12 weeks since I started this blog. Who knew I had so much to say? Heh!
I thought that I should include a word of encouragement to the team this week... this is it:
I am pleased with the progress that we are making as a unit. So much has improved since I first started working here - the attitude to worship (perhaps because we've reduced the load on the teams), the preparation, the execution, and the expectancy about what God is doing and can do through us when we put our lives in his hand and allow him to use us as a conduit.
I especially want to thank the choir that have scheduled weekly practices and have done an exceptional job every single time since coming back in the fall of 2007
Encouragement like the one above is not meant to signal that the push to make things better is about to cease... the task of becoming a hotbed of worship and the experience of God's presence and power is still a work in progress - both in myself and in us as a team. The kind of worship that is so contagious that it spills outside the walls/confines of our local congregation into the streets and churches of ottawa is still a vision and not yet a reality. God has brought each one of us to this team for such a time as this to be a part of his plan and work at woodvale and so along with the encouragement is a charge to keep being faithful with the gifts, time, talent, and resources that God has given us in order that we may achieve greater levels of worship and communion with God and that through us, he may be glorified and worshipped like woodvale has never seen or experienced before.
There IS more than this!
------------------------------------------
In the fall of 2004, I was visiting a small baptist church that I eventually worked at and I was quite struck by the sermon that sunday morning and it served as one of the pivotal moments in my life and walk with Jesus. My buddy Rick Eby spent some time talking about the life of Stephen - the first recorded Christian Martyr in Acts chapter 6 and 7.
Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith, filled with God's grace and walking in the power and authority of his relationship with Jesus. The bible says that through him, there were unmistakable signs that God was among them and yet in spite of every incredible thing that happened in his life and the obvious evidence of God's hand on him, he was martyred. However, if you track the story of the early church, Stephen's martyrdom started the era of the persecution of Christians and their scattering from Jerusalem, but their scattering was a good thing because it meant that they took the Gospel out of Jerusalem and even out of Israel and eventually to the ends of the earth as Jesus had originally charged them. God used Stephen powerfully in life and even more powerfully through his death because Stephen was a man full of faith that was yielded completely to Him.
*I have become convinced that the reason the influence, control, and evidence of the work of the spirit varies from person to person among those that follow Jesus is because we have varying levels of "yieldedness" to Him.
*I have also come to learn more and more that for many Christians, it is not that we do not know or even believe at some level, it is just that we don't live in the reality of our knowledge and belief or act like we believe what we say we believe.
The gist of Rick's message was boiled down to one tough question:
Are you willing to yield your life to God for whatever purpose he chooses... even if it means losing your life?
The obvious threat of physical martyrdom does not exist in Ottawa, but definitely social martyrdom exists in our post-christian society. Social martyrdom is not as terrifying as physical martyrdom... but it can be just as paralyzing because we all struggle with feeling like would rather be dead than admit we know Jesus... much less, have a relationship with him.
So I guess the re-phrased Ottawa version of the question becomes:
Are you willing to yield your life to God for whatever purpose he chooses... even if it means social martyrdom?
As a worship team, it is easy for us to walk around saying that we have yielded our life to God's purposes because we operate most of our ministry within the sterilized, christian friendly environment of our churches and Christian subculture, but things take on a whole different perspective when we are challenged to establish congruence between the people we are outside of our churchy-church communities and the people that we morph into in a hostile post-christian society.
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I do everything I do here at woodvale with the strong belief and conviction that one day in the not too distant future, the work that God has already started in this church will reach boiling point... and it will start to overflow and affect the communities and churches in this city. But before God entrusts us with that great responsibility of being a part of the revival of his people and his church, our yieldedness will be tested.
I do not presume to speak the mind of God, but I have come to understand in increasing measure that God is not interested using me when I insist on being in the drivers seat of my life and that leads to numerous Jonah-type situations. If you do not know what I am talking about, read the book of Jonah (in the bible... heh!) and you'll get the analogy. Yielding my life to him means allowing him to take control of my life, take me where he wants me to go (even to COOOOOOLD canada disregarding my deep dislike for cold and snow... :) ) and allowing him to SPEND my life as he sees fit.
