The very wise David Peterson has written an important article for anyone involved in public worship (i.e. I’d imagine most of the people reading this blog!!!).

It touches on a minor but persistent debate about whether we should call anything we do in church “worship”. It’s one that we encounter with a regularity that perhaps slightly overstates its importance. Peterson strikes a judicious balance on the issue:

Some people use the terminology of worship in a very restricted way with reference to what we do in church, even limiting its meaning to praise. This obscures the New Testament teaching about worship as a Christ-centred, gospel serving, life-orientation (Rom. 12:1; Heb. 12:28-9; 13:15-16). Furthermore, people who emphasize that they are ‘going to church to worship God’ tend to disregard what the New Testament says about the purpose of the Christian assembly. There is always a danger of thinking that we are doing God a favour by coming to church!

Thus, if Christians are meant to worship God in every sphere of life, it cannot be worship as such that brings us together. ‘Corporate worship’ may express more accurately what is involved, but the Bible’s emphasis is on coming together to participate in the edification of the church (1 Corinthians 14).

But move past taxonomy and there is a much more important issue: the balance we strike between vertical and horizontal dimensions of our services. This has implications for the songs we write and choose, how we plan services, and how we think about what we’re doing.

As a reaction against this kind of misuse of worship terminology, many seem to have abandoned any application of the language to what we do in church.
With this development has come an emphasis on meeting for fellowship and mutual encouragement, with little apparent expectation of encountering God together.

The result is a neglect of the vertical aspect of our public meetings:

Christian fellowship is more than friendship: it is a participation together in something beyond ourselves, as we hear and respond to God together. The risen Lord is present when we meet in his name and he ministers to us through his word and his Spirit. As we take part in the ‘building’ or edification of the church, our focus should not simply be on encouraging one another, but on growing in our relationship with Christ (Eph. 4:11-16).

I strongly encourage you to read the full article, available at: http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/indepth/a_church_without_worship/

At a worship music training day on Saturday the issue of physical expression in public worship music came up. I had been suggesting to the band I was working with that their body language on stage was an important way of leading the congregation towards praising Jesus (and not towards being distracted by, or discouraged by, the musicians on stage!)

Someone said that they would not feel comfortable raising their hands in their Church, which is a fairly conservative (theologically AND culturally) church in Sydney.

I’ve been musing on the comment ever since. I came across this very helpful blog and mp3 posted on Bob Kauflin’s site about the Psalmist’s physical expression of praise. He asks this:

“Is there any physical expression of worship that God has given us in Scripture that you’ve never displayed? And if so, why?”

Check it out here…

To download an mp3 of this talk right click on this link and select “save to disk”: “Starting a new conversation on worship music”

I don’t often enjoy forwarded emails. But many years ago, when I was running the music at a university Christian group’s mid year conference, I was sent one very timely gem of comic relief. For the whole week I was losing sleep trying to make music, which would keep everyone happy. And, with the auditorium full of zealous young Anglicans, Baptists, Charismatics, Salvos, Presbyterians, Uniting Churchers and independents, it was proving a discouraging task. One of the group’s amazing staff workers, Caz Andrews, thought I could do with some cheering up.

It still brings a smile to my face. It’s an mp3 recording of an actual telephone message left by a well meaning parishioner for the pastor of a church in Minneapolis. It begins “hello pastor… I was at your church last saturday night” and from there begins an earnest rebuke of the church for allowing one of the song leaders to tap her foot to the music … not just that, in fact: at one stage (the caller reports with grave concern) she was “wiggling her butt back and forth from side to side”!

It makes me smile every time. Not because I mean to mock the caller; because it shows that what is mundane and acceptable to one person (keeping time to the music with your body), might be outrageous to another. I didn’t realise there was a rule against foot tapping and butt wiggling, but now that I do, I’m glad someone is keeping watch.

