Living Sacrifices?

I do not know if you have ever heard this before...

Somebody once said that the trouble with "living Sacrifices" is that they have a habit of jumping off the alter when the fire is turned on.

Anybody that has been in the church for a while has gained an understanding of what a "sacrifice" is, and therefore knows that in the ancient Jewish tradition, from which Christianity was born, the sacrifices to God were burnt up at the altar.

The concept of "Living Sacrifices" is taken from Paul's letter to the Romans and he launches into this concept after talking about the fact that we should be deeply grateful for the salvation that we have received and come to understand as gentiles. Jesus was born among the Jews and he worked really hard to reveal himself to them; but while many of them rejected him then, and still do even to this day, he chose also to reveal himself to the gentiles because he is a savior for all humanity.

Paul launches into the "living sacrifices" concept as a reflection on his argument/thesis about Jesus being a savior to all mankind and asserts that our Spiritual (reasonable) act of worship in view of this is to allow ourselves to be sacrifices.

But it is MUCH MORE than merely ALLOWING yourself, because that may suggest coercion at some level. He takes it up a notch and asks you to willingly OFFER yourself as a living sacrifice... making no room for coercion and making it about a cognitive process in the mind of the gentile unbeliever. According to Paul, it SHOULD be our natural response if we truly understand what it means for us to be grafted into the family of God through Jesus. This privilege requires us to willingly place ourselves on the alter of God and allow his fire to consume us even when it starts to get searingly hot and uncomfortable.

Because we are a worship team that seeks to connect people with God and see him move in ways that we could not have even began to imagine, we have to familiarize ourselves FIRST with the concept of being Living Sacrifices. Understand that what God wants to do in our church is not all going to be fun and games...understand that there will be rebuking, breaking, shaping, re-making, molding... processes that will not be easy for all of us as a church to go through, but as he refines us and changes us into the church he wants us to be, the people who lead the charge - pastors, and volunteer leaders - have to allow these processes to start with them first.

So instead of being an unwilling, unsuspecting Living Sacrifice that jumps off the altar at any sign of discomfort, I call you to a mental, spiritual and physical posture of surrender and humility. I call out to you to realize that in view of God's mercy and forgiveness, our reasonable, spiritual response is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God and allow him to refine and transform us.

Romans 12: 1

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Speaking of the process of refining and transformation, I would like to bring to us all a thought that I have shared with everybody on the worship team at least once.

Communication

Whether you realize it or not, when you stand (or sit, in my case) on stage, your body and facial expressions have a subconscious resting place and if we are brutally honest, for most of us, it is not one that facilitates worship.

I cannot count the number of times I have sat through worship services where the worship team look like they were dragged out of their beds and forced to stand on stage and sing. I cannot count the number of times when I have watched a cantata or other choir presentation and wished most of the choir had not showed up because of the sour expressions on their faces.

All the entertainers and good speakers that we either loathe or love understand one fundamental principle... you communicate so much with your body without EVER SAYING ANYTHING.

A worship leader that desires to connect with the congregation well enough to be able to subsequently connect them with God understands that he or she cannot allow him or herself to be standing on stage with a nonchalant expression. This person understands that you cannot stand like an expressionless tree and somehow expect that people will emotionally connect with a God that spared no expense to get them back to him. This person grows in the understanding that in order to be a witness of exuberant worship, it has to start with them, and flow out to the congregation... or else a congregation that desires to be exuberant will feel awkward because the leaders do not "endorse" it through their actions. I know some will start to counter this with the whole conversation about varying levels of exuberance... but understand that a stoic worship team trains and eventually produces a stoic congregation. Conversely, an expressive worship team trains and eventually produces an expressive congregation; albeit haltingly at first, but without restraint in the end.

What is the picture of worship that you want to see at woodvale? You have to become an image of that picture before we see it manifest at the congregation-wide level here.

I'd like to end by making sure that you understand that this entry is about spurring us forward... not patting us on the back. I value you all, I respect you all, and I am thankful to be on the platform, in Jesus' service, and on the battlefield with all of you.

For his glory and for his fame!