A life yielded to God
A life spent as God sees fit
A life poured out in service to God
Isn't that the heart of worship?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Vibrant worship - Vibrant Church (Part 3)
At the heart of a vibrant church is a people characterized by vibrant worship
If you have not been walking this journey of discussing some of the aspects to the path of becoming a vibrant worshipper that is part of the heart of a vibrant church, perhaps it might be useful to you to look at the two previous posts and subsequent discussion comments on this blog-sermon-teaching thing so that you come on the page with where I am at today.
My whole journey recently as a worshipper has been driven in part by a question that sits at the back of my mind constantly: "Is there more than this?"
Part of discovering whether there is more is looking back at scripture and at the testimony of those gone before us to determine whether their experiences show a deeper level of connection with God and the acceptance of his work in their lives... which we have done over the past several weeks. The other is to look at obstacles and barriers that we have knowingly or unknowingly placed in between God and us.
Here are some of the barriers that I have found in my life as I journey in discovering a deeper place of worship... maybe you might relate to some or all of them.
Dishonesty
In speaking about worship being a lifestyle, I mentioned the fact that if we stand before God and offer up to him a sacrifice of worship and praise and yet our lives do not embody that sacrifice, our "worship" is reduced to flattery and mocks us. Your life has to line up with your words and the only way that happens is by keeping short records with God through repentance, through your relationship with him, and through your fellowship with believers like yourself who challenge you and spur you on in growth with Jesus. Please do not catch yourself in worship one day singing "you're all I want" and yet your life says anything but... 1 Samuel 16: 17.
We have settled for so little
Some of you know that for a long time I struggled with the prayer for people that led to a "slaying in the spirit" which manifests as falling backwards as somebody lays their hands on you. Partly because I was once forcefully pushed to the ground, but also as I grew up in Christianity, it seemed like a very uni-dimensional expression of the power of the holy Spirit. All around me, it seemed that all the intercessors and ministers were interested in was making sure that you hit the floor... I do not know what it was like for you, but it certainly felt like that for me. My skepticism was further exacerbated by the TV evangelists that made their way into my living room via my TV screen.
The same argument could be made about the worship services that I have attended over the years. The worship leaders, facilitators, and pastors had settled either for NOTHING happening in their services lest the boat is rocked too much, or a specific response (or list of responses) to worship. Worship had not happened until A, B, C, and D had been physically seen. Some people had gone so far as to arrogantly reduce worship to a genre of music that they loved without which worship had not happened... didn't you know that the only way to connect with God is through a power ballad?
We’ve come up with rules and regulations, which are fittingly called by many of us, a box, and not realized that God far supercedes our limited vision and tradition-prone nature. We actually live in a culture full of expression, art, poetry, and music that reflect the incredible creativity of the God of the universe. The ways in which God touches his people and reveals himself to them in worship cannot be reduced to a preset list of things that we have become comfortable with in our denomination and to approach worship individually or corporately with this attitude is to rob ourselves of the vast expanse of the riches of what God can do. Any wonder that our worship becomes programmed, stagnant and non-vibrant?
Authentic relationship
Is it possible that some of us did not have an authentic relationship with God in the first place? Perhaps it is one that we simply inherited by being brought into this earth in a christian home... but not really one that we have found for ourselves...
Could it be that we've been sucked into the culture of christianity so long that we've began to confuse religiosity, christian subculture, and christianese with an authentic relationship with Jesus?
Fear
Those of us that have walked with God and perhaps walked away from him may be very much aware about how being in his presence exposes all in us. Not that he cannot see it right now because nothing is hidden from him... but just like Isaiah in the 6th chapter of his book, we may find ourselves really aware of our uncleanness. Obviously if your relationship with him is anything but healthy, feeling exposed before him - the estranged lover of your soul - ignites fear and this may cause us to hold back from pressing in to his presence or leading those that we have been charged to lead.
It is possible that some of us do not know what will happen if we were to allow ourselves to completely, unashamedly worship and enter into God's presence. It is a very human response to the unknown... and truth be told, there are not too many good reports of what might happen... it always seems to dissolve into chaos and cacophony. Not a very popular thing in our reserved canadian culture, eh?
