For Worship Leaders | Category Archive

Typically, I answer a question on the blog on Fridays. It ain’t happening today. Along with preparing for the conference next week, I’m attending my nephew’s wedding this weekend.

But I have a great resource to recommend. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has posted three helpful articles on worship. You may think, "What does the president of a Southern Baptist seminary have to say about worship?" Plenty.

Dr. Mohler is a brilliant thinker, a lover of God’s Word, an insightful commentator on our culture, and a man who desires to see Jesus Christ exalted in His Church. I’ve had the opportunity to interact

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I’ve been a little lax on my posting lately, as I’m in the thick of preparing for the WorshipGod06 conference. I’ll have the privilege of teaching three seminars and one main session there, and appreciate the opportunity to meet and serve those who are coming.

In the midst of my preparation, I came across this quote from a book I read a while ago, called The Future of Protestant Worship, by Ronald Byars.

“Here is where we put a finger on the weakness of the marketing approach when it comes to matters of faith and worship. It presumes that people can tell you what they’re looking for. Most people can’t.” (p. 23)

Later on he writes:

“Even those who know themselves to be for something are not likely to be able to

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Musicians have long argued about which is better for the church – musicians who play by note or those who play by ear. I’ve concluded there are advantages to both. I got a performance degree in classical piano that has enabled me to pick up a songbook, hymnal, choral arrangement, or lead sheet and figure out what’s going on fairly quickly. I can play for a variety of situations that require note-reading skills. On the other hand, I’ve been playing by ear for as long as I can remember. That enables me to play chord charts, improvise introductions and endings to songs, create a better flow between songs, and not have to rely on printed music.

If you’re a note-reading musician who wants to learn how to play spontaneously, or

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One person recently wrote in to ask:

1. What criteria would you use in selecting a new hymnal?
2. What particular hymnals would you recommend checking into?

Although we don’t use a hymnal in our Sunday meetings, if I were to choose one, I’d look for one that contains the best of Christian hymnody prior to the early 20th century. These are the songs for congregational worship that have been established, tried, tested, and proven to be beneficial to the Church.

Since a hymnal should serve primarily as a tool to teach and reinforce the doctrines of the Christian faith, I’d look for many songs by Watts, Wesley, Newton, Toplady, Cowper, Hart, and others that thought theologically before they thought musically. Few writers today write about the character and acts of God like the …

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Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.

If you don’t know those names, you should. They are the co-writers of In Christ Alone, and as far as I can tell, are among the most gifted songwriters for congregational worship alive today.

Stuart has been a friend for a number of years and I met Keith and his wife Kristyn this past year. My church had the joy of hosting all three of them for an event last September. I was challenged and inspired by Keith’s passion to equip the church through theologically rich songs. What makes his focus so impressive is that he doesn’t write the lyrics for the songs he composes with Stuart – he writes the melodies. While he often has an idea of a lyrical theme for the …

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In response to the series I did on physical expressiveness in corporate worship, I received a follow-up question from the gentleman who originally asked the question. It was pretty extensive, but this was his closing query:

Bottom, Bottom, Lowest of Bottom Lines: Am I exegetically, theologically, homiletically accurate when I say, “God COMMANDS us to CLAP our hands!”? Or should it be softened to “God ENCOURAGES us to express our love and worship to Him using our bodies?” And then let people do what they’re comfortable with.

Great question. And I want to commend him for seeking to pinpoint as clearly as possible what God tells us in His Word and what He doesn’t tell us.

In a set of unpublished notes from a course he has taught, Iain Duguid suggests that three …

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I’m in the middle of a writing retreat, working on a book for Crossway tentatively entitled Worship Matters. Catchy title, I know. Lord willing, it will be published some time in early 2007.

I’m working on a chapter related to worship and the Word. One of the quotes I ran across is from a book entitled Worship At The Next Level: Insight From The Contemporary Voices, edited by Tim A. Dearborn and Scott Coil. Chapter 10 is called “New Approaches to Worship” by Mike Riddell, Mark Pierson, Cathy Kirkpatrick. Here’s the quote:

Worship preparation is primarily about providing a context rather than a content. The context being an environment in which heart, soul, mind, and strength have opportunity to respond to God. This is not to deny content (although the gospel

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This is my last post (for now) on the topic of bodily expression in corporate worship. Let me say again that in issues regarding our faith, physical expressiveness in corporate worship is an important but secondary issue. I have no problem worshiping God with a church that may be more enthusiastic or reserved than I’m used to, as long as they are proclaiming the same Gospel and glorying in the same Savior.

However, our culture tends to separate head and heart, doctrine and devotion. Some congregations sing profoundly biblical lyrics with no visible effect (which doesn’t always mean they aren’t affected). Other churches are enthusiastically expressive, but seem to be pursuing experiences more than God (which again isn’t always true). So that leads to a fourth suggestion to help a church …

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I’ve been talking about how to help a church grow in physical expression that draws attention to the greatness of God’s glory in Christ. After teaching on the appropriateness of that expression in worshipping God and the importance of the heart, I’d move on to:

3. Address the different reasons people might be reserved in their expression and teach on preferring others.

Some Christians are simply unaware of what the Bible teaches about physical responses to God. They don’t know that Scripture is filled with examples of exuberant, passionate worship (Psalm 150; Neh. 8:6; Rev. 5:11-14). Perhaps they’ve grown up in a church environment that elevated certain types of expressions and ignored others. Often simply understanding what the Bible says will …

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Last Friday I started to answer this question from a pastor:

“Exactly how, and how much should we encourage our people to follow the numerous commands throughout Scripture of bodily expression (as a natural outpouring of the heart)?”

I began by saying we must teach our people that physical expression is appropriate in biblical worship. We aren’t disembodied spirits. God intends that we use our whole beings to bring him praise ( Ps. 16:9Psalm 16:9 [9]Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.

). But how and how much? We don’t simply tell people to “sing like they mean it,” or “jump higher for Jesus,” although in my early zeal to see God honored I crossed that line a few times. Commanding a physical response can produce artificial affection and actually end up being dishonoring to God. Nevertheless, it’s clear from Scripture …

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