At one point, I led the group in singing spontaneous responses to different sections of Psalm 100Psalm 100 [100:1]Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! [2]Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! [3]Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. [4]Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! [5]For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Here’s a general outline of what I shared in the seminar. You can download my complete notes here.

Cautions About Spontaneity
1. Don’t pit spontaneity against planning.
2. Don’t pursue spontaneity because you’re lazy and don’t want to prepare.
3. Spontaneity isn’t more “spiritual” than planning.

Some Reasons to Pursue Spontaneity
1. We gather to meet with a living God and a risen Savior, not simply to carry out our plan. ( Heb. 12:22-24Hebrews 12:22-24 [22]But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, [23]and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, [24]and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (ESV)

How Can We Pursue Spontaneity?
1. Dependence resulting in prayer.
2. Expectation resulting in wise planning.
3. Responsiveness resulting in action and follow-up.
4. Have a clear understanding of who is ultimately responsible for leading the meeting. Trust must be earned.

The Practice of Spontaneity
See my notes on this section

Evaluating Spontaneity
1. Was what we did helpful? Did it exalt Christ? Did it deepen our love for God’s Word?
2. Don’t exalt impressions over pastoral leadership.
3. Don’t become over-dependent on spontaneous impressions.
4. Don’t over-analyze. God is sovereign and will lead us as we remain rooted in his Word and the gospel.
5. Thank God for what he has done and will do in the future to reveal his active presence in our meetings.

Your church may excel in this area. Then again, how many of us ever experience the kind of situation Paul describes in 1 Cor. 14:24-251 Corinthians 14:24-25 [24]But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, [25]the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. (ESV)

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,  the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

Whether or not you believe in the present day gift of prophecy isn’t the point. Let’s expect God to do mighty things in people’s hearts and lives every time we lead, planned or unplanned, for the glory of the Savior.

I started by saying that theology is literally the “study of God,” particularly as he has revealed himself in Scripture. It includes not only studying the Bible, but understanding how the different parts of the Bible fit together. Christian musicians need to know theology. But before I explained why, I shared four potential objections people might have.

1. People just argue about theology.
Yes. Partly because we’re sinful. But mostly because there are some truths that are worth defending and fighting for. Even dying for.

2. Theology just makes life complicated.
It depends on what you mean by complicated. If you think that knowing how to play your instrument makes it complicated, then yes, theology makes life complicated. Theology doesn’t make like complicated. It actually makes life simpler. It protects us from reading verses out of context or reading only our favorite passages. Theology tells us what words like glory, gospel, salvation, and love mean. Theology helps us understand what we’re actually doing every Sunday. What complicates life is not theology but ignorance of theology.

3. Studying theology makes people proud.
It shouldn’t. The better we know God, the humbler we should be. The more we should  realize that what we know will always be dwarfed by what we don’t know.

4. We’ll never know it all anyway.
Just because we can’t know everything about God, doesn’t mean we can’t know some things truly. God has revealed himself to us in his word and given us his Spirit so that we can know him.

I then went on to give three reasons why theology should matter to Christian musicians.

1. You’re already a theologian.
Every Christian, musical or otherwise, is already a theologian. The question is, are you a good theologian or a bad one? We’re good theologians if what we say and think about God lines up with what Scripture says and affirms. We’re bad theologians if our view of God is vague, or if we think God doesn’t really mind sin, or is we see Jesus as a good example and not a Savior, or if we our god is too small to overcome evil or too big to care about us.

2. God reveals himself primarily through words, not music.
Because we’ve encountered God profoundly during times of musical worship, we can wrongly start assuming that words restrict the Spirit, while music enables us to experience God in fresh and powerful ways. If God had wanted us to know him primarily through music, the Bible would be a soundtrack, not a book. Music affects and helps us in many ways, but it doesn’t replace truth about God. By itself, music can never help us understand the meaning of God’s self-existence, the nature of the Incarnation, or Christ’s substitutionary atonement. Simply put, truth outlasts tunes.