If we are completely honest, many of us are also very afraid of what the person in our house listening to us worship or the person in the pew sitting next to us, or looking at us on stage might think. What happens is that we then project this fear of what people might think on to the people that we lead in worship and we choke whatever God might have in store for us because everybody spends more time focusing on outward appearances than on connecting with God. I have come to realize more and more that the enemy has used this fear or apprehension to maximum effect in many of our lives and we need to break free of it in Jesus name.
--------------------------------------------
Removing the restraints that cause us to be dispassionate worshippers reluctant to experience the presence of God individually and corporately is key in transforming us into the vibrant worshippers that lie at the heart of a vibrant church.
So I say it again for the millionth time: At the heart of a vibrant church is a people characterized by vibrant worship. A person that truly comes in contact with Jesus has no option but to be radically transformed – the bible is FULL of examples of this – and realizing this has made me even more convinced that “Connecting people with Jesus” has to become the mission of the worship facilitation teams - the choir, the singers, the band, and the production team.
As we we journey forward together and as we look to God for vision and direction, lets all come before him with a slate that is wiped clean and allow him to take us on a wonderful journey of experiencing his presence and power. I have a strong sense that Woodvale is supposed to grow into a church or a community that is a wonderful representation of what unrestrained, uncontained worship is to be and I hope that for many of us, this journey starts today.
If you have not been walking this journey of discussing some of the aspects to the path of becoming a vibrant worshipper that is part of the heart of a vibrant church, perhaps it might be useful to you to look at the two previous posts and subsequent discussion comments on this blog-sermon-teaching thing so that you come on the page with where I am at today.
My whole journey recently as a worshipper has been driven in part by a question that sits at the back of my mind constantly: "Is there more than this?"
Part of discovering whether there is more is looking back at scripture and at the testimony of those gone before us to determine whether their experiences show a deeper level of connection with God and the acceptance of his work in their lives... which we have done over the past several weeks. The other is to look at obstacles and barriers that we have knowingly or unknowingly placed in between God and us.
Here are some of the barriers that I have found in my life as I journey in discovering a deeper place of worship... maybe you might relate to some or all of them.
Dishonesty
In speaking about worship being a lifestyle, I mentioned the fact that if we stand before God and offer up to him a sacrifice of worship and praise and yet our lives do not embody that sacrifice, our "worship" is reduced to flattery and mocks us. Your life has to line up with your words and the only way that happens is by keeping short records with God through repentance, through your relationship with him, and through your fellowship with believers like yourself who challenge you and spur you on in growth with Jesus. Please do not catch yourself in worship one day singing "you're all I want" and yet your life says anything but... 1 Samuel 16: 17.
We have settled for so little
Some of you know that for a long time I struggled with the prayer for people that led to a "slaying in the spirit" which manifests as falling backwards as somebody lays their hands on you. Partly because I was once forcefully pushed to the ground, but also as I grew up in Christianity, it seemed like a very uni-dimensional expression of the power of the holy Spirit. All around me, it seemed that all the intercessors and ministers were interested in was making sure that you hit the floor... I do not know what it was like for you, but it certainly felt like that for me. My skepticism was further exacerbated by the TV evangelists that made their way into my living room via my TV screen.
The same argument could be made about the worship services that I have attended over the years. The worship leaders, facilitators, and pastors had settled either for NOTHING happening in their services lest the boat is rocked too much, or a specific response (or list of responses) to worship. Worship had not happened until A, B, C, and D had been physically seen. Some people had gone so far as to arrogantly reduce worship to a genre of music that they loved without which worship had not happened... didn't you know that the only way to connect with God is through a power ballad?
We’ve come up with rules and regulations, which are fittingly called by many of us, a box, and not realized that God far supercedes our limited vision and tradition-prone nature. We actually live in a culture full of expression, art, poetry, and music that reflect the incredible creativity of the God of the universe. The ways in which God touches his people and reveals himself to them in worship cannot be reduced to a preset list of things that we have become comfortable with in our denomination and to approach worship individually or corporately with this attitude is to rob ourselves of the vast expanse of the riches of what God can do. Any wonder that our worship becomes programmed, stagnant and non-vibrant?
