Worship Matters - Part 6

I've come to the realization that I am never going to fully grasp what it means to worship God as He intends for us to worship Him, but I have to come a place of desiring for that issue to be all my life is about. The more I study what it means to worship God and how that effects how I live my life the more I am amazed at His glory and His majesty, the more I am amazed that He would seek me out to have a relationship with Him, and the more I am amazed that He would make a way for that relationship to happen by crushing His son on my behalf. Because of the cross I can now approach God and give Him the worship that He desires. It is joyfully frustrating that I can never fully know and understand it - though I will pursue that 'til the end of my days!
We met for the sixth time today to continue our journey together through Bob Kauflin's book - "Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God". We were able to finish the second section of the book, The Task, and move into the third section of the book, Healthy Tensions. We have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation that is taking place and continue to recommend this book to all that minister and lead as well as lay people. This book continues to challenge and inspire and seeks to help illuminate what we should be doing when we gather corporately to worship God. Below our my thoughts about what we discussed and this section of the book.

• Chapter 16 focuses on Cherishing God's Presence. We have continued to go back to the idea that we must fight against the christian culture and attitudes about worship that has grown up out of the latest "worship movement". People have begun to associate God's presence with singing, music, styles of worship, leaders, churches etc... We MUST begin to be intentional in our teaching and leading to instruct those we lead that music is not a spiritual talisman that we pull out when we want God's presence to "show up". God created music, like everything else, to be used to help drive us to a deeper knowledge and affection for who He is and to use it to glorify Him.
  
• The only thing that can bring us into the presence of God is Jesus Christ. He is now our great High Priest living and interceding for us in God's presence. Music and/or the worship leader is not our High Priest, it/he/she is not where we are to look to "bring" God's presence into the corporate gathering. Kauflin quotes Harold Best and I shall, also - "Christian musicians must be particularly cautious. They can create the impression that God is more present when music is being made than when it is not; that worship is more possible with music than without it; and that God might possibly depend on its presence before appearing." pg. 139
• In chapter 17 - TO LIVE FOR GOD'S GLORY - Kauflin states, "As we behold the Lord's glory, the Spirit of God is at work to transform us into the image of God's Son. This is one of the primary reasons we gather - to behold and be changed." pg. 143. So often we have so many other goals and/or expectations when we meet corporately. Our focus first and foremost should be on beholding God for who He is by exalting Jesus Christ and what He did for us through the power of the Holy Spirit - when a group of believers gather with that as their expectation LIFE CHANGE begins to take place. The christian life is lived with that as the starting point. Everything else flows and grows from there. If the people we lead can leave a service without feeling the call to change then our goal for gathering has not been attained.
  
• Kauflin goes on to state, "One reason we so often fail to be humbled by worship is that we focus on other things and end up obscuring God's glory." pg 144. We must worship with the cross and the gospel in constant view - no matter the topic or theme of the service - if it doesn't connect to the gospel we have not led well.
• The third section of the book focuses on what Kauflin labels HEALTHY TENSIONS. Healthy Tensions are things that appear to be contradictory at first glance, but, when explored, work together to paint a clearer picture of who God is and how we need to engage with Him. He also notes that most churches tend to lean towards one of the tensions, that he describes, or another. We usually gravitate to what our personal feelings or preferences dictate - which ultimately begins to draw an image of God that is not found in the Bible - or what is commonly called idolatry. Issues about what kind of music to sing, how formal or informal should we be, is it going to be meticulously planned or free and spontaneous - these are the tensions that need to be addressed. Kauflin lays out 3 guiding principles in preparing an order of service. - 1. Do what God clearly commands, 2. Don't do what God forbids, 3. Use scriptural wisdom for everything else. pg. 155
• The first tension addressed is in Chapter 19 - Transcendent and Immanent. God is to be feared - He is holy, awesome, majestic, righteous - One whose glory no eye can look upon - He is NOT like us. And yet - through the incarnation - He has become like us and through the cross we can now draw near to Him. He is not some far off God that is to be worshipped from a distance - no, we can gather around His throne and fall down at His feet and, and not only is He near to us - He DWELLS in us, as believers. This God of gods and King of kings now lives inside of us. The quote that sums up how this works in a corporate worship setting was from Charles Spurgeon - "I can admire the solemn and stately language of worship that recognizes the greatness of God, but it will not warm my heart or express my soul until it has also blended therewith the joyful nearness of that perfect love that casts out fear and ventures to speak with our Father in heaven as a child speaks with its father on earth. My brother, no veil remains." pg. 163

Think worship! It cannot be approached lightly and thrown together. The entirety of the service must be thought through from beginning to end and upon ending must then be evaluated to see where it fell short of accomplishing its task and where it succeeded in hitting its mark. Leaders must prayerfully prepare to lead. They must work hard at understanding why they are singing certain songs, why they are praying certain prayers, why they are using certain media and how it all ties together to make much of God! God has called us to lead His people to worship Him and to instruct them on how He is to be engaged - do not approach this lightly. Continue to deepen your own understanding of God through worship by reading His word and reading others that are wiser and more experienced than you. We do all of this so that when we meet together to lead others we are building a worshipping community that is built upon God's word and not the traditions and preferences of men. Will we always get it right? No. Will we always have room for improvement? Yes. But we press on until that day when we are all gathered around His throne with believers from ages past - from every tribe, tongue and nation - and we will worship together perfectly around His throne for we will see Him as He is! Lord, come quickly!

