We can’t make you worship
I saw a passage a couple of years ago that changed the way I lead worship. 1 Corinthians 14:22-25. In a very small nutshell, it says that if an unbeliever comes into the church while everyone is prophesying (proclaiming the Word of God), he will repent and turn to God.
We live in a church-culture that is becoming more and more “seeker-sensitive.” I feel like the motive behind this movement is good. But, I think we’ve missed the boat when it comes to church and more specifically corporate worship.
Think about this:
Romans 3:10-11. Verse 11 says there is “no one who SEEKS God.”
John 4:22-24. Verse 23 says that there are “worshipers the Father SEEKS.”
Luke 19:10. Christ came to “SEEK and save what was lost.”
Okay, so there is no one who seeks God. In fact, He is the one who seeks us.
My daughter turns three next week. We’ve got the big party planned, rented a princess “jumpy, moon-walk, blow up thing”, got the princess cake…the works. Can’t wait. The goal of her party is to celebrate her life. To make her feel loved, appreciated, and special. What if on the day of her party, we just ignored her and spent all of our energy on the guests? She got no cake, no presents, no ice cream, no Happy Birthdays. Instead, we gave everyone else the presents. The cake had their names on it. They got to jump in the princess moon-walk, but not her. We sang “Hap – py Birth – day to ALLOFYOUWHOCAMETOTHEPARTYTODAY.” If the goal is to make my daughters day, why would we just make everyone else’s day and ignore her?
If worship is to bring praise to God, to exalt Him, to bring Him honor, to worship Him, to celebrate who He is, why would we give it all to the guests? We’re not worth it! Keep reading Romans 3 all the way to verse 18. We were DEAD without Him. When you’re dead, you don’t have an opinion or a preference. But He is LIFE! He is AMAZING! He is Holy, Sovereign, and Mighty! HE deserves our praise.
“Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” Psalm 115:1
So…I’ve stopped trying to please people in corporate worship. Sure, we want to always do our best to not allow any distractions, and to do the best that we can at whatever we’re doing, but ultimately, it’s not about any of us. It’s about what HE wants.
Now, there are a couple of ways that I react to this. First, as a worship leader, I feel a sense of relief that I don’t have to try to please a group of people from all ages, backgrounds, tastes, opinions, etc. I’m just not that good. But in another way, what an incredible responsibility and privilege to try to please God! Fortunately, He never changes. AND, He sees the righteousness of Christ when He looks at me. So, again, I’m off the hook.
I’m so thankful that He desires our worship. I’m so thankful that He has allowed me to do what I do. I’m so thankful for our church family who understands that we’re not trying to entertain them.
Changes.
As a famous songwriter once wrote, “The times they are a changin.” This statement is applicable probably more than ever in my wife’s life and mine. My name is Josh Poore, and I just graduated from college about a month and a half ago. About three weeks ago I got married, about a week and a half ago we moved to Birmingham from Jackson, MS, and a week ago I started working at The Church at Brook Hills. It’s been pretty fast and furious for Lydia and me, as one can imagine. However, through experiencing all of these physical changes in our lives, I have been reminded of a couple important spiritual truths: a) I am consistently inconsistent, and b) God is sovereign and never changes.
Just like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, I am constantly thrilled and enticed by other things that claim they can satisfy my soul. As a result I find myself pursuing these things that are themselves like me, changeable. It’s like “striving after wind,” as Solomon describes it in the book of Ecclesiastes, and not at all satisfying. On the flipside…
God is eternally unchanging, as He Himself says in Malachi 3:6, which is contradictory to how, in the next verse, He describes Israel, who has “turned aside” from God’s “statutes.” However, there is hope, as He continues in verse 7: “Return to me, and I will return to You.” The truth here is both inescapable and beautiful: only when I, who am constantly moving, remember and submit to the fact that I am anchored by God, who is eternally immovable, can I truly have peace in this life.
I think the same truths apply for music in worship services. As we all know, worship music is constantly changing, but the subject of these songs must always be our everlasting and unchanging God.
The hope I have for my family and ministry at Brook Hills is that we may always cling to Christ, who is the solid rock. “All other ground is sinking sand.”
What’s Next?
We welcome two new interns this week and I wanted to take the opportunity to dive into why it is a priority for us to invest in the next generation.
