Journal,
"Sooner or later, all praise and thanksgiving, all that we preach, sing and pray must come to the court of truth." Saliers. Today we must ask ourselves, why do our services of worship not ring true to some people, even ones who regularly attend church. It would be easy for us to blow this off by saying something I have heard all too often, "we can't please everybody all the time." I think this is just a weak copout. We are commanded to "worship in spirit and in TRUTH." There are two kinds of truth in worship. Truth about God, and truth about ourselves. In the tradition I am a part of, we usually do really well on the first, and fall quite short on the latter.
"Christian liturgy" Saliers says, "is first and last praising, adoring, and thanking God in, with, and through Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit." Sometimes however, we hide behind our praise and thanks rather than being radically honest to God with our lives. "Acknowledging God involves encountering the truth about the human story." This means that we must admit to our humanness in order to come before God truthfully in worship. This is vital for worship ministers and liturgists, "We come to the truth when [and only when] liturgy comes to its senses.
As in all of the Christian life, we must use Jesus as our model of truth telling. He spoke the truth boldly, but out of love, and sometimes showed his righteous anger. Dishonesty will distort our prayers and our praise. Jesus spoke to his Father in complete truth. When He was in the garden He told His Father, "let this cup pass from me." He was crying out to God out of truth saying, I don't want to do this! but if it is your will, then I will."
There are three practical ways we can come to truth in our worship services: lamentation, confession, and testimony.
There are very few occasions I ever remember lamentation in worship services, but I remember often feeling deep pain and sorrow, and us singing nothing but praise songs. Needless to say my heart was not in it. There are very few songs that express lament. One of the few I can think of is a newer one by Matt and Beth Redman, "Blessed Be Your Name." Saliers says, "our avoidance of lament has a strange result, it opens a great gulf between our liturgies and our lives." As I said before, this has been true so often with me.
Confession has also been mostly avoided in many traditions. Redemptive confession is not wallowing in guilt, moaning about how terrible you are. Confession can be extremely liberating when expressed by telling God and the Church what holds you bondage.
Testimony then, is when a person shares their story about the bondage that once held them captive but how they have received the Grace of God and how it set them free from the chains of sin and death.
"Unless we overcome our reluctance to share our faith experiences honestly in lament, confession, and testimony our Sunday gatherings will remain routine," and lack truth. "So we must be about stretching ourselves to bring the ancient and contemporary forms to life, and to bring all our life's experience to the God of truth." Then we will be able to worship God in both Truth.
Jordan
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Worship Come to Its Senses: Part Three
Journal,
As was the last reflection on "awe" in worship this may be quite site (church) specific. Some worship services I have been a part of where filled with delight and joy, others seemed almost dead. However, most of the worship services I have been a part of had a kind of strange mix of emotions, varying from person to person. Of course my judgment on this is based on what I see and hear physically from people, which can only measure so much, but is typically a pretty good measuring tool.
Maybe all to often we feel an obligation to worship. We must "go to worship" because our friends or family will give us a hard time if we don't. Or we must go because "thats what the Bible says." Or I have even heard, we must go because "God needs our worship." (YA RIGHT! like the Creator of the Universe really needs our approval) When we start to ask these questions have we lost a sense of sheer delight in God?
The Israelites had a kind of marriage to God. I'll save you all the love-obligation metaphors, because I'm sure you've heard them all but this is at the heart of biblical worship. Saliers says, "We are to praise and bless God even when we don't feel like it, only to discover, in doing so, that God is our first love and the wellspring of all enjoyment... What we adore and revere we praise and delight in."
Saliers suggests that the chief end of man, or the purpose for which we were created is "to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." If we don't have this in our worship services, where else will we find it? We must remember that our very existence is a gift freely given.
Don't get me wrong, you can't always be happy. Over half of the Psalms were written in lament. Saliers says, "no one can sustain delight-taking all the time, at lease in the sense of being on a natural high. To live attentively and intensely is also to suffer." I have had many seasons in my life where I was very much a "winter Christian" as Dr. Beck a Psychology professor at ACU says. These were seasons of darkness in not understanding God and why life and ministry can be so difficult, but it is in these times that I grew immensely. Saliers talks about short lived pleasures like a child winning a prize at a fair, and the brief "joy" that the child feels. "Part of growing up is learning to tell the difference between the childish delights of good luck and the deeper, longer lasting enjoyments of something well done or of a love cultivated over time." This is the kind of love we have for our Father, and should be the delight that we express in worship in both the seasons of "winter" and "summer." This is why the Apostle Paul writes, Rejoice always... give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) because he had "learned the secret to being content in all circumstances." God is not asking us to thank Him for pain, but asking us to give thanks for the Love of God in all circumstances.