Authentic relationship
Is it possible that some of us did not have an authentic relationship with God in the first place? Perhaps it is one that we simply inherited by being brought into this earth in a christian home... but not really one that we have found for ourselves...
Could it be that we've been sucked into the culture of christianity so long that we've began to confuse religiosity, christian subculture, and christianese with an authentic relationship with Jesus?
Fear
Those of us that have walked with God and perhaps walked away from him may be very much aware about how being in his presence exposes all in us. Not that he cannot see it right now because nothing is hidden from him... but just like Isaiah in the 6th chapter of his book, we may find ourselves really aware of our uncleanness. Obviously if your relationship with him is anything but healthy, feeling exposed before him - the estranged lover of your soul - ignites fear and this may cause us to hold back from pressing in to his presence or leading those that we have been charged to lead.
It is possible that some of us do not know what will happen if we were to allow ourselves to completely, unashamedly worship and enter into God's presence. It is a very human response to the unknown... and truth be told, there are not too many good reports of what might happen... it always seems to dissolve into chaos and cacophony. Not a very popular thing in our reserved canadian culture, eh?
If we are completely honest, many of us are also very afraid of what the person in our house listening to us worship or the person in the pew sitting next to us, or looking at us on stage might think. What happens is that we then project this fear of what people might think on to the people that we lead in worship and we choke whatever God might have in store for us because everybody spends more time focusing on outward appearances than on connecting with God. I have come to realize more and more that the enemy has used this fear or apprehension to maximum effect in many of our lives and we need to break free of it in Jesus name.
--------------------------------------------
Removing the restraints that cause us to be dispassionate worshippers reluctant to experience the presence of God individually and corporately is key in transforming us into the vibrant worshippers that lie at the heart of a vibrant church.
So I say it again for the millionth time: At the heart of a vibrant church is a people characterized by vibrant worship. A person that truly comes in contact with Jesus has no option but to be radically transformed – the bible is FULL of examples of this – and realizing this has made me even more convinced that “Connecting people with Jesus” has to become the mission of the worship facilitation teams - the choir, the singers, the band, and the production team.
As we we journey forward together and as we look to God for vision and direction, lets all come before him with a slate that is wiped clean and allow him to take us on a wonderful journey of experiencing his presence and power. I have a strong sense that Woodvale is supposed to grow into a church or a community that is a wonderful representation of what unrestrained, uncontained worship is to be and I hope that for many of us, this journey starts today.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Vibrant worship - Vibrant Church (Part 2)
At the heart of a vibrant church is a people characterized by vibrant worship
Today, we talk about the second answer that I came to when trying to figure out why there was a marked disparity between the services I led and the accounts of worship in scripture.
As I was thinking about this week's posting, I felt that I should mention this week that all my thoughts and ideas are exactly that. I speak out of my personal experience and what I have found to be true in my journey as a worship leader and facilitator... Wrestle (if that is what you do) with what I have to say, think about it, discuss it, but also arrive at your God-guided and inspired truth for your journey as a worshipper. My hope is that as we all seek for God's best for Woodvale, we shall arrive at the same place because we serve a God that wants to reveal his will to us for our lives and for our church.
Ok...
So my discussions with lots of people and my own reading led me to another revelation as to why it seemed like scripture offered one thing and yet our experiences seemed to tell a different story. It can be simply encapsulated by the phrase "Worship is a lifestyle". If you have been a Christian as long as I have or even longer, I am sure that you have heard this phrase tossed quite a bit. "Worship is a lifestyle", "worship is a lifestyle", "worship is...
The problem with overly used and recycled christianese catch phrases is that the truth that they so succinctly encapsulated at one point is lost and all that is left is the phrase minus the truth that we set out to find.
Now that the rant is over, let me further unpack what worship as a lifestyle means to me.