Book Review - Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship - David Peterson

What am I here for? Why am I walking around this planet? What is the meaning of life? What is my purpose for being here? The way a person answers these questions has dramatic ramifications on the way they choose to live their lives. By the grace of God and the illumination provided by his Spirit, Christians have to come understand that the reason we were created was to worship God and enjoy Him forever. With that being said - the question that naturally arises is - HOW do I worship God and enjoy Him forever. The issue of how to worship God has been debated vigorously since the Church's inception. Modern Christianity has associated worshipping God with meetings, buildings and styles of music. The question we must ask ourselves is - are we worshipping God as He wants to be worshipped? We are not in a position of authority to declare the correct way to approach God and give Him the worship that He alone deserves. We are in a position of humility and servitude - and that requires that we seek out how the One we are worshipping wants to be worshipped. How we desire to worship God is secondary to how He prescribes for us to worship Him. As in every other aspect of life - we must become biblically informed in how we worship God. God has revealed Himself to us in the scriptures and He has revealed how He is to be approached - it is our duty, then, to seek out what He says is the correct way to worship Him. David Peterson does an excellent job of taking a snapshot of worship in the Bible from beginning to end and puts forth a well constructed biblical theology of worship in his book "Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship". I would highly recommend this book to all believers as a way of truly understanding what it means to not only worship God corporately, but how our relationship with God effects change in every other area of our lives. This book is not for the light reader. Peterson digs deep into original texts and language and breaks down that language in the context and culture for which it was intended and then draws meaningful conclusions to the modern believer. Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 were the most useful to me and that is only because the first six chapters lay the foundation for understanding the content in those chapters. I came away convicted and challenged as God revealed areas in my life that I continue to struggle to bring Him glory with and I came away inspired to pursue Him more passionately because of what He has done to provide a way for me to approach Him and give Him worship in the first place. Put this on your list of must reads if you are pastor or corporate worship leader. Below are my "TOP 10" quotes from the book that served me well.

• "The fact some worship in the Old Testament was regarded as offensive to God (e.g. Gn. 4:3-7; Ex. 32; Is. 1), is a reminder that what is impressive or seems or appropriate to us may be offensive to him." pg. 17
• "Worship in the New Testament is a comprehensive category describing the Christian's total existence. It is coextensive with the faith-response wherever and whenever that response is elicited. Consequently, 'our traditional understanding of worship as restricted to the cultic gathering of the congregation at a designated time and place for rite and proclamation will no longer do. This is not what the New Testament means by worship." pg. 18-19
• "Again and again, the Old Testament makes the point that the Holy One can be approached only in the way that he himself stipulates and makes possible." - pg. 35
• "With one eye on the past and what Jesus has done for us, we need to express our gratitude to God for his grace towards us and reach out together to experience afresh the forgiveness and restoration he has promised us. With another eye on the future and what it will mean for us to share with Christ in his coming kingdom, we need to encourage one another in this hope and to learn what it means to live as the redeemed community in the present." pg. 130
• "Preaching about Christ must be at the heart of a Christian theology of worship. As in the Old Testament, the word of the Lord is central to a genuine encounter with God. Those who are concerned about God-honouring worship will be concerned about the proclamation of the gospel, in the world and in the church, in public teaching and private dialogue. If worship is an engagement with God on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he alone makes possible, preaching Christ is a key to that engagement." pg. 144
• "Formality and informality are not theological categories. Yet sometimes people imply that formality in church services is somehow more conducive to acceptable worship than informality. Others argue that informality is preferable because it allows for greater expression of biblical teaching about the congregation as the body of Christ. Formality may be the expression of a very narrow and inadequate view of worship and informality may be an excuse for lack of preparation or any serious attempt to engage collectively with God. " pg. 160
• "When Christians become preoccupied with the notion of offering God acceptable worship in a congregational context and thus with the minutiae of church services, they need to be reminded that Paul's focus was on the service of everyday life." pg. 187
• "Although the conversion of an unbeliever in the course of a church service is much to be desired, however, evangelism is not the primary purpose of the gathering, according to 1 Corinthians 14." pg. 195
• In Hebrews it is clear that the blood or death of Jesus is what actually removes sin and makes it possible for sinners to draw near to God. Yet is is because he offered himself as a perfectly obedient and unblemished sacrifice to God that His death has atoning significance. The perfection of his sacrifice makes it possible for him to enter heaven itself, 'now to appear for us in God's presence.' " pg. 229-230
• "Fundamentally, then, worship in the New Testament means believing the gospel and responding with one's whole life and being to the person and work of God's son, in the power of the Holy Spirit." pg. 286
• "...they must come to grips with the New Testament perspective that acceptable worship is an engagement with God, through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit - a Christ-centered, gospel-serving, life-orientation." pg. 293