Essentials Green wk2

For “The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Course, with Dan Wilt“.

This week’s work in Essentials looked at the ideas of Accessibility and Cultural Relevance.  The accessibility piece was one that I thought I had a pretty good grasp on, the idea that we want to make all aspects of our worship experiences easy to become connected to regardless of who might turn up.  This means that our music is simple enough to engage with, we are conscious of our language in that we dont use jargon that may be unfamiliar, and we understand who our potential audience may be.

The culturally relevant piece is one that I often struggle with, particularly since one of my roles is doing worship with Middle and High School students.  What much of our congregation deems “contemporary worship” is generally a sound that is 5-10 years old in many cases.  Also, because much of my work is with technology I also see areas where the church is woefully behind the times in the ways that it interacts and leverages technology to spread the gospel.  In this sense I see that the church is less than culturally relevant.

Something I was struck by this week was from Erwin McManus:

“Aren’t you tired of being relevant? I’m sick and tired of being relevant; relevant means someone else got there first and now I’m trying to connect. We need to stop being relevant and start leading the way”(1)

It seems that in much of what we try and accomplish as the church we’re only play catch up to someone who got there before us.  As McManus says I’d appreciate the day where the church reclaims the historical role as the best creators of art, music, culture, and thinking.

(1) Dan Wilt, Essentials Green Book wk 2

Michigan Vacation pt. 1

Rather than reposting I’m going to redirect you to the Eric Barz Photography Blog to see pictures and a brief recap of our vacation to Michigan.

Intimacy/Integrity (essentials green)

For “The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Course, with Dan Wilt“.

Ok..  So I wasn’t the greatest with processing my Essentials Red materials particularly since much of the work fell while I was traveling to visit family..   Note to self…  schedule classes better next time.

This past week for Essentials Green we looked in to the Worship Values of Intimacy and Integrity..   I thought this was all well and good and I’m a huge proponent of both of these values when preparing to lead worship, but I wasnt struck by any of those woah! moments that have been a part of some of the other weeks in the Essentials Course.  What changed my mind was the fact that this was my week to lead our devotion time for the Sunday morning worship band at CCOJ.  We meet 30-40 minutes before we have to set up to receive some teaching and/or have prayer and time to minister to one another.

Great.  What am I going to talk to these people about?  Almost all are older than me and have many more years as worship musicians and Christians for that matter.  What can I possibly teach them/encourage them with?  Finally, I decide…  hey, this Essentials stuff has been great for me..   lets see if they might enjoy a taste.

So, we dive in to the idea of Intimacy as leaders of worship…  How do we as the leaders model, encourage and lead people in to intimacy with their God.  What blew me away is that the team intuitively understands the idea, but has never had the right word to express it.  They also immediately make the connection between intimacy and integrity, that we can not expect to call the congregation to a place where we haven’t been as a leader.

The time comes for us to depart our devotion and go to the stage and I can palpably sense that the team was striving for intimacy that morning and hopefully it will continue on in to the week.

essentials red creative project

A Call to Worship from Psalm 40 vs. 1-3

Leader: I waited patiently for the Lord, and he turned to me and heard my cry.

All: We wait on You, Lord, the one who hears the cry of the oppressed and the broken.

Leader: He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire, He set my feet upon a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

All: Rescue us God, from the mire of our own lives and our own failings.  Set us upon You, the one true rock, that we may stand on a solid foundation.

Leader: He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

All: Let the joy of our salvation be a new song on our lips, that we may worship you with our lives and that many will come to know You.

All: We worship you now with all that we have to offer, our very best to you Lord Jesus. Amen

For my project with e*r I wanted to take something that I felt would resonate with our congregation and make it a format that would be different and maybe even challenging for them.  Since we use a very contemporary worship style, responsive readings and the idea of a “formal” call to worship are not common practices.  What is fairly common is the use of scripture to prepare and encourage the people in to the spirit of worship.

For this particular call I wanted to use a selection from the Psalms that reflected a sense of longing for the good things of God and the responsiveness of our Heavenly father to the cry of His children.  The use of Psalm 40 in particular is one that we often use in worship gatherings so the language of the scripture would be something that the congregation would be familiar with while the response would be new.