It starts with realizing that all creation - that includes you - exists for God's pleasure and that your whole purpose on this earth is to bring him glory. Just as an amazing painting brings glory to the painter, if our lives are patterned after what God wants and we allow his transforming power to refine us into what he wants, our lives become wonderful masterpieces that bring glory to God. This means that our worship breaks beyond the constraints of the Sunday worship services and reaches far beyond into our jobs, homes, and every other aspect of our lives.
I am a firm believer that God cannot be mocked and so if our lives do not "worship", our corporate act of worship is shallow and empty because our lives contradict the words that we sing or speak.
Romans 1: 20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made
Sometimes finding worship within yourself is a next-to-impossible task and so it helps to look at God's creation around us (people, animals, plants, etc...) as a source of inspiration for your worship. Sometimes worship can flow out of us (perhaps it should do so more often) out of our recognition of God's hand at work in his creation...
I used to go to an annual christian camp in Uganda at the most beautiful and picturesque place that I have ever been to. Every morning as the sun rose over the calm waters of Lake Victoria, without a doubt, there would be one or several people so amazed by the sight that they would burst into a discordant version of "great is thy faithfulness". Every year, every morning, every camp without fail! I always laughed at it when it happened, but I think that it was one of those situations where worship ceases to be about navel gazing and becomes about creation inspiring us to worship God.
Another small story...
My Dad used to occasionally drag us to one of the most boring (it's boring in my memory because I was turned away from God) fellowships ever. Most times, instead of having a preacher or teacher, the greatest chunk of time was spent giving testimonies about what God had done in peoples lives. I particularly remember one fellowship where a moving testimony was given and almost after every account of God's hand at work, the whole group (with the exception of skeptical me) burst into a song of praise. I've often looked back at that point in time and wished that the church would find inspiration to worship corporately based on the account of what God is doing in somebody's life in spite of the personal circumstances that one may be going through.
This worship as a lifestyle - a life that brings glory to God, and worship that is birthed out of God's work in creation then becomes a weekly, monthly, or annual journey that has it's peaks when we gather together to worship corporately. Last week's reference to the psalms of ascent is a beautiful illustration of this journey. David's worship was not confined to the temple, but was a part of his daily journey. It comes as no surprise therefore, that lifestyle of worship birthed some of the most meaningful songs of worship that the world has ever seen.
I do not know whether I have shared this with you guys before... forgive the repetition if I have. I think of every service as a part of the journey of worship that people are on (whether they realize it or not) before they get into the service and after they have left. However, I cannot take people on a journey into the presence of God if I have not walked that journey on my own.
A people characterized by vibrant worship are not a people for whom worship is confined to the church building walls and restricted to a 20-minute time slot on Sunday morning or Sunday evening. Vibrant worshippers are better described as people that are living a life that first and foremost brings glory to God, and secondly embark on a journey of worship that is inspired by what God is doing in their personal lives and in creation around them.
A people that walk the journey of an authentic and growing relationship with God that brings him glory learn to grow in their expectation of what God can do and this energizes the times of corporate worship. Therefore for us as facilitators and leaders of worship, before we even stand before the congregation and attempt to engage them in a journey into the presence of God, we must first ask whether worship is a central part of our lifestyle before anything else. If it is not, we are wasting time trying to take people on a journey that we ourselves have never been on and do not have the roadmap for.
I am glad to be a part of what God is doing here at woodvale... even more pumped about the fact that all around me I see people that have a passion to connect people with God. Let us therefore spur each other on further in our understanding of worship as a lifestyle and go deeper than we have ever been before as individuals and as a church in our journey of worship.
Have a great week!
Today, we talk about the second answer that I came to when trying to figure out why there was a marked disparity between the services I led and the accounts of worship in scripture.
As I was thinking about this week's posting, I felt that I should mention this week that all my thoughts and ideas are exactly that. I speak out of my personal experience and what I have found to be true in my journey as a worship leader and facilitator... Wrestle (if that is what you do) with what I have to say, think about it, discuss it, but also arrive at your God-guided and inspired truth for your journey as a worshipper. My hope is that as we all seek for God's best for Woodvale, we shall arrive at the same place because we serve a God that wants to reveal his will to us for our lives and for our church.
Ok...
