prayeramedic.com » Worship

Authentic Worship

Dan — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:30:36 +0000

First watch this short, humorous video:

As a former attendee of a Pentecostal church, I couldn’t help but laugh. Many of these apply to most traditions these days. I’d really like to focus on one word, however: authentic. I’ve given examples of inauthentic / fake worship before, but what does authentic worship look like?

The core meaning of the word authentic is something that “is not counterfeit or copied; conforming to fact and therefore worthy of belief.” Almost everything about modern day “worship” is often just a copy of some other church or movement’s style. Some Christians love to say that “worship is about how you live Monday through Saturday, not just something you do on Sunday,” but then proceed to live as though this isn’t true and continue to use the same rhetoric as those who view it as just the opposite. So what is worship?

Worship is defined as “reverent love and devotion; adoration; a religious service.” The last definition is the one I have a problem with. This is just like the word “church.” Church is not a place we go, it’s something we are. It’s an organism, not an organization. Worship is a reaction to who God is and all that He has done for us in and through Jesus Christ.

Worship is natural for a believer, it doesn’t have to be learned. We do a disservice to the kingdom of God when we think of a Sunday morning gathering as worship and coach others into a certain way of responding to music. Rock fans do the same thing when they teach fans how to mosh or head bang. This doesn’t make them any more or less a fan of rock music, it just helps them fit in and acclimate better to rock concert culture. Telling people to raise their hands is no different, we’re simply training them in a culture. This is a culture that is foreign to nonbelievers and frankly, it can even be a hindrance to the Gospel. I’m not saying it is wrong to raise hands, clap, dance, etc. I am saying that the reasons it is being done should be authentic, not simply because it is normal in your local gathering’s culture.

We may worship God at a Sunday morning gathering, as a member of the Church (the Body of Christ), but the scheduled event itself is not “worship.” I don’t want to turn this whole thing into semantics, which is useless if hearts don’t also change along with terms, but I think a vocabulary shift is in order. It’ll hopefully make people think.

Back to my original question: What does authentic worship look like? It’s not something that can be seen externally. It’s impossible to look at how someone responds to music on a Sunday morning and say, “That person is really worshipping authentically!” There are too many people who close their eyes and look sincere but their hearts are far from God. This has been a problem throughout all of creation:

“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men’” (Isaiah 29:13).

“They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Matthew 15:9).

Authentic worship is our heartfelt response to our Creator and Savior. It flows naturally out of our gratitude for what God has done for us in and through Jesus Christ. It doesn’t have to look like anything to others. It’s what is going on in our hearts when we think of our great and gracious God. It’s our attitude toward God in the midst of our sufferings. It’s how we praise Him for His blessings. It’s our reaction to a merciful Lord.

Thanks Luke Dalach for sharing this video with me!

Canceling church to do service projects

Dan — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:30:08 +0000

I’ve heard a lot about this lately. A church in St. Louis, MO recently canceled services in order to do community projects. Several people whose opinions I respect have mentioned the prospect of doing this lately, and several others whom I also respect have voiced strong opposition to this. Here’s a short video about this church event:

I guess a lot of this centers around your definition of “church” and “worship.” If Church is something we are, then wherever we go there is Christ’s Body. At the same time, what about those visitors who didn’t get to hear the Gospel that day? I’m not of the mindset that actions alone preach the Gospel, words are essential – specifically the Word of God.

If “worship” is something we do for God, then service projects are an appropriate substitute. But if worship is a place where the Church receives Christ’s gifts and is replenished for service, then what happened at this church in St. Louis is equivalent to sending starving people out to the fields to work.

Here are a few questions I have about this:

What about the visitors? Did they hear the Gospel? (Hearing the message is important, see Romans 10:17).
Did everyone have an opportunity to serve? What about the disabled, those with special needs, elderly, mothers with many children, etc.? Did they attend this event and if so, were they able to contribute in a meaningful way?
Why couldn’t service events be scheduled after the service, or over the weekend? Were people not willing to devote additional time to service projects?
What does this convey about this church’s theology of worship and why we gather?

Those are some questions to consider. I’d love to hear your responses. Please comment with your thoughts here or on Facebook. Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?

For a great audio clip discussing this very issue check out this episode of Issues, Etc.

H/T: Cyberbrethren and Issues, Etc.

Coming soon to a church near you…

Dan — Sun, 09 May 2010 04:49:30 +0000

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: To all those who claim that traditional worship is “dead” and “quenching the Spirit” because it follows a set pattern, I’d challenge you to analyze the practices of most “contemporary,” “postmodern,” and “relevant” worship services today. They all have their own “dead” traditions and patterns they fall into. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with any of these worship styles, but everyone must be honest and admit that it is human nature to fall into repetition. This humorous video makes light of this fact:

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Maybe the so-called “relevant” stuff isn’t as “authentic” as everyone likes to think….

H/T: BeDeviant

Loaded with iTunes gift cards, but Christian music sucks

Dan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:39:05 +0000

I got a bunch of iTunes gifts cards for Christmas, and I have found a couple albums I am currently enjoying, but for the most part, a lot of Christian music sucks. Almost every worship song is playing the same 1-6-5-4 chord progression in the key of E, and most Christian sub-genres look and sound the exact same as their secular counterparts. I thought Christians were to be “in the world, but not of the world.” Is the Christian music industry an exception? Where are the creative artists?