Last Friday, a few guys from our staff returned from a conference in Chicago. Darlene Zschech spoke about this topic during one of our sessions and my heart was almost shouting an audible ‘AMEN!’ This is not a new concept for us at Brook Hills. We have been making a very intentional shift towards disciple-making and away from kingdom building (our own kingdoms). But, it was encouraging to see someone of great influence among worship leaders globally, speaking with the same voice. It was also beautiful to hear how this has played out in the life of a ministry who has made discipleship a priority for over a decade. Since many of you probably didn’t have the privilege to hear her, I will try to summarize her comments here and add some thoughts of mine as well.
I believe we are at a place in the global church, where the harvest is coming at us like never before. This puts us as leaders at a crossroads. We can either choose to continue building our own kingdoms, or we can choose to empower those coming behind us.
We, meaning anyone currently leading in ministry, need to realize the importance of reproducing. This is vital whether you are 20, 40 or 60. This doesn’t need to be something that threatens us, but instead shows us that our finest days are ahead. What a privilege we have to become a bridge for future ministers to cross–headed to places we never even dreamed.
All throughout scripture, we see that God’s plan is for His people to pass His work from generation to generation. Here are a few places found in Psalms.
Psalm 45:16-17
Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land. I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.
Psalm 71:16-18
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone. Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.
Psalm 145:1-13
I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
All of these passages show the beauty that is reproduction ministry. We must realize we are one more link in a chain. Just as we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, let us hold high those who will follow us. May they find us faithul with the calling on our lives.
Check back later for Part 2 of this post. Trying not to be too longwinded.
Planning Ahead
It is a constant challenge for us to plan upcoming worship services prayerfully, biblically, creatively, and far enough in advance that we are not too constrained by time. We’ve gotten pretty good at looking 4 weeks out to generate ideas, and then we focus the lens a little more each week so that we are pretty much set 1-2 weeks ahead. We work with our pastor to make sure we know where God is leading him in the weeks ahead so that we can support as best we can where he is going to be and what best conveys God’s message each week. However, putting together a 22 minute video piece combined with scripture recitation and live music with a click track in two weeks is not abnormal with our team.
Excel has been the easiest program for us to use for planning and creating orders of worship, but lately we’ve been toying with something new. Planningcenteronline.com is a web-based program that allows you to plan and create worship orders for use on Sundays. While this does somewhat re-invent the wheel for us (again, yay Excel), the really cool part is the volunteer coordination tool. We can upload all of our volunteers and then schedule them through the website. Then they can view upcoming worship orders. Band and vocal volunteers can even download music, eliminating the need for us to create rehearsal CDs and packets each week. You can schedule reminder emails for services and rehearsals that are sent out automatically. When someone responds that they are unable to volunteer, the program generates a list of people from your database that have the same skill you’re looking for and whether or not those people are available on the date you need. This program basically integrates aspects of Excel, iCal and iTunes and houses them in one central location.
Although we are not quite ready to launch this with our volunteers, we should be up and running soon. I’ll keep you posted on how it works. In the meantime, check it out and see if it could work for you.
New Guy
To secularize, or not to secularize…
That’s the question. At least, if we’re going by the look and feel of modern worship these days, it seems like that’s the question alot of worship leaders are struggling over. It’s a touchy topic, too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lead worship (at places not to be named) and been asked by some youth minister with spiky hair to “just start off with a cool song the kids will like.” The rest of the conversation goes like this:
Me: What do you mean?
Spike: Maybe some Fall Out Boy?
Me: Well, that’s not really what we do…
Spike: I think it would really connect with the kids.
Me: Right, but, is that really what the weekend’s abo…
Spike: Look! There’s a girl with a Fall Out Boy t-shirt on! You gotta do it, man. They’ll go nuts.
Me: Well, we don’t even know any of their songs, so I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Spike: Ok, cool man. I trust you (the Christian way telling someone you think they’re about to blow it, but it’s on them.)
Me: Thanks. So, you want to pray before we get started?
Spike: Sure, let me go make sure the Family Guy clips are loaded into the computer first
So, we know we’re supposed to engage people, but how? Scripture tells us clearly that seeker-friendly worship is a bad idea, because there’s really no audience for it (Romans 3:11). 1 Corinthains 14:24-25 tells us that it is when we speak prophesy about God that people are drawn to Him. Clearly we are to engage with the Holy Spirit, not the weekly top 40. The way I see it, in most worship services we have 30-45 minutes to worship the Most High God with singing. I’ve never been able to justify wasting 5 of those minutes singing “fun songs that they’ll like.”
