This is a question that I have been asking myself for sometime now. I obviously haven’t come up with the answer yet and so I’m posing this question to all of you. What do you think comes first, worship or community? It will probably help if I explain myself a little bit.

When I speak of worship, I am speaking in the corporate sense. We are obviously called and designed to worship the Father. People worship all types of things, if you don’t believe me, find a story in the early Old Testament. But I’m talking about the concept of worshiping with other people. Coming together in worship and prayer and song and the Word. All of these things. Is this the thing to come first, or is it the community?

I’m speaking of people choosing to come together for the cause of loving Christ. Churches. Prayer Groups. Bible Studies. Family dinners. Cookouts. You know, living life together. There’s something about worshiping with people that you KNOW. I mean, as a worship leader it’s par for the course to spend some time leading worship for people you don’t know in churches you’ve only driven by or in towns you’ve never heard of. But you can’t beat coming home to worship with friends and family and fellow church members. You have relationships with these people. You have lived life with them. That makes the time a little bit sweeter.

So after laying both of the sides out, which one comes first? Can you do one without the other? How much does one filter into the other for you? The floor is now yours.

Yesterday I was having a conversation with my father about his latest trip to the middle of the heartland, Center, MO. He was preaching a revival there over the past 4 days. As always, him and my mom come back with tons of stories about the trip and the services. He started to tell me about a guy there that really surprised him. He is 23 years old and seems to be a really solid Christian leader already, and has the possibility to do some amazing things as he continues to grow. One of the things that my dad thought was really cool was his choice of songs during one of the nights where he led worship. He said that out of the 5 songs they sang that night, three of them were straight hymns. Not even the new modified kinds (like My Chains are Gone or The Wonderful Cross). It was the actual “let’s sing all 5 verses of this one” hymns. He thought it was amazing. Even more amazing was the fact that the church, which happened to be filled with college students from HLG, were singing right along knowing the words as if they were around when the song first came out.

Sunday night while meeting with a group of worship leaders we were talking about how it seems that some people are maybe moving away from some of the things that we tend to rely on or hold to in today’s worship culture. And it seems that some of the younger people are leading that charge. There seems to be a shift starting that is moving away from a lot of the production and moving to some more “organic”, “grassroots” type approaches.

Both of these conversations started me to thinking. Sometimes that can be a scary situation, but I don’t think it is THIS time. Anyway, here’s the question(s) of the day. Is there really a worship music shelf life? And what makes the timeless classics so timeless? And if every time we have some sort of revelation we go back to these classics, why do we keep leaving them in the first place?

It seems that people may be asking these questions without actually asking these questions. Or maybe they are asking these questions and I just haven’t heard anything about it yet. For me, it seems like worship music has a shelf life. They can be in a heavy rotation and eventually get to the point where they aren’t as effective because people get tired of hearing them. Or do they? I tend to think that sometimes it’s the musicians and the people playing the music that get to the saturation point of a song before a congregation will. So who’s creating this shelf life? Well, before I take that tangent, I believe I just figured out what question will fuel tomorrow’s post. Anyway… whenever there seems to be some sort of reawakening or shift from the norm, it always appears to be centered around the hymns from the past. Then we find some sort of way to reintroduce them to a new generation of listeners. It had happened before this, but in 2003 there seemed to be another big push when Passion came out with their Hymns Ancient and Modern CD. A lot of the hymn arrangements we sing today came from that CD. A lot of the hymn arrangements that have been made today have been birthed from that CD project. There was a return to the classics. It now seems that another turn is coming, but even in a more…primitive(?) way than before. Groups like Mumford & Sons and some others are making the banjo cool again to the point that people are using them in everything. There aren’t many acoustic/electric banjos out there (or maybe there are now), so they cause you to take more of an unplugged approach to worship. So it seems like we are wrapped in the forming of a new circle yet again.

So why is it that we keep running away from the classics, only to come back to them after we get tired of whatever is out at the time? Could it be that we aren’t satisfied with what we are putting out? Or is it more of going back for inspiration? In the never-ending search for truth, is it possible that we realize that our musical truths have been there all along? Are we using the truths in the words of those old songs to provide us with the energy and foundation to write new songs? I think it should. I hope it is. Whatever it is, it can’t be denied that it seems like we may be in the midst of another worship genre turn. I wonder what that’s going to look like? What will my worship sets look like in 3 years? Well, if I’m still writing in that time, I’ll be posting those set lists.

What do you think about these questions? Do you see this? Has it been this way for awhile and I’m just now seeing/saying something about it?