Jordan
As was the last reflection on "awe" in worship this may be quite site (church) specific. Some worship services I have been a part of where filled with delight and joy, others seemed almost dead. However, most of the worship services I have been a part of had a kind of strange mix of emotions, varying from person to person. Of course my judgment on this is based on what I see and hear physically from people, which can only measure so much, but is typically a pretty good measuring tool.
Maybe all to often we feel an obligation to worship. We must "go to worship" because our friends or family will give us a hard time if we don't. Or we must go because "thats what the Bible says." Or I have even heard, we must go because "God needs our worship." (YA RIGHT! like the Creator of the Universe really needs our approval) When we start to ask these questions have we lost a sense of sheer delight in God?
The Israelites had a kind of marriage to God. I'll save you all the love-obligation metaphors, because I'm sure you've heard them all but this is at the heart of biblical worship. Saliers says, "We are to praise and bless God even when we don't feel like it, only to discover, in doing so, that God is our first love and the wellspring of all enjoyment... What we adore and revere we praise and delight in."
Saliers suggests that the chief end of man, or the purpose for which we were created is "to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." If we don't have this in our worship services, where else will we find it? We must remember that our very existence is a gift freely given.
Don't get me wrong, you can't always be happy. Over half of the Psalms were written in lament. Saliers says, "no one can sustain delight-taking all the time, at lease in the sense of being on a natural high. To live attentively and intensely is also to suffer." I have had many seasons in my life where I was very much a "winter Christian" as Dr. Beck a Psychology professor at ACU says. These were seasons of darkness in not understanding God and why life and ministry can be so difficult, but it is in these times that I grew immensely. Saliers talks about short lived pleasures like a child winning a prize at a fair, and the brief "joy" that the child feels. "Part of growing up is learning to tell the difference between the childish delights of good luck and the deeper, longer lasting enjoyments of something well done or of a love cultivated over time." This is the kind of love we have for our Father, and should be the delight that we express in worship in both the seasons of "winter" and "summer." This is why the Apostle Paul writes, Rejoice always... give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) because he had "learned the secret to being content in all circumstances." God is not asking us to thank Him for pain, but asking us to give thanks for the Love of God in all circumstances.
Jordan
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Worship Come to Its Senses: Part Two
Journal,
Whatever happened to awe? It's a question I ask often, because over the past semester I have seen a huge need for this sense of awe. I have had many struggles in different worship services. Sometimes I struggle with apathy, boredom, and being over critical in worship. But to be honest, awe is something I rarely struggle with. Sadly I can't attribute this to very many of the Church worship services I've been a part of. I developed a sense of awe from a few sources. A few Don Saliers also talks about like: nature, reading and hearing about the vastness of the universe and the limits of humans, and in the birth of my baby niece.
I feel like far too often we lose this sense of being in awe of the presence of God in our worship services. I have to speak on this from a strange stance, through conversations I've had. I have to speak from this rather than personal experience, because God has been radically showing me His presence in so many ways over the past year. But being involved in the lives of so many people on campus and at Southern Hills, I constantly talk to people who don't feel anything and haven't been able to grasp even a glimpse of the Grandeur of God. They want to badly, but they haven't seen it yet.
We have some pretty awesome encounters with God in Scripture: the burning bush, the crossing of the Red Sea, the mount of transfiguration, and the vision of a new Jerusalem. Saliers says, "unless we bring to the speaking, the singing, the praying, and the meal our sense of life and death, the liturgies will remain 'churchy.'" and the mystery of God will not be shown.
So how do we do this? Saliers says there are but five ways to accomplish that (which is pretty lame to limit it to five ways, but here are his ways).
1) Reawaken a view of the grandeur and intricacy of the natural world. One practical way to do this is on a retreat. Spend a good portion of the retreat outside and it will bring a great rhythm to the weekend.