But what if the song relates to the message? I find it funny that when I usually run into this argument, it’s someone who hasn’t suggested a single worship song that relates to the message, just a secular one. I smell a smoke-screen. And if the only song in the whole world that ties into your message is “Since You’ve Been Gone,” then I can’t help but be curious about just how Biblical your message is going to be.
I had a good friend tell me once, “people can find ‘cool’ in a million different places all day long, and the thing is, all of those places do it better than us. But they can only find truth here.” I think there’s alot of wisdom in that. We have to realize that our job is not to have the coolest rooms, or the best bands, or the brightest lights. These things might make alot of people show up weekly. But just like the amount of hands raised in worship, or the number of amens in a sermon say nothing of the actual work of the spirit, the number of people who show up every week says nothing of whether or not they are being discipled. That only happens when God and His Word are made higher, and we, along with our ideas, songs, words, and resources, are made lower.
Just like the (kind of) old song says:
Turn Your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Never Thirst
I had the opportunity tonight to check out a benefit at 2nd Row Studios. The benefit was for an organization called Never Thirst. It’s a pretty incredible organization. Their goal is to support local churches in impoverished areas around the world by giving them the opportunity to provide clean drinking water to their communities. Through these opportunities, local churches are able share the love of Christ with people in their communities. Never Thirst is unlike any organization that I know of. 100% of the money that they raise goes to the field. Not one penny of it goes to pay staff or toward administrative costs. God has blessed them with a board of directors that has chosen to take care of all of those costs in order to further the spread of the Gospel.
You can check out Never Thirst here: http://www.neverthirstwater.org. Be sure to watch some of the videos. You can also see some of the photos documenting Never Thirst’s work in India at http://www.jasonwallis.com/
-Matt-
Think Like A Jock (worship is a team sport)
I love sports and cant really keep my self from using the terms i picked up in my “glory days” in everyday conversation.
Starting with day one of my internship, I was brought on right before a very large worship gathering involving students called “brighter days”. It was very hands on and involved set wise. Jim had said “hey i need YOU to own all this” which was not a prob at all. Shortly after was when i realized how serious the people i worked with took the title “worship TEAM”. The whole worship staff started doing little parts of my job when they had finished theirs, without me asking! Awesome, i was really blown away by their selflessness.
This is what i would call my “freshman spring training” or “two a days”. You show up and are kinda scared, thrown into a new system, and the older guys tease you about your backpack. But in this case the older guys also show you they care, and want to make things easier for you, they want you to know that you are part of the team.
my family
OK—if you are spending time reading this, I think it would be good to begin by introducing you to my family. First, my wife, Amy–she is a perfect help-mate for me as we raise our family and constantly strive for God to be glorified in our home. She graduated from Samford University in Birmingham and is about 6 months younger than I am. We met just after her high-school graduation on a mission trip to Kenya. Hope to add a photo later, once I learn how to do it. We dated on and off through college and married shortly after her graduation. She is mom and teacher to our 4 boys. She is also my favorite singer when I can talk her into it. She stays really busy, so it’s not that easy.
The Boys—Fisher (13), Jude (8), Tripp (7) and Levi (4) are our children. They are a source of tremendous joy to Amy and I and we have a great time being together as a family. Our family is our primary hobby and we spend a lot of time around the table together. They all have various interests, but we all share a common love of music. The two older boys play instruments and we all like to sing.
choir
Choir at Brook Hills is a bit different. We don’t have choir year round—we normally do it in two semesters (Fall and Spring). We rehearse once a week and sing about once per month. We just finished the semester of choir this week. WOW—what an incredible group. This past Fall, we shifted our focus away from 2 hours of intense rehearsal to more Bible study, prayer/worship and then rehearsal. I was initially a bit nervous about this transition, but I know that God led us this way.
For those who know me, I am a BIG rehearser. Our rehearsal times ended up being about 1 hour of rehearsal and about 30 minutes in the word and prayer. What a difference a year makes. The transformation of this group has been beautiful to see over the past year. We have all grown in understanding more about our role in our worship gatherings and God used this ministry in a huge way to lead our church in celebration of who He is. What a blessing they are to the local body of believers gathered here each week.