Thanks-"giving"??

One aspect of worship that I seem to ignore is in the act of living out worship in my daily life. I know I am not alone in this...go ahead...admit it! We all would like nothing more than to do our weekly duty of "going to church" and then leave the worship on the church steps. I guess that's one of the reasons the apostle Paul tells us to "...present our bodies as living sacrifices..." which is our "...spiritual act of worship." If it wasn't a sacrifice it would be easy!

Well Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner and my family and I have decided that we are going try to live out our faith and worship a little more actively this year. We are hosting the traditional Thanksgiving meal with family all coming and we will probably eat more than we should, but because of conflicting schedules of our extended family we are having the "meal" on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Since we won't be doing anything on Thanksgiving Day we have decided to try and find a soup kitchen or homeless shelter in the area to serve. We aren't completely sure where we are going to go; possibly in Springfield, but we have a couple weeks to find something. I'll keep you posted on what we decided to do. I know this is small and a lot of people tend to feel "generous" during the holiday season and then forget about the homeless and marginalized society the rest of the year. I certainly hope that this will be a starting point for our family, not merely a suave to make us just feel better for the short holiday season.

On a related topic, I was moved, recently, by a video that Sarah McLachlan produced on which she spent $150,000.00, but it literally cost only $15 to produce the video. She then donated the remaining $149,985 to help the homeless, starving and uneducated people of the world. You can watch the video, below. I hope you appreciate this as much as I did!




Note: This blog has been edited to correct my challenged mathmatic abilities...the original post had the Sarah M. donating $135,000 instead of $149,985. Oops!

Reaching Millenials

I recently read an excellent article in "Worship Leader" magazine on understanding the "Millenial" generation and how they will influence worship in the church. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, "Millenials" are individuals who were born roughly between 1977 and 2000. Basically, this is the first generation of the new millenium who will contribute socially and economically to society.

The article is written by Donald E. Miller and Richard Flory of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. I encourage you to check out their website. They have done a tremendous amount of research in a variety of areas in the religious/cultural arena. These studies include the genocide in Rawanda and pentecostalism in the southern hemisphere, which happens to be one of the fastest growing religious movements in the world!

I wish I could link this article on Millenials...unfortunately Worship Leader does not offer an online edition of their magazine. You can purchase the September issue, which contains this article, individually for about $5. Since you probably don't want to buy the issue, I'll give you a few highlights from the article.


The main idea of the article is that culture is changing with the influence of the Millenial generation and if the church is going to reach them they a.) need to understand their world view and background and b.) need to adjust their strategy in how they will reach them. Here are some characteristics of Millenials:

• They percieve religion to be a choice and not an obligation.


• Religious labels, including denominational identifications, are relatively unimportant to them.


• They are typically tolerant of other peoples beliefs and, in fact, enjoy the variety of different religious practices that they see on campus (colleges & universities).


• Religious authority is internal rather than located in some external source, such as the hierarchy of a church.


• They see more value in religious experience than in a codified set of beliefs.


• They affirm the idea of being on a religious journey rather than embracing a static set of beliefs and practices.


• If they join a religious group, they are more interested in the authenticity of the people - their honesty, openness, and humility - than they are in an authoritarian presentation of the truth.


• They have no problem being eclectic in their religious taste, which sometimes includes creating their own hybrid religious identities.


• They want to make a difference in the world and therefore believe that religion should address issues of justice and equality.

(from Worship Leader, Sept, 2007)

Millenials take globalization as a matter of fact, they are more likely to be cynical of politics and religion than not. They have lived their entire lives with the reality that the U.S. is no longer the superpower that it used to be, which was underscored with the 9/11 terrorist attack. Millenials live with the reality of school shootings, the war in Iraq, hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech massacre. They are more technologically sophisticated than ever. However, because of this savvy they would rather communicate via text messaging than face to face.

