Worship Leader Magazine Volume 29 Number 3

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WORSHIPLEADER.COM

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WORS HIP RE FORMATI ON: THE SOUND OF S PIRITUAL AWAKE NING

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S I N C E TH E FI R S T P R I NT I S S U E I N 1992 , WO R S H I P LE A D E R HA S E VO LV E D I NTO TH E WO R LD ' S M O S T AU TH O R ITATI V E A N D R E S P E C TE D C H U RC H LE A D E R MAG A Z I N E .

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J O I N

N OW

12 FE ATUR E S

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Releasing the Poets

William Dyrness

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Theologians + Theorists:

Re-forming Worship in

God's Image WL Favorites Weigh In

18

24

Cultivating Service vs.

Celebrity, Calling vs.

Promotion Meredith Andrews

28

Foretasting the Future Glenn Packiam

32

Painting in Full Spectrum:

The Colors with which We

Choose to Worship Mike Tapper, Britt Terry,

and Jacob Clapp

24

42

L E A DER S H I P

8

Back to Basics

Dr. Chuck Fromm with Andrea Hunter

42

More Than Music Finding Beauty in Ugliness

by Reggie Kidd

32 Download the 2020 Song Discovery collection today at SONGDISCOVERY.COM

46 The Lost +

Missing Prayers

The Critical Call to Reform Worship + Sung Prayer

by Andrea Hunter

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WORSHIP LEADER MAGAZINE VOL. 29, NO. 3

Table Talk

Worship Reformation

by Brendan Prout

CONTENT/DESIGN/PRODUCTION

M U S I C

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EDITORIAL/ADVISORY BOARD Steve Berger, David Bunker, Constance Cherry, Scott & Vonda Dyer, Stan Endicott, Craig Gilbert, Zac Hicks, Jim Van Hook, Andrea Hunter, Monique Ingalls, Ray Jones, Stefanie Kelly, Reggie Kidd, Roberta King, Rich Kirkpatrick, Chuck Kraft, Greg Laurie, Nikki Lerner, Kent Morris, Rick Muchow, Rory Noland, Robb Redman, Steve & Shawn Reed, Tanya Riches, Mark Roberts, John Schreiner, Laura Story, Chuck Smith Jr., Scotty Smith, Leonard Sweet, Dave Travis, Vernon Whaley, C. Dennis Williams

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WORSHIP REFORMATION. THE

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AWA K ENIN G

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I SSU E

Worship Leader discusses reformation of our worship in Jesus’ image, to release the poets, resurrect the best of sung prayer from the past and write the most transforming and critically needed worship of the present.

We’re announcing a shift from celebrity to calling and investigating the Holy boundaries of monetization and mission.

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BACK BASICS

to

WO R S H I P R E - FO R M ATI O N : BAC K

TO

TH E

FU T U R E

BY

D R .

C H U C K

F R O M M

scribed by Andrea Hunter

T

his column’s title is based on a small booklet written in 1981 in the wake of the Jesus Movement (not the one in the first century, but the one in the 20th century). And looking at it there are things that bear a return visit. I’ve spent my adult life studying sung prayer across history, and all things related to worship, communication, and technology. I've tried to create spaces and places for people who love Jesus to tell their worship stories in print, on tape, vinyl, CD, video, LIVE, and every other medium and means of distribution known to man.

What I’ve tried to do is to learn from the learners of the past— and present—and create opportunity for others to do the same.

Though I said the following 40 years ago, it is more true now that it was then: “It has been said that ‘those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them’ At this juncture in history—when crucial choices are demanded of all Christians—repeated lessons are not only a waste of time, they are an irresponsible waste of resources and potential. Today, the outcome of Christian involvement in modern media is hovering between victory and disaster.

Now is the time when the utmost clarity, determination and courage is required of us all…

Today, the outcome of Christian involvement in modern media is hovering between victory and disaster. Now is the time when the utmost clarity, determination and courage is required of us all…

WE BECOME LIKE WHO (AND HOW) WE WORSHIP “For too long, the roles and goals of Christians in the media have been defined by secular values and models that divert the worship leader and artist from his single most important function: serving people.”

When you actively participate in the Holy Spirit’s campaign to refresh, renew and reform sung prayer and worship, you are serving God’s people in ways that impact their lives now and eternally.

One of the learners I’ve learned from is Marva Dawn. She embodies Christ’s role as servant in worship leading like no one I know. I’ve learned from her: love is the very best teacher. When she has taught at our conferences, it takes everything she has to be there as she suffers from numerous serious chronic health conditions, but in every setting, she is 100% present. She loves God, loves to talk about Him, teach about Him, and lead His Body in prayer—sung or spoken.

TRUE WORSHIP INSPIRES WONDER When Marva speaks of worship in her childhood, I’m inspired and I wish I could transfer that enthusiasm to every person in the Church worldwide. I wish everyone could be filled with that kind of anticipation at the thought of praising God and gathering with his people. You can hear the excitement in her description: Worship was always filled with glorious sights and sounds. Our church building had an intricately carved altar, ancient Christian symbols everywhere, and beautiful stained-glass windows that reminded me of whole stories in the Bible. We sang all kinds of music—new and old—often with various students playing their brass instruments or flutes. What I saw and what I heard

in worship throughout my childhood deeply formed my faith and my enraptured desire to praise God with all my heart and mind, voice and life. I loved worship! Especially I loved the singing.

That encompassing history—past and present, old and new—with God and His people experienced in worship made her want to be a co-laborer with the Spirit in forming worship in others. She also actively took on reforming worship where she saw it losing the edge of biblical fullness and orthodoxy. It birthed an unquenchable passion that many have drunk from.

Though to the world she was lame—with her amputated leg and braces and unending health challenges—In the Lord she was dancing.

WHAT IS DRIVING WORSHIP AND WHERE IS IT TAKING US? The key thing to understand in the technological age is the principle that technology drives media (all those things that communicate to us, the ways we broadcast ideas, symbols and concepts): Marva’s stained glass and the stories it told, her hymnal, and even the ancient symbols. But technology isn’t neutral; the means of broadcasting media become part of the messaging. In all things worship, it is important that technology serves the message and not the other way around.

There are troubling things that we hear about from time to time. Not so much in our proclamation of the gospel, but how music and art in our services of worship do or do not support the Word of God. Songwriting has been at the center and it’s been prominent in every movement of God through time. In communications, it’s about how artists, preachers, teachers, worship leaders incarnate the Word of God. The writers and producers of culture in our churches not only generate media, but they are formed by it, both the secular and the sacred.

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We borrow from cultures of different sorts. What’s novel in culture and stirring up the culture is the seedbed of worship writers and becomes a vehicle of worship, but the medium often has attachments. Culture is a difficult word to convey because no one knows exactly what you’re saying fully about the actual content. In the Church every generation finds new expression to make the message clearer. That’s called enculturation.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy…

THE IDOLS MUST FALL

I believe we’re in the beginnings of one of God’s periodic reformations of worship. To be able to hop on and serve what God is doing, we need to dig through worship principles of the past. Immerse ourselves in Scripture: the more we study the Word of God, the fresher becomes our delivery of the Word in worship. Pray and ask God for his New Song (not novel) but fresh and refreshing for this season. Let’s explore the wisdom of the past so we are prepared to enter the future wisely.

We’re building a runway for your thoughts on the topic through this column and our upcoming conferences and gatherings. I hope to see you there so together we can explore more about re-forming worship.

If we could look through Marva’s glasses formed by worship, or better yet, the Holy’s Spirits we would have a detailed MRI of cultural elements—and media attachments—that support relationship with God and those that impede it, those aspects of media and technology that applied in one way flow toward God when implemented in a service of worship, or conversely can carry us along and away from Him. Technology can either serve the Church or contribute to idol-making or become an idol itself.

And as it says in Isaiah “the Idols will vanish completely” (2:18). My prayer is that with discernment and passionate love for God, we will be able to utilize all things in ways that exalt Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, encourage and deepen relationship, and extend hope and faith. And we will tear down the idols.

WORSHIP – THE ALPHA & OMEGA According to the book of Job (38:4-7), considered the oldest writing/media in the Bible, worship is primordial. It has existed from the very beginning...even before the creation of man.

And the newest book in Scripture, Revelation, ends on a note of worship as “The Spirit and the Bride say come…” From beginning to end, let us appropriate everything that amplifies worship and let us actively strip away everything from worship that dilutes awe or distorts our role as servant leaders. In a world of experts, let’s be humble servants.

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THE “WHY” OF WORSHIP

BY

W I L L I A M

DY R N E S S

P

erhaps for many people the most memorable image of the last few months is Andrea Bocelli, standing alone on the steps of a deserted Milan Cathedral on April 19, singing some of his favorite songs, including the simple words of “Amazing Grace,” a performance that has been watched by millions on YouTube.

Though it wasn’t formally part of a worship experience, this moving performance struck me, in the light of all the fear and uncertainty of these weeks, as one of the most powerful expressions of what worship does for people. Similarly, when President Barack Obama started singing “Amazing Grace” in Charleston, South Carolina, just after the horrible massacre at a church bible study, the audience joined in singing along.

Perhaps, like me, many joined with Andrea Bocelli too.

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We come to worship because we are hurting and broken people, and we come for words of healing—from Scripture, teaching, warm greetings from our friends, but most of all we come to join with them in singing our prayers to God. Why is this? Surely, the truth of Scripture about God’s love for us shown in Christ, the teaching of our pastor and the encouragement of our friends are all important, critical even. But in order for us to be moved and inspired with hope, we need a song. Or, for others of us, we need the beautiful movement of the liturgy or lovely images of saints or biblical scenes—these things wake up our imaginations and move us along what St. Augustine called the journey of our affections leading us to God. This is why of all the things we need to pray for, after these weeks of trauma and pain, is that God would raise up not only prophets to speak the truth, but artists and poets to inspire hope and courage. If you agree with me on the importance of this, I invite you to join me on a suggested journey that your own congregation might take to “release the poets.” For one cannot just snap one’s fingers in order for poets and artists to appear, they must be found, encouraged and nurtured, and that takes a village. Given that after the coronavirus has gone nothing will be the same, the time may be right to decide to examine your congregation and its worship life and make a fresh start. Here is one way a thoughtful process of renewal might happen.

ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE

Listen to and learn the stories and culture of your congregation.

Reflect on worship in your congregation, and together explore its beginnings, traditions, history and patterns.

Listen to the culture of the community around you. How does your worship reflect, or not, it’s tapestry?

Release the poets. Learn from them and create spaces for creativity and imagination.

Re-imagine how worship might be done for your particular community and setting.

STEP

YOUR COMMUNITY’S WORSHIP STORY

For one cannot just snap one’s fingers in order for poets and artists to appear, they must be found, encouraged and nurtured…

Spend the first weeks and months of this process getting to know the stories and culture of your congregation—don’t be in a hurry, transformation takes time. Take some time in worship to listen to stories of people who have been in your church the longest, others who came more recently, children who have grown up in the church. Find out what your history is, and why people are drawn to this congregation, what funny and moving things people like and remember, what memories or music draws them back week-by-week. Perhaps, to begin with, this will need to be done by Zoom, but no matter, listen to these stories and take some time to get to know each other in this way. If yours is an old church, explore your history and find out from the older members how it has survived all these years. What is unique about this group of people?

What do people love about its life and worship?

Think about what you’re learning. One thing is sure, nothing that you try to do will succeed without a good sense of who you are as a people and what makes your congregation special.

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STEP

STEP

DEEPER DISCOVERY AND REFLECTION Reflect on your worship. The next step is to take the time, either by a sermon series, or during Sunday forums, or even in the small groups you have formed, to think specifically about worship: What are its elements? What is the tradition your church represents and what are the particular contributions of this tradition? Spend time together studying what Scripture has to say about worship: how did worship develop in the early Christian community? What were its earliest creeds and hymns (some already appear in the New Testament)?

