Scott Clayton offers encouragement from one worship leader at a church plant to another:

Keep going

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In case you didn’t know, that was written by Paul, a guy who had it way worse than you do, yet kept going. Paul didn’t always get kudos for his stellar church planting work, but he knew where his prize was. You don’t have to put your hope in your church being the next big thing in your city (And to be honest, if you want that, you’re asking for more than you know). Think about the influence Paul had on his churches. The only way he accomplishes that is through consistent, hard work. So be encouraged, your work is building a platform for the gospel to reach the nations. You’re a part of a much bigger plan.

You’re appreciated

Though they don’t always express it, your church family is so happy with you. Most likely, you’re one of the only ones with your talent in your church, so they’d be up a creek without you. You give your lead pastor so much support by biblically leading your church in musical worship. Partnership is church planting is so important, and you’re a huge partner to your lead guy.

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Brian Sigmon says worship in the Old Testament is more than bloody and fearful.

Be honest. You read that title and expected me to talk about sacrificing goats, didn’t you?

Before you start reminding me of Hosea 6:6 or Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice, hear me out. Because worship in the Old Testament is more than bloody and fearful. In fact, I think the Old Testament has a lot to say about worship, much of which can help guide church leaders seeking to reimagine worship for twenty-first century settings.

The Value of Holy Space

The ancient Hebrews had a deep understanding of holy space that is largely lost on modern minds. Put simply, in the Old Testament, God’s presence is more palpable in certain places than in others. The Old Testament contains various, sometimes competing traditions about where these holy places are, but it universally affirms that they exist. In these places, the lines between heaven and earth are blurred and a powerful encounter with God is possible.

God appeared to Israel’s ancestors at Shechem, Bethel, and Beer-sheba, among other places, and these became sites of worship. Jacob’s encounter at Bethel is particularly illuminating, because Jacob sees a vision of a staircase connecting heaven and earth (Genesis 28:10-22). Jacob recognizes that this place is an entryway between earth and heaven. He has stumbled onto God’s front porch, as it were, and names the place Bethel, House of God (verses 17-19).

Moses on Mount Sinai, Jean-Leon Gerome, 1895-1900
Something similar can be said of Mount Sinai, a holy place where Moses must remove his shoes (Exodus 3:5) and the Israelites must observe ritual boundaries (Exodus 19:9-15). Here, God descends upon the mountaintop and Moses goes up; God and Moses meet in the intersection between heaven and earth. When the Israelites leave Sinai, the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, become this holy space where earth and heaven meet.

Many innovations in worship are being driven by a desire to remove the lines between the holy and the profane, to carry the church’s worship into the world. In such efforts, worship can take place virtually anywhere: outdoors, in coffee shops, in private homes. But as boundaries between sacred and profane are eliminated, care must be taken so that God’s presence can still be felt. However it happens, worship must offer an occasion for our hearts to be lifted up from earth to heaven.

The witness of the Old Testament seems to be that worship should not happen just anywhere. Rather, care should be taken to seek out, recognize, and honor those places where God’s presence can be deeply felt.

As we reimagine worship in the twenty-first century, are we providing a space for heaven and earth to connect, a place for people to encounter God?

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Tim Challies says doctrine leads to worship:

I love doctrine. Doctrine is simply the teaching of God or the teaching about God—the body of knowledge that he reveals to us through the Bible. I guess I’m one of those geekly people who loves to learn a new word and the big idea behind it. But I hope I do not love doctrine for doctrine’s sake. Rather, I strive to be a person who loves doctrine for God’s sake.

Today I want to give you 6 great reasons to study doctrine.

DOCTRINE LEADS TO WORSHIP

Fifth, doctrine leads to worship. Doctrine is meant to amaze you with the sheer power and magnitude of God. It amazes you with the sheer sinfulness of mankind. It bewilders you with your own insignificance before God, and yet your sheer significance in his plan of redemption. It moves you with the incredible mercy of God as expressed in sending his Son to die for you. The more you know of God, the more you can worship God and the more you will want to worship God. What you learn of God should always motivate your worship. And again, the more you know of God, the warmer the heart behind your worship and the deeper the expression of your worship. It is at the end of his long theological reflection on God that Paul says, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways” (Romans 11:33). His knowledge of God led directly to worship of God.

