Worship God together

Greg Gilbert shares a few thoughts about the "corporate" aspect of worship...

We had one of the best music days we've ever had at Third Avenue last Sunday.  It was incredible--loud, heartfelt, worshipful, and exciting, even on the songs that aren't "naturally" exciting, if you know what I mean.  I remember listening to the congregation sing behind me, hearing people say "Amen" at the end of the songs (a fairly rare thing at our church), and a couple of thoughts hit me.  One of my goals at Third Avenue is to work against music ever becoming an "issue" for the church.  It's always seemed to me that Satan must take a peculiar pride in the tactic of taking music---which God intended to be a beautiful means of worship to Him---and turning it into a line of division and battle among His people.  So a couple of thoughts hit me, and I decided to share them with our church.  Maybe they'll be helpful to you, too.

First, it fills my heart with joy (no kidding!) that the success or failure of our music on Sunday mornings depends on whether our congregation shows up ready to sing.  It's amazing, really.  When we as a church show up prepared to engage in the service, excited to worship Christ and hear from his Word, our music succeeds in a big way---the voices fill up our sanctuary like a flood, and it's beautiful to hear.  When we as a church don'tshow up, though, when we're distracted, down, and thinking about anything and everything but the worship of God, our music is really bad.  It's quiet, empty, and completely without energy.  I realize it might be a strange thing to say, but I'm glad that's how it works!  I actually think it's a very good thing that our congregation bears a good deal of responsibility for how our services go each and every Sunday.  When I feel that kind of weight---that my attitude and state of mind affects not just me but the entire congregation---it makes me pay more attention to my heart and engage more with the service.

Second, and closely related, I think we ought to encourage every member of our churches to sing every song in the service with gusto, even if they don't particularly resonate with the song.  Every Christian has a certain set of hymns and songs that deeply resonate with them---the melody, the words, an experience they had when they first heard it---and our natural tendency is to give those favorites everything we've got . . . but then sort of check out when the next song is one we don't particularly like.  But here's the thing:  When you sing in a congregation, you're not just singing for yourself; you're singing for every other member of the congregation, for their edification and building up in Christ, too.  In I Corinthians 14:26, Paul tells us that when we come together, everything we do--including our singing--is done for each other.  Singing hymns is not just an opportunity for each of us, as individuals, to worship God in our own way.  It's an opportunity for the church, as a whole, to worship God together.  That means that even if you don't like a particular song, it's likely that someone else in the congregation resonates with it deeply---they feel about it the same way you feel about your favorites---and so you have a responsibility to love that person by singing that song with all the heart you can muster.  In other words, don't check out on songs that aren't your favorites; sing them!  And sing them loud and heartily, not because you particularly like them, but because you may be helping to edify another brother or sister whose heart is engaged deeply with those songs.  Worship isn't finally an individual experience; it's corporate.  And everything we do--everything, Paul tells us, including our singing---should be done for the building up of the saints.

Right where you are (vocation)

Tullian Tchividjian post...

Martin Luther was once approached by a man who enthusiastically announced that he’d recently become a Christian. Wanting desperately to serve the Lord, he asked Luther, “What should I do now?” As if to say, should he become a minister or perhaps a traveling evangelist. A monk, perhaps.

Luther asked him, “What is your work now?”

“I’m a shoe maker.”

Much to the cobbler’s surprise, Luther replied, “Then make a good shoe, and sell it at a fair price.”

In becoming a Christian, we don’t need to retreat from the vocational calling we already have—nor do we need to justify that calling, whatever it is, in terms of its “spiritual” value or evangelistic usefulness. We simply exercise whatever our calling is with new God-glorifying motives, goals, and standards—and with a renewed commitment to performing our calling with greater excellence and higher objectives.

One way we reflect our Creator is by being creative right where we are with the talents and gifts he has given us. As Paul says, “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God” (1 Corinthians 7:20,24). As we do this, we fulfill our God-given mandate to reform, to beautify, our various “stations” for God’s glory–giving this world an imperfect preview of the beautification that will be a perfect, universal actuality when Jesus returns to finish what he started.

full post here

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(related quote from  Gene Edward Veith's book "God at Work" )

"... vocation is played out not just in extraordinary acts - the great things we will do for the Lord, the great success we envision in our careers someday - but in the realm of the ordinary. Whatever we face in the often humdrum present - washing the dishes, buying groceries, going to work, driving the kids somewhere, hanging out with our friends - this is the realm into which we have been called and in which our faith bears fruit in love. We are to love our neighbors - that is, the people who are actually around us, as opposed to the abstract humanity of the theorists. These neighbors constitute the relationships that we are in right now, and our vocation is for God to serve them through us. The doctrine of vocation, though it has to do with human work, is essentially about Gods' work and how God works in and through our lives...

The doctrine of vocation helps Christians see the ordinary labors of life to be charged with meaning. It also helps put their work in perspective, seeing that their work is not saving them, but that they are resting in the grace of God, who in turn works through their labors to love and serve their neighbors."

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A few more quotes on the topic...

John Calvin:

It is an error to think that those who flee worldly affairs and engage in contemplation are leading an angelic life. . . We know that men were created to busy themselves with labor and that no sacrifice is more pleasing to God than when each one attends to his calling and studies well to live for the common good (Calvin's Commentaries, Luke 10:38).

Martin Luther:

A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops, and every one by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one another. . . (An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility).

The Apostle Paul:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

SHF Liturgy 7.17.2011

Songs

• Holy is He (in C)


• Hosanna (Fraser... in E)


• Sweetly Broken (in B)


• Nothing but the blood (Redman... in Bb)


• Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise (in C)

Word

• Scripture: Proverbs 13:20


• Message: Everyday Wisdom & Friends


• Speaker: Dan Rolfe

Head over to the worship community to see what others were singing and reading today. click here.

8 Weeks

I thought I would share the latest picture I have of our youngest child...

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
(Psalm 139:13-16 ESV)

SHF Liturgy 7.10.2011

Songs

• Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise (Key of C)


• Haven't You been good (Key of G)


• Christ the Lord is Risen today (Key of C)


• Blessed Be Your Name (Key of A)


• Beautiful Scandalous Night (Key of C)

Word

• Scripture: Proverbs 15:28


• Message: Everyday Wisdom & Speech


• Speaker: Dan Rolfe

See what other's sang and read today... click here

I can not say the same

Liturgy 7.03.2011

Songs

• Agnus Dei (key of A)


• How can I keep from singing (key of G)


• What a savior (Jeremiah Jones, key of A)


• Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise (key of G)


• Behold the Lamb (Getty, key of C)

Word

• Scripture: Proverbs 3:1-6


• Message: Everyday Wisdom and our Hearts


• Speaker: Dan Rolfe

See what others were singing today... click here.

Liturgy 6.26.2011

Songs

• God of Wonders (key of A)


• Our God (key of A)


• Come ye sinners (traditional, key of Em)


• All I owe (key of C)


• Christ is Risen (key of F)

Liturgy 6.19.2011

Songs

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


• How Great Thou Art (key of A)


• Christ is Risen (key of F)


• There is a fountain (key of Bb)


• Nothing but the blood (Redman, key of Bb)


• closed service with "Lead me" by Sanctus Real

Liturgy 6.12.2011

Songs

• We exalt You (key of C)


• Tis so sweet (key of E)


• Hosanna (key of E)


• Christ is Risen (key of F)


• You are Holy/Doxology (key of E)