We may not think much about liturgy, or our order of worship—its prayers, songs, scripture readings, but these are what form us week by week, and they are the responsibility not just of the pastor(s) or worship leaders, but they are the work of all of us together—liturgy, after all, means literally the work of the people. That means all the people, young and old, together.

If I’m not mistaken this process of listening to one another, begun in step one, now will begin to give you a sense of the different styles and ideas of worship that exist—what sparks worship.

And most important of all, it will begin to reveal the different gifts that are present, often hidden, in your community.

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EXPANDING YOUR VIEW Listen to the culture. Since as a body of believers you are a part of a larger community, it is now necessary to get to know your community in a deeper way. I am not referring here to how you might reach out to them in ministry and witness, though that may happen in time. What I have in mind is to ask: how does your worship reflect (or not) the community (or communities) around it? How has your neighborhood changed, what are its particular characteristics and needs?

What we often overlook is the way, from the very beginning of Christian history, the liturgy and culture have had a mutual influence on each other. Churches that have listened—prayerfully—to their culture have often experienced fresh winds of change, and these revived practices have often in turn had a deep influence on the surrounding culture. Think of singing the Psalms in Calvin’s Geneva, Isaac Watts’ or Charles Wesley’s choruses of the Great Awakenings, the Black Spirituals, or recent Praise Music. These innovations in worship have all found deep ways to connect with the longings of their communities, and have in turn sparked renewal both in the church and culture.

No church worship has ever thrived without opening up spaces for creativity and imagination.

STEP

OPEN THE GATES TO CREATIVE SPACE Release the poets. Unless I am mistaken any church taking the time to get to know its contemporary culture will have to hear from the younger members and help them discover their gifts. Just as we older members need to ask our children how to work all this technology, we need to find out from them what music to listen to, what movies are worth watching (and what is TikTok anyway)? No church worship has ever thrived without opening up spaces for creativity and imagination. This is why the giving of the Spirit is associated with young people seeing visions and the old dreaming dreams (Acts 2: 17).

In the late Middle Ages a movement called theologica poetica holding that great art involving imagery and poetry could be carriers of theological truth had deep influence on the art and architecture of the Renaissance; songs birthed out of the first Great Awakening—and those Awakenings to follow—were heard on the streets and homes everywhere—even ending up on the steps of the Milan Cathedral; and in the 1970s, music (and even visual art) from congregations of Calvary Chapel (and its offshoots: the Vineyard and Harvest) not only ended up influencing worship around the world, but impacted the rise of popular music (and popular culture) in multiple ways.

If we have listened carefully to each other we will find ways to include music and images that all generations will enjoy—perhaps even commissioning songs and visual art. In my church with its beautiful neo-gothic arches, each week we may enjoy Bach, a hymn by John Wesley and a Spiritual. We not only need our business leaders to balance our books, but we need artists to move our hearts in praise to God, to dream dreams about the new creation God is bringing.

STEP

DREAMING OUT LOUD Now is the final step when we can re-imagine how worship might be done for our particular community and setting. When people ask about how arts can serve in worship they often start at step five, without going through the process of preparing the way. And this is sure to fail in producing any lasting change. But with a careful process of reflection, prayer, and ongoing conversation among all of the people together, we might nurture spaces where those poets in our midst might get busy shaping lyrics, or images, or dramatic dialogues, that will lift hearts in praise to the Creator. However you proceed, my prayer is that you find some way in your place to be inspired to deeper worship like that of Andrea Bocelli on the steps of the Milan Cathedral.

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CONVERSATIONS THAT AWAKEN WORSHIP RE-FORMATION IN YOUR CONGREGATION

What does Scripture say about worship?

How has your neighborhood changed, or how is it changing?

How did worship develop in the earliest Christian communities?

What are its particular characteristics and needs?

What were its earliest creeds and hymns (some appear in the New Testament)?

Are their innovations in worship that might connect with the longings of your surrounding communities?

What is the tradition your church represents, how did worship develop in it and what are the particular contributions of this tradition?

What are elements of worship in general and in this church particularly?

What is unique about this group of people?

What kind of music do the various members of your congregation listen to?

How might you open up creative space across generations, content and style preferences?

How do you imagine worship being re-formed in your midst?

What do people love about its life and worship?

What are the different styles and ideas of worship that exist in your congregation?

What do you observe that sparks engagement with God in worship in your congregation?

What different gifts are present/ hidden in your congregation that could ignite worship?

How does your worship reflect (or not) the community (or communities) around it?

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BY W I L L I A M DY R N E S S Senior Professor of Theology and Culture, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. He is the author of A Primer on Christian Worship that offers further reflection on the process described in this article.

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THEOLOGIANS + THEORISTS RE-FORMING WORSHIP IN GOD'S IMAGE

W

orship leader recently asked a question of some of the most eloquent and enjoyable people we know­—those who have made studying, encouraging, and expanding our understanding of worship their life’s mission. They answered and, as we hoped, showed the amazing variation and diversity of emphasis and thought that we believe will inspire you to more profoundly lead in worship. We also included a bonus perspective on the same theme from N.T. Wright via an earlier interview.

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How can worship/sung prayer be re-formed to more accurately

?

reflect the Biblical narrative, encompass the past, present and future, remain deep, yet accessible, engage congregations in discipleship and form Christians into communities that embody Christ and extend worship into the larger world?

E XPAND your view.

DR. JAMES HART Choral Director, Composer/Arranger, Songwriter and Author.

President / The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies

St. Augustine wrote: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”

Human beings are hardwired for worship; everyone worships someone or something. Biblically centered Christian worship brings about the reconciliation of worshipers back to the One who made us and loves us. Then, reconciled to God, we, the Mystical Body of Christ, are sent on mission to participate actively in God’s great reconciliation of the entire created order.

As Bob Webber wrote, “Worship is the key to the renewal of the Church.” I would add, “And the Church is the key to the renewal of the world.” In worship, we tell the world its story, invite the world into the family (Church) to be reconciled, fired with the love of God, and then sent back to the world to participate in the great reconciliation of all things. The story of God in Jesus Christ is for the life of the whole world. In the end, we thirst to know God and thirst to know God in the other. Everything we do in worship should contribute to that end, the love of God and the love of His creation.

body. It is helpful to first build from our existing relationships.

Have we partnered with a congregation elsewhere in the world?

Have we served alongside members of another area church on a community service project? We can start by learning what songs, prayers, and Scripture passages are meaningful to these friends and why; then introduce them, along with their stories, to our congregations. After strengthening existing relationships, we can also build new connections. Is there a church across the street whose worship is different from our own? We can have conversations over coffee to learn what makes them tick, and pray about what aspects of their tradition we might incorporate. Do we feel burdened to pray for or give to a group of Christians on the other side of the world? We can listen to their worship music on YouTube and pray the Lord’s Prayer in their language in a Sunday morning service. In learning from the wisdom of our sisters and brothers in Christ, we open ourselves to what the Spirit is truly doing in the world today.

SEEK His kingdom.

DR. AARON CRIDER Author, Editor, Pastor, Ecucator, Director of Worship Studies / The Kings University

R EACH further, relate deeper.

DR. MONIQUE INGALLS Author, Editor, co-founder of "Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives" Conference. Assistant Professor / Music Center for Christian Music Studies / Baylor University

Re-formed worship and sung prayer must flow out of a deepening relationship with the Christians across the world and across the tracks. Our collective worship is a space in which we can work to bridge division and heal the rifts in Christ’s

As we consider the past and future of worship and sung prayer in light of biblical narrative, there are key elements of focus for the present. Those elements are that biblical worship has singular focus. Solus Christus (Christ alone) and Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God alone) is every part of every corner of the conversation.

If we are to witness awakening and reformation in worship, all the indulgences of the formalized worship industry must align with a biblical movement of seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness. Never can chart ranking, sales, and awards be the goal. Soli Deo Gloria and Solus Christus has got to become our win.

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WRITE songs that form patience.

LESTER RUTH Historian, Author, Worship Activator, Research Professor of Christian Worship / Duke Divinity School

It's quite clear in the New Testament: Christians are supposed to lean into the future and allow it to reshape their sense of who they are and how they are to live. Our lives are hid, as Paul put it in Colossians, in Christ and when He appears and is revealed (in the future) so will we in an upcoming resurrection. But our worship is often focused on the past ("Jesus did great things back then!") or on the present ("Isn't it wonderful to enjoy His presence today!"). Such sentiments are true but they can short circuit our leaning into the future. But how can we lean forward? I suggest it is more than talking about when Jesus returns. I suggest it involves using acts of worship which actually form worshipers to be patient in their use. Specifically, I suggest we start singing hymns, not just classic hymns, but new hymns by you and saying the things you want to say. But say those things in a hymn form where there's multiple verses and the payoff is not until the end. The more commonplace structure of a couple of verses, a chorus, a pre-chorus, and a bridge allows getting to the song's payoff quickly and repeatedly. There's no learning how to wait and be patient. But a hymn form takes us on a journey, all the while waiting until the climax in the final verse in the final line. Let's learn to write and sing songs whose very structure forms us in patience, which is a fruit of the Spirit, and in hope. Hope involves waiting as Paul noted in Romans 8: "Who hopes for what is already seen?" I might add: "Or sung?"

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CR EATE opportunities for spontaneity.

JEFF DEYO Faculty at North Central University, Founder of Worship City Ministries. Educator, Author, Speaker, and Award-winning Songwriter and Artist.

The Convergence of Musical Worship and Sung-Prayer.

There is a tremendous beauty that emerges when we begin to embrace the close relationship shared between musical worship and intercession. How different are the songs we sing in our services from the desperate pleas we utter to God behind closed doors? Maybe it’s just a matter of a melody.

One of the most practical ways we can begin to help people reform their mindset is to invite them to participate in sung prayers, corporately. This involves providing opportunities for congregants to step into moments of spontaneous worship between the sections of our planned worship songs, possibly between a second chorus and a bridge, or before or near the end of a song.

As the band vamps repeatedly on a chord progression from a known song, the worship leader simply encourages the congregation to step into “Tehillâh” (the Hebrew word for praise, meaning, “To sing with songs or hymns; laudations of the spirit. The song of the Lord; spontaneous song to the Lord”).

This song doesn’t need to be complex or “professional,” but simply needs to arise from the heart of each individual worshiper, forming a symphony of individual musical prayers.

As you might guess, the one true distinction between a typical spontaneous prayer—something most understand—and this newly discovered spontaneous worship song is the addition of a melody that flows from the one singing the prayer.

LET God's story drive the narrative.

REV. DR. CONSTANCE CHERRY Historian, Author, Worship Activator, Pastor,

ENCOUNTER God + worship as part of a greater whole.

Worship Writer and Leader. Professor of Worship and Pastoral

JOSH LAVENDER

Ministry / Indiana Wesleyan University.

Author, Artist, Composer, Co-founder of the Wesleyan Worship Project. Worship Pastor / Trinity Wesleyan Church.

One significant way that worship can be re-formed is by letting the story of God drive the narrative of worship. The story of God is the biblical narrative of all that God has done, is doing, and will do from creation to re-creation. This allencompassing narrative is centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Any time that our own agendas drive the content and actions of worship, we risk re-writing God’s story. To say that the story of God drives the narrative of worship simply means that God’s purposes for worship are honored—that worship planning and leading starts with asking the question, how can we re-enact, proclaim, and celebrate the triune God in community?

SONGS + PR AYER = spirit and truth worship.

“…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship…”

-ROMANS 12:1,NIV

It’s easy to seek an individual encounter with God in a room full of people, and many of our worship songs allow or invite us to do just that. In a culture that is starving for belonging, there is great potential for the worship of the Church to renew its focus on community. I think there is room for worship leaders and new songs to facilitate community encounters with God that are deeply personal, but not individual. Worship can forge identity and lead us down the road of charity when it situates the worshiper as part of a greater whole, offering one sacrifice of worship.