If you’re in music ministry then chances are that you’ve had many a conversation begin like this. I recently made a list of some of the rules I’ve been asked to observe:

No performing, No swaying, No standing in the middle of the stage, No standing on the stage, No Standing in front of the crowd, No Singlets, No Smiling, No jazz chords, No holding the mic close to your mouth, No holding the mic away from your mouth, No holding the mic, No calling worship worship, No closing eyes, No drumsticks, No talking during songs, No songs during talking, No guitar solos, No drum solos, No bass solos, No more than 2 songs in a row, No more than 2 and a half bars intro, of course No hands in the air, No modern songs, No extra biblical songs, None of your songs, No “I” songs, No “my” songs, and definitely, absolutely, No Hillsongs.

I’m sure you could think of many more. When you consider this list, is it any wonder that many people when they sing in church look more like they’re in a courtroom than a joyful meeting of freed prisoners! A list of regulations is the recipe for stifling legalism, not fertile soil for creativity and expression and God honouring songs of praise.

Please don’t misunderstand me: there may well be great wisdom in every one of these rules (at least for some churches, at some times, in response to their own particular challenges). But if our conversations about worship music start and end with the rules — if “no” is all we have to say — then what kind of music will we end up with?
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Last week was Catholic World Youth Day here in Sydney. It was surreal to walk down a deserted George St in the heart of the CBD hearing visitors from Angola to Zambia sing “We Love Jesus” at the top of their lungs. Garage Hymnal decided not to play at any official WYD events, but I did make an effort to get out and see our good friends Judy Bailey and band perform at the Opera House Forecourt. The whole circular quay area was full of people from all over the world, waving flags and asking “do you love Jesus??! … Me too!!!”. An incredible atmosphere.

Judy is a wonderful German Caribbean artist (www.judybailey.de) who was kind enough to lend us “Call For Mercy” on the last album. It was great to catch up with her and her husband Patrick.

Also out for WYD was UK worship pastor Tim Hughes, who has written a bunch of songs which are sung in Australian churches – songs like “Here I Am To Worship”, “Happy Day” and “Clinging to the Cross”. I was blessed to be invited to have lunch together with him and 20 other worship music leaders from all walks of life: I had great conversations with my new friends Steve and Tim from Crows Nest Baptist, Dan from Christian City Church, a bunch of people from AOG churches in Melbourne, Sue (who called herself a “Bible Catholic”) from Pymble and many others.

Obviously we had a lot of differences in perspective. But it was a joy to share our different perspectives over a meal, with new friends, and hear about the challenges and joys of people trying to serve Jesus as best they can in very different churches across Australia. The informal lunch was the first step in setting up an Australian limb of a network Tim Hughes runs called “Worship Central” (www.worshipcentral.org), which is all about networking people involved in church singing all over the world. I hope it’s not the last!

Speaking to Tim about our challenges here in Sydney raised a number of interesting questions in my mind. One thing he said, in particular, has been on my mind. He said that no matter how hard we plan, how great the songs we write are, whether we turn the amps up to 11 – whatever we do – nothing will come of it, nobody’s heart will be moved, unless God by his grace chooses to work in and through our meetings.

I need to continually repent of the folly of thinking otherwise. But in particular I think I also need to repent of the narrow way I’ve been thinking about the work of God in our meetings. As I read through Acts afterwards I was struck by the way the Holy Spirit was involved in the corporate life of the church.

Now I’m not meaning to start here a discussion about Pentecost, or the role of tongues in the post-Acts church. But what I am reminded of is that our God is one in three persons. Not two persons and an impersonal force which works magic behind the scenes. The early church was spoken to by the Spirit over and over again (Acts 10:19, for instance). It was encouraged by the Spirit (Acts 9:31), who after all is the Counsellor Jesus promised would come and be with us in his absence (John 14-16). The church had a living relationship with the Counsellor.

So what difference does it make when we start thinking of life as the church with such a companion? What does it change about the way we conduct our public meetings, or our time of singing?

This is an extended response to the The Briefing, edition 355 (April 2008), in which Mike Raiter has written a very interesting article on what he sees as the decline of public singing.

If, as Mike fears, congregational singing is in its dying gasps, how are we to breathe new life into it? If the current model is wanting, towards which vision should we look instead? I don't know, but this is what I think we're looking for.

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