How do we reach this generation? I don't think there are any quick and easy answers. But Miller and Flory suggest that the church will respond in one of four ways: 1.) As Appropriators - embrace the lates cultural fad, 2.) as Resisters - As the name suggests, they will ignore culture and embrace truth only, 3.) as Reclaimers - This group will embrace historical/liturgical practices of the Anglican & Orthodox church, and 4.) as Innovators - who will seek ways to "embody the message of Christianity in genuinely authentic ways that relate to culture."

It will be interesting to see how my own congregation responds and with which we will find ourselves best relating. This is a broad and complex issue and many of us Worship Minister/Leader types are going to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to reach this generation in our worship serivces and congregations. Oh well, no one said ministry would be easy!

Too Big for Our Britches!

Understanding the holiness of God is probably close to impossible. Let's face it, comprehending anything about God is far above our abilities. A. W. Tozer (along with the help of the prophet Isaiah) does manage to help us understand just unholy we really are:

"The Moral Shock suffered by us through our mighty break with the high will
of heaven has left us all with a permanent trauma affecting every part of
our nature. There is disease both in ourselves and in our environment.

The sudden realization of his personal depravity came like a stroke from
heaven upon the trembling heart of Isaiah at the moment when he had his
revolutionalry vision of the holiness of God. His pain-filled cry, 'Woe is
me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eys have seen the King,
the LOrd of hosts,' expresses the feeling of every man who has discovered himself under his disguises and has been confronted with an inward sight of the holy whiteness that is God. Such an experience cannot but
be emotionally violent."

I have felt for some time that we do not take God's holy nature very seriously and would much rather think of Him as a benevolent grandfather than as the Almighty Creator of the universe. We create worship services that are meant to give us good "feeling" and we candy-coat the need for us to approach God with a contrite heart!

My fear is that we have trivialized our access to the throne room of God and turned our worship services and sanctuaries into theme parks with lots of rides for our kids and shows to entertain us and concessions for when we get hungry. We have been told to “…approach the throne of grace with confidence.” (Hebrews 4:16) However, there may be times that we may be just a little too bold for our own good...a little too big for our britches!

Tozer gives us a good reminder that our access must never be taken for granted. However, I do strongly believe that we do have that access! It's just not necessarily on our terms as we would like to think. It is God who reaches down in His omnipotence to our humanity, not the other way around. I am reminded of a quote from an article written by Shirley Guthrie's He says,

"But God’s transcendence means more than distance from us, his ‘beyondness’ or
‘aboveness’ in relation to our knowledge and experience and language. God
is so transcendent that he can transcend even his transcendence! He who is
above space and time cannot be excluded from space and time as if they were
impenetrable limits for him.”

Thank God for His "Holy" but loving transcendence!

Is this your Worship?

The videos from www.thechurchyouknow.com are entertaining, to say the least. However, they all make a point that often hits closer to the truth of our own church experiences than we would like to admit. These video segments have been around for awhile and you may have seen them, but in thinking about my last post and how we have the tendency to water down our worship, I think the following video is a good reminder of how not to worship!

You can check out all of their videos at www.thechurchyouknow.com.

Arguing over Worship

I have been told that many years ago my family, who lived in Terre Haute, Indiana, had somewhat of a “tradition” of getting together on a regular basis for meals, fellowship and “discussions.” These discussions covered various topics but often gravitated to differing worship practices. Furthermore, these discussions often became quite heated. Part of the family belonged to Restoration Christian Churches, which use musical instruments, while the other family members belonged to the Non-Instrumental Church of Christ.

Voices were raised, debates argued and children cowered, or at least watched from a distance in wonder and awe. For these children knew the outcome of these debates. The same outcome always “came.” At the end of all discussions and debates, the opposing family members would agree to disagree, hug, kiss and part ways as though no disagreement had taken place!

Cornelius Plantinga says, “Worship is worth arguing about, not least because it is an important aspect of our relationship with God, and because it lies at the crossing between the church and the world, or ‘Christ and culture.’” This “crossing” or intersection is where many worship arguments find their source; from form and structure to content and, most significantly, style. Not that style is actually the most important aspect of worship. In fact, style is the one negotiable element of worship, according to Robert Webber. However, style finds itself squarely planted in the middle of that crossroad. The church is still the church; Christ is still preeminent. Neither she nor He has changed. However, the world and culture has changed and continues to change dramatically!