ANDI ROZIER Prolific Worship Writer, Artist Worship Pastor / Harvest Bible Chapel

He who sings, prays twice.

This quote is attributed to St. Augustine and has a truth that resonates with my heart. Singing brings a spiritual engagement to prayers that seems to accentuate the meaning of the words. But is it biblical?

Exodus 15:1 records the first song recorded in the Bible.

David was partial to singing his prayers too. There are over 1,150 references to music in the Bible, including when the Lord Himself asks for songs. It goes without saying that the Bible admonishes us to pray…

Perhaps, combining prayers and songs is the closest embodiment we have to worshiping in spirit and truth, as John encourages us to do. Let us then, encourage one another to do the same.

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WOR SHIP LEADING is teaching / weakness is strength.

A GOOD TUNE is not optional.

LAURA STORY

N.T. WRIGHT

Songwriter, Author, Artist, Scholar and

Author / Speaker / New Testament Scholar, Pauline Theologian and

Bible Teacher. Worship Leader / Perimeter Church

Anglican Bishop. University of St. Andrews School of Divinity

Imagine waking up one morning to a global health pandemic and corporate worship in churches across the globe was cancelled indefinitely. A month ago, that scenario sounded like a far-fetched plot of a sci-fi film but, as we all know, this was/is reality. Not that reflecting on my past worship sets was the first thought on my mind, but eventually I did have a moment to consider this: how did I as a worship leader prepare my congregation for a season of crisis? To put it simply, if my congregation had only the songs I had taught them and led for them from the past year to draw comfort and wisdom from, did I give them the tools they now need to weather the storm?

Questions like these not only reveal the importance of the content of songs we sing on Sundays. It also leads to the broader, most obvious question… What must we teach our congregation to sing that will sustain them in times of trial?

I worry when the words of some of the modern worship songs seem to me just a random selection of Christian slogans, as it were, rather than actually a narrative of the world as claimed

by Jesus and as rescued by Jesus in his death and resurrection— and the world is still a suffering place—but which is looking forward to the new creation. Some worship songs are struggling to say that, but if the narrative is broken then it's not actually helping the people who are singing it in the way that it should.

And then the other thing I really, really worry about is the music. Quite a lot of the contemporary worship songs don't actually have tunes in the proper sense. They have two or three notes, which they go to-and-fro on and then maybe they have a chorus, which lifts it a bit, but it's still often not a tune.

When you go back to some of the older things way back into the medieval period and through the 16th, 18th Century, etc., you have an actual tune. And the point about a tune is that it's telling a story. It's going somewhere. And I am very anxious about worship songs which have deconstructed the tune—the idea of a tune—and that's the radical nature of post-modernity to deconstruct the narrative. That's where our culture is. But we ought to be discerning how to do fresh actual tunes, not sort of past issues, copying what was done in the 16th or 17th or 19th or whatever century, but actual refreshed new creation tunes rather than simply a scattering of random notes. You can feel the difference in the congregation when they're given a real tune to sing.

God's world is storied, you know. This is part of the point of Scripture. Scripture gives us a gigantic story and says, “Hey guys this is your story, live in it.” And if we don't have tunes, then we're not actually living in a story. We are merely playing from moment to moment with ideas that may make us feel good or may make us energized to do this or that or may not, but it's the story that carries the message.

I was in a meeting just the other day where there was a new worship song that we were introduced to and I was waiting for this thing to have a tune and it just didn't. And it's actually quite difficult to sing as a result. You can sort of mumble along with it and if the worship leaders are bashing it out, then it sounds good and it can have a powerful rhythm.

And okay a rhythm is a good thing too; picks up the notion of the heartbeat and you know this is a very deep part of who we are. We are rhythmic creatures as well as narratival creatures, but if there's no story then, how can you be kingdom people unless you're deeply inhabiting the story? …[I]f it's a well constructed service—[it] ought to have that sense of narrative closure through it and being energized by that narrative. So it's as much the form as in the detail content, though of course the detail content matters enormously as well.

FOCUS

on who God is.

• Fix our eyes on Him • Sing not because we feel secure but because His character is secure, unchanging and always faithful.

FOCUS

on who we are.

• People sustained by His promises • People called to respond differently, with courage not fear.

FOCUS

on the future glory awaiting us.

• Worship evangelism idea: people are interested now

more than ever in a hope not found in this world.

Things are being stripped away, comforts thrown out the window.

• Remind ourselves and our congregations each day of how sin has corrupted this world.

• Sweet reminder that this is not the end of the narrative.

This all segues with my personal story of the [recording] label approaching me in the midst of the hardest season of my life (my husband Martin dealing with a brain tumor, disabilities) and asking if I would write worship songs.

Though I struggled to see how I could write songs of praise in a season where I felt I was falling apart, they persisted that “what the church needs is songs that proclaim God’s goodness in the midst of the hard.” What they saw that I could not was that the trials I was walking through and the doubt I was struggling with were not disqualifying me from writing songs of worship—it was God’s unique way of equipping me.

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| WORSHIP LE ADER

23

CULTIVATING

SERVICE VSCELEBRITY

CALLING VSPROMOTION

BY M E R E D I T H A N D R E WS

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When I consistently elevate a platform or position over the very Presence of God, I have missed the point completely. Favor is for purpose, not for status.

A

few years ago I was leading worship at a conference in Southern California that was geared towards faithbased writers, bloggers, journalists and podcasters. It was one of the more difficult rooms I had been in at the time.

It was a typical—less than engaging—hotel ballroom crowd, positioned around large round tables, looking unamused. I learned a while back, however, that everyone is in their own process, and my responsibility is not to elicit a response from the people I’m serving. (Side note: it takes quite a bit of pressure off once we release ourselves from the burden of trying to stir up a certain response within a congregation. That is the Holy Spirit’s job.)

And in Mark 10:45 Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus Himself set the bar for every believer when He knelt to wash the feet of His disciples. He lived His life in a way that was characterized by servanthood and humility, not entitlement or celebrity. If Jesus, the Son of the Most High, set this example, why would I think my approach should be any different?

CORE VALUE: RELATIONSHIP

It was an unexpected but welcomed question as I am not one to shy away from deeper issues, and my initial answer was simply, “We as humans were not meant to carry the weight of celebrity.”

Within the narrative of our current culture there is a subliminal—or not so subliminal—belief system that one’s number of followers determines the level of influence and, dare I say, importance. Yet when we examine the way in which Jesus operated, we see quite the opposite picture. He was far less interested in curating content to increase followers than He was in making disciples.

To be honest, when it comes to the idea of “Christian celebrity”—be it authors, teachers, artists, influencers or worship leaders—I believe it’s time to check that concept at the door once and for all. When I consistently elevate a platform or position over the very Presence of God, I have missed the point completely. Favor is for purpose, not for status. Yes, with limitless music and books and videos and sermons at our disposal, the people creating this content will inevitably have a certain impact on us, and praise God for every person who points us back to Jesus whether directly or indirectly. The trouble comes when we idolize influencers over intimacy, identity and integrity, making fame rather than faithfulness the goal.

JESUS IS THE ANSWER

JOY IN HUMILITY

Many of us are familiar with the Philippians 2 passage that says,

Each of us has been entrusted with a type of platform whether it be in our homes, at work or school, online or on an actual stage. Our gifts are just that: gifts, designated to each of us uniquely and intentionally. Our calling is not about a career or climbing any ladders, and as followers of Jesus we have one objective: to please HIM (2 Cor 5:9; Gal 1:10; Col 1:10). We accomplish that through obedience and character, servanthood and surrender. Jesus is offering us a bowl and a towel. May we be willing to love and serve people when it is the opposite of glamorous, for only then will we discover the joy of exalting the only One who was ever meant to be famous.

UNEXPECTED QUESTION Back to the ballroom. During one of the sessions before we went into a time of worship, the emcee asked me a few questions on stage. Most were of the “getting to know you” nature, but the last question was one that I had never gotten before and went something like this: We often hear about celebrities who have abandoned their faith and values and have seemingly gone off the deep end, so to speak. With that in mind, what would you say to those who aspire to obtain a platform or gain followers and notoriety?

…[H]ave the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…

VERSES 5-7

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THE FUTURE FORETASTING

CONFRONTING OUR FOCUS ON THE HERE & NOW BY

C

hristians sing because we are people of hope. But what do we sing about when we sing about hope? In part of my doctoral research, I asked almost a thousand worship leaders to name a song that brought them hope in a time of despair and a song that brought their church hope. Combing through the responses to both of those question, nine songs rose to the top of the list of mentions. I’m not going to list the songs because the goal is not to critique a song. Instead, I’d like to share one observation that emerged: these songs of hope tended to focus on the present tense and the proximate space; they were fixated on the here and now.

If Christian hope is about resurrection and new creation, why are the songs we say bring hope preoccupied with the here and now? There are several possible explanations. The first and most innocuous one is that that it is the nature of Christian worship to focus on who God is rather than what God will do.

This does not negate an orientation toward the future; it may simply mean that confidence for the future is grounded in the unchanging nature of who God is. Praising God for who He is, as His character and nature are made manifest by his divine actions, is a longstanding Christian practice.

1

G L E N N

PAC K I A M

LOST IN TRANSITION Another possible explanation is that the lack of narrative in these songs of hope is part of a larger trend in contemporary worship songs and an even wider trend in culture. Comparing contemporary worship songs with historically significant American evangelical hymns, worship historian Lester Ruth observes a shift from a pilgrimage paradigm to an end-times paradigm. Discipleship is no longer “a long journey toward our final destiny” but rather a faithful waiting for the imminent return of Christ. This loss of narrative in contemporary worship songs must also be situated within wider cultural trends. Philosopher Charles Taylor, describing this new “secular age,” notes the loss of the “idea that God was planning a transformation of human beings which would take them beyond the limitations which inhere in their present condition.”1 Without a grand telos or an eschatological vision, the story humans narrate and inhabit is much smaller. Truncated salvation narratives encoded in contemporary worship songs are surely a product of this age.

But there is one more possible explanation. It is less comfortable to suggest or consider. And it is the one to which I want to give particular attention.

James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 26, 48-50. See Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2007).

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God by His Spirit can shake us free of the tyranny of the moment and loosen us from the bonds of our cultural lenses.

Worship is the means by which God confronts our short-sightedness and small-mindedness.

THE PERFECT PRESENT Focusing on the present tense is a luxury of the privileged.

Singing about the here and now is what you can do if you’re comfortable here and now. By looking at the geographic and economic contexts of the songwriters of these songs [of hope that I studied], it is reasonable to suggest that the “present” is relatively pain-free [or was before the current pandemic] for these worship songwriters. Now, I have no way of knowing the precise circumstances of these writers when they were writing these songs. They may have been experiencing personally trying times that provoked these songs of worship and trust. Nevertheless, our context affects the way we sing about hope. Is it possible that contemporary worship songs of hope can dwell on the present because life is good right now, for both songwriter and worshiper?

These songs stand in contrast with the slave spirituals. “The spiritual,” James Cone argues, “is the spirit of the people struggling to be free; it is their religion, their source of strength in a time of trouble. And if one does not know what trouble is, then the spiritual cannot be understood.” Cone insists that the “expectation of the future of God, grounded in the resurrec-

tion of Jesus . . . was the central theological focus of black religious experience.” In fact, it was because “the black slave was confident that God’s eschatological liberation would be fully revealed in Jesus’s Second Coming” that “he could sing songs of joy and happiness while living in bondage.” Cone continues by asserting that this “hope in a radically new future, defined solely by God the Liberator,” is manifest in spirituals through their language about place and time. 2 The spirituals are full of references to heaven, a place where “the oppressed would ‘lay down dat heavy load’”; “a place where slaves would put on their robes, take up their harps, and put on their shoes and wings.” It was a “home indeed, where slaves would sit down by Jesus, eat at the welcome table, sing and shout, because there would be nobody there to turn them out”; it was “God’s eschatological promise,” where there would be “no more sadness, no more sorrow, and no more hunger.” The time of hope was set in the future even as it inspired action in the present. Black slaves used an “apocalyptic imagination” to express their “anticipation of God’s new future.” Such imagery emphasized that the reality of God’s future could not be contained in our present. They “stressed the utter distinction between present and future.”3 This is why black eschatology

2

James Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues, 2nd ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992), 30, 42, 50, 52, 88.