2) Expose them to a current knowledge of the vastness of the universe and the limits of our own perspectives. This has been especially formative for me. I especially remember Louie Giglio's keynote at a Chris Tomlin concert, on his "How Great is Our God" tour. Wow! Did we ever get a picture of the BIG God we serve!
3) A Funeral Service. The whole church can grieve and celebrate their friends and loved ones in the face of the mystery of our mortality.
4) The joy of a newborn baby. This helps us to see the extraordinary grace of God. And the awesome being it must take to make life from nothing.
5) Healing services. "For the heart of Christian worship is the promise that Jesus Christ stands in our midst, ready to receive us, to heal and give blessing.
I would add one more HUGE one that had been extremely formative to me. The Eucharist. I have been so amazed at God on many occasions when I take of the Lord's Supper. I am awestruck that I along with saints from across the globe and across time can all come together at the table and eat and drink our Lord Jesus Christ. We must bring back a sense of awe to our time together at the table.
When we get back this sense of awe, "this is when we learn again to offer our lives, all we have an all we are, in adoration of God." This is true worship.
Jordan
Whatever happened to awe? It's a question I ask often, because over the past semester I have seen a huge need for this sense of awe. I have had many struggles in different worship services. Sometimes I struggle with apathy, boredom, and being over critical in worship. But to be honest, awe is something I rarely struggle with. Sadly I can't attribute this to very many of the Church worship services I've been a part of. I developed a sense of awe from a few sources. A few Don Saliers also talks about like: nature, reading and hearing about the vastness of the universe and the limits of humans, and in the birth of my baby niece.
I feel like far too often we lose this sense of being in awe of the presence of God in our worship services. I have to speak on this from a strange stance, through conversations I've had. I have to speak from this rather than personal experience, because God has been radically showing me His presence in so many ways over the past year. But being involved in the lives of so many people on campus and at Southern Hills, I constantly talk to people who don't feel anything and haven't been able to grasp even a glimpse of the Grandeur of God. They want to badly, but they haven't seen it yet.
We have some pretty awesome encounters with God in Scripture: the burning bush, the crossing of the Red Sea, the mount of transfiguration, and the vision of a new Jerusalem. Saliers says, "unless we bring to the speaking, the singing, the praying, and the meal our sense of life and death, the liturgies will remain 'churchy.'" and the mystery of God will not be shown.
So how do we do this? Saliers says there are but five ways to accomplish that (which is pretty lame to limit it to five ways, but here are his ways).
1) Reawaken a view of the grandeur and intricacy of the natural world. One practical way to do this is on a retreat. Spend a good portion of the retreat outside and it will bring a great rhythm to the weekend.
2) Expose them to a current knowledge of the vastness of the universe and the limits of our own perspectives. This has been especially formative for me. I especially remember Louie Giglio's keynote at a Chris Tomlin concert, on his "How Great is Our God" tour. Wow! Did we ever get a picture of the BIG God we serve!
3) A Funeral Service. The whole church can grieve and celebrate their friends and loved ones in the face of the mystery of our mortality.
4) The joy of a newborn baby. This helps us to see the extraordinary grace of God. And the awesome being it must take to make life from nothing.
5) Healing services. "For the heart of Christian worship is the promise that Jesus Christ stands in our midst, ready to receive us, to heal and give blessing.
I would add one more HUGE one that had been extremely formative to me. The Eucharist. I have been so amazed at God on many occasions when I take of the Lord's Supper. I am awestruck that I along with saints from across the globe and across time can all come together at the table and eat and drink our Lord Jesus Christ. We must bring back a sense of awe to our time together at the table.
When we get back this sense of awe, "this is when we learn again to offer our lives, all we have an all we are, in adoration of God." This is true worship.
Jordan
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Worship Come to Its Senses: Part One
I'm reading a short book called "Worship Come to Its Senses" by Don Saliers and I'll be writing a five part journal over the next few days about it and posting it here. So I hope you enjoy...
Journal,
After reading the intro to Worship Come to its Senses, I am pretty excited about the book. It is apparent that Don Saliers and I share some of the same frustrations with modern American Christian Worship. And according to Saliers, its time to “Come to [our] senses about this.”
Saliers says that "this book is an invitation to think again about how and why we worship God, and to awaken our hearts and minds to a fresh perspective." This is what excites me. I am very passionate about worship and I feel like this is going to be the book that I shout "AMEN" at throughout the book.