3. Being good theologians makes us better musicians.

• Theology teaches us what music is meant to do.
• Theology teaches us that worship is more than music.
• Theology teaches us that Jesus is better than music.

You can download a copy of my notes here.

I mentioned to a few folks that I’d be posting my message and workshop notes on my blog. So that’s what I’ll be doing over the next few days.

In the opening session I spoke on “What is a Successful Christian Musician?” I chose that topic because I know that when we attend large conferences led by highly skilled musicians, we can be tempted to think that we should model our local church ministry after what we see at the event. I wanted to start the conference by acknowledging that most of us struggle in this area, and pointing out that God has a different way of measuring success than we do.

I drew from Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25:14-29Matthew 25:14-29 [14]"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. [15]To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. [16]He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. [17]So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. [18]But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. [19]Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. [20]And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.' [21]His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' [22]And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.' [23]His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' [24]He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, [25]so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' [26]But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? [27]Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. [28]So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. [29]For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (ESV)

1. Successful Christian musicians don’t all look the same.
2. Successful Christian musicians are faithful to grow the gifts they’ve received.
3. Successful Christian musicians seek to please the audience of One.

Under the last point I shared that ultimate success can’t be measured by comparing myself to what others are doing or achieving. It doesn’t have to do with how many people know my name or how much money I make. It doesn’t have to do with my position, whether I’m the leader or assistant or regular or alternate. In fact, true success can’t be fully determined in this life.

We won’t know how successful we’ve been until the last day when we hope to hear the Father say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Of course, we could never hope to hear “well done” apart from the Savior who bore our sins on the cross, endured the penalty we deserved, suffered the wrath of God in our place, and rose triumphantly from the grave, reconciling us to God through faith in his blood.

His success has now become our success. He is our life, our reward, and yes, our success.

You can download a copy of my notes here.

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Jesus Paid it All
All Hail the Pow’r of Jesus’ Name

Go on over and let me know what you think. The CD should be ready by December.

I started out by saying God gave us music as a gift to direct our attention to him. In the Bible, music is connected with worship, weddings, funerals, work, play, and war. The basic elements of rhythm, melody, and harmony aren’t inherently evil or sinful. Non-Christians can write beautiful songs that are good for us. Christians can write terrible songs that are bad for us.

So how can something so good become something bad? Two reasons. First, there’s a sinful world outside us. Music, like any gift, can be abused, misused, and used wrongly. Those who make music - artists, record companies, marketers - aren’t primarily interested in caring for our souls or helping us avoid worldliness. They want us to buy their music.

Second, there are sinful desires inside us. Just as people can write music to communicate sin, we can listen to music to feed sin. And music amplifies the deceptive voices of the world. Listening to music is never neutral, because our sinful hearts are involved ( James 1:14-15James 1:14-15 [14]But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. [15]Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (ESV)

I ended by offering six handles to help us think more concretely and biblically about the music we listen to.

1. Submission ( Prov. 19:20Proverbs 19:20 [20]Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

2. Content ( Phil. 4:8Philippians 4:8 [8]Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (ESV)

3. Associations ( Prov. 22:3Proverbs 22:3 [3]The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

4. Time ( Prov. 13:20Proverbs 13:20 [20]Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

5. Fruit ( Prov. 14:14Proverbs 14:14 [14]The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.

6. Conversion ( 2 Cor. 13:52 Corinthians 13:5 [5]Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (ESV)

I ended by giving three ways to listen to music for God’s glory: intentionally, with others, and gratefully.

You can download or listen to the whole message at the Covenant Life website.

Since the conference, we’ve been asked whether or not any part of the singing had been recorded. As a matter of fact, all of it was. And we’ve been working on a CD made up of 16 hymns from the conference. They include older hymns like And Can it Be, It Is Well, and How Firm a Foundation, as well as modern hymns like The Power of the Cross (Getty/Townend) and Before the Throne of God Above (Bancroft/Cook).

As we worked on the mixes I was often overcome by the truths that were being proclaimed and the responses of those who were singing. It’s a different experience when there are no drums, no synths, no bass…just a piano and voices. Besides the piano accompaniment, there’s not a lot there to grab you except  for the truths that are being sung. What a concept. So at various times guys were shouting, clapping, and making noise because singing just didn’t seem to be enough.