So my discussions with lots of people and my own reading led me to another revelation as to why it seemed like scripture offered one thing and yet our experiences seemed to tell a different story. It can be simply encapsulated by the phrase "Worship is a lifestyle". If you have been a Christian as long as I have or even longer, I am sure that you have heard this phrase tossed quite a bit. "Worship is a lifestyle", "worship is a lifestyle", "worship is...
The problem with overly used and recycled christianese catch phrases is that the truth that they so succinctly encapsulated at one point is lost and all that is left is the phrase minus the truth that we set out to find.
Now that the rant is over, let me further unpack what worship as a lifestyle means to me.
It starts with realizing that all creation - that includes you - exists for God's pleasure and that your whole purpose on this earth is to bring him glory. Just as an amazing painting brings glory to the painter, if our lives are patterned after what God wants and we allow his transforming power to refine us into what he wants, our lives become wonderful masterpieces that bring glory to God. This means that our worship breaks beyond the constraints of the Sunday worship services and reaches far beyond into our jobs, homes, and every other aspect of our lives.
I am a firm believer that God cannot be mocked and so if our lives do not "worship", our corporate act of worship is shallow and empty because our lives contradict the words that we sing or speak.
Romans 1: 20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made
Sometimes finding worship within yourself is a next-to-impossible task and so it helps to look at God's creation around us (people, animals, plants, etc...) as a source of inspiration for your worship. Sometimes worship can flow out of us (perhaps it should do so more often) out of our recognition of God's hand at work in his creation...
I used to go to an annual christian camp in Uganda at the most beautiful and picturesque place that I have ever been to. Every morning as the sun rose over the calm waters of Lake Victoria, without a doubt, there would be one or several people so amazed by the sight that they would burst into a discordant version of "great is thy faithfulness". Every year, every morning, every camp without fail! I always laughed at it when it happened, but I think that it was one of those situations where worship ceases to be about navel gazing and becomes about creation inspiring us to worship God.
Another small story...
My Dad used to occasionally drag us to one of the most boring (it's boring in my memory because I was turned away from God) fellowships ever. Most times, instead of having a preacher or teacher, the greatest chunk of time was spent giving testimonies about what God had done in peoples lives. I particularly remember one fellowship where a moving testimony was given and almost after every account of God's hand at work, the whole group (with the exception of skeptical me) burst into a song of praise. I've often looked back at that point in time and wished that the church would find inspiration to worship corporately based on the account of what God is doing in somebody's life in spite of the personal circumstances that one may be going through.
This worship as a lifestyle - a life that brings glory to God, and worship that is birthed out of God's work in creation then becomes a weekly, monthly, or annual journey that has it's peaks when we gather together to worship corporately. Last week's reference to the psalms of ascent is a beautiful illustration of this journey. David's worship was not confined to the temple, but was a part of his daily journey. It comes as no surprise therefore, that lifestyle of worship birthed some of the most meaningful songs of worship that the world has ever seen.
I do not know whether I have shared this with you guys before... forgive the repetition if I have. I think of every service as a part of the journey of worship that people are on (whether they realize it or not) before they get into the service and after they have left. However, I cannot take people on a journey into the presence of God if I have not walked that journey on my own.
A people characterized by vibrant worship are not a people for whom worship is confined to the church building walls and restricted to a 20-minute time slot on Sunday morning or Sunday evening. Vibrant worshippers are better described as people that are living a life that first and foremost brings glory to God, and secondly embark on a journey of worship that is inspired by what God is doing in their personal lives and in creation around them.
A people that walk the journey of an authentic and growing relationship with God that brings him glory learn to grow in their expectation of what God can do and this energizes the times of corporate worship. Therefore for us as facilitators and leaders of worship, before we even stand before the congregation and attempt to engage them in a journey into the presence of God, we must first ask whether worship is a central part of our lifestyle before anything else. If it is not, we are wasting time trying to take people on a journey that we ourselves have never been on and do not have the roadmap for.
I am glad to be a part of what God is doing here at woodvale... even more pumped about the fact that all around me I see people that have a passion to connect people with God. Let us therefore spur each other on further in our understanding of worship as a lifestyle and go deeper than we have ever been before as individuals and as a church in our journey of worship.