3

Cone, Spirituals and the Blues, 86, 88-90.

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meant an affirmation of life after death. If the futurity of spirituals is clear because of a difficult present, it is plausible that contemporary songs of hope are fixated on the present because life is mostly good here and now.

When we sing songs written by others in contexts that are different from ours we come to see hope in a more robust way.

WORSHIP AND THE WORLD TO COME So, what do we do? If worship exposes the sickness of our obsession with a comfortable here and now, perhaps worship itself can be part of the cure. Revelation 7 gives us a glimpse into heavenly worship:

After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number.

They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language.

TAKING A BITE OF THE FUTURE But here’s the larger point about the scene in Revelation: it’s a worship service. Worship can be a way of foretasting the future.

This can happen not only as we experience the Spirit as God’s eschatological presence—the down payment of our inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22). It can happen as we allow our songs to reflect the global and historic church. When we pray well-worn words like the Lord’s Prayer, we think of Christians all around the world and all throughout history who have said those very phrases. We join the martyrs and the saints, the underground church and Christian refugees. When we sing songs written by others in contexts that are different from ours we come to see hope in a more robust way. We aren’t shaped solely by the perspective of the privileged or the context of the comfortable.

God by His Spirit can shake us free of the tyranny of the moment and loose us from the bonds of our cultural lenses.

Worship is the means by which God confronts our short-sightedness and small-mindedness. But this can only happen if we allow our worship to be shaped by the world to come. Recover a robust vision of Christian hope and you recover a worship that prepares us for resurrection and new creation. When “we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come,” we see a great multitude from every tribe and tongue praising the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Come, let us worship now as it will be then. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever more shall be, world without end. Amen.

REV. 7:9A, CEB

There are two things to note. First, bodies matter. How else does John see every “tribe, tongue, people, and nation”? The vision is not of heavenly souls or angelic beings, but of people.

Christians, after all, believe in the hope of bodily resurrection.

As the Nicene Creed declaries, “We look for the resurrection of the dead...” Until we recognize that bodies matter, we will not be able to think and act correctly about ethnicity and culture and gender. As long we keep being fixated on souls or a kind of escapist worship experience, we will miss that our differences are creation’s design and redemption’s aim. Which leads to the second observation…Differences don’t disappear in the new creation. When people from different families of origin and languages and geography and cultures are redeemed and brought together in Christ, a symphony of praise arises to God! In Christ, divisions are torn down, but distinctions remain.

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BY G L E N N PAC K I A M ASSOCIATE SENIOR PASTOR, NEW LIFE CHURCH Glenn is the Lead Pastor of New Life Downtown, a congregation of New Life Church.

How do the songs we sing both express hope and enable us to experience hope as Christians?

“A book that deserves careful reading by scholars and pastors, along with every worship leader charged with the holy task of leading the people of God in song.”

W. David O. Taylor, Fuller Theological Seminary

G L E N N PAC K I A M is the

associate senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is the songwriter of more than fifty worship songs, including “Your Name” and “Mystery of Faith,” and the author of several books, including Blessed Broken Given: How Your Story Becomes Sacred in the Hands of Jesus and Discover the Mystery of Faith: How Worship Shapes Believing.

shop ivpress.com

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PAINTING IN FULL SPECTRUM

THE COLORS WITH WHICH WE CHOOSE TO WORSHIP

In

1945, just prior to his prison execution, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a poem entitled, “Who Am I?” The poem offered an introspective look deep into the heart of one of the twentieth century’s famous Christian martyrs. Bonhoeffer’s words are unsettling. “Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?” Our human tendency is to subdue this gut-level honesty, unless we are affected by a cataclysmic event or deep personal loss. Otherwise, it is easier to cover up the inconsistencies between what we say we believe and how we actually live out those beliefs. In this article, we explore the alignment of our stated beliefs in our “sung theology” when we gather in our Christian communities.

BY

M I K E

TA P P E R

B R I T T

T E R RY

J AC O B

C L A P P

THE LENS This lyrical analysis of the 30 most commonly sung hymns and 30 most commonly sung contemporary worship songs (CWSs) between 2015 and 2019 is a constructive attempt to evaluate consistency in our common lyrics. Lyrical studies like this are not new. Bert Polman, Mark Evans, Robert Woods, Brian Walrath, David Tripp, Robin Parry, Lester Ruth, and John Witvliet have led the charge in this research. This study takes their work and asks, “How have we been doing since 2015?” If it is true Bible literacy and sermon retention is low in our churches, what do our lyrics tell us about how we view God, ourselves, and our world?

Before we can discuss findings and implications, it is important to state some qualifiers and limitations.

First, all of the research participants in this study love the Church. We do not have axes to grind; rather, our earnest desire is to love, edify, and support fellow songwriters and worship leaders—today’s theological gatekeepers. In our research, we have worked hard to challenge theological and cultural assumptions. When questions arose, we consistently sought to give songwriters the benefit of the doubt.

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Second, the songs in this study are not the only songs sung in our churches over the past five years, nor do they represent every church’s song selection. Instead, the songs in this study are a representative sample that, utilizing data obtained from Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) and hymnary.org, offers up some general lyrical trends.

Third, this is a study limited to lyrical analysis that does not take into consideration important evaluators like musical mood, dynamics, instrumentation, and, not least of all, inspiration.

While lyrical analysis is not an exclusive indicator, lyrics must mean something; otherwise, we would not use them. In fact, we are convinced that theological messages in lyrics actually have a more formative influence on us than we realize.

Lastly, this is not a defense or criticism of the use of hymns or CWSs. Our study actually indicates remarkable similarities between the lyrics in hymns and CWSs selected for use in our churches. This study is not our attempt to resuscitate the worship wars. Instead, our study seeks to provide a framework to evaluate our sung lyrics, to identify possible strengths and weaknesses, and to ask questions that seek to enrich our worship.

30 MOST COMMON HYMNS

30 MOST COMMON CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SONGS

IN DESCENDING ORDER

IN DESCENDING ORDER

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty | 1826, Heber

This is Amazing Grace | 2012, Jeremy Riddle, Farro, Wickham

Be Thou My Vision | 1905, Byrne

10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) | 2013, Myrin, Redman

Come, thou Fount of Every Blessing | 1758, Robinson

Lord I Need You | 2013, Nockels, Carson, Reeves, Stanfill, Maher

When Peace, Like a River | 1873, Spafford

Cornerstone | 2012, Mote, Liljero, Myrin, Morgan, Bradbury

O Come, O Come Emmanuel | 1851, Neale

Great Are You Lord | 2013, Leonard, Ingram, Jordan

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less | 1834, Mote

How Great Is Our God | 2004, Tomlin, Cash, Reeves

To God Be the Glory | 1875, Crosby

Holy Spirit | 2011, Torwalt & Torwalt

Amazing Grace | 1779, Newton

Good Good Father | 2015, Brown, Barrett

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling | 1747, Wesley

In Christ Alone | 2002, Getty, Townend

All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name | 1780, Perronet

What A Beautiful Name | 2016, Fielding, Ligertwood

What a Friend We Have in Jesus | 1855, Scriven

Our God | 2010, Tomlin, Reeves, Myrin, Redman

Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me | 1776, Toplady

The Lion And The Lamb | 2016, Brown, Johnson, Mooring

O for a Thousand Tongues | 1739, Wesley

Revelation Song | 2009, Jennie Lee Riddle

And Can it Be, that I Should Gain? | 1738, Wesley

Mighty To Save | 2006, Fielding, Morgan

Nothing but the Blood of Jesus | 1876, Lowry

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) |

O Come, All Ye Faithful | 1841, Wade

2013, Houston, Crocker, Ligthelm

Abide with Me: Fast Falls the Eventide | 1847, Lyte

One Thing Remains (Your Love Never Fails) |

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross | 1707, Watts

2010, Johnson, Black Gifford, Jeremy Riddle

Crown Him with Many Crowns | 1851, Bridges

O Come To The Altar | 2016, Brown, Brock, Furtick, Joye

How Great Thou Art | 1949, Hine

Blessed Be Your Name | 2002, Redman, Redman

The Old Rugged Cross | 1913, Bennard

Reckless Love | 2018, Culver, Asbury, Jackson

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah | 1745, Williams

Forever Reign | 2012, Ingram, Morgan

Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven | 1834, Lyte

Who You Say I Am | 2018, Fielding, Morgan

Be Still, My Soul | 1855, von Shlegel

No Longer Slaves | 2017, Johnson, Case, Helser

O Worship the King All Glorious Above | 1833, Grant

King Of My Heart | 2017, McMillan & McMillan

I Have Decided to Follow Jesus | 1950, Anonymous

Glorious Day | 2017, Ingram, Smith, Stanfill, Curran

Blessed Assurance | 1870, Crosby

Build My Life | 2018, Younker, Martin, Kaple, Redman, Barrett

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know | 1859, Warner

Here I Am To Worship | 2001, Hughes

Take My Life, and Let it Be | 1874, Havergal

Living Hope | 2018, Johnson, Wickham

Count Your Blessings | 1897, Atman Jr.

O Praise The Name (Anástasis) | 2015, Hastings, Ussher, Sampson

*confirmed by hymnary.org data

This I Believe (The Creed) | 2014, Fielding, Crocker Forever (We Sing Hallelujah) | 2019, Johnson, Black Gifford, Wilson, Johnson, Taylor, Jobe *confirmed by CCLI data

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VIEWS ABOUT GOD (WHO IS MISSING FROM THE PICTURE?) The ways we address God and express God’s actions in the lyrics we sing reveal important clues about how we understand the nature of God. The 30 hymns and 30 CWSs possess very similar patterns concerning divine naming and interaction between the divine persons of the Trinity. Study #1 reveals there are many more references to Jesus in our songs, fewer references to Father, and even fewer references to the Holy Spirit. Vague divine references (e.g. You, Your, God, He, and Him) round out divine titles.

On the one hand, it makes good sense why Jesus, our great high priest (Hebrews 4:14-16), would be at the center of most of these references. Arguing for less Jesus in our music seems ludicrous. Yet, it may be worth considering the impact of a sung theology in which almost all divine activities are channeled through Jesus or a vague God as the ultimate source and object of salvation and devotion. Might it be, Sunday after Sunday, this flattens out the unique roles of God, the Father, and God, the Holy Spirit?

273

30 HYMNS N = 401 64

56 8

434

FATHER SON SPIRIT VAGUE

128

30 CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SONGS

48

32 FATHER SON

N = 642

SPIRIT

1

VAGUE

DIVINE PRONOUNS IN 60 SONGS

TRENDS FOR BOTH HYMNS + CWSs HYMNS

DO THE SONGS NAME THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY?

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CWSs

FATHER

SON

i.e. Father, God, Lord, Almighty, His, Him

i.e. Jesus, Christ, Lord, King, Savior, Son, Lamb, Him, His

Moderately Absent • 16% in Hymns • 7% in CWSs

Most Common • 68% in Hymns • 68% in CWSs

HOLY SPIRIT

VAGUE

i.e. Spirit, Wisdom, Presence, You, Your

i.e. You, Your, God, He, Him

Largely Absent • 2% in Hymns • 5% in CWSs

2nd Most Common • 14% in Hymns • 20% in CWSs

hymns and CWSs reveal almost identical results. Few lyrical references emphasize God’s work in creation. Otherwise, the Old Testament narrative does not get much attention. From the New Testament, Christ’s redemptive work is our primary singing emphasis. References to God’s incarnational and eschatological activity also receive modest attention. Yet, a significant amount of our lyrical attention turns to God’s activity in service to a human object (e.g. “come to me,” “love me,” “give us,” etc.) Certainly, singing about God’s activity in relation to us has Scriptural precedence. The Psalms, for example, reflect this. But, if this sort of divine activity is overemphasized, it may suggest our lyrical theology is out of sync. How might identifying the fullness of God’s character, in both testaments, serve to enrich our worship?