How do you measure success? Well, a lot of the time it depends on who you are and what you do. Athletes determine success by wins and championships. Lawyers by cases won. Doctors by lives saved. Businesses by the bottom line. Worship leaders define success in a few different ways. I thought I would have some fun and list them for you.

1. No one really says anything to you after the service.

2. You didn’t get the “What in the world is he singing???” face.

3. No one got up and walked out during the songs.

4. You didn’t have to completely stop a song and start it over because the band was playing in different keys.

5. The lady that sits in the fourth row looking completely disinterested actually raises her hands (to her waist) during the songs.

6. The sound guy still wants to go to lunch with you after the service.

7. The youth group thinks you’re lame because you aren’t singing that new song from that new group that hasn’t been discovered by the mainstream people and they don’t even have a CD out yet because they are really only practicing in the garage but they will make it someday and we will all forget about Third Day because they will be so much better their first new song which is just a remake of Hosanna by Hillsong with all emo chords because that’s where the real worship is.

8. The older people think that the worship that we sing on a regular basis is not even real music because it isn’t taken straight from the scripture and it doesn’t tell a whole story but just repeats the chorus over and over again and uses guitars and doesn’t say Thee or Plight or Shalt or any of those fun words and the music isn’t challenging even though they would also complain that some hymns were too hard to sing because of their range but that’s not the point and you probably don’t even know any of the good hymns that they grew up listening to and they leave with a headache because the speakers were too loud for their ears.

9. The pastor just tells you to keep doing what you’re doing because whatever it is seems to be working.

10. All of these things happen in the same day to the point that it isn’t until after the service that someone in the front row lets you know that you led the whole service with your fly open.

These are 10 things that speak success in worship leading on a regular basis. Are there any others that you can think of? Let’s hear what you got.

I spend lots of time reading articles and blogs and talking to people about where contemporary worship is today. Everyone has their own opinions and I don’t know if anyone that I’ve talked to shares opinions of any kind. But I guess that’s people for you… Anyway, it seems that we have gotten disgruntled with where contemporary worship music stands today. Some people think that it’s all lame and don’t listen to it at all. Some people are mad because the music sounds like something someone else has already done. Hymn enthusiasts young and old think that contemporary music is theologically thin.

So the question today is pretty simple. Do you think that contemporary music can ever climb out of the enormous hole that it has been placed in? It seems like no matter what contemporary worship music writers do, they can’t seem to win. It’s either not original or too lame to listen to. I come from the angle that it has it’s place in the church and in the hearts of the people of Christ. I also know that there is a whole city of people here in St. Louis who love contemporary music because there is an awesome radio station dedicated to just that and they are reaching people left and right. So I know that it fits in a certain place, but will the genre as a whole ever be able to do something to make it back to a level playing field? That’s my question for today. What say you?

¹⁹ and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:19-20

I read Paul’s prayer here at the end of his letter to Ephesus and it brings simultaneous confidence, conviction and awe. We look at the life that Paul led up to and through his conversion and see him as a hero to the faith. We read all that he wrote and believe that he was totally brilliant, which he was. That’s why this prayer is so cool and also why it shakes me when I read it. This man who dedicated his life to defending the faith says to the Ephesians that he is proclaiming the mystery of the gospel. You would think that someone like him would have figured it all out, right? I mean, this is the man that wrote Romans. A book that we have since dissected to the core and still don’t get completely. So my question today is this: what makes us think that we can figure out God and how he works?

Last week in Bible study at the church we talked about how difficult it is to share gospel with someone because of the difficulty in getting someone to realize that they need a savior. One of the reasons that difficulty is alive is because sometimes we don’t act or live as if we need a savior ourselves. We get take on this air of having it all figured out and we have to fix those people who are broken. I think it’s obvious that most people are opting to stay broken rather than dealing with the flawed people who think they aren’t flawed.

I also see how this may flow into our worship as well. When we think we have it all figured out, there’s no more mystery. There’s no more awe. Sure, we talk about how awesome God is and how we are “filled with wonder, awestruck wonder at the mention of Your name”, but have those just become another set of words? My son has decided that he is deathly afraid of all our friends’ animals. Granted, our best friends have a coon hound that would eat him in two bites, but that’s beside the point. My son will be playing along, minding his own business, but when Trooper comes barking at whatever, the wind, a shadow, squirrel, Jack Russell Terrier, my son finds his way into my arms kicking and screaming. At that point I’m all that he needs and he grabs on tight and won’t let go.

