This question came from Patrick, in response to devotional post this past Monday.
“Do you incorporate such “devotionals” into your worship leading? I’ve known leaders who don’t say anything, and others who share an essay every week from the front.”
The question of what to say when you’re leading worship has been a subject of discussion for years. I’ve seen (and demonstrated) every kind of extreme you can think of. I wish I could say I “had this down,” but I’m still learning what serves people.
In my early years of leading public worship, I thought it was important to give a mini-teaching or heartfelt prayer between every song. I’m not sure why I thought that, but when my pastor finally brought it to my attention, I realized what a nuisance I was.
Of …
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At the risk of being redundant, I wanted to share a few more thoughts on blogging, in response to a question I received from Steve. He wrote, “Is there the potential for there to be recognized "elders" among Christian bloggers? I wonder what that would look like, and if it would help foster a more healthy "community" here in cyberspace?”
I want to take Steve’s question to address the larger issue of what blogs can accomplish. Let me respond to the second question first. What would a healthy community in cyberspace look like?
Excellent question. I’m not sure how much of a healthy community CAN exist in cyberspace. Any community I experience with people over the Web is going to be severely limited at best. Community requires “doing life” together –
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This question comes from Cheyne, in response to the post Expressing Love to God. I’ve edited his question for the sake of brevity.
“Last year, I heard a well-known and respected speaker discuss Psalm 16:11Psalm 16:11
[11]You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(”at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore”)…The impression I got from his message was that to know Jesus far exceeds any other pleasure we could experience in this world…The comments you made in your post seem to indicate that expressing one’s feelings for the Lord is not a biblical form of worship. Could you clarify your position?”
I’ll certainly try. It’s not expressing our feelings for the Lord that’s unbiblical; it’s how we might express them. It’s unwise and potentially harmful to simply say whatever we feel, because the words we use both shape and …
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One leader who wrote me lives near a large internationally known church. Many of the musicians on the team want to imitate that church’s sound and music style.
“How do I teach the music team to seek and recognize God’s heart for us? How do I encourage them to pursue God’s specific plan for us and help them see that this may not look like what we expect?”
Here’s what I’d want to say to this leader’s group of musicians:
God’s specific plan for every church is that we proclaim with our lives and our lips the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. ( 1 Pet. 2:91 Peter 2:9
[9]But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his own possession, that you may
proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light. (ESV)
) At times that means we’ll imitate others.
Imitation in itself isn’t a bad thing. The writer to the Hebrews …
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[Sorry if you tried to post a comment today. Typepad was down most of Friday, so I couldn’t post either.] Question: Can you share your standards for those who participate “up front” on Sunday mornings? After my last post on this topic, Matt Blick wondered if a list of standards would even be helpful. He wrote, “Lists are not as helpful as developing relationships which are open to challenges on character issues no matter how small. Sometimes it’s just a comment or attitude you want to query that’s often hard to pin a commandment on! To which I say, AMEN! Rules without relationship usually results in rebellion, whether you’re leading a group of musicians or your own children! However, with that understood, it helps to …
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No one sent me this question, but I was talking with a friend about this the other day, and I thought I’d answer my own question…
As I’ve led congregational worship through the years, I’ve realized that all Christmas carols were not created equal. Some are more sentimental than substantive (Away in a Manager, I Saw Three Ships, Do You Hear What I Hear?), some allude to but don’t say much about what the coming of Christ actually meant (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem), while others help us treasure the true significance of God becoming man.
This season provides us a wonderful opportunity to remind the world why Jesus came: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born …
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This question was sent to me a while ago, but is relevant to many of us.
“What do you think of asking music team members to adhere to stricter/higher personal standards re: dress, devotional life, testimony, etc than members of other “teams” in the church because of the public, “up front” nature of the work?”
Serving in the church of Jesus Christ is always a privilege. “The greatest among you shall be your servant.” (Mt. 23:11) While there are many ways to serve “behind the scenes” in the church, the music team isn’t one of them. For that reason, I think holding musicians to higher personal standards is wise for at least two reasons.
First, the maturity of those on the team affects the church. Throughout Scripture, those who …
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I attempted to post this yesterday, which was Friday, but we passed the day playing games, cutting down and decorating our Christmas tree, and enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers. Definitely time well spent.
Travis Seitler asked a great question on a previous post. I’d sum up his question like this:
“Should the fact that God describes his relationship with His people as husband and wife (Is. 54:5; 62:5; Rev. 21:2) ever be reflected in the words we sing to Him?”
This is a challenging question to answer briefly, much less definitively, but here are a few thoughts.
God is infinite, so we shouldn’t be surprised that the boundaries of language are stretched to the limit as we try to relate to Him with words. “Husband and wife” is one of the …
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For some reason, the first time I posted this column I left out the first couple paragraphs. Sorry if some of you are getting this a second time…
I’m hoping to follow a similar format each week for this blog. On Mondays I’ll be sharing a devotional, from Scripture or some other source, that will focus on our hearts. If you lead a music team these might be great to share with your group. Tuesday through Thursday I’ll be typically focusing on some theme, although I also plan to do book/article/CD/song/website reviews as well. Of course, since it’s my blog, I might do something totally different. (I’m sure this is helping you.) On Fridays, I’ll take time to respond to a question I’ve received either through e-mail on on the blog …
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