DO WE DIMINISH THE CANVAS WHEN WE MISPLACE THE TRINITY? Study #2 considers whether there is evidence in our lyrics of the divine persons interacting with one another. Consistently, in both the hymns and CWSs, the answer is, almost none. If there is an imbalance in divine naming in the songs, it logically follows we rarely sing about God’s perichoretic beingin-communion.1 Ironically, there is a more consistent pattern of this divine relationality in the New Testament and early creeds than in our hymns and CWSs today. How might our understanding of God’s character be enriched if we sang more about the divine communion of the persons of the Trinity?

An evaluation of the actions of God is the focus of Study #3. This study reveals that the scope of God’s grand metanarrative of salvation history tends to be under-represented in the limited hymns and CWSs under review. Lyrics in both

1

Nancy Nethercott addressed this in Volume 29/Number 2, “Gathered to Be Sent.”

DIVINE RELATIONALITY IN 60 SONGS

2

0.4% 0.2%

HYMNS

Only three (3) in 732 lines show explicit relationship within the Godhead.

Only one (1) in 639 lines of lyrics show explicit relationship within the Godhead.

CWSs

DO THE SONGS ACKNOWLEDGE THE PERICHORETIC RELATIONSHIP WITHIN THE GODHEAD?

DIVINE ACTIONS IN 60 SONGS

THE STORY OF GOD IN HYMNS + CWSs 8

3 12

CREATION

0

0

FALL 14

1

OLD TESTAMENT 86

REDEMPTION

24

INCARNATION

29

17 22

ESCHATOLOGY 122

HYMNS

102

102

N = 283

VAGUE

96

N = 250

CWSs

VIEWS ABOUT US (WHO IS REALLY AT THE CENTER OF OUR WORSHIP?)

4

HUMAN PRONOUNS IN 60 SONGS A CUMULATIVE SUM TOTAL OF ALL HUMAN PRONOUNS 30 HYMNS

If the ancient maxim, lex orandi, lex credendi —basically, what we speak, pray, and sing is reflective of what we believe and live—holds true, then the way we paint ourselves as worshipers in the lyrics we sing may provide a revealing glimpse into our operational understanding of who we are and how we worship. Study #4, #5, and #6 offer strikingly similar results across common hymns and CWSs. As Study #4 shows, we are much more likely to use singular pronouns than plural or neutral pronouns. Does this expressed singularity represent a form of corporate-me, reflecting an implied solidarity with other Christian worshipers? Or, does it reflect a darker side of modernity’s preoccupation with the individualistic and fragmented self?

320 72%

PLURAL

71 16%

NEUTRAL

55 12%

N = 446

30 CWSs

DO THE SONGS EMPHASIZE HUMANS AS SINGULAR OR PLURAL BEINGS?

SINGULAR

SINGULAR

329 80%

PLURAL

74 18%

NEUTRAL

10 2%

N = 413

30 HYMNS

30 CWSs

Exclusively Singular

57% 50%

Predominantly Singluar

3% 27%

Exclusively Plural

17% 13%

Predominantly Plural

13% 7%

Neutral

10% 3%

ARE WE FULLY ILLUSTRATING— AND CONNECTING TO—HIS STORY? Study #5 examines human verbs in our most commonly sung songs. Fascinatingly, among all the verbs in the 60 songs, an almost identical list emerges across both music genres. This is quite astonishing considering the publication dates of the hymns and CWSs. Notably the four most common verbs (i.e. “sing,” “see,” “find,” and “let”) are those that literally describe the in-themoment experience of the worshiper within their immediate worship environment. While there is Scriptural precedence for this, verbs describing what we might expect of worshipers beyond the corporate worship context (e.g. remember what God has done in the past, disciple others, evangelize the world, serve people, etc.) are noticeably absent. Instead, these four recurring and representative verbs emphasize the activity of the worshiper precisely in the moment. How might lyrics that broaden the scope of the identified actions of Christian worshipers honor God and encourage us beyond the immediate worship experience?

HUMAN VERBS IN 60 SONGS

5

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WHAT ARE THE SONGS DESCRIBING HUMANS DOING TOGETHER VERBS

30 HYMNS

30 CWSs

Sing

10 11

See

11 5

Find

5 5

Let

5 4

Come

5 2

Stand

2 5

Rise

2 5

Praise

5 1

Prepositions, connected to divine names, are the focus of Study #6. It assesses the mediatorial essence of worship in our songs. The mediatorial doxology aligning worship to (or for) the Father, in (or with) Jesus Christ, and through (or by) the Holy Spirit is pursued. Appropriately, the hymns more consistently depict worship as directed to God, the Father. Otherwise, in both hymns and CWSs, Jesus assumes the predominant mediating role while the Holy Spirit is negligibly evidenced. Overall, the ancient doxological formula is difficult to identify in both genres of lyrics. What richness might we add to our worship if this sense of divine trinitarian participation clearly marked our songs and worship services?

6

DIVINE PREPOSITIONS IN 60 SONGS DIVINE PREPOSITIONS IN HYMNS N = 65

TO

FOR

WITH

IN

BY

THROUGH

TOTAL

First Person

14 0 3 5 0

0

22

Second Person

10 3 3 9 4

4

33

Third Person

0 0 0 0 0

0

0

Vague/Undefined

3 5 2 0 0

0

10

Hymns significantly express worship TO the Father Hymns do not express worship BY or THROUGH the Spirit

DIVINE PREPOSITIONS IN CWSs

DO THE SONGS REINFORCE HUMAN WORSHIP AS TO FATHER, IN CHRIST, THROUGH SPIRIT?

N =43

TO

FOR

WITH

IN

BY

THROUGH

TOTAL

First Person

1 0 1 0 1

0

Second Person

6 6 2 20 0

0 34

3

Third Person

0 0 0 2 1

1

4

Vague/Undefined

1 0 0 1 0

0

2

CWSs significantly express worship IN Christ CWSs do not significantly express worship TO the Father or BY the Spirit

VIEWS ABOUT THE WORLD (HOW DO WE HANDLE THE MEDIUMS OF TIME, SPACE, AND MATTER?) In a post-Enlightenment world, it is not unusual to observe strong dichotomies between time and timelessness and the material and metaphysical. Along these two continuums, where might the lyrics we sing be located? In Study #7, the verb tenses of the worshiper’s actions, in hymns and CWSs, show an overwhelming preference for a present tense, time-bound reality.

The past actions of the worshiper are of lesser importance. Only a modest number of songs are oriented toward future actions. Some may draw correlations between this data and our observed restless preoccupation with the time-bound “here and now.” How might our lyrics look if they thoroughly expressed a balanced theology of time as past, present, and future?

DO THE SONGS ACCENTUATE PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE TENSE?

7

HUMAN VERB TENSES IN 60 SONGS HYMNS PAST

CWSs PAST

14

23

PRESENT 260

PRESENT

FUTURE

FUTURE

57

N = 331

132 53

N = 208 COMMON TIME PREFERENCES

(for)ever(more) 11

never 8

now 6

(for)ever(more) 7

day 6

day 6

morning 3

now 5

never 3

night 3

hour 3

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Study #8 assesses material nouns (i.e. see, hear, smell, taste, or touch), abstract nouns (i.e. not perceived by the five senses), and anthropomorphized (divine) nouns (i.e. God as thinking, acting, being, and feeling as a human). It examines lyrical commonalities reflecting the physical and metaphysical world. This study reveals a slight preference toward material nouns. Astonishingly, similar results are observed across all three noun categories in both lyrical genres. In fact, the most common hymn and CWS nouns are almost identical. Among material nouns, we tend to sing about cross, song, world, day, and sun.

Among immaterial nouns, sin, love, grace, glory, praise, power, heart (metaphysical), heaven, and life gain our primary attention. When referencing God’s anthropomorphic characteristics, His blood and hands are both prioritized in hymns and CWSs. What other aspects of the physical and metaphysical world could be explored in song?

8

DO THE SONGS PRIORITIZE MATERIAL OR IMMATERIAL THINGS?

MATERIAL/ IMMATERIAL NOUNS IN 60 SONGS

HYMNS

*cross heart earth *day crown home *song *world *sun throne

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CWSs

9

13

8

8

7

7

7

6

6

6

6

6

5

6

5

6

5

5

5

5 5

darkness grave song* light world* cross* day* name eye sun* breath

IMMATERIAL NOUNS *sin *love *grace *glory *praise *power *heart *heaven *life angel soul

12

17

11

14

10

12

9

11

9

8

8

8

8

7

8

7

8

7

8

6

7

6

love* sin* heart* life* hope praise* death power* heaven* grace* glory*

DIVINE ANTHROPOMORPHISM

CONCLUSION (WHAT IF?) For good reason, the music we sing evokes some of our deepest passions. Sung lyrics are one of the primary ways many of us connect to God. To challenge this medium is to cut deeply.

For some, this article might raise dismissiveness, anger, or defensiveness; for others, it might switch a light on, or be an epiphany.

For a moment, let us briefly reflect on two illustrations: consider an artist constrained by one color or a musician limited by only partial chords or strings. Would we not want, for these gifted people, a fullness of color and an expanse of resources? This article is an invitation to reimagine the fullness, balance, and richness of our sung theology in worship. Together, let us humbly ask God to help us reveal Him in our songs and prayers. Let us eloquently and simply express what we believe and live our worship well.

MATERIAL NOUNS

*blood *hands voice feet

7

5

3

3

2

2

2

2 2

* common to both Hymns and CWSs

MIKE TAPPER Religion chair at Southern Wesleyan University.

BRITT TERRY Associate English professor at Southern Wesleyan University.

JACOB CLAPP Research assistant at Southern Wesleyan University.

blood* hands* heart arms embrace

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LEADERSHIP

LO NELY

S IT S

THE

CIT Y…”

M O R E

T H A N

M U S I C

“ H OW

W

ithout sugar-coating reality, the Bible carries about it an irrepressible hopefulness, a stubborn embrace of a sense that glory and goodness will finally prevail, no matter what. The ugliness of judgment is pregnant with the promise of redemption. Suffering does inspire the singer. Punishment prompts the poet. Nowhere is that more evident than in the book of Lamentations. At no time in our lifetimes has that been more needed than now in a time of pandemic.

How lonely sits the city that once was full of people LAMENTATIONS 1:1

This first chapter of the book of Lamentations is one of the most gruesome in all of Scripture. The “weeping prophet” Jeremiah (by tradition, the author of Lamentations) looks out

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over a city he loves, left desolate in the wake of the Babylonian destruction of 586 B.C.—like the ancient world’s version of a bombed-out Dresden or Hiroshima or Aleppo. Jeremiah imagines Judah/Jerusalem as though she had been bride to a husband, Yahweh, who now is dead to her: “How like a widow she has become.” Worse, she had given herself to false lovers who had failed to care for and protect her. And now she has been violated by despoilers (“she has seen the nations invade her sanctuary”), only to be promptly tossed aside (“her uncleanness was in her skirts”—Lamentations 1:9,10). It’s among the ugliest scenes Scripture ever describes. It’s nearly unbearable to read.

DEVASTATION PERFECTED However, the writer of Lamentations does what only a great artist can do: create haunting beauty from something grotesque. Thus, the book of Lamentations, one of the most artfully crafted series of poems in all of Scripture, provides some of the most exquisite language for carrying to God our anguish and grief over human suffering.

The Lord has become like an enemy…

LAMENTATIONS 2:5

In the first chapter, Lamentations portrays Jerusalem/ Judah violated & kicked to the side of the road. It is a pathetic, pitiable sight.