We have taken that approach with Christ. We think that we have it all figured out until something happens that we don’t think we can handle. Then we strike out running full speed to God for protection. We know that the protection is there, but we don’t really worry about it until trouble comes. We don’t read His Word they way we should. We don’t talk to Him the way we should. We forget that the gospel is a continuous mystery that we will not understand until this life is over. That mystery should be enough to keep us running straight to the cross in reverence and awe. Instead, we meander over by where the cross kinda might be out of duty and schedule keeping. Because we got it all figured out…I think…wait…

Have you ever seen the “Like Mike” Gatorade commercial? It’s from the early nineties when Michael Jordan had taken the world by storm. There’s all these little kids trying to do some of his signature moves on courts in their driveways and at various parks while this song “If I could be like Mike” was playing in the background.

Check out the Gatorade Commercial if you’ve never seen it.

I don’t know the specifics, but I’m positive that the sales for Gatorade, basketballs and garage hung basketball goals when up significantly during this time. They portray this guy who does extraordinary things on the basketball court and at the same time makes it look easy enough to make us think that we can do it as well. Even better, we are told to believe that the only thing missing from our lives is Gatorade. I bet the other numbers that really jumped was the enrollment in youth basketball leagues and high school tryouts. Everyone was told that they have the ability to do what the great Michael Jordan does. So everyone tried. There were some pretty good players. There were a bunch more that never made the cut. There were some that were playing with 2 left feet, a knee brace and an eye patch. But everyone tried. We felt empowered to do so.

Flash forward and switch genres. This smiling Texas boy starts writing songs and they are catchy enough. Then the Christian world gets a hold of them and now you can’t find a church on a Sunday morning that isn’t singing at least one of his songs. He plays four chords, writes what seems to be some pretty simple words, throws in a catchy hook and we’re all singing and praising God. Before too long someone decides, “If Chris Tomlin can write 52 songs in 47 minutes, so can I. None of his songs are that difficult, I bet I could do that too. He’s only playing 4 chords. It can’t be THAT hard to learn to play guitar!” Then youth group kids begin to flood Guitar Center, spending their allowances on a $2500 Taylor or Martin guitar when they barely know the difference between major and minor.

Why am I writing this one today? Well it’s sort of a follow up from yesterday’s post about creativity. Granted, I’m not blaming Chris Tomlin for anything, so don’t go and tweet him and tell him that I think he’s the problem with churches today. That’s not what I’m saying. What I AM saying is this: when someone is so good at something that they make it look easy, everyone starts to believe that they can do it as well. Now there are all of these imitators, or even better, people who think they are going to one up one of the most influential songwriters in contemporary Christian music today. The major problem comes when these kids step into our church and show minimal at best talent, and then they are throw up front and now they are leading worship for the youth and then maybe they get a shot in the main service. Some of them are the ones with talent that end up going pretty far in the game. Some of them are decent and with a little coaching could be pretty good. Some of them are playing with two left feet, a knee brace and an eye patch. But in the church we have let them all flow through. It has lowered the quality level of the music in our churches and somewhere along the line we just became okay with that.

Again, before you start beating me up, I know that this doesn’t apply to everyone. Some churches just don’t have a lot of talented people in them. Right now, in my own church, I can’t seem to find a guitar player to save my life! Even though what I just said is true in most churches, it is not the case in my own. So I spend most of my time trying to find someone to play guitar with me and I end up more times than not just going without one. So I understand that this may not apply to your church. And if you’re getting super mad about this one, I may be talking about you. Just saying…

At some point I believe that we have to find ways to allow people to use their creativity in ways that bring glory to God. Again, we were created by God. Created being the key word there. Why is it that we have gotten to the point where the “creative” stuff is good outside the walls of the church, but doesn’t work on the inside? I have another theory about that one, but maybe I’ll start my creativity theories next week. Chew on this one for a minute and let me know if you agree or disagree.

In the beginning, God created…

Pretty much EVERY translation of the Bible starts this way. Except for one that seems to add as many words as possible in translating  from the original language. But when I read this passage, this is what pops in my head. God created. Everything from then on comes from something that he made with his own hands. I’ve been having lots of conversations like this with people during this month of the Collision Course series we are doing at my church. When I think about how the Christian culture interacts with the rest of the world, it’s no wonder that there is such a divide. There’s no real collisions happening. It’s either running the other way or jumping WAY in and getting lost in the mess. But that’s another post.