This is definitely a different CD for us (no drums…), but one I’m grateful to be part of. I know it will specifically encourage people who love traditional hymns sung with passion. I trust that for others it will show that great hymns don’t have to be highly produced or re-arranged to stir our hearts to praise the Savior.

We hope to have the CD out in early December. In the mean time, here’s a sample of A Mighty Fortress is Our God. You can also hear it on the Sovereign Grace Music Facebook page.

And because someone asked, here’s the song list:

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
It Is Well with My Soul
How Firm a Foundation
Oh the Deep, Deep Love
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
How Deep the Father’s Love For Us
How Sweet and Aweful Is the Place
My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less
I Will Glory in My Redeemer
Arise, My Soul, Arise
The Power of the Cross
My Song Is Love Unknown
And Can It Be That I Should Gain
There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
Before the Throne of God Above
In Christ Alone

We’ll also be offering some of the songs for free download from the Sovereign Grace store. I’ll post more information as I get it.

If you haven’t heard Sovereign Grace’s Christmas CD, Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man, you can preview samples at the Sovereign Grace Music site. We put this CD together a few years ago to add to the songs that glory in the Incarnation of our Savior. You can download the whole CD for 6 bucks at the Sovereign Grace store, purchase it  for 8 bucks, or download a free song, “Glory Be to God.”

When do we go with the lead sheet, and when do we go with the CD melody?  And when do we go with what is simple and consistent and when do we go with what is sung on the CD?

I’ve faced the same dilemma. While I’m grateful for many of the new congregational songs that have emerged in recent years, they’re not always sung in a way that makes it easy for a congregation to pick them up. Phrases are elongated in one verse and not the other, melodies are changed, and sometimes the melody becomes hard to identify or unsingable by a normal congregation. Here are a few of the thoughts I consider when figuring out what to do:

1. How important is it for the church to sing this song?
Not every song written by a “worship artist” should be sung by a congregation. Maybe it’s just for listening.

2. Is there a lead sheet I can use as a reference?
Sometimes music publishers help us out by publishing a lead sheet. If the recorded version differs at points with the lead sheet, I feel the liberty to use the recorded version in places if it fits the lyrics better and allows for more natural expression. But at least I know what they were intending.

3. Which version of the melody is more natural?
If one of the verses is more “artistic” in its inflection, I’ll probably go with the simpler version, unless I think the interpretation accents the lyric in some way.

4. How well is the song known?
If your church uses CDs to learn songs, rather than hymnals or written music, and the song is well known, you might be able to teach it with the variations as it’s sung on the CD.

6. Should I come up with a new version?
Sometimes an alternate version of the recording will serve the congregation best. An example for us is the song “Before There Was Time,” by Caedmon’s Call. The form of the song isn’t ideal for congregational use. The verses are slightly different, the choruses run right into the second verse and bridge, and the bridge is pitched high. But the song celebrates God’s knowledge of his before time, a theme we don’t often address. For the verses, we went with the most natural melody, ended the chorus clean each time, and made one of the harmony parts on the bridge the main melody.

6. Do I have a plan for teaching this song?
There’s a difference between singing a song for the first time and singing it for the tenth time. In most caes, when we’re introducing a song, a few principles are helpful . The sound engineer should have the volume of the vocalists louder, the instrumentation should be sparser, I might mention that we’re learning a new song, and even take time to have the congregation repeat a verse before moving on.

7. Do my vocalists know the same version of the song?
If you have multiple teams, this is worth checking out. I can’t expect the church to learn the one melody if our vocalists are singing different ones.

This discussion does highlight one of the differences between a song that is congregational and one that isn’t. Even though people can learn difficult songs through repeated listenings (most rock concert prove that), writers can serve more people by writing melodies and singing them in such a way that it makes it easier for people to learn them, not harder.

Additional thoughts welcome.

I just found out that our church is charging for tickets to our Christmas event…music, drama etc. They want members to buy tickets to hand out for the event. I notice that lots of churches are doing this now. There’s a church in Florida that spends over a million dollars on their Christmas presentation, and charges up to $35 for their big Broadway production. What’s your take on this?…I have a dilemma…Do I continue to work on the music (a lot of it being secular Christmas songs) for the upcoming Christmas extravaganza and feel uncomfortable, or bail out and let the ministers of the church know why I don’t want to be a part of a ministry that charges for ministry outreach events?

The question about charging money for a Christmas event leads to a deeper question. Are there any biblical guidelines for a church putting on a production at Christmas or some other time of year?

What’s Good About Productions
Church productions can serve numerous good purposes. Those involved can grow in their musical, artistic, acting, and technical skills. Participants can experience the joy of working on a project together. Meaningful fellowship can take place before, during, and after rehearsals. People can use their gifts to serve. Non-Christians can hear the gospel presented in a relatively non-threatening environment. And a godly desire to steward our gifts faithfully and with excellence will often result in productions that are impressive, even to non-Christians.

Excellence Has Limits
But artistic/technical excellence in the church has its limits, due to limited resources, the realities of “volunteerism,” and the nature of the gospel we proclaim. Certainly we should strive to do our best, and “being Christian” is no excuse for sloth, apathy, or carelessness. Let me be clear: we should strive for excellence for the glory of God. But competing with the world’s production standards should never be our ultimate goal. The world will almost always “out-WOW” the church in terms of production quality.

More importantly, our talent and expertise are not what we rely on to draw people to Christ. It’s the gospel, proclaimed and demonstrated through a group of ordinary believers who have an extraordinary Savior. It’s our humility, joy, servanthood, power, integrity, and love, all produced by our relationship with a risen Savior. As Paul put it, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” ( 1 Cor. 2:2-51 Corinthians 2:2-5 [2]For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. [3]And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, [4]and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, [5]that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (ESV)

The Church As Production Company
The New Testament gives no indication that the church is responsible to put on lavish productions for the purpose of evangelism or edification. That’s because the church isn’t a production company. Performances, plays, and productions, despite the evident fruit at times, were never meant to be the main instrument of evangelism for the church. The main instrument is a body of believers who have been redeemed through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ, and who have now been called to proclaim the excellencies of him who called them 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)

Fruitful or Faithful?
So when I hear of a church that spends a gazillion dollars on a Christmas presentation, with much of it being secular songs, it raises some questions. In our effort to be fruitful, rather than faithful, are we becoming so much like the world that people can’t tell the difference? I don’t presume to know what’s in anyone’s heart, but I know that investing that much money in a musical extravaganza eats up huge amounts of time, energy, and resources. Is this the best or primary way to proclaim the gospel and build the church? No. Some churches might see these as pre-evangelism events, to get people in the door so they can be invited to something where the gospel is presented more clearly. That’s certainly plausible, but we always have to evaluate their effectiveness and unintended consequences.

Should the Church Charge Money?
And as for charging money? It’s not necessarily wrong to charge money for a church event. I’d encourage someone to ask their pastor to explain their thinking before assuming the leaders are caving into the world’s value system. It might result in a profitable conversation that helps define the real issues.

But charging money for a production does limit your audience to those who can afford it, and can be misunderstood by your community (those Christians…always asking for money). When an all-church event is held as an outreach to the community, it seems that offering it for free is one way to clearly communicate that we are God’s ambassadors of blessing to a world that is lost and dead in sin.

And the best thing we have to offer them is not just a good production, but the Good News.

I’m happy to report two weeks in that my expectations have been exceeded.

I understand that no edition of the Bible can make the Bible better than it already is all by itself. I think that’s a point that can be missed and has resulted in a proliferation of niche Bibles (women’s, teens, worship, men’s, green, etc.) that we think somehow improve upon the original. They don’t.

What I appreciate about the ESV Study Bible is that it is helping me meet and love God in his Word. It’s correcting my tendency to read the Bible through my own preconceptions, filters, and biases.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how important it is for all Christians, but especially those who lead corporate worship, to grow in our knowledge