Sem Findings on Worship Pt. 1
"To see what's in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
- George Orwell
NO WAY! SHU UPDATING HIS BLOG? I know, I'm surprised myself also!
Haha, but ya, I've been slowly bugged to blog about some stuff I'm learning in sem worship classes and to the suggestion of my "lost and confused" one, I decided to make it into parts so I wouldn't have to clarify everything at once, or claim to have a finality on this topic of Worship.
In my class "The Worshipping Church", My professor showed a video of a guy named Bob Kauflin, the worship pastor at Sovereign Grace Ministries. His whole thesis:
The heart of Biblical worship is the exaltation of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.
So simple, yet SO not the focus of our worship at church most of the time. A CRAZY passage he referenced came from Revelation. The last book in the bible was the revelation of Jesus Christ -- God wanted us to understand what was IMPORTANT. It was important for our understanding to worship God. Specifically in chapter 5, we see that the focus of everyone was the Lion of Judah, who in the next sentence, becomes the slain lamb. EVERYONE'S focus in revelation was the Lamb who was slain because He is the only one WORTHY and ABLE to open the scroll. This unopened scroll is God's plan unrealized, unexecuted... But the lamb of God is the ONLY ONE that can open the scroll and carry out that plan. So in other words, if the scroll ain't opened, humanity = doomed.
In my own personal thoughts, I sometimes think about so many "christian" people walking into church giving lip service, coming to sunday "worship" as if it was a catholic mass that they HAVE to attend every sunday or something because they have always done that. I think more and more, I've realized the necessity of coming into worship (sunday worship specifically) with a time of reflection of myself being a sinful, depraved person, only made worthy and acceptable by my Jesus' sacrifice. This may sound a little whack, but sometimes, I think we need to magnify our sinfulness... I know I know, that will only make us feel more and more magnifiedly condemned and guilty... but ALONG with that understanding of the magnitude of our sinfulness, we need to grab equally the mercy and grace of God through Jesus, because He is my only connection to God.
We sing a lot about drawing close to God, about connecting to God, wanting Him more, being deeper in love with Him... which is GREAT an all... but we have to go back to FIRST understanding that Jesus has ALREADY provided that DIRECT connection with God because as Christ followers, we are part of HIS BODY...
THEREFORE GOD SEES US IN HIS SON!!!
(that's sooooo awesome! even to this longtime Christ follower who isn't excited by much as of late)
One thing that stuck with me during this lecture was when he said something to the lines of:
"I think people who come to worship and don't feel loved by God because they fail to go to the One who mediates for them."
He said another interesting quote which I feel is a little issue along the "emerging church" side of things when he said:
"the primary example of the cross is not to inspire us but to save us."
and
"God loves us not because we are lovely but because He is loving."
I understand what Kauflin means, but ya, I hope when he says it not being the primary example, he will still say that the Christ's death and resurrection shows us a redeeming love that can be lived out in the world also. Ah well, I could be just looking into it too deeply...
Anyways, I'll just leave this blog off with a question, do we truly put our faith and trust in the one who mediates for us to God everytime we worship?
To end off, I will leave you all with the lyrics to a great new song from Starfield's new album... which I have heard... and will lead worship with soon, hehe ;)
Starfield
Son of God, shaper of the stars
you alone, the dweller of my heart
mighty king, how beautiful you are, how beautiful
Son of God, the father's gift to us
you alone, were broken on the altar of Love
precious lamb, our freedom's in your blood
Jesus oh holy One
I sing to you, forgiven
savior, I'm overcome
with your great love for me
Son of God, strength beyond compare
you alone the darkness cannot bear
Lord of love, your kindness draws me near, it draws me
Son of God prophecy of old
you alone redeemer of my soul
come again and lead your people home, come lead us home
10 Comments:
Very insightful post! What's really cool is that yesterday, Mike Lau was preaching on the same stuff you wrote! (Yeah, I go to his church now.) It was based on Revelations 5:1-6.
He said: Why didn't God just open the scroll Himself? Because if He opened it, we would all be consumed by His holiness. We need an in-between and Jesus was it. In his 1st coming, He came as a Lamb. In His 2nd coming, He comes as the lion of Judah. And so we're living in the in-between.
His 3 pts were:
1) Living in the constant worship of Christ alone
2) Living in eternal perspective.
3) Living in an unshakeable hope that He is coming again.
In the end of the sermon, he brought up something really interesting. He said, we are all constantly worshipping something 24/7. Whether it is money, worries...But what or who are we worshipping?
Anyways, so cool that you both were talking about pretty much the same thing...even though ur miles away. keep posting!
I love Kauflin's work. I've been reading his blog @ worshipmatters.com and he gave a really concise series on the role of the worship leader. He defined our role like this:
"An effective corporate worship leader,
aided and led by the Holy Spirit,
skillfully combines biblical truth with music
to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ,
thereby motivating the gathered church
to join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God
and seeking to live all of life for the glory of God."
One thing he said that hit hard near the end of his series was that proclaiming what is true about God is often underrated. We think we know enough facts about God and now just need to “experience” Him. Or maybe we think that we don’t need to be reminded of what we already understand... so true, hitting home really hard.
