Congregational worship

From David Ward over at Reformed Praise...

Gathered Worship
I like to call public worship “gathered worship” to emphasize several things including this very value. God commands that we worship Him in several spheres of our lives – in private, in our families, and with our local churches. I’ll write more on these spheres next time in our seventh and last worship value. It is certainly true that worship is for God, and in an overarching sense, directed to God; after all, we are to worship God, not anything or anyone else. But at the same time, God wants our gathered worship to be edifying to the church. He has designed the church’s public gatherings as a time when the entire church can participate, utilize their spiritual gifts, and be edified. Look at how Paul instructs the Corinthian church after their worship had become unbalanced as they focused on the supernatural gifts to the exclusion of other aspects of worship: “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” (1 Corinthians 14:26) When Paul says “let all things,” he is referring to all things pertaining to public worship.

Edification and Exaltation
We see the wonderful balance of simultaneous brotherly edification and Godward exaltation in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Notice how we are to sing to one another, with thankfulness to God. That’s why worship songs can either be directed towards God, be about God (in the third person), or be simply to the gathered church. A few examples: “The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures;” (Amazing Grace, God in the third person) “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;” (Holy, Holy, Holy, directed to God in the first person) “Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.” (Onward Christian Soldiers)

Performance and Participation
Too often, especially as churches grow and either hire or attract more talented musicians, public worship can become a playground for musical skill rather than a platform for encouraging and fostering participation by everyone. I don’t mean to set up a tension between musical excellence or skill and congregational participation, as if to get people to participate we should intentionally offer music that is of lower quality. But the value of congregational participation should necessarily shape and limit the music that we make in gathered worship. That’s why for centuries, hymns have been written in certain meters. The poetry of hymns is limited so that the lyrics can be set to tunes that people know, and so that the poetry is more accessible to people of all intellects. Likewise, when we write or choose songs that we want our people to sing, they should be artistically limited in range, tempo, and meter. We should choose singable songs and lead them in a singable way.

The Function of Music in Worship
This leads us to naturally question what the function of music in gathered worship should be. Throughout the Bible, we see music used in various ways in worship, but they can be grouped into two broad categories. First, music is used as a stand-alone offering of praise, and the participation of others is expected to be passive. Second, music is used to encourage, support, and enhance congregational singing. When the inherent power of music is wed to truth-filled lyrics it becomes a mighty tool that God uses to help us connect our minds and hearts and feel the great doctrines that we sing. Because the New Testament doesn’t specify whether or not we should use instruments in our congregational singing, and doesn’t specifically mention praising God with instruments, I believe that this second function of music should be the primary way music is used in gathered worship. While this doesn’t completely exclude our use music as an offering by itself (as in so-called “offertories,” music performed for the congregation), it does, however, call us to examine what the purpose of our musical offerings is in light of our entire worship services. We must remember the overarching command to let all things be done for edification and ask such questions as “will this musical performance help our people prepare to engage with public worship or distract them?” Worship should never become an artistic playground. There is a time and place for artistic expression and experimentation, but that should be outside of our normal, regular gathered worship.

Beyond the Songs
This idea of encouraging participation by all goes beyond simply the songs that we sing. The New Testament is replete with commands involving “one another.” Many of these are naturally obeyed in the context of gathered worship. Our readings, prayers, and other liturgical elements should also be written and led in such a way as to encourage participation by all. Our people participate during public worship in two ways – either actively or passively. Passive participation involves listening and observing; this is how we participate in sermons. Active participation involves interacting with our voices and bodies (i.e. posture). Our services should seek to balance passive participation such as listening with active participation such as speaking and singing.

Encouraging Participation
Because of our culture’s natural drift towards passive participation, pastors and worship leaders should take up the call to help their people actively participate. This means leading by example and by giving much thought to the mechanics of leading such as giving clear bodily, verbal, or written guidance for when to sit, stand, kneel, read responsively, read congregationally, when to begin singing, etc. These small details can go a long way to helping people feel comfortable to join in without fear that they will be singing or speaking alone. Some practical suggestions for how to increase meaningful participation are to choose songs that are singable, limit the use of brand new songs, help the congregation understand the lyrics through verbal or written explanations, and to limit the volume of the instrumentation used to accompany singing so that the people can hear themselves sing. Singing songs or particular verses a cappella (without accompaniment) is a wonderful way to highlight the beautiful sound of the congregation singing.

In conclusion, our worship services should be designed in such a way to encourage and foster participation by the entire congregation, not just by the leaders performing and directing the service. In this way we will obey the command to “let all things be done for building up.” As the late Robert Webber put it, “worship is a verb,” it is something that we do, not that is done to or for us. May our churches grow in passionate participation so that as non-believers observe our worship they might fall on their faces, worship God, and declare that God is really among us (paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 14:25).

