While I was in India, I finished reading A Guide to Prayer, by the well known hymn writer, Isaac Watts. I was impressed by his humble, practical, and biblical approach to this topic that is more often discussed than done.
I’ve asked Mark Mullery to address the issue of praying publicly at this year’s WorshipGod06 conference. I think we often don’t realize what a significant means of edification, training, and grace public prayer can be for the people we serve. Of course, it might be difficult to imagine when our prayers often sound something like this:
Father God, we just come before you today, Lord, to say we love you, Jesus, and Spirit, we just want you to be blessed by our coming together today, Lord God, and
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I was going to entitle this post “Final Thoughts,” but that’s probably not going to happen. One of the reasons I started this blog was to explore this role in an ongoing way. But this does mark the end of the series on the role of the corporate worship leader. Really.
If you’re a musician who is responsible to lead others in praising God, I pray you’ve been served by this series. I’m grateful for those of you who have taken the time to post an encouraging comment, expand upon my thoughts, or ask questions. We need to continually ask ourselves if what we’re doing is lining up with Scripture.
On most Wednesday mornings I have the joy of meeting with the 19 men who are currently in the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s …
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One more time, this is the definition for a congregational worship leader I’ve proposed:
An effective corporate worship leader, aided and led by the Holy Spirit,
skillfully combines biblical truth with music
to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ,
thereby motivating the gathered church
to join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God
and seeking to live all of life for the glory of God.
Today, I’m going to share a few thoughts on that last line.
Worship doesn’t begin when the singing starts, nor end when the music stops. We don’t “do worship” in a meeting, nor compartmentalize it to the singing section. Romans 12:1 clearly says that worship is what we do with our lives.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, …
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If you’re just joining us, I’m currently describing what I think is the biblical role of someone who leads the church in congregational worship. We’ve covered this in the first 14 posts:
An effective corporate worship leader, aided and led by the Holy Spirit,
skillfully combines biblical truth with music
to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ,
thereby motivating the gathered church…
Today, I’m going to unpack the next phrase:
To join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God.
As I mentioned last week, an effective corporate worship leader invites others to join him in what he is already doing – exalting the Savior with his whole being. That truth has led some use the term “lead worshipper” to describe the person who leads public praise. We aren’t leading …
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Yesterday I talked about the issue of motivating the church to worship God. Judging from the comments yesterday, I’d guess that this is an issue for more than a few leaders. Kevin asked, “If you’re leading worship and the people don’t seem motivated to respond in worship, is that your fault?”
The simple answer is no. It is every individual’s privilege and responsibility to give glory to God regardless of what they’re going through or who is leading them. But leaders can do things to hinder people praising God or refrain from doing things that could encourage them. But first, we want to be careful how we define a “successful” time of corporate worship. Here are some potentially unreliable indicators:
• The people seemed excited.
• The music really flowed.
• Everybody was in …
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A few weeks back, I proposed this definition for a corporate worship leader: An effective corporate worship leader, aided and led by the Holy Spirit, skillfully combines biblical truth with music to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, thereby motivating the gathered church to join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God and seeking to live all of life for the glory of God. Today I’d like to talk about “motivating the gathered church.” Ideally, as I stand in front of the church to lead them in singing God’s praise, every person is ready to sing with all their might - minds focused, hearts engaged, wills set to proclaim God’s glory. Unfortunately, it’s a fallen world, and …
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I’m at the part of my proposed definition for worship leaders which says their task is to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Certainly there are many aspects of God’s worth and works that we can and should dwell on as we sing His praise. He’s our Creator, our Deliverer, our Father, our Guide, our Shepherd, and Shield. But this side of the cross, we find the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ( 2 Cor. 4:62 Corinthians 4:6
[6]For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (ESV)
) and his substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. This is what Paul considered of first importance ( 1 Cor. 15:1-41 Corinthians 15:1-4
[15:1]Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I
preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
[2]and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to
the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain.
[3]For I delivered to you as of first importance what I
also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures, [4]that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
(ESV)
), what Peter encouraged us to remember ( 2 Pet. 1:92 Peter 1:9
[9]For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted
that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed
from his former sins. (ESV)
), and what is to richly fill our singing ( Col. 3:16Colossians 3:16
[16]Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching
and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your
hearts to God. (ESV)
). Every time we gather to worship God, …
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Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. ( Rev. 4:11Revelation 4:11
[11]"Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created."
) One of the problems we have in worshipping God is forgetting why He is so WORTHY to be worshipped. When we do, our minds tend to shift into neutral and we end up mouthing words that we’re barely thinking about. Part of magnifying God’s worth is recounting the reasons it’s appropriate to worship Him. One way is to recount what Wayne Grudem calls God’s “summary attributes.” Those include God’s perfection, blessedness, beauty, and glory. We can also speak to each other about more specific aspects of God’s nature: He is eternal, good, just, merciful, righteous, holy, sovereign, …
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When someone stands (or sits) in front of a congregation to lead them in worshipping God, what’s their goal? I believe it is this:
To magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
David invites us in Psalm 34:3Psalm 34:3
[3]Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
: “Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” When people walk into church service, they might be magnifying all sorts of things, from the superficial to the serious – deadlines, unpaid bills, an unkind comment from a friend, a lab test for cancer that came back positive, a “thump-thump” sound the car is making, the championship game this afternoon, a rebellious child, some besetting sin, or a million other details of life. What we magnify tends to absorb our time, energy, thoughts, and …
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I want to finish up thoughts today on why God wants us to use music at times to praise Him. I’ve mentioned that music, especially singing, helps us to remember and meditate on God’s word, and also enables us to proclaim truth with heartfelt passion. Finally, We sing to reflect God’s glory. How does singing reflect God’s glory? I can think of at least three ways. First, singing glorifies God by expressing the unity Christ died to bring us. Of course, gathering in the same room at one time expresses unity, as does reciting a creed together. Music both intensifies and demonstrates our appreciation of that unity. I’ve been told on more than one occasion that large “worship events” would bring unity to the …
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