He brings a good point in saying, "To see ourselves from another point of vies, and to discern what keeps us from flourishing, requires questions from the outside." So often we only ask people on the inside about why we can't reach the outside though our worship. Maybe we should ask the outside. I will be very interested to hear more about what he has to say on this subject.
Saliers also says, "After the past quarter-century's wide spread effort at liturgical reform there is a deeper hunger for a renewed connection between liturgy and life, between common prayer and ministry... many people today are yearning for a truly evangelical and sacramental liturgy." One of the main things I took from my Christian Worship class is how meaningful liturgy written specifically to your congregation can be powerfully life changing to the members of your Church.
I really like that he is going to talk about the senses in worship and how engaging in all of them can be powerful. He says, "Christian worship is physically, socially, and culturally embodied."
This should be an exciting journey to see how worship in the life of the Church can once again "Come to Its Senses."
Until then,
Jordan
Journal,
After reading the intro to Worship Come to its Senses, I am pretty excited about the book. It is apparent that Don Saliers and I share some of the same frustrations with modern American Christian Worship. And according to Saliers, its time to “Come to [our] senses about this.”
Saliers says that "this book is an invitation to think again about how and why we worship God, and to awaken our hearts and minds to a fresh perspective." This is what excites me. I am very passionate about worship and I feel like this is going to be the book that I shout "AMEN" at throughout the book.
He brings a good point in saying, "To see ourselves from another point of vies, and to discern what keeps us from flourishing, requires questions from the outside." So often we only ask people on the inside about why we can't reach the outside though our worship. Maybe we should ask the outside. I will be very interested to hear more about what he has to say on this subject.
Saliers also says, "After the past quarter-century's wide spread effort at liturgical reform there is a deeper hunger for a renewed connection between liturgy and life, between common prayer and ministry... many people today are yearning for a truly evangelical and sacramental liturgy." One of the main things I took from my Christian Worship class is how meaningful liturgy written specifically to your congregation can be powerfully life changing to the members of your Church.
I really like that he is going to talk about the senses in worship and how engaging in all of them can be powerful. He says, "Christian worship is physically, socially, and culturally embodied."
This should be an exciting journey to see how worship in the life of the Church can once again "Come to Its Senses."
Until then,
Jordan
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Order of Worship
I have decided that from time to time I will post an order of worship that I have planned under the leadership of the Spirit for the people God has placed me in leadership for. (I say it that way because I lead a few different groups of people, anything from my LIFE Group of about 18 to the people at Southern Hills of about 500 at our Wednesday night service to ACU chapel of about 4000). I'll let you know the context of the people and place each time, because this is a huge factor in planning worship. I want to post these so that you can use them or use parts of them in planning meaningful experiences in worship, or to inspire you to write your own liturgies as well. I pray that these will help create space for God to transform hearts.
The orders of worship I will post will typically (but not always because some contexts are not conducive for this) follow this basic outline because I believe this is they way the Lord has called me to lead worship.
-Gather- The first thing we do in worship is come together as the Body of Christ
-Confess- Next we must confess that we are human and therefore imperfect.
-Praise- Because Jesus gives us Salvation and freedom from our imperfectness we must give Him praise.
-Word- Next we move into a time with the Word or preaching to hear God speak to us
-Table- This is the climax of Christian worship. It must be connected to the Word. The table is what brings us together as a people and is the supreme symbol of the presence of God among His people. It is at the table that we have direct communion with the Divine and with His people.
-Offering/Sending- Here we offer our lives as a sacrifice to the living God and go out into the world to be Kingdom agents.
This first order of worship is for my LIFE Group. My LIFE Group consists of about 18 college students from ACU and Cisco. We have met weekly over the past semester and have had discussion over the Gospel of Luke. Tonight is our last meeting for the semester and ends our discussion in Luke. This is a service of worship centered around the cross.
Gather
• “We come here together with wondering minds, because we have so much on them. Thoughts of papers, projects, and finals. Some of us are making decisions that will change the rest of our lives and searching for God’s will in those decisions. Others of us are just trying to make it past finals week. But amidst all of these thoughts we set aside this time be still… together as a community of faith, and celebrate Immanuel, God with us.”