Liturgy 5.22.2011

This past Sunday I led at Integrity.

The songs we sang were...

• Hosanna (Brooke Fraser) (key of E)




• capo 2 with D fingering (capo on first 4 strings for an open E bass)




• You alone can rescue (Redman) Key of C)




• Capo 5 with G fingering




• Before the Throne (key of C)


• The power of the Cross (Getty's) (key of C)




• Capo 5 with G fingering




• Jesus Thank You (Sovereign Grace) (key of A)




• capo 2 with G fingering

Head over to the worship community to see what others sang on this Sunday. 

Liturgy 5.15.2011

Songs

• All Creatures of Our God and King (key of D)




• demo mp3




• Everlasting God (key of Bb)




• demo mp3




• By Thy Mercy (key of F)


• Grace Greater than our sin (key of F)




• demo mp3




• The River (key of F)

See other songs sung by the saints abroad today... click here. 

Liturgy 5.08.2011

Songs

• Call to Worship -  Psalm 86:3-13


• Our God (key of A)


• Glorious and Mighty (key of C)


• Grace Greater than our sin (key of F)




• demo mp3 (with added bridge)


• chord chart




• In Christ Alone (key of E)


• There You Were (communion song) (key of G)




• demo mp3


• chord chart

Word

• Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-10


• Message: Biblical Womanhood


• Speaker: Dan Rolfe

See how others worshipped today... click here

The things I haven't said

Saturday, April 23, 5:20 am... it is official... my sister in law... Tonya Ann Watt is no longer with us on this earth. That was probably the case several hours before, but 5:20 is when it actually came out of the doctor's mouth.

Tonya had spent the previous week in Washington D.C. with her ex-husband's sister. She had taken off that week to carry her 9 year old son, Dylan, to see Washington. It was his spring break. "Spring"... a word that carries with it thoughts of new beginnings. This particular new beginning was one that none of us saw coming... in fact I still have to stop and remind myself that this has really happened.

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On their way home Friday, Tonya had a brain aneurism that led to a wreck. The car rolled several times... Dylan was not physically harmed beyond some scratches on his arm and neck from the seat belt. The wreck happened around Richmond, VA. We got a call to head to VCU hospital around 2 pm on Friday afternoon. We could not get any information over the phone as we travelled that way. But from the minute we arrived at the hospital, we knew it was bad. What followed was the longest night of my life.

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Since that weekend, lots of emotions have run rampant among everyone involved in Tonya's life... it would be more correct to say everyone's life that Tonya was involved in. Literally hundreds of people have shared how she was involved in their lives... you can read about many of those stories here... this link is from a blog that some of her church family has set up to remember her... these posts will eventually be put together in a book for her son.

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There is not enough time or space on this blog to write about how great of a person Tonya was and how she has selflessly helped so many people. So I will leave that for you to read for yourself elsewhere. And I also know that some who will read this did not know her and will probably get bored pretty quick, so I will try to get to the point.

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Although many thoughts and emotions have gone through my head and heart since that weekend, there is one particularly strong lesson I have learned.

Setting the stage for this lesson is a little touchy. So I will try to do so carefully.

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Tonya had been married to a Marine (Dylan's dad) for most of Dylan's life. And although their divorce was not official until late last year, they spent most of their marriage apart from one another. Due to the very nature of divorce, I will not attempt any  "he said" "she said" stuff... but it is enough to say that probably neither party is without fault. So regardless of how all of that stuff went down, there is one sure thing that has been heavy on my heart and that I hope will change me in deep ways for a long time to come.

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You see, I have listened to so many people tell me how great Tonya was and the things she did to change each of their lives. I began wondering if any of those people ever told her how much she meant to them (I know I probably did not). And then I realized that even if every one of us were to have sang her praise to her (which she would never have wanted) even if we had, there was still something missing.

At the end of the day, when the house was quiet, when Dylan was in bed and the dog was sleeping at the back door... she did not have a husband to sit with her on the couch and tell her how beautiful he thought she was and how great it was to have her as his bride. She did not go to bed and wake up with a man who would walk her through the good and bad days. Remember, I am not out to deify Tonya or make her ex-husband out to be the bad guy... but the fact of the matter is that she did not have that in her life (for whatever reason). That has saddened me deeply.

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Sad enough to make a conscience decision to not let anyone else ever sing my wife's praises louder than I do. Not to ever let my wife doubt that, next to Christ, she is the greatest gift God has ever blessed me with. And I hope God grants me words and actions to express how great and beautiful she is every day for the rest of our lives. So Elizabeth, I have let you down in many ways in our marriage... I have treated you ugly, intentionally said hurtful words, acted without patience or kindness... this list could go on (and you know it)... but I want you to know that my greatest offense to you is the things I have failed to say, the things I have failed to do to show you what you mean to me. I am sorry and I love you.