As a call to worship I think that this responsive reading engages the mind to move past simply hearing the word but not having to engage it which in the simple act of response sets the heart and mind in a place where participation is happening rather than simply anticipating that worship is a consumer product.  With our worshipping community I think that moving away from the consumer mindset is of real significance as that has been a historical mindset that we are trying to move away from.

Essentials Red Week 2

For “The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Course, with Dan Wilt“.

This week in Essentials Red we looked at the historical use of the public reading of scripture and public prayer in gatherings of worship.  The ideas that stuck with me the most was this idea that the process of reading scripture collectively engages us in the process of remembering who we are and where we come from.

This idea particularly resonated as I had read an article about the Slate.com writer David Plotz who blogged about his process of exploring the Bible.  He made a comment about the things that he learned through the reading of the Old Testament, one of them was that the difference between the people of Israel and the other tribes that lived in the biblical holy land was that the Jewish believers communicated their stories from generation to generation and on throughout history.  Today if you reflect on those people, only the Israelites and their descendants are in existence today as a tribe.  The root is that they kept record of their history and passed along their traditions.

In the context of today’s worship how can we use scripture read publicly to connect us to that great sense of history of Jesus and his disciples, the power of the resurrection and holy spirit.  When we use scripture publicly, we continue to pass down that message of the saving works that can change lives and destinies.

Essentials Red (Take 2)

For “The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Course, with Dan Wilt“.

This is the second take at my Essentials Red course on the integration of worship history, historical practices, time, space, worship and prayer in to modern expressions of worship.  I had to take a break from the first cycle I started last fall with Essentials Blue but was interrupted by the arrival of little Asher.

Interesting enough, this time around it might even be more appropriate that this course would fall where it does in relationship to life’s happenings.  This week’s discussions surrounded the ideas of the relationship of worship to the ideas of time and space.   As I write this, our church staff and leadership are wrestling with the ideas of making some updates to the sanctuary, most of these dealing with the look and feel of the space in which we worship.

Much of the discussion has revolved around the idea from the field of marketing and advertising that “The Medium is the Message” coined by Marshall McLuhan, this statement reflects the idea in culture that everything sends a message about who you are and what you are trying to say.  In our context, much of the amenities that we are looking to update convey the message that we are unconcerned; about progress, technology, worship, arts, etc.  Many people are resistant to this idea that we have to conform and that such thinking is “shallow”.  In ways that’s true, but if we are trying to reach a modern culture we need to make church relevant to those who are coming in from outside the walls of the church.

Kicking off Essentials Red

“For:  The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt“

This is the beginning of course #2 in the Essentials Series, RED.  Red looks at the history of worship and the way worship has been practiced and formed from the time of Jesus onward.  Week one looked the language or time and space.

This is an interesting topic for me.  Starting out my engagement with worship in the context of worship production as opposed to worship leadership formed my understanding of space in particular and to some extent time.  The question I’m pondering is, how much does space influence the way in which we worship?

Much like the idea from Essentials Blue that worship is “all about God” this poses some tricky points for many people.  I know personally, I would love to say that I could worship anywere (and at the drop of a hat too) and be intimately connected with the Father.  If that is true for you, let me know, I must know your secrets.

The reality of it often is that where and when we worship plays a role in the way that we perceive “how good” our time of worship was.  If you think about what you would consider your greatest, most intimate times of worship I would venture to guess that the space and time had a significant part to play in that experience.

For me, those times that come to mind are ones where a small group of intimate friends gathered on a retreat or by a river and worship with abandon, or a time of congregational worship that captured the essence of a community.  The times when the use of music, light, color, visual media, personal space, community engagement were all done with purpose have resulted in some of my greatest times of worship.

What we need to understand is that we as people live in a physical, visual, media rich world and these elements can be useful in our understanding of how we worship.

Creative Project (essentials blue)

“For:  The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt“

Preface:   My final creative project for essentials blue is a teaching and worship experience that I will be delivering to our student ministries in March.  It will be for both Middle School (grade 6-8) and High School (grade 9-12) students.  I will be teaching on topics of worship theology and practice and incorporating worship experiences in to the teaching time.  I have posted my notes that I have written for the talk.  Hope it makes sense and you can follow along ok.   It looks like my formatting didn’t survive the copy/paste and my footnotes were not included either.  I’ll try and remedy this shortly.