I’ll be reserving my iTunes gift cards until I get some good recommendations. For now, these are some Christian artists I have been enjoying:

Derek Webb
Shane & Shane
Indelible Grace Music
Caedmon’s Call
Scott Phillips

What artists have you been enjoying? Any recommendations for artists that glorify God and don’t try to look and sound like the status quo?

The Erosion of God-Centered Worship

Dan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:45:05 +0000

Who is the object of the modern church’s worship? Who do we really focus on? I commented on a friend’s blog today about how 95% of all church budgets in the US are spent on our own comforts and programs. Less than 1% is spent on evangelism to the most unreached. (This figure comes from William Carey University, a small missions college in Pasadena, CA that is widely considered the college of choice for those in the missions field wanting additional training and support). We claim God is at the center of all we do, we claim God is our focus – yet we spend all of our resources on ourselves. We use all of our resources to expand our own kingdoms, rather than God’s.

I saw this quote over at Truth Matters, who saw it at the Reformed Stooge:

Wherever in the church biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God’s and we are doing his work in our way. The loss of God’s centrality in the life of today’s church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.

God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God’s kingdom, not our own empires, popularity or success.

The Cambridge Declaration

“We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not.” Well said. The church can say all it wants to, but its actions speak louder than words. The church needs to begin putting its money where its mouth is, as the proverbial saying goes.

My New Years Resolution is to. . . .

Dan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:24:37 +0000

How many times have I said those words followed by some great goal that I have yet to accomplish? Too many. I’m still working on my New Year’s Resolution from two years ago: to lose weight (unfortunately the number on the scale has been moving in the wrong direction over the last few years). But this new year involves much more than what I have yet to accomplish, it is about the many new things that God will be doing among His people. I forget about that perspective too often.

2009 is a year of uncertainty. Many evangelicals seem to be extremely worried about President-elect Obama and the morally erosive “change” he promises to bring. Others are worrying about the state of the economy and if we are on the verge of another Great Depression. Still more are troubled at all of the wars and recent natural disasters, wondering if perhaps the end of the world is at hand. All of these are valid and important concerns, yet the real question is how the Church will respond to all of this. This is important because how the Church responds will determine how it witnesses Christ to a new age.

We really have entered into a new age. No, I’m not talking astrologically, such as Horus or Aquarius. I’m talking about the death of the modern era. Postmodernism really is the new age in which we live. The Church has done a great job pointing out its dangers, such as its corrosive effect on the notion of absolute truth and it’s existentialist thrust that asks us to accept cognitive dissonance as the norm in religion, politics, and in our relationships. But it has done very little to address it other than to point out its faults. The game is up — postmodernism has won this generation and all subsequent ones (until the next age is ushered in, probably in a century or so).

The real question is, will the church continue battling the philosophical platform of postmodernism, or will the Church embrace its adherents? Maybe it can do both. The bottom line is, the Emerging Church has taught us a valuable lesson about reaching the postmodern generation. The Church can continue to critique its early mistakes, or it can learn from its experiences and growing success.

Recently I ran across the website of a church that has figured this out and has decided to embrace the postmodern generation. The reason this website struck me as so profound was because of the way they are doing it, and because of the denomination to which they belong. It’s not a new church plant with a fancy title like “Remnant” or “Scum of the Earth,” nor is it being run by a group of 20-somethings. This church has found a way to reach three generations: the traditional modernists, the Baby Boomers who embraced the seeker-sensitive “Jesus Movement” of the 60′s and 70′s, and the postmodern generation. Of course a person’s age has nothing to do with which generation they identify with, I know folks in their 20′s who belong in the traditional crowd and folks in their 60′s who belong in the postmodern category. Check out this church’s worship schedule before I tell you who it is:

As I’m sure you’ve mostly deduced from the bottom of the image, this is an LCMS Lutheran church located in Carrollton, Texas. Wow. Now I must admit my bias towards the LCMS at this point and rescind it. The LCMS (Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod) is well known for its hard-line patriarchy and ultra-traditional and liturgical adherence. Yet this Lutheran church has found a way to reach all of these generations harmoniously, as is beautifully expressed in the top portion of the image: “three different styles all worshiping the one true God.” What else stood out at me was the title and words they used to describe each “style” of worship:

Classic: traditional hymns, organ, choir, liturgy
Praise: contemporary, band, video screens, high energy
Epic: experiential, participatory, image driven, community

These were carefully chosen words. At surface level, they may appear to simply describe each style. But these words say much more, particularly in the postmodern “Epic” worship style. These words are values. Experiential, participatory, image driven, community. All of these words are value statements that ripple through the soul of my generation. After reading those four values, I want to attend that service. If Chicago wasn’t so far from Texas, I would.

Kudos to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Pastor Luke Biggs for becoming part of the solution, rather than simply critiquing the problem.

“This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
– Isaiah 43:16, 18-19

God bless you in 2009!