On Worship

Here are a few quotes:

“Matt’s heart has not changed. He leads with the same passion whether there are 3,ooo there or 3.”-Mike Pilavachi Pastor of Soul Survivor on Matt Redman


“O God, bring us to that place-worshippers and worship leaders alike- where we are so caught up in loving you that we care very little about our status or reputation, where we so find you in worship that we LOSE OURSELVES in your wonder, love and praise.” –Matt Redman


“Our culture’s idolatry of appearances often invades a church in such forms as these: inordinate attention paid to the leaders’, makeup and clothes; the professionalism of the worship “show”; …….the size of the worshipping community or the speed of which the numbers of worshippers increase… “- Marva Dawn (author of How Shall we Worship?)Ph.d in Christian ethics and the scriptures from Notre Dame.)


“I worry that too often we spend our worship time reflecting on how we are doing and what we have gained.”- Matt Redman
“God calls us to ruthlessly check the motives of our hearts. Do we still want to be UNNOTICED worshippers now that we are on stage? Or is there part of us that wants to be noticed worshippers?”-Matt Redman


“Performance is not necessarily a good way of leading worship. A worship leader needs as much as possible to be the unnoticed worshipper, simply encouraging the worship of God by setting an example for others to follow. To draw attention to ourselves in moments meant for a holy beholding is a pretty unbiblical approach.” – Matt Redman


“Leading worship is more prayer than performance.”- Aaron Keyes ( worship leader at Grace Church in Lawrenceville and recording artist)
“A few days ago I watched a Justin Timberlake concert on Tv. Everyone sang along, they raised their hands when he told them to…actually, it looked like a lot of churches on Sunday morning. If you lead people musically, you just take them into music, into song. At best maybe you’re leading people through some emotions or a story. But none of that has to do with worship.”- Aaron Keyes


“ A few years ago he led some worship at the Champion of the World event at Wembley Stadium. There were over 40,000 people there that Saturday. The next day, 15 of us went to the shopping center in our hometown of Watford to worship the Lord. We worshipped for an hour as shoppers went by. A few of them stopped to watch. Toward the end of that Worship time I looked up at Matt as he was leading us with his guitar. The sweat was pouring down his face. I suddenly realized he was putting as much effort and energy and commitment into leading worship with 15 of us in a shopping center as he had done the previous day with over 40,000 at Wembley Stadium. Matt learned early on that worship is not so much about engaging with people as it is engaging with God. He has always performed before the audience of one.” - Mike Pilavachi on Matt Redman

I have thought a lot about worship as I often do and one thing stands out to me no matter what the style, or the song selection God just wants us to bring our best, and bring it genuinely and authentically. I recently read a blog by John Piper on the differences between fine culture and folk culture in the area of worship. I found the points that Piper made in this posting to be very interesting and thought provoking. I would say that I have qualities of both but lean more toward the folk. I think that the church as a whole should stop trying to be something polished and appealing and just be genuine and sincere in our worship. If you are interested in any of this here is the link to the Piper piece:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/60/1497_Thoughts_on_Worship_and_Culture/

what would the church look like if we stripped away all the bells and whistles? What would it look like if faithful people showed up not to be entertained but just to worship God no matter how rehearsed or planned and just let God work? I have a preference for the independent side of Christian music but I remember going to a festival one summer and watching Jars of Clay. The power went out and the sound system quit working, instead of Jars of Clay stopping they took it for what it was and sat on the edge of the stage with acoustic guitars and led the audience in hymns and praise choruses. The sweet, authentic worship to God wasn't this dove award winning and grammy winning bands polished, rehearsed set, it was taking what they had to work with and without hesitation laying it down as a sacrifice to God.

I don't know...

and it's okay. I'll wait. Jeremiah 29:11

Mighty To Save

This past Sunday I had the great opportunity to lead worship again at church. Our opening song was Mighty To Save, a song that I have lead time and time again. In my week's preperation for the worship set I really thought about this song. I opened my bible to one of my favorite verses. Zephaniah 3:17 "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save..." The verse goes on to say that he celebrates and sings because of you. Being that I have been leading worship for a number of years this verse has always stood out to me, to picture God singing and rejoicing because of me is an amazing concept. I have read Zephaniah a handful of times and found it to be an amzing message to the nations but it has never resonated with me the way it did when preparing for this worship service. God gives this message to Zephaniah and is like look at what is going on around you and with your neighbors: false gods, killing, all of this sin, tell these people that I am going to destroy this nation, i will cut them down (in the words of Johnny Cash) my favorite part "They will no longer act haughty on my hill." God is showing Zephaniah that destruction is coming but in chapter 3 verse 17 there is this message. " I am with you, I am mighty to save, i celebrate and sing because of you, and I will refresh your life with my love." God says NO MORE!, I am about to show you my power, I am going to rock your world but I love you, come to me, I will save you, I will refresh you with my unconditional love. The sermon on Sunday was about the great flood. Destruction so that God could once again have intimacy with his creation. Sin corrupts the world, and God is calling us and reaching for us to draw near to him to accept his refreshment. The same God who can and who did destroy the world that man was following is the same God who sees us when we dance, sing, and fall before him and says Wow, look at that! My son, my daughter is so beautiful. When we fall he says hey, it's ok. I am here, I love you. Come to me, I will refresh your life, I celebrate because of you, I sing because of you, I am here with you and I am mighty to save!!