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Welcome & Intro
Explain process for night.  Teaching/worship interconnected. We will be talking about some ideas and then (hopefully) putting them in to practice.
Want to look at and challenge how we think about worship and God who we worship.  REF: Embedded vs. Deliberative 1 lets really think about what worship is and is not limited to.

What is worship?
- Ask for responses (assuming most will relate to church worship)

Worship from the origin of the word – to give WORTH – SHIP, to assign value and/or worth to someone/something by our actions, words etc.
Dictionary – the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration of a deity

I like to look at a combination of the two definitions as well as other sources when  forming what worship means.

(participation) ~ What are some ways we express worth to those we love (family, friends etc)  Many if not all translate to how we can express worship to God.

Worship is not limited to singing, not limited by being at church, worship is a practice in lifestyle more than a singular act on a Sunday.

Who is it that we worship?
(Particip) – Ask the question.  Who do we worship?

Obviously the simple answer is God, but in the simplicity there is a lot more there.
We worship a God unique among people of faith.  Our God is not a distant hands-off God, nor is He a God that seeks to manipulate and control us.
The God we worship is self-revealing, He seeks to make Himself know to us, through the scriptures, His actions in the world, and through Himself incarnate in the person of Jesus. 2
Discuss the Trinity  ref. “Essentials p. 17”3
How can we know God through the world we live in.
touch on God being creative, ordered, lover of beauty, seeker of justice

RESPONSE – What do we do in light of who God is?  We express worship towards God, because of who He is.  Daily living – “Rejoice” – being aware of the gift that God has given.  (observe creation, people etc) Now we will express that with scripture, worship.  During, listen to language of who God is.

Read Ps. 103
WORSHIP 1 – “How Great is Our God”

Who we are?  Why are we here?  What do we do? Why do we worship?

(Particip) How many would agree with the phrase “Worship is all about God”

Intent behind that phrase is good but not real accurate.
God has ordained a sacred role for us within worship, as well as the rest of creation.

(Particip) How many think mankind (you and me) are essentially good at the core,  bad?
Bible says Gen. 1:26-27, 1:31  “saw all that he had created and it was very good”
26-27 – Man is created in the “image” of God.  Does that mean that I look like God?  “tselem” – familial lineage, character/essence of parent to child 4

If we are created in the image of God what does that mean for us?
God is creative, we are sub creators
God’s Image, we bear His image to creation
God is Trinity, we area called to build relationships
God is Savior, we tell the story of salvation.

NT Wright, Angled Mirrors. 5
Reflecting the person of God to creation, gathering up the worship of creation and using our reason to give praise to God.
Revelation 4/5 – example of worship.

RESPONSE
Daily living, using the gifts that God has given to create in His name.  Bear the image of God to the world around us.  Live in loving relationships with family, friends, and community.  Tell the story of salvation, give testimony, live the story of salvation.
SONG – “Everlasting God”  -  Listen for salvation stories, redemption.

* What does the bible say about worship?

You would think that since worship is such a central part of how we express ourself towards God that Jesus would have talked about it a lot, right?

(Particip) Can anyone tell me what Jesus taught about worship?

John 4 – Jesus and the Samaritan Woman.  Discuss cultural context of Jews/Samaritans.  Why it was such a big deal.
The woman engages Jesus in the “this mtn, that mtn” debate.
Jesus bypasses the question, rather worship in “Spirit” and “Truth”
Look at words for Spirit – Pneuma “essence of person, alt: breath”
Truth – Aletheia – “candor of mind, free from pretense, falsehood or simulation.
We should be worshiping God with the whole of our being, in all of the “parts” of our life; school, family, work, relationships, service, finances, EVERYTHING.  And we should be worshiping without faking it, worrying about appearances and wanting to impress.

- Rom 12:1 – offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, this is your spiritual act of worship.

RESPONSE – Offering and Song – “Never Let Go”
During the song, focus on the creator God, whose image you bear.  Your worth-ship of Him.  Respond in whatever way feels appropriate, sit, stand, kneel, lay prostrate, raise your hands, sing, dance, laugh, cry.  Use the space of the room.

The lost discipline, silence & contemplation

To close our time together I want to highlight something that we often see Jesus do in the scripture but do very little of ourself.
I find in just a cursory search of the Gospels that at least 15 times we see Jesus retreat to solitary places to be alone, quiet and pray.
We run our lives at such a ragged pace that it makes it difficult to quiet ourselves to hear the voice of the Spirit in our lives.
Avg. Western person takes 22 breaths a min, most undeveloped people take 6-9/min.  We should take in 70% of our energy from breathing, but we dont.

RESPONSE – Were going to take the next 7 min. and be still and silent before the Lord, let Him speak to us through the Spirit.  At the end of that time, I’d like to open the floor for any one who wants to share what they heard in the quiet time.

End with benediction.

Week 4 pt. 2 (essentials blue)

“For:  The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt“

Looking back at part 1 of this post, I realize what an enormous undertaking it seems to be.  The nice thing is that to date, essentials blue has only reinforced and expanded much of what I have already spent much of the last 3-4 years exploring in regards to my faith worldview.  I have to give a shout out to a dear friend Deej for being the very first to put the idea of Kingdom Theology in to my brain.  I would strongly recommend that if you have never had the opportunity to do so, examine the ways in which you view your world through the lens of your faith.  Think strongly about these areas to give you an outline,

Origins (Who is God, who are human beings, and why are we here?)
What happened to us along the way, and what did God do?
What is the Kingdom of God, and how is it expressed in the world/in the human family/by the Church?
Endings (where is human history going – what will be our final destiny?)

(Thanks Dan Wilt & Will Barnard for providing the outline via the Institute for Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies.)

You dont have to do it in 500 words or less but it helps to distill the very essence of what your faith worldview actually is.  If you’ve never thought much about these ideas this could seriously rock your world.

Week 4 pt. 1 (essentials blue)

“For:  The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt“

For our main assignment this week we were asked to write (in 500 words or less) our Chrisitan worldview.  So here is my cross post from the essentials blue facebook classroom,  a 500 word worldview.

As goes Genesis, in the beginning God created which sets the world as we know it in to motion.  At the peak of His creation God makes humanity, not in the same manner as He creates plants and animals, but reflecting the very image of the Trinity.  God endows these human creations with His very breath and calls it “very good.”  He gives man a sacred calling to reflect the essence of the God head to creation, caring for it, shepherding it and lavishing the love of the Father upon it.  God walks intimately with Adam, showering His glorious presence upon man.

In the garden, man and woman reject God’s call of loving obedience and choose their own way, causing the first of many departures from the Lord.  God responds as a perfectly holy Father must, disciplining His children by letting them live out the consequences to their own actions.  Generation after generation God sought to return to a place of right relationship with His people.  He formed covenant relationships with them, gave them the law to guide their way, but even God’s perfect law and all sacrifice could not restore the people to their God, it only served to show their sin.  At His appointed time, God took on flesh and blood and the person of Jesus was incarnate on the earth.  He came not only to die for remission sin but to represent the fullness of humanity.

Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God, not as merely an eternal kingdom that is to come but as a physical kingdom that was (and still is) at hand, near enough to touch.  Jesus himself was a representation of the intersection of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the earth.  Upon His death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit came to empower and guide those who choose to follow Jesus from ages past to the very present.  In doing so, the Spirit’s indwelling power causes us as those who follow Jesus to be (like Jesus, our co-heir of the Kingdom) points of intersection between the Kingdom of God and this present kingdom of earth.

The church, which is not a physical location but the collective of all who follow the way of Jesus, is the collective voice for the Kingdom of God.  The role of the church is ever to seek to expand the reach of God’s Kingdom by means of sacrifice and love through the Holy Spirit not by our own striving.

As history unfolds, one day Jesus will return to install His rule and reign upon the earth once again, in a physical real sense.  Revelation tells that the Triune God is in the process of making all things new; heavens, earth and under the earth.  Let it come quickly, Amen.