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Dan Wilt offers in-ears tips:

Many churches these days have moved to IEMs (In-Ear Monitors) to reduce stage clutter, tighten up sound, and heighten musicality in the band. The sound and individual control of IEMs is fantastic, but it takes some getting used to – especially because the relational, community environment that is worship is very different from a straight performance. Gleaning from some great friends who have gone before us in the IEM world, here are 10 best practices for using IEMs in your worship environment.

It’s going to take time to get used to using IEMs, so decide now that, because you can’t go back, you’re going to keep getting better at using them. There are things to learn about how to wear them, how to keep the relational environment that is worship intact as you do, and how to create a monitor mix that works for you and the overall sound.

10 Best Practices For Using In-Ear Monitors In Worship – Musicians

1. Wear Them Correctly, And “Relationally.”

Take the time to learn how to wrap your IEMs around your ear, and insert them correctly so they stay well. If this hasn’t happened, you won’t hear well. Put cables down the back of your shirt, or at least around your back. The more obvious it is you are wearing headphones, the more clearly you send a message of disconnection (think of a teenager with their headphones in at a family gathering). Be as inobtrusive as possible. (For drummers, especially behind a shield, sometimes using isolating headphone with bigger ear muffs is not so bad. Heck, everyone knows you’re already isolated! But avoid that for the bass player, and everyone else.

[Remember – everything messages on a stage. Like a music stand raised high and between us and the community messages some level of disconnection, so too constant fiddling with our tech can message the same.]

2. Give Yourself Time To Get Used To Them.

Wear them around the house, and use them with your iPhone or Android. When possible, come in early to practice and fiddle with your mix based on some of the ideas here. Over time, using your in-ears will become easy.

3. Take A Few Minutes Before Rehearsal To Set Up Your Mix Correctly.

Take the time during sound check to set up your mix properly. Ask questions if you’re having difficulty. If you get them right from the outset, you’ll have less tweaking and fussing to contend with as you go, and your part in the music will sound better. It’s exactly like getting the gain-structure right as a sound engineer – if you don’t take the time to do it properly, you’ll be fighting the sound for the rest of the morning.

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Nick Law wonders when did we start assessing authenticity in worship based upon a style of music?

One morning, not long ago, whilst doing the usual scroll through Facebook in an attempt to shoehorn myself into a brand new autumnal day, I saw this caption accompanying a video for a worship project:

If you appreciate authentic worship with a living room feel, check out our latest project.

The video was of what appears to be a large American church with a worship team playing acoustic instruments, microphones and everything, on a large rug surrounded by worshippers in the round.

The thing that disturbed me the most wasn’t the hipsters, it wasn’t the cool exposed filament light bulbs hanging from the ceiling; it wasn’t even the music (which, to be fair, was pretty good), it was is this: since when did we start assessing authenticity in worship based upon a style of music?

PENNIES AND TIED UP SONS

Whilst people watching in the temple one day, Jesus observes a woman who, unlike the previous donors before, places a simple penny into the offering bowl. In a remarkable comment, Jesus says:

Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.

Similarly, when God asks of Abraham to do something deemed as utterly barbaric in order to test Him, Abraham ties up his only son – the one promised by the very God who is now required he make a sacrifice of him – and places him on an alter with the intention of sacrificing him to the LORD. As the axe comes down (for some reason I always imagine this with Bruce Willis playing Abraham and Joaquin Phoenix as Isaac!), the Angel of the Lord stops him just in time.

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Duke scholar Lester Ruth tweets interesting figures about CCLI songs.

Duke scholar Lester Ruth (someone whose work every worship leader should pay attention to) tweeted this interesting stat:

Continuing hymn/CCLI song comparison. Most frequent human verbs in hymns? “sin” and “see”; in CCLI songs? “sing” and “praise”

His sources for study involve, first, a look at the 70 most republished evangelical hymns up to 1860…so, material that many evangelical historians would classify as more “classic” hymns (as opposed to the “gospel hymn” era of post 1860 through the mid twentieth century). He is comparing these hymns to the lyrics of the 108 songs which ever appear on a CCLI top-25 list.

It is extremely hard to assess global data in a way that allows one to make accurate generalizations about shifts in the worship climate of evangelicalism, but I do believe that the kind of work Dr. Ruth is doing is getting closer toward something that allows for objectivity.

Let’s flesh this out. First, we’re talking about human verbs in worship songs, so this doesn’t include or observe divine action. This is from the vantage point of our action. Secondly, we are talking about the top songs in general rather than the entire sung corpus of any local church. Still, I think these stats give us some hooks to hang our thoughts on when it comes to what might appear to be some shifting theological emphases in evangelical worship.

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