In the second chapter, Lamentations turns to a different subject: God. The picture is jarring. Yahweh has “bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe… he has poured out his fury … he has demolished without pity” (2:4,17). He “withdraws his right hand from” his people because of emotions that are difficult for us to accept: the Lord is angry, merciless, wrathful, burning like a flaming fire, furious, fiercely indignant, scornful. (See the cascading terms in verses 1-4, 6-7.)

UNFATHOMABLE FURY This is supposed to be the loving, rescuing, redeemer God, right? Instead, this sounds like the “fire and brimstone” God of caricature that keeps people away from church—like a cosmic Thanos, who has had his Infinity Gems taken away.

But … if God isn’t at war with that within us which is at odds with him, we are lost. The long story of redemption is one of God’s implacable enmity, not towards us, but towards the sin that destroys us. His rage at our sin can only be appeased by the bloody mess of Christ’s Cross.

The ugliness of judgment is pregnant with the promise of redemption.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases…

LAMENTATIONS 3:22

Lamentations frames all the ugliness within God’s irresistible plan to bring splendor out of it all. And so, the book of Lamentations imposes an elegant poetic grace on the ugliness of judgment, through the design of the verses. The book utilizes the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in an acrostic pattern to describe God’s fury at sin, as though to say that judgment runs from “A to Z.” Judgment has a beginning. But it also has an end.

GRACE MEETS GRIEF The climax of Lamentations occurs in its very center (often the case in Hebrew poetry), where we find this lightning bolt of grace: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end… Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone (Lam 3:22-33).

Words of comfort for God’s people back then, and for God’s people now as well.

Edith McNeill’s lovely and simple rendering of this verse in song has been with us since the 1960s: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” In a time when our society was convulsing with conflict over race, poverty, war and peace, God was bringing renewal to many churches like Edith’s Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) in Houston. And it was songs like hers that helped many see the beauty of Jesus and the power of God’s love in the midst of strife and hopelessness.

We live in another time of devastation and uncertainty. It’s in just such a time as this that songwriters and worship leaders thrive, drawing praise from parched souls. May the Lord give you courage to tell the paradoxical truth… and grace to create, like Jeremiah in Lamentations, beauty from ruin.

BY

D R .

R E G G I E

K I D D

Dr. Reggie Kidd joined Reformed Theological Seminary in 1990 and served as Professor of New Testament.

Dr. Kidd is an ordained priest in The Episcopal Church and has served as a pastor and elder at multiple churches.

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JOB BOARD

Worship Leader

Fleming Island, FL

PART TIME

Denver, CO

FULL TIME

Durham, NC

FULL TIME

Overland Park, KS

PART TIME

Fleming Island United Methodist Church Loving God, Loving Others, Sharing Christ

Worship Director Stapleton Church Helping People Follow Jesus

Director of Music & Worship Ministries Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church

Director of Worship Arts Knox Church Our family of faith serves our community and our world

The Worship Leader Job Board is a service of Worship Leader magazine. To view more job listings, visit www.jobs.worshipleader.com

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LEADERSHIP

THE

C RITICA L

CA LL

TO

re for m

wo rs h i p + s u n g p raye r

L O S T

&

M I S S I N G

P R AY E R S

re fo r m BY

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with everincreasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit 2 CORINTHIANS 3:18

W

orship is our response to God’s initiating and ongoing revelation and conversation. As we commune with the Father, behold the Son, and participate through the Spirit, we are transformed. Worship is in a sense discipleship. It is living in to the way of Jesus by the Spirit of Jesus. Far more than just songs or information, Worship lives where the realm of imagination, enactment and True and ultimate reality converge. So although on the surface

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A N D R E A

H U N T E R

when we speak of worship reformation, often it is about words and music, content and style, symbols and ritual, yet at the core it is about the Lord’s Prayer becoming embodied in our earth, the dust of our flesh, heaven come down, evidencing our deepest hopes.

HIM NOT US Sounds pretty elevated and mysterious and glorious and awesome and wonderful. And it is. Yet when we call for the sometimes gritty and controversial process of worship reformation, it can get messy. The good news as evidenced in revival history is God is always way ahead of us (See New Song: The Sound of Spiritual Awakening by Chuck Fromm). The ways we may interact with sung prayer in that process is manifold, sometimes a tiny word or note at a time and sometimes in larger sweeps of creativity and change. The end results are significant and can be life and culture changing.

m

EXPAND Worship Reformation can be just a matter of taking the ceiling off your thinking, of considering what’s lost and missing in your service of worship, looking at worship across time, Testaments, and traditions. Are you worshiping with all possible songs, themes and meanings for worship in Scripture? Are you worshiping with all parts of your humanity (Spirit, soul, heart, mind, body)? Are you worshiping from the rich treasury of the Church across time? Are you worshiping as Jesus worshiped? (See Constance Cherry’s recent book Worship Like Jesus: A Guide For Every Follower.)

As we explore worship and it’s many meanings, representations in Hebrew and Greek, its countless engagements, conversations, encounters with God across Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, each becomes a template for worship (see Oliphant Olds classic book Themes & Variations for a Christian Doxology). Scripture lives in us through prayer and meditation and we become living epistles, or in the words of N.T Wright in in his The Case For The Psalms, singing poems: Paul speaks of Christians as ‘God’s poem,’ God’s ‘artwork.’ We are his workmanship say some of the translations of Ephesians 2:10. The Greek words used there is poeima, the very word from which the English Word poem is derived. God gives us these poems, the Psalms as a gift in order that through our praying and singing of them, he may give us as a gift to his world. We are called to be living, breathing, singing poems.

To be invited by God to participate in the formation of a billion-person (or hopefully far more) choir of singing poems— pretty spectacular…and humbling. What an expansive, deep, wide, and rich world of worship we have opportunity to inhabit.

(Check out Calvin’s series The Church at Worship: Case Studies from Christian History for more on worship in the Church age.)

CULTIVATE YOUR IMAGINATION Celebration, prayers for me and mine, proclamation, praise, songs of intimacy and encouragement are high on “I want to” sing lists. Yet, what about sung prayers of intercession, imprecation, reviewing God’s actions in history, prophecy, communion, creedal declaration, parables and stories, repentance, forgiveness, justice, thanksgiving, offering, racial reconciliation, mercy, songs of lament, grief and sorrow, and connecting stories and symbolism across the whole of Scripture?

Lester Ruth has written extensively on the top songs we worship with and some of the themes he identifies as missing include intercession. He says, “If a song requests something from God, the request is overwhelmingly likely to be selfdirected, seeking something for those worshipers or invoking

divine presence; In these top songs, there is almost no intercession for others…” Lester also mentions “…there is very little confession of sin, failure, or fault and absolutely no laments of complaints or distress with God.” And the clincher is that there is a tendency to leave God the Father and Holy Spirit out, with Jesus as the main focus of sung prayer.1 As we seek to know more about the lost sung prayer available to us, its sounds, symbols, postures, fragrances, and patterns, we’ll be better able to extend the conversation to the lost of this world.

Missing sung prayer is that which is specifically and urgently needed right now in our communities and culture.

COLLABORATE Formation is a matter of focus and direction led by the Spirit: purposeful and revelatory. We’ve touched on the lost, forms that were sung in other eras, but now we turn to what is missing. MISSING sung prayer is that which is specifically and urgently needed RIGHT NOW in our communities and culture. These could be themes or perspectives that are represented in Scripture and Church life across history, even songs and past worship patterns that God is presently applying His highlighter to or a “new” song of biblical imagination that God wants to collaborate on with us. Inherent in this idea of lost and missing prayer is the belief that God is, as Robert Webber reminded us, “still speaking.” The question is have we created space and silence in our worship to facilitate hearing what He might be saying?

Worship Reformation of this kind can be seen presently as an emphasis in a number of songwriting worship retreats that have sprung up recently that emphasize missing themes in worship. In a fresh move of the Spirit, the burgeoning wave of retreats is about mission, not monetization. For the most part they are founded around a vision of supplying some part of the lost and missing songs to the global hymnal with lived-out as well as sung-out implications. The gatherings bring together theologians, artists, scholars, and writers across the generational, social, racial, cultural, experiential spectrum.

Lester Ruth, “A Full Diet of Prayer: Are We Over Singing Our Comfort Foods?”

Worship Leader 25, 4 (July/August 2016): 12-4. See Mike Tapper’s continuation of this work, page 31 1

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Wardell affirms the need for fresh vision in reforming worship, saying:

The Wesleyan Worship Project The Wesleyan Worship Project sprang from an initial retreat in 2017, and has continued yearly. At its heart is a desire to rediscover and refresh the best of past Wesleyan hymns and write new congregational worship that is a call to justice, compassion, mercy, holiness, and perfect love. Headed up by Josh Lavender and Trinity Wesleyan, it combines practiced writers, worship leaders, and those new composers who may be at the beginning of their vocational journey and have a call to write the lost and missing songs of the Church. Currently the retreats are bi-annual. A number of new songs have emerged from the retreats that are uniquely suited to the times we are experiencing. “What Love Is Like,” “Full of Your Glory”

There are many new worship songs written every year, but the subject material seems to be generally limited to categories of personal spiritual salvation or celebrating God’s goodness (which are great topics for songs). But when it comes to other areas of the Christian life—such as sanctification, vocation, longsuffering, peacemaking, mercy, or patience—there is an absence of worship resources.

Christmas Songwriting Retreat Christmas Songwriting Retreat is the joint collaboration of John Witvliet (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW), David Taylor (Fuller Seminary’s Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts), Lester Ruth (Duke Divinity School). Thus far retreats have convened in Grand Rapids, Nashville, and Houston. The purpose of the retreats is to generate new Christmas songs (texts and tunes) for congregational use. The goal with the first and subsequent retreats was “to take advantage of untapped resources in church history as well as underdeveloped themes in the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, etc. to produce congregational songs that give voice to the mystery of the Incarnation.” The songs emerging in the aftermath of the retreats are bringing refreshment, inspiration and comfort to congregations.

BALANCE

The Porter’s Gate Worship Project The Porter's Gate Worship Project, founded in 2017

by Isaac Wardell (Bifrost Artists) explores themes of community and welcoming the stranger. They describe themselves as “a sacred ecumenical arts collective reimagining and recreating worship that welcomes, reflects and impacts both the community and the church.” Their mission as a “porter” for the Christian Church—is to look “beyond church doors for guests to welcome.” Two retreats have yielded two albums: Work Songs, dealing with vocation as Christians and “celebrating the work God puts before us,” and Neighbor Songs 48 W O R S H I P L E A D E R | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | VO L . 29, N O. 3

So often we have songs that engage a particular part of us as Christians, which is fine, if in the process of worship, within a service, and services over time, the whole of Who God is, and the whole of who we are is included and invited into the prayer, the process. In more traditional liturgies, that appears to be built in. But what if we just get the sweet stuff, the me-centered stuff, the “God loves me, and he loves me and he loves me some more.” Or if we only focus on one person in the Trinity, or we end up in a cul de sac around Christ’s return or conversely, live only in the present. Then we will become distorted, misshapen spiritual beings. We can’t live on wedding cake, bridal songs of intimate love alone. God is dimensional, multifaceted; Marva Dawn elaborates on this in 2003’s How Shall We Worship?

Biblical Guidelines for the Worship Wars Many formerly powerful churches have fallen apart or have become seriously weakened either from snapping at the crooked places or from festering wounds that can’t be healed. For example, churches that use essentially narcissistic music, focused on self

rather than God, find it increasingly difficult to engage members in service and outreach. Churches whose music accentuates only the Holy Spirit, thus betraying deficient trinitarianism, often have an insufficient doctrine of confession and forgiveness and consequently find it difficult to deal with conflicts. The freedom of the Spirit must be matched with the discipline of the Truth— especially in contrast with, and resistance to, the world’s untruths.