Even as leaders in the church, we've much yet to do in terms of our own worship. Disciples & worshippers first, then leaders.
woah i totally echo hilda's point after reading your post...
crazy stuff shulinglee
I have a couple of questions fo you:
1) Is Rev 5 really about Sunday Worship?
2) Qoute "as if it was a catholic mass that they HAVE to attend every sunday or something because they have always done that"
IS there anything wrong with doing something we "have" to do or have always done? Or the catholic mass for that matter? (Have you ever been to a Evengelical Lutherian service?)
3) Do we have to "feel" God in worship?
5) Why have you not talk about the most distinguish aspect of public worship :the community?
4) When is the last time you do something you know you should but you do not like? That is real worship?
No, you are not looking too deeply, you have not even scratch the surface. Read Robert Webber.
1) I do not think Rev 5 is necessarily directly written for corporate worship on sunday, but I think mention of ALL CREATURES worshipping Jesus in this passage points to a significant teaching that our worship (not just sunday, but also our daily lives) should focus on Christ.
2) I agree, I may have misstated "catholic mass" especially since I have been reading about the liturgical practices of the Lutheran Church. I shall recant ;) haha, the problem does not lie in the catholic church but in us as fallen man in general.
3) I don't think it is necessary to FEEL God in worship, because He is there regardless. But I am leaning more and more that worship to our God SHOULD be a holistic offering of worship (Rom 12:1-2, John 4:24) I do not think our emotions can be separate from our reason and intellect especially in our faith.
4) I think everybody goes through times where they are doing something they "don't like" but they do it anyways. I think that is the dilemma of being human. We do not choose to do "the right thing" most of the time and it's only through Christ we have that forgiveness and grace to cover our "intentions". I think real worship starts with humility, to recognize only Christ got it right, and we want to always confess our messed up ways and follow in His path.
5) I will quote myself in the beginning of the blog
"I decided to make it into parts so I wouldn't have to clarify everything at once, or claim to have a finality on this topic of Worship."
So don't jump the gun on the lowly comments of a 23 year old seminarian ;) The Community of Christ is not far off my radar, if ever.
Lastly, I HAVE read Webber, and I HAVE gone through his interactive video series on ancient-future worship... he has good points on certain things in worship... but also kinda weird on others (maybe explain later, we'll see) :p
Shalom!
We are having a theological conversation without ingo but deeply theological and completely relevant.
I found "worship" is a much larger expereince than any one of us has given credit to. I am leaning more and more towards the beginnig of worship starts from the first thought/feeling/mood that enter us when we wake up. If that does not go right I think well have a tough time ahead. Other issues then become a diversion rather then a progression.
interesting way of putting it... I will definitely think about that... I think ultimately "waking up" with our first thought as worship is pretty hard for people to understand or enact... I wonder if it needs to be a conscious act/thought or whatnot?
I agree with that notion of worship starting in the beginning of one's day... I for one struggle immensely with that because sometimes I just wake up feeling "out of it"...
Like does that mean worship can be affected with just the problem of "waking up on the wrong side of the bed"? i.e. I woke up feeling like junk, I'm regressing?
I'm not trying to be coy, just wondering if we can still start off the day "on the wrong foot" and still experience God's mercy and grace and worship him even more wholeheartedly as the day progresses?
Well, more time to reflect now ;)
Everyone will one day wake up on the "wrong side of the bed". And everyone will one day wake up and forgot how muc hChrist Jesus loves him/her. THat is the falliable nature of human. And that preceisely is why we need to "do" routine or ritual or "usual" or "traditional" ot "boring" things. It is the disciplined "doing" of "return" instead of the right "feeling" to do it that will help us remember and re-adjust back to where God us wants to be and that I believe is the essence of worship: The constant need to return to God/JC becasue of our wandering nature.
That is why I believe tradition is important. It is seomthing there to force us to remember whether we like it or not. Like the church building is a witeness of the faith of the community in it. You can ignore it but it keeps coming back to you.
But do not get me wrong, I am not ignoring the emotion side. It is just the trends is to ignore the more traditonal/routine side so I think we need to help swing the pendulum back a bit.
I talk too much already (sign of aging)
next topic: orthopraxy vs orthodoxy
in isaiah 29 the vision is refered to as words sealed in a scroll. also noone seems able to open the scroll here (vs.11), similar to revelation 5.
but these words are found in the "scroll"
The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men. (vs. 13)
i find this interesting how it kinda relates to rev 5 about worship, but also how insincere our worship is at times.
Sorry I keep commenting but I think this is great stuff.
On the subject of insincere:
Can we honestly say we are sincere all the time or even some of the time? Can we even be an adequate judge of our sincereness?
Should not God be the only one who know our hearts? (Ps 139)
If that be true, then are we not setting an ideal that cannot be reach? Should we not by saying our presence in the presence of the Lord (as in worship) is adequate indication of our sincereness and just leave it at that?
btw, shu, that is my way of saying hi and continue to rememeber you in prayer...
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