• Play O Come, O Come Immanuel while writing confession
Confess
• (Write on a note card your confession to God and put it in the box)
• “As we come together we confess that we are a people unworthy of Immanuel. We try to contemplate how it could be that such a love could be possible that the Great Creator would come to earth and become human, and freely die for shameful men and women like us. And so we confess that we are undeserving.”
• Why Did My Savior Come to Earth? (vs. 1&2)
Praise
• “We have asked ourselves and each other why we are worthy of Immanuel. And yet we still have no answer. But none the less we have still been freely given the gift of “God with us.“ And so the only response we can think of is to give Him the praise He so richly deserves.”
• He is Lifted Up
• He is Exalted
• O Come Let Us Adore Him
Word
• Luke 23:26 - 24:12
Table
• “People of God, we come to the table after a semester long conversation about the life of Jesus Christ. And tonight we have heard from the Word of Truth, how He willingly offered Himself to the Roman executioners and gave His body, and His blood, so that we, like the criminal on the cross may be with Him in paradise.”
• Thank you Lord for your body, the Bread of Life…
• Thank you Lord for your blood, the Cup of Salvation…
Offering
• “It’s been said, “it is better to give than to receive.” And so as we fellowship here together and as we go home to our families at the end of this week we give you the offering of our lives, acknowledging that it could never match up to your Great Gift.”
It should also be noted that this was around Christmas time. I think these songs could be used year round, but they are usually labeled Christmas Songs.
The orders of worship I will post will typically (but not always because some contexts are not conducive for this) follow this basic outline because I believe this is they way the Lord has called me to lead worship.
-Gather- The first thing we do in worship is come together as the Body of Christ
-Confess- Next we must confess that we are human and therefore imperfect.
-Praise- Because Jesus gives us Salvation and freedom from our imperfectness we must give Him praise.
-Word- Next we move into a time with the Word or preaching to hear God speak to us
-Table- This is the climax of Christian worship. It must be connected to the Word. The table is what brings us together as a people and is the supreme symbol of the presence of God among His people. It is at the table that we have direct communion with the Divine and with His people.
-Offering/Sending- Here we offer our lives as a sacrifice to the living God and go out into the world to be Kingdom agents.
This first order of worship is for my LIFE Group. My LIFE Group consists of about 18 college students from ACU and Cisco. We have met weekly over the past semester and have had discussion over the Gospel of Luke. Tonight is our last meeting for the semester and ends our discussion in Luke. This is a service of worship centered around the cross.
Gather
• “We come here together with wondering minds, because we have so much on them. Thoughts of papers, projects, and finals. Some of us are making decisions that will change the rest of our lives and searching for God’s will in those decisions. Others of us are just trying to make it past finals week. But amidst all of these thoughts we set aside this time be still… together as a community of faith, and celebrate Immanuel, God with us.”
• Play O Come, O Come Immanuel while writing confession
Confess
• (Write on a note card your confession to God and put it in the box)
• “As we come together we confess that we are a people unworthy of Immanuel. We try to contemplate how it could be that such a love could be possible that the Great Creator would come to earth and become human, and freely die for shameful men and women like us. And so we confess that we are undeserving.”
• Why Did My Savior Come to Earth? (vs. 1&2)
Praise
• “We have asked ourselves and each other why we are worthy of Immanuel. And yet we still have no answer. But none the less we have still been freely given the gift of “God with us.“ And so the only response we can think of is to give Him the praise He so richly deserves.”
• He is Lifted Up
• He is Exalted
• O Come Let Us Adore Him
Word
• Luke 23:26 - 24:12
Table
• “People of God, we come to the table after a semester long conversation about the life of Jesus Christ. And tonight we have heard from the Word of Truth, how He willingly offered Himself to the Roman executioners and gave His body, and His blood, so that we, like the criminal on the cross may be with Him in paradise.”
• Thank you Lord for your body, the Bread of Life…
• Thank you Lord for your blood, the Cup of Salvation…
Offering
• “It’s been said, “it is better to give than to receive.” And so as we fellowship here together and as we go home to our families at the end of this week we give you the offering of our lives, acknowledging that it could never match up to your Great Gift.”
It should also be noted that this was around Christmas time. I think these songs could be used year round, but they are usually labeled Christmas Songs.
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