Have a great week!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Vibrant worship - Vibrant church (Part 1)
At the heart of a vibrant church is a people characterized by vibrant worship.
I have found that almost every single mention of worship in scripture is coupled with an incredibly spectacular encounter with God. I challenge you to walk through scripture… you will come to the same observation. All sorts of people in all sorts of places worshipped, saw the hand of God move and had encounters with his power and presence that to the church in this day and age could very well seem like complete mythology.
The more I read these stories and heard about God’s move in communities all around the world today, the more I found that I was forced to ask the following questions:
Why was it that our worship services were so devoid of the evidence and corporate experience of God’s presence?
What did they know that we do not know or that we know only in part?
Through discussions with friends and through reading of scripture, I came across some interesting answers
The first one is that a relationship with God builds your love for him – your passion for him as we talked about last week - and your expectancy in worship. This great expectancy at what he is going to do germinates vibrancy in our individual and corporate worship.
I hope that for all of you reading this, it is obvious that experiencing God through worship has to be prefaced by a relationship with him and we have access to the father through his son Jesus – John 14. No one comes to the father except through me… Jesus says
Talking about vibrant worship and passion for Jesus before talking about a relationship with him is like putting the cart before the horse, because love blossoms through the growth of relationship.
Therefore, the better you know somebody, the more you know what to expect from him or her. I have found this to be true through reading scripture and through my own personal walk with God… and because our God is a wonderfully creative, adventurous and all powerful father, it only makes sense that spending time in his presence is something of great wonder and mystery. Encountering this wonder and mystery enables us to approach his presence with expectation and takes a dull and uninformed expression of worship to a place of passion, expectancy and vibrancy.
I find an interesting example of this expectation and passion for God in some of the psalms of ascent that David wrote in particular Psalm 120 – 122. David starts with a cry of distress in psalm 120, but his distress is transformed to a song of anticipation in psalm 121, and then the full expression of the expectation comes out in psalm 122. Why is the psalmist glad so soon after expressing his distress? I believe that the reason for this is that his relationship with God was at such a place of intimacy that there was more than just casual anticipation, but a real eagerness to meet with God because he understood that God was in control of every situation whether he was in distress or not. This fueled his worship and praise. Is it any wonder that scripture later speaks about David as a man after his own heart?
In trying to get myself to be more psyched up about worship, I felt like I was being disingenuous if I was not finding my passion for God from what he had done in my life. I have come to discover that if I am lacking in the relationship department with Jesus, I have one of 2 options when I come to lead the congregation at Woodvale in corporate worship. Either I can pretend that all is well and ignore any conviction or condemnation, or more often than not, I fall into the dispassionate category because I know that standing before God and pretending that all is well is a mockery of him.
Hebrews 4: 12 - 13
The reason I believe that vibrant worship is at the heart of a vibrant church is because vibrant worship is something that cannot be faked. Passionate, unrestrained, uncontained worship is not something that you arrive at in ignorance over what the transforming power of God can do. You see, anybody that has come in contact with God and is walking in a growing relationship with him is a force to be reckoned with. The bible is FILLED with examples of this.
I am further persuaded that the expression of vibrant worship has to start with the people that God has gifted and positioned to be participants in leading his people in worship. This means that EVERYBODY on the worship team – production, singers, instrumentalists – have to be walking in this before we can expect that the church will experience it as we do. In my first few postings on this blog, I mentioned to you all that the picture of worship at Woodvale is a giant mirror to the picture of worship on the worship team. If our desire is to see a vibrant church, we must become a people of vibrant worship… and this has to be spearheaded by the team that facilitates worship on a week-by-week basis.
This week, I invite you all to a season of examining the area of vibrant worship and the foundation of it all – your relationship with Jesus. If you are in a place of stagnation and therefore unable to find your passion for Jesus, please be honest with somebody in your small group or on the team and pray about it. I believe that victory in this area starts with being honest about your walk with God and sharing it with somebody that can stand with you and pray you back into a healthy relationship with your savior and creator.