Many arguments have been made in support of the idea that much of the evangelical church has sacrificed content and structure in order to allow style to take first place in worship priorities. Unfortunately, much of the existing evidence shows this to be true. My question to this is, “Does is it have to be this way?” Is it possible that the church has been duped into believing, that since the “mega-churches” have successfully grown and have exciting worship and arts ministries, all churches can do the same, as well? In our entertainment driven society, have we missed the point that bigger and flashier does not necessarily equal theologically sound worship?

Cornelius Plantinga makes an important observation: “When television-saturated worshipers attend their local churches or wonder how to draw secular seekers there, it’s therefore not the songs of Zion they want but the songs of Babylon and Hollywood – or something like them.” The truth is that many worship leaders/bands have shot themselves in the proverbial foot by offering to their congregations the equivalent of showy, shallow campfire choruses when all the while; the congregation; believers and seekers, alike are looking for a deep, meaningful encounter with God!

Am I saying that we are wrong to engage culture throught worship in a relevant manner? Of course not! However, I know that there is a fine line between engaging culture and selling our souls! This path can become a slippery slope to a watery, mushy, impotent gospel that makes demands of no one and becomes cross-less. A gospel without a cross becomes a faith without sacrifice.

Okay, I've ranted long enough, but I believe this issue is at the center of virtually every discussion concerning worship practices and styles. I'll be coming back to this topic. That's all for today!

The other evening I taught a class on the Lord's Supper and its significance within the corporate worship service. I mentioned previously that our particular fellowship of churches (Independent Christian) observes Communion weekly. I believe that this is an important practice that is supported in Acts chapter 2. However, I understand why so many congregations observe only monthly or even quarterly. From my own personal experience partaking weekly easily becomes common place or routine.


I could not begin to count the number of times that little or no thought was given to Communion in many of the worship services I have attended through the years. How many times have I heard a devotional thought leading to the Lord's Supper that had little or nothing to do with Christ's sacrifice? It is no wonder that without proper significance placed on this moment of remembrance that the pervasive attitude creeps dangerously close to being cavalier!


A few Sundays ago as I sat with my wife during the Communion time, a couple behind us carried on a conversation at almost normal conversation volume...during the entire Communion time! What was so important that had to be discussed at that time? What was more important than focusing on the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus?


I love how The Message Bible by Eugene Peterson paraphrases I Corinthians 11:26-29...

What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and
every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death
of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the
Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of
“remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart,
come to this meal in holy awe.If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care)
about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the
risk of serious consequences.

So, I taught a class on the Lord's Supper the other night....hopefully I helped a few people catch its signifcance.

Who are we pleasing anyway?

I am still considering this whole idea of worship being successful or unsuccessful. I guess in a purely innocent way a successful worship service would be one in which the worshiper...worshiped!

Why does that seem so naive?

Probably because we so often measure the success or failure of worship by how well the praise band played or vocalists sang, by how well the preacher delivered the sermon or even by how many accept Jesus at the invitation. We tend to look at the function and forget that there is so much more. We forget that in reality, worship is not about the externals of style and taste, but about our response to how God redeemed us from our sinful lives.

There is danger in listening to the whims and wishes of "what everyone else is doing!" Plantinga refers to "...the songs of Babylon...or Hollywood...." In other words, we get too caught up in the popularity and the "show" and performance! And yet, to completely ignore the culture around us is equally dangerous...a balancing act. I have failed at the balance of being relevant and maintaining integrity more than I would like to admit.

Well, there is more to examine and say concerning this balancing of Christ and Culture in worship. There are so many ways to approach it and I'm a little uncertain how to do it. If anyone happens to check in on this site, feel free to share your thoughts. I think there are some right and wrong answers, but I believe that there is a lot of grey area in this discussion, as well.