In a discussion I was having last night with my friend Alex, we were talking about the newest Gungor album among other things. We started talking about how Michael Gungor had written a blog post about the Christians response to his album. He wrote a very interesting blog post back in November. In it he talks asks the question why some Christian music is considered “so creative” in its reviews. It seems as if we have been lulled to sleep by the music that has been released in the Christian music subculture. So when anything comes out that doesn’t sound like everything else, it’s considered “creative”. It’s as if creative isn’t normally accepted in the rest of the Christian world. I wonder why that is…

One of the phrases that always kills me in meetings and songwriting sessions (I’ve used it too, so I’m not throwing anyone under the bus here) is “let’s think outside the box”. One of the reasons it kills me is because the box is fickle. Also, the box is different for everyone. You look at a really large church with a 5 or 6 figure budget for their creative ministry and think “they have the ability to be creative”. I would venture to say they just have more money to play with. We were all made by the same creative God.

Somewhere back in time there must have been a decision made that there was some music that was not appropriate for the church. As a result it all became bland. So now when people like Gungor and John Mark McMillan and people write some really awesome music that speaks truth about God is a way that doesn’t fit the mold that we made for church, it’s considered creative. I think it does a couple things when we say that. 1, it almost alienates those who write music that doesn’t fit the pop mold. 2, it makes everyone else that writes music for church seem lame with no real flair for invention. I always feel bad for Chris Tomlin when conversations happen. I don’t know the guy. We have never met. But whenever people talk about church music verses ‘other’ music, he’s the first name that pops up. Let me go out on this limb right now and defend Chris Tomlin. Chris has done an amazing job writing songs that speak directly to the glory of God. I sing his songs in my church with pride because I know that I’m singing songs that speak Gospel truth and they usher people into His presence. I would venture to say that he’s a creative person. Now, there are some people out there who think, hear, see and feel musically differently than others. You listen to their music and think “how did they get THERE?” We immediately think that their music is so much more creative than anything we sing at church on Sunday. I think that’s messed up.

We were all here because of a creative God. That means that by default we have His creative genes because He is our Father. Is there some sort of way to bring the creativity back to Christianity? At what point do we stop looking at churches and think they are “thinking outside the box”? Can we get rid of the freaking box? Just saying…

Good morning and Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Yes, I believe that this IS in fact a holiday and should be celebrated as such! Whether you’re a football fan, a lover of clever marketing,  someone looking for the possible half time train wreck, or someone who just loves to get together with friends and have great food, this is a day you’re looking forward to every year. I know we have a fun day planned leading up to the game, starting with the beginning of a new sermon series here at the church called Collision Course: Where Faith and Culture Collide. With it being the first Sunday of the month, we will also be celebrating Christ through communion. I believe God is going to do some really cool stuff this morning. I’m excited to give Him the praise He deserves. Here are the songs that we are planning to sing.

Come and Listen-David Crowder I LOVE this song as an opener. It really sets the tone for people to shake off everything that is going on around them and prepare themselves for what the Lord is going to say.

O Worship the King-Passion

You’re Worthy of My Praise-David Ruiz

All Because of Jesus-Fee

Communion-From the Inside Out-Hillsong

This is what we are singing at The Word at Shaw this morning. You still have time to join us here. Our service begins at 10:30. Click here for a link to the promo video for the sermon series that starts this morning

I will admit before I even get started. Someone will probably get mad at this. Granted, there aren’t hundreds of people reading what I write, but I’m convinced that out of the few of you that read this someone will get mad at me. That. Is. Totally. Cool. With that being said…

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith impacts culture and vice versa. As I continue to look at it, it seems like both have been generally bad influences on each other. It reminds me of when I was a little boy. I am an only child, but with my mom being eighth of 9 and my dad being the oldest of 6, I’ve got a TON of cousins. We used to do so many crazy things and we would get the other in trouble all the time. I guess that’s just part of life as a kid. One of us would dare the other to jump off the bed. Trouble. In retaliation, one dares the other to grab an extra cookie. Trouble.  We are good at influencing each other to push the envelope, and we usually pushed it too far.

So how have faith a culture been mutually bad influences on each other? Well, as I sit here in my office and have been thinking about the upcoming weeks in our church from a worship standpoint, one of the things that continues to be at the forefront of my thinking is the relevancy of our worship experience. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we have to be relevancy is tremendously important to the church. So I don’t see that as a negative thing. I think the line gets blurry when we are striving to look so much like the world in the things that we do that “they can’t tell the difference”. I don’t think it is my job as a worship leader to confuse the people that walk in the door. I don’t want to put them in such a trance that when the service is over they say, “I didn’t even know I was in church! How did I get here???” Especially since I’m called to be different. As a Christian, it’s an honor for me to BE different. Look at 1 Peter 2:9. Being different is part of the job description. But I’ve been to churches where the people are trying to be relevant, or cool and trendy and they pull some things off. But inevitably, there’s one thing that starts to waver when we try to look like the rest of the culture we live in. That’s the gospel. I feel that in the different times I’ve gone to places that are trying SO hard to be attractive to the rest of the world, they end up diluting the one beautiful difference between the two.