The irony is If you continually write and sing songs where the arrow is pointed in the “I/me” direction, you won’t actually feel more loved, more secure, or more stable. The answer is to write and sing songs that paint a picture of God’s character, tell of His mighty acts and action in history, recite His creative, redemptive, attributes, love for all creation, and victory over the Powers of sin and death through the Cross. Scribe poetic yet concrete examples of God’s limitless power, justice, grace mercy and righteousness. When we put God at the center of the narrative it forms us in a Godward direction and gives us the humble confidence to live a life in Christ…and we are not alone. This sense of belonging is strengthened when we identify as “we” as much or more than a solitary “I/me.”

CORRECTION & CONFRONTATION When worship becomes too distorted, Worship reformation calls for confrontation or correction such as Paul and his letters to the Corinthians or Luther and the theses on the door at Wittenberg, or Jesus addressing certain of the seven churches in Revelation. If we find any aspect of our worship is devoid of biblical patterns and Truth, the only things we can do is repent and go another way. Although anemic unbalanced worship is grave, worship that distorts and bends the Truth is life threatening, and then what we need is not just an adjustment, but a delete and reset.

We have to go beyond just what we sing and preach to the symbols—intentional or inadvertent—that have become

associated with our worship. The posture and presence of the worshipers we see through the lens of a camera affect our investment and understanding of the “worship experience”…what the lens focuses on, and how. If it connects to existing patterns we associate with, say a concert, or a television show, we may tend to watch more than participate, and when we participate it can be as an audience, appreciating (or not) and evaluating, rather than inhabiting. People are part of God’s great creation and shouldn’t be erased from worship, but if symbols that point toward God and reflect the beauty and theme of the lyrics are interspersed with images of worshipers and those leading, if silent spaces are inserted for times of listening, If the worshipers in the congregation have active contributions to add, then we divide sacred time from ordinary time, and separate symbols of consumption with those of Holy worship.

FINALLY—ALL THINGS NEW Why is discovering the lost and missing sung prayer of the church so essential? Why is prayerfully collaborating with the Spirit in rediscovery, and new creation so vital to the life of the Church? Why is correcting misconceptions about God and His story in Scripture and time so important? At the heart of worship reformation is an unwavering belief that our worship in all its history, designs and patterns is formative, literally changes the way we relate and respond to God, people, God’s wider creation, the systems of the world we inhabit and the circumstances we face…Worship not only focuses us in love and conversation with our Triune God… and our neighbor, it also prepares us for our call, our vocation and to meet the inevitable… and the unexpected with faith and hope. In many ways worship is life and life is worship.

Unlike God, we don’t create the worship we sing out of nothing ex nihilo, but we draw on elements from our surrounding culture and from the past. Since the beginning of Creation, a new song has been sung and at pivotal points and times of

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revival, there is a qualitative and creative transformation in how worship is produced and expressed. We are in need of such a heavenly invasion now. The good news is God is all in and always will be, but worship is a relationship, so it’s time to start asking the hard questions.

Is our worship forming us into disciples who incarnate Christ in the world? Are our family, work and social relationships changed for the better through our worship? Do we live our lives in concert with the Holy Spirit, loving the least of these, being agents of God’s kingdom in small and hidden ways, full of grace, peace, joy, and freedom? Even more important than being ready to die for our faith; are we prepared to live and worship…wholeheartedly till Christ appears? Are we abiding in the King of Love and advancing His Kingdom?

The Church has a vast treasury of sung worship and also a limitless capacity for creating new expressions of worship.

Reforming worship, and writing, choosing and singing songs for our congregations that encourage, teach, and form Christ’s body… and reach out to those who do not yet know Him through song inspired by the Holy Spirit is a sacred call and an opportunity. Formation is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, yet we can be co-laborers with God in this process as sensitive to His leading, we shape our services of worship in Christ’s image… write new songs and also mine themes from Scripture and history that are absent or underrepresented in out services of worship to facilitate a deeper understanding and expression of Christ in our communities and in our world.

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S E L E C T

R E S O U R C E S

F O R

WO R S H I P

In what ways do you keep God the center of the narrative in the songs you write and sing?

Does the ways you produce your service and the sung prayer you choose create an audience or participants What is your service of worship in need of to create a balanced and living expression of faith that is formational? What is lost and missing?

Does your service have sermons, songs, symbols that reflect the whole of Scripture or just the parts you favor?

What does your individual congregation or tradition have to contribute to what’s lost and missing in worship for others?

What creates disciples and what might you change about the way you write, curate, and sing worship to foster formation?

How can your pastoral staff and teams work together to create a rich and balanced worship service that will form Christ in your community?

What kinds of songs will encourage your congregation in their life outside the sanctuary and help them be living sung prayers in their communities and vocations.

How can you create contexts where your community’s members can share and participate in the process of collaborating with the Holy Spirit and communicating psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, one to another?

How can you escape isomorphism (sameness) and reflect the amazing creative diversity of our God, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit in the songs you write, choose, and sing?

R E F O R M AT I O N

Songs in the Bible https://overviewbible.com/bible-songs/ Explore Chuck Fromm’s New Song: The Sound of Spiritual Awakening See Marva Dawn’s How Shall We Worship

Search the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship series The Church at Worship: Case Studies from Christian History (for more on worship in the Church age.)

Study Constance Cherry’s recent book Worship Like Jesus: A Guide For Every Follower See Lester Ruth's Flow: The Ancient Way to Do Contemporary Worship.

Read Oliphant Old's classic book Themes & Variations for a Christian Doxology Discover Robert Webber’s Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative Immerse Yourself in N.T Wright’s The Case For The Psalms

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BY

A N D R E A

H U N T E R

LBC is excited to host and partner with Atoma Worship Conference The Music, Worship & Performing Arts Department (MWPA) at Lancaster Bible College exists to honor God by developing highly skilled artists to influence culture with grace and truth. lbc.edu/music

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Leader Magazine in partnership with the Atoma Worship Conference. Join us for the Writing Worship Song Administration module with Holly Salazar on Friday, September 4 at 10:30AM. Limited spots available. Learn

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WORSHIP CONFERENCE Join worship leaders and church musicians from around the globe as we learn from world-class leaders on how to properly care for

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people-based worship ministries. Meredith Andrews, Paul Baloche, Outpour Worship and a host of other speakers, bands, and clinicians will provide insight into the things you’re wanting to learn!”

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LEADERSHIP TA L K TA B L E

WORSHIP REFORMATION The Sound of Spiritual Awakening in the COVID Crisis

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STRETCHED AND CHALLENGED

The idols of our normal rhythms and rituals have been taken from their altars, dashed to the ground and broken, and we have the opportunity to individually re-engage with God as our sole provider and sustainer and recognize that He is truly still and always on the throne.

W

hen Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-five Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, he made a declarative statement in an open letter to the world that the Church had drifted from what it was supposed to be doing, and demanded a serious revisit of its mission, priorities, and methodologies; the result was the Reformation, which did indeed have profound, lasting effects upon not only the Church but society as a whole.

ADVERSITY’S GIFT It seems that during this time of Coronavirus quarantine and social distancing, the Church and the world have been given an opportunity once more for just such a reset, to recognize new spiritual awakening in ourselves and our culture as a response to our truly desperate corporate need for God in our lives. The idols of our normal rhythms and rituals have been taken from their altars, dashed to the ground and broken, and we have the opportunity to individually re-engage with God as our sole provider and sustainer and recognize that He is truly still and always on the throne.

This time of worldwide pandemic response has required us all to come up with creative solutions to the challenges of ministering to not only fellow believers via online means, and is in the process forcing us to create new avenues of discipleship, evangelism, spiritual formation, personal connection and correspondence, and to establish new approaches to stewardship of time, talent and treasure.

REFLECTION AND REFORMATION Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther posed ninety-five questions to the Church at large, and I propose there are a few main questions we should be wrestling with in this time: How is God using this time of crisis to awaken us spiritually and rearrange our priorities?

How is God using this time to reform the way we worship Him? How is God using this time to change local churches for the better?

How is God using this time to change us for the better?

How can we each respond affirmatively to be found faithful with this opportunity?

May the Lord bless and keep us during this time of crisis, and may we each find ways to serve and love Jesus and others in increasingly creative ways that showcase the brilliantly endless variety of the imagination of our God who loves us and desires good for us.

BY

B R E N DA N

P R O U T

Brendan Prout is a husband, dad, pastor and worship leader in San Diego, CA. He loves training and equipping others to do the work of ministry they are called to, all things geeky, good food, cars, coffee, and not driving off cliffs anymore.

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MUSIC. S O N GWR I T IN G 2 0 2 0

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M A S T ER CL A S S

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5 6 6 0

T HE

P O DC AST

EPISODE 6 T H E

P OD C AST

MINISTERING TO THE HEARTS OF CHILDREN WITH ELLIE HOLCOMB LI S TE N

N OW

Fresh off the release of her second children’s book and accompanying album, Ellie shares some simple and yet powerful insights into leading kids to worship. This episode is concluded with an amazing live performance and, of course, a hilarious worship fail.

WATC H

N OW

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MUSIC

SON GWRITI N G

M A S T E R C L A S S // M AT T

R E D M A N

Q U E S T I O N T H E

Q U E S T I O N S

A N S W E R E D

W ITH

Has the way you lead worship changed over the years? | FROM PASTOR STEVE

He’s one of the most well-known and respected songwriters and worship leaders in the world.

And now, Matt Redman is sharing his hard-won wisdom with you! Read along as Matt helps tackle the intricacies of compelling song-writing and shares insight on maximizing your effectiveness as a leader within smaller contexts.

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T H E

A N S W E R

H

ey Pastor Steve, thanks so much for your question.

It’s definitely something I ask myself now and again.

I start off by asking: “What have I grown in through all these years of worship leading?” and vice versa: “What did I have back then that maybe I don’t have now?” These kinds of questions open up a big area for review, in my head and in my heart.

I’ve been leading worship for three decades. There was, perhaps, a simplicity in my approach all those years ago when I first started. Nothing was too complicated: there weren’t any big agendas, we didn’t record any music, and I definitely wasn’t in danger of overthinking anything. I guess it’s a little like David in the fields…before all of the battles and entrustments that lay ahead. I’m sure we all had a similar season, that moment when experience is perhaps lacking but we make up for it with passion and enthusiasm. It’s healthy for all of us to look back on those kinds of moments. For me personally, I find it such a helpful reminder of why I got into worship leading in the first place.

RELATIONAL AND SPONTANEOUS But back to your initial question, as I review my early years of worship leading, the thing I long to have rekindled is that simple, shepherd boy approach. It would often lead to spontaneity as I led—an openness now and again to interrupt my initial plan and follow a new thread—or underline something I felt God highlighting in the moment. Perhaps it was a prayer, or a song that suddenly came to mind. I loved those moments because they kept us from a sense of the predictable and spoke of encounter and relationship. In life, no conversation is ever fully scripted—there is ebb and flow—and perhaps our worship services could benefit from more of this approach too. Especially in these days of high production values in church, where so much is scripted and timed. I love when our worship leading makes it obvious that we are in an open-ended, dynamic conversation with the Living God. I’m not talking about chaos, or just unpredictability for the sake of it—but instead a worship leading approach that goes way beyond ritual and speaks of a sense of relationship too.

JOURNEYING TOGETHER So for me personally that’s one way in which my worship leading has shifted a bit over the years, and something worth pondering. But of course, there are more positive things too, areas in which I feel my approach has grown stronger. One

I love when our worship leading makes it obvious that we are in an open-ended, dynamic conversation with the Living God. of those is that how I lead now is shaped by more of a sense of journey and not just shaped by songs that happen to link well together because of their keys, tempos, or dynamics.

That can be an easy way to put a list together, and have it feel like it flows well. But there is a deeper pursuit: to look theologically and pastorally at aiming for a sense of journey.

We want to start together in one place, and end up together in another…and along the way there are some keys landmarks we must visit. (The prime example of course being the Cross of Christ.)