Next week we shall talk about another answer that I came to when examining the disparity between examples of worship in scripture and what we see in our contemporary setting.
I have found that almost every single mention of worship in scripture is coupled with an incredibly spectacular encounter with God. I challenge you to walk through scripture… you will come to the same observation. All sorts of people in all sorts of places worshipped, saw the hand of God move and had encounters with his power and presence that to the church in this day and age could very well seem like complete mythology.
The more I read these stories and heard about God’s move in communities all around the world today, the more I found that I was forced to ask the following questions:
Why was it that our worship services were so devoid of the evidence and corporate experience of God’s presence?
What did they know that we do not know or that we know only in part?
Through discussions with friends and through reading of scripture, I came across some interesting answers
The first one is that a relationship with God builds your love for him – your passion for him as we talked about last week - and your expectancy in worship. This great expectancy at what he is going to do germinates vibrancy in our individual and corporate worship.
I hope that for all of you reading this, it is obvious that experiencing God through worship has to be prefaced by a relationship with him and we have access to the father through his son Jesus – John 14. No one comes to the father except through me… Jesus says
Talking about vibrant worship and passion for Jesus before talking about a relationship with him is like putting the cart before the horse, because love blossoms through the growth of relationship.
Therefore, the better you know somebody, the more you know what to expect from him or her. I have found this to be true through reading scripture and through my own personal walk with God… and because our God is a wonderfully creative, adventurous and all powerful father, it only makes sense that spending time in his presence is something of great wonder and mystery. Encountering this wonder and mystery enables us to approach his presence with expectation and takes a dull and uninformed expression of worship to a place of passion, expectancy and vibrancy.
I find an interesting example of this expectation and passion for God in some of the psalms of ascent that David wrote in particular Psalm 120 – 122. David starts with a cry of distress in psalm 120, but his distress is transformed to a song of anticipation in psalm 121, and then the full expression of the expectation comes out in psalm 122. Why is the psalmist glad so soon after expressing his distress? I believe that the reason for this is that his relationship with God was at such a place of intimacy that there was more than just casual anticipation, but a real eagerness to meet with God because he understood that God was in control of every situation whether he was in distress or not. This fueled his worship and praise. Is it any wonder that scripture later speaks about David as a man after his own heart?
In trying to get myself to be more psyched up about worship, I felt like I was being disingenuous if I was not finding my passion for God from what he had done in my life. I have come to discover that if I am lacking in the relationship department with Jesus, I have one of 2 options when I come to lead the congregation at Woodvale in corporate worship. Either I can pretend that all is well and ignore any conviction or condemnation, or more often than not, I fall into the dispassionate category because I know that standing before God and pretending that all is well is a mockery of him.
Hebrews 4: 12 - 13
The reason I believe that vibrant worship is at the heart of a vibrant church is because vibrant worship is something that cannot be faked. Passionate, unrestrained, uncontained worship is not something that you arrive at in ignorance over what the transforming power of God can do. You see, anybody that has come in contact with God and is walking in a growing relationship with him is a force to be reckoned with. The bible is FILLED with examples of this.
I am further persuaded that the expression of vibrant worship has to start with the people that God has gifted and positioned to be participants in leading his people in worship. This means that EVERYBODY on the worship team – production, singers, instrumentalists – have to be walking in this before we can expect that the church will experience it as we do. In my first few postings on this blog, I mentioned to you all that the picture of worship at Woodvale is a giant mirror to the picture of worship on the worship team. If our desire is to see a vibrant church, we must become a people of vibrant worship… and this has to be spearheaded by the team that facilitates worship on a week-by-week basis.
This week, I invite you all to a season of examining the area of vibrant worship and the foundation of it all – your relationship with Jesus. If you are in a place of stagnation and therefore unable to find your passion for Jesus, please be honest with somebody in your small group or on the team and pray about it. I believe that victory in this area starts with being honest about your walk with God and sharing it with somebody that can stand with you and pray you back into a healthy relationship with your savior and creator.
Next week we shall talk about another answer that I came to when examining the disparity between examples of worship in scripture and what we see in our contemporary setting.
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