This is the hinge between both faith and culture. As I said yesterday, when we turn both of these fast moving cars toward each other, there is only one place for them to crash. What was done at the cross changes both sides dramatically. I believe the reason that the church has influenced the rest of culture negatively is because of the way they look at culture. Just as you have some churches who try too hard to be cool, you have just as many trying too hard to make sure you know that they AREN’T anything like the rest of the world. Granted, we are called to not be lovers of the world or the things of the world (1 John 2:15-16). That doesn’t mean that we should shun the people that are in the world. As a matter of fact, they are the reason we are still here. Some of us have run so far away from the line that we are simply screaming at the cruel, vile world far from the other side. The rest of the world and the culture we live in has never asked us to change ourselves and then maybe they would be a part of the church. We are to look different and they will hate us for it. Bible says so. BUT, there is a lot more room closer to the cross for us in the faith as well. When we run so far the other way, no one can hear you except for when you scream about how bad the other side is. No one wants to hear that. Come a little bit closer. A lot of things change at the foot of the cross. The other side even looks a lot different than you think.

As someone who spends his days sculpting a service that is designed to bring glory to the Father, I have to keep in mind that in my church there are some people who will have never had this experience before. Do I want to alienate them so much that they feel uncomfortable and never want to come back? Heck no. But do I want to present the gospel in a way that it challenges everything they have ever thought about life and Christ and the people around them? Heck yes. But here’s the secret: I’m doing that for you Christians as well. Think about it. Then meet me as I push toward the foot of the cross.

This is going to sound weird and horrible, but bear with me. I realized on Sunday that I haven’t written much, if not at all about one of the most important things I can do as a Christ follower. You can scour through the w180 archives and you probably won’t find much about prayer. Why? I don’t know. I do talk about praying for people and things (see Sunday’s post), but I haven’t done much talking in depth about it and how it pertains to worship. So guess what I’m going to do today (in my Phineas voice)? If you haven’t guessed it yet, well…we are going to talk about prayer.

I can say that I have come a long way from “Now I lay me down to sleep…”, but when I think about that prayer that my parents taught me at a young age I think about how I was taught then to petition the Lord for my needs. The simplicity of that prayer was a foundation builder for my approach to prayer even today. I didn’t know it then, but I was creating my relationship with Christ during that few seconds each night that I prayed for restful sleep. From there I learned to pray for other people, upcoming tests, and even frivolously to not get into TOO much trouble when I broke the rules. It was much later that I learned that about the effectiveness of prayer in the lives of Christians and how it’s a critical part of this lifestyle. The Bible talks a whole lot about prayer because of the extreme importance. Just click on this link and go through all the different passages about prayer and see the different situations in which prayer is mentioned.

Prayer and worship go hand in hand. When I was growing up we used to have an altar call every Sunday right in the middle of the service. I actually used to loathe this time when I was younger because it took FOREVER! But as I look back at those times, I remember how people used to walk to the front and the petitions would be laid at the altar. I can still hear “Pray for me, pray for me. O-ooooOOO my brother, pray for me…” I think in all of my years I went up there like twice. Of course at that time I saw it as taking away from the songs that I would hear. Now that I recognize how effective a time that was for us as a people, it’s hard to find anywhere that places that emphasis and time DURING the worship service. Quick side note, I may be working that time back into the fabric of our worship experience. I’m being moved to do so even as I write this.

Psalm 141:1-2 gives us a unfiltered moment between David and the Lord where in verse 1 David cries out to God to hear his prayer. Then in verse 2 he asks that his lifted hands (worship) be “as the evening sacrifice”. I think it was on purpose that David was in prayer and worship at the same time. We cannot overlook the importance of prayer in our worship times. They go hand in hand. I know that for me sometimes prayer seems like something that gets in way of the busyness that is my life. But what would happen if we just slowed down and really talked to the Lord and let Him talk to us? During worship? What a concept…

Here’s a challenge, take some time this week and slow it down long enough to listen to God. Let me know how that goes. I’ll be sure to share my experience as well.