PASTORAL SENSITIVITY AND SKILL I also feel l have grown in approaching the service as a shepherd. I want to minister truth and hope to people, not just lead them in a list of songs. I never used to speak when I first led worship—I felt maybe I was interrupting the flow.

But there are moments now between songs —or mid song— where I will want to speak truth, or explain, or exhort, or encourage. I don’t launch into long monologues; but I do sense that I can’t communicate everything I need to by simply singing through a list of songs, and never speaking.

TENDING THE FIRE In the end, the key to leadership is to grow in our skills, but at the same time maintain a vibrant heart. Often we start out full of passion, but we are short on skills. But after that, the correlation in so many lives is that, yes, we gather more expertise …yet at the same time have become more jaded. The key is to grow in both vibrancy and our skill set.

A person with years of experience but who still leads with the same passion and exuberance as when they first started can be such a powerful minister. That is something I pray for, and long for.

You’ve got questions. He’s got answers.

ASK MATT

SO N G

D I S COV E RY

E X I ST S

SO N G S

TO

&

PR OV I D E

R ES O U R C ES

TH AT A D D R ES S

N E E DS

O F T H E

S U B M IT

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T H E

C H U R C H .

YO U R

S O N G

P L AY

N OW

N E W M U S I C F O R YO U R C H U R C H

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MUSIC

2020 SELECTIONS

S E L E C T I O N S

All I Need Citizens WRITTEN BY BRIAN EICHELBERGER AND ZACH BOLEN

Full of Your Glory Wesleyan Worship Project WRITTEN BY WESLEYAN WORSHIP PROJECT AND HEATHER HAITHCOCK

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"EVEN WHEN"

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S

ometimes the seasons of life, the attitudes and actions of those around us, even the personal position of our own hearts, can cause us to feel distant from the Lord. We can wonder if He still loves us and if we can rely on Him to see us through.

This year, 2020, has proven a very tumultuous year for people around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked fear, anguish, and insecurity for so many people, believers included. As we reel from the loss of life, we are also feeling overwhelmed with the economic fallout and idealogical divide facing America and other regions of the globe.

Where can we turn? How can we find reassurance?

Let This House Be Filled With Hallelujahs We Are Anthem WRITTEN BY JOSH FOX AND PAUL BALOCHE

Forever Amen The Union Chattanooga WRITTEN BY BENJAMIN SHAFER, DRAKEFORD LANIER AND MATTHEW MACAULAY

Worthy Are You Ascent Music WRITTEN BY GEORGE ROMANACCE, KEVIN WINEBARGER, AND DAVID FOURNIER

Give Thanks Asaph WRITTEN BY ASAPH

THROUGH THE DRY SEASON The song “Even When” by StoneBridge Worship was born during writer Bo Bryant’s personal dry season. Written long before this year’s turmoil, Bryant was still no stranger to feeling disconnected. He says, “When I started writing ‘Even When,’ I was in a bit of a dry season spiritually. I had desire for Jesus, but I was having a difficult time connecting with Him. During my personal time of worship, the chorus just started to pour out to the Lord. It was such a good reminder to me that I belong to Him no matter the season or circumstances.”

The Holy Spirit inspired him to pen these words...

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

W R I T T E N BY JA M I E M O U N T FO R D

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Take Heart Sarah Kroger WRITTEN BY SARAH KROGER

Higher Century Worship WRITTEN BY DANIEL ASHER & CENTURY WORSHIP

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by StoneBridge Worship VO L . 29, N O. 3 | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | W O R S H I P L E A D E R

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TECH + GEAR S P E A K I N G T E C H N I C A L LY

Technically Speaking— A

C R I T I C A L

L AT E S T TO O L S

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AT

T H E

N E E D -T O - K N OW O F

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T R A D E

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Lessons from the Empty Room.

other hand, a paid service must maintain uptime if revenue is to continue their way. We’ve also discovered the benefits of using multiple platforms simultaneously and thereby spreading the risk of a lost connection.

REACHING OUT STILL MATTERS

As

live streaming has taken on the primary role of communication and convergence in the local church, several iterations of progress have passed as milestones in our collective learning process. While typically churches started with just an iPhone and a single light, most have evolved through a series of production improvements focused on getting the image and sound consistently better.

To that end, there have been thousands of new interfaces, mics, processors, lighting fixtures, video cameras and switchers installed during the pandemic. With this new equipment in hand, how do we best use it to create seamless, immersive, compelling events designed to draw people to Christ? Here are some thoughts.

RE-LEARNING CONNECTION

Next, most of us have uncovered a sad truth: numbers don’t really mean anything. With provider metrics derived by dubious means, it falls to the church to discern who is watching and listening. Part of this effort can be online real-time commentary, but it should also include post-service follow-up on social media to garner comments and create interaction with the congregation. As pastoral staff, you still need to find ways to minister authentic encouragement, comfort, and connection.

While the band isn’t there to ask for more monitor and the congregation isn’t telling us it’s too loud, we now have to contend with CDN (Content Delivery Network) failures on a regular basis.

The tech crew and speaking pastors have now become accustomed to serving in an empty room. What was once foreign now feels familiar: donning masks and lathering up on sanitizer, keeping our distance in the tech booth by relegating lighting to an area outside its confines, and using the Plexiglass drum shield panels as sneeze guards between camera positions. However, we now recognize maintaining interpersonal connectivity in these situations is difficult. To countermand the problem, at First Baptist Atlanta we set aside twenty minutes after rehearsal and before service to meet in the dining area where, though socially distanced and one per table, we can see and hear each other for a brief devotional. These few minutes of coming together remind us of our interdependence when creating content for services.

Secondly, we have exchanged one set of issues for another.

While the band isn’t there to ask for “more monitor” and the congregation isn’t telling us “it’s too loud,” we now have to contend with CDN (Content Delivery Network) failures on a regular basis. As we have learned, since every church in the area goes live about the same time, the information highways become clogged rather quickly. What worked perfectly in the test at 9:00 fails miserably when the service begins at 10:00.

Part of our streaming evolution has been to understand you get what you pay for. A free service has no reason to strive for perfection because there is no downside to failure. On the

An email blast the following day is also a useful tool to keep relationship going and perhaps generate some questions for the next service as well.

CULTIVATE HUMOR AND GRACE And, we now know things go horribly awry because of the most insignificant issues. Everything from the one tech who meant to mute their phone, but accidentally turned it up to an unused intercom headset left on with com chatter now bleeding into the stream have occurred to many of us. A stray empty water bottle hidden from the naked eye somehow appears front and center on-camera while an air conditioning fan which has been quiet for the last ten years decides the sermon opening is the right time to fail with a piercing shriek announcing its departure. Rest in the knowledge it happens to all of us and isn’t nearly as big an issue as we consider it to be.

AMPLIFY ENCOURAGEMENT Speaking pastors who review their online sermons often comment how poorly their language control appears when the congregation is not there to reflect the moment. However, VO L . 29, N O. 3 | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | W O R S H I P L E A D E R

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TECH + GEAR T E C H N I C A L LY

S P E A K I N G

…we now know things go horribly awry because of the most insignificant issues.

even the most seasoned public speakers rely on the audience to reciprocate and speaking into the void currently serving as our service space is a challenge for anyone. One answer we have unearthed is to bring up the lights around the tech booth and allow those manning the controls to visually respond in a slightly exaggerated form. In other words, as techs let’s nod like bobble-heads to encourage the pastor.

If live music is part of your stream, take the time to accurately tune each instrument. A slightly off guitar is passable with a live audience, but will not pass muster on a steam. Also, take note of stance and position while on the platform as distraction takes many forms. For proof, simply look to any political rally and note the behavior of the people behind the politician They can make or break the event.

1

Maintain connectivity as a team with prayer and devotions after rehearsal and before service.

2

Use multiple platforms simultaneously minimizing the risk of a lost connection.

3

You’re on a learning curve; give yourself and others plenty of grace.

4

Crew, tech team, and those present, encourage speakers and musicians by responding in the most encouraging way possible.

5

Just as in live services, attention to detail pays off: cables, lights, camera, lead sheets, mics, water bottles, tuned instruments, etc.

6

Minimize erratic movements with hands and body, pacing, and posing.

7

Stay in touch with your congregation between services via email, FB, text, instagram, Zoom and old-fashioned phone calls.

NOTHING IS WASTED Finally, as we move toward reopening, cement the lessons learned by incorporating them into every service. Make it a practice to police the platform for unkempt cables, empty Starbucks cups and reams of sheet music on the piano lid. Since most churches plan to continue live steaming, the intimacy and urgency of the past two months will become a regular part of the service preparation from now on. Use newly honed networking skills to improve the experience in the kid’s area and for the seniors as well. Keep track of others in the local church community and provide assistance when needed.

A year ago, live event technologists were asking “what’s next.” Now that we know, let’s integrate it into a complete environment conducive to worship.

W R I T T E N BY K E N T M O R R I S

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ENCOURAGEMENT.

L E T T ER S

WI T H

LOV E

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ECOURAGEMENT

COME T H E

U P

H ERE:

S OUND

SPIR ITUA L DA R L E N E

AWA K E NI NG

Z S C H E C H

L E T T E R S

W I T H

L OV E

BY

OF

Hey friends, I’ve thought a lot about this term spiritual awakening‌ When we read Scripture we are reminded again and again to be awake and aware of the season we are living in and entrusted with, not to be lulled to sleep by comfort or fear (both can make you spiritually comatose). Rather to lean into what the Holy Spirit is doing in our midst and partner with Him as He leads.

To live like this is all the more urgent, for time is running out and you know it is a strategic hour in human history. It is time for us to wake up! For our full salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

ROMANS 13:11 (TPT)

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Worship will help lead you by the hand from fear to love, from impossible to possible, from asleep to awake…from fake to faith.

AWAKE SLEEPER

THE KEY TO THE THRONEROOM

I think we are all aware that our spiritual songs are resounding louder and louder and the glory of God is shining brighter and brighter, as it does when the earth gets darker and darker (Isa 60). The power of the worship of God is that it stands as a constant invitation to draw near to God. It is an invitation to “COME UP HERE,” to leave the worry and fear behind, to confront our sleepy stance, and literally awaken to the dramatic reality of the presence of God. Consider this glorious scene where the Spirit of the Lord is calling John up and into heaven’s glorious domain—the majesty of eternal glory before him, a throne, a King, and His Kingdom:

Yes, with Jesus, there is always a “Come up here” moment to be had. This is called FAITH, as we wait in HOPE, discovering that the newness we’ve been waiting for is in fact within us, the Holy Spirit leading us into all things new.

Truthful worship gives us the tools we need to push past all the distractions and noise going on around us, so that we may enter His gates… so that we may COME UP HERE. Coming up will ALWAYS REQUIRE FAITH, not FAKE. Fake cannot produce the miraculous, and fake cannot shake a mountain and throw it into the sea, and fake cannot heal a broken heart, and fake cannot rescue humanity from an eternity separated from God. OH BUT FAITH!! Yes, without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Heb 11:6), but with faith—even just the tiniest bit—all things are possible with Him. Worship will help lead you by the hand from fear to love, from impossible to possible, from asleep to awake…from fake to faith.

God Himself desired John to come up higher as He called him into a deeper dimension of the Spirit.

And I guess what I love, is that John just said “YES!” We become like the one we worship. Don’t allow or invite the things happening around you to cause you to draw back from God’s presence, or His purpose on your life. Live awake… “Come up here…”

I believe with all my heart that as we stay attentive to what God is doing, we too, will continue to see the miraculous outworked in and around our lives in ways we never even dreamed of.

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a [war] trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

At once I was in [special communication with] the Spirit; and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne.

REV 4:1-2 AMP

See the perfection of heavenly clarity, of God’s Holy worth, all in crystal clear detail. And here is the beauty of worship once more, heaven intersecting with and expressed here on earth …. as true worship is our invitation to COME UP. VO L . 29, N O. 3 | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | W O R S H I P L E A D E R

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