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.

Week 3 The Nature of Human Beings (essentials blue)

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

Week 3 of Essentials*Blue brought forth another doozie of a topic, the nature of human beings.  As if it wasn’t rigourous enough to have explored the very nature of God, now this.  Dan Wilt opens this section with the admission of his common misstatement that I own 100% as well, “worship is all about God” (1)  This is enough of a thought to spark discussion for days.  Is the worship that we conduct in the halls of the church “all about God”?

The more that I engage in critical thought about that statement the more that I have to concede that worship is not only about God.  It very much has something to do with us as people at least in the sense that we are the participants in worship, but also further than that in the sense that we bear the image  of God.  The bible uses the Hebrew “tselem” to connote our image bearing, and reflection of God.  Dan Wilt explains that most often “tselem” is used to describe family relationship parent to child, the child is not exactly the same as the parent but has some of their character. (2)

N.T Wright also includes in this idea that humans as “the flower of creation” have a vocation in worship.  Our role is two-fold, first to reflect the personality of God to the earth, second, to gather up the praise and glory of creation and express it back to the Creator.  (3)

In this sense, we have to acknowledge this vocation that is given to us by the one we worship, and as worship leaders, help those we lead understand the largeness of our calling.  Settling for less only acts to bring less than complete worship, honor and praise to our Father in Heaven.

(1) Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology (iTunes U, pdf) p. 26

(2) ibid. p. 28

(3) N.T. Wright, Simply Christian (New York: Harper One, 2006) p. 145-147

Announcement – Baby Asher

This is the official Barz blog announcement for little baby Asher:
Asher William Barz arrived  Jan 19, 2009 at 6:26pm

He was 6 lb. 13 oz. and 19 inches at birth.

Liz and Asher are doing great and we love him dearly.  Can’t wait for him to meet everyone.

Week 2 The Nature of God (essentials blue)

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

Week 2 of the new bit of blogging and a bit tardy thanks to the arrival of our little boy Asher on Jan 19.  Week 3 I’ll be back on track.

This week we explored The Nature of God.  Quite an expansive topic, right?  No kidding.

The exciting themes for me this week are the idea of God expressing His personality by self-revelation.  The idea that we can understand what God is like based on what we see revealed in creation, the scriptures and through the Spirit.  Dan Wilt writes about how not only can we know what God does but also the why behind His actions. (1)  For someone like myself, who has a relatively short amount of experience in the church, to think that God would choose to reveal His motives is a shocker.

The second idea that I have explored but now have renewed excitement about is understanding the historical context of the story of Jesus.  N.T. Wright spends an entire chapter (2)exploring the history, politics and context of life in Israel during the time of Jesus, giving new light to the stories of the bible.  One particular point from Wright illuminates one of the central points to the story of Israel and their God, the idea of going away and coming back again.  Wright draws the thread through the history of Israel culminating with Jesus, the sacrifice that would once and for all bring the people back to God from their wanderings. (3)

Understanding the history of the Jewish people in relationship to their God instills in me a sense of connectedness with a story that shows no matter the wanderings or failings that this God is one that will never leave us or forsake us.

(1) Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology (iTunes U, PDF) pg. 8-9

(2)N.T. Wright, Simply Christian (New York: Harper One) pgs. 71-89

(3) ibid.

Diving in to Theology (essentials blue)

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

As you can see, this is a bit different from my normal blogging.  I am starting on a 5 week course in Worship Theology through the folks listed above.  Part of the course includes blogging about some of the ideas that we are discussing.  I hope this proves illuminating for anybody reading as much as it has been for me.

The thrust of this first week has been the importance of understanding theology as a worship leader.  Thankfully, this has not been a new concept for me to grasp, much to the credit of the former worship pastor at our church Gareth Robinson.  He was a stickler for understanding the theology of what we sing and made sure that the songs that we introduce in to worship reflect good theology.  One of the things that was reiterated in its importance a few different times in the course was the idea that in most instances people in the church will remember the theology of the songs over the theology delivered through the message. 1

Another idea that sparked some new light for me was the concept of embedded theology vs. deliberative theology.  Dan Wilt explains the difference as; embedded theology is the ideas about God that you grew up with, including your church (or non-church) , family, culture etc.  Deliberative theology is the concept that we have taken the time to examine our embedded theology and if necessary move beyond those beliefs. 2

One of the great things about this course is the primary text that we are studying, Simply Christian by N.T. Wright.  It has already been a phenomenal source of insight.  One of the themes that Wright uses is that there are things in the world that are “echoes of a voice” that point us towards a greater reality. 3

One of these is a longing or quest for spirituality, the chapter kicks off with an amazing story/metaphor about a kingdom where springs of water are covered over, sanitized and piped to the people by a dictator and his regime.  After a time people accepted this system of receiving water, even though it didn’t resolve some of the problems that were thought to have been caused by the unregulated water.  After a generation, the water could no longer be contained by the pipes and concrete that had been put in place and the water broke through.  Some were delighted, they could access water at any time now, but the officials for the dictator were at a loss for what to do. 4

Down the road, I’ll give Wright’s explanation of his metaphor, for now who do you think are the characters?

Grace and Peace

(1)  Brenton Brown, Theology and the Worship Leader (iTunes U) Video

(2) Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology (PDF) p. 4-5

(3) N.T. Wright, Simply Christian (New York: Harper Collins, 2006) p. x

(4) ibid, p. 17-18