a powerful, relevant book by a great author. I would rather listen to music.

I would rather go spend money on something.

I think the more you don’t read the Bible, the more you adopt the world’s value system.

I’ve noticed this in my own life. Spiritual matters don’t seem that important. Glorious truth about God doesn’t seem as powerful as it once was. Eternity seems like it may never come. Using a biblical word, one becomes worldly. Let me just say this to you:

There is nothing more relevant than the Word of God.

A.W. Tozer said, “We ought to learn to live in our Bibles”. The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to have our “powers of discernment trained by constant practice” (Hebrews 5:14). When we live outside the Word of God and simply go through our days, we are not being relevant to life. The Word of God keeps us truly relevant to reality. I don’t know about you, but I need to hear this today. I need Scripture to bear upon my heart every day or I lose focus. I think that’s why God said to meditate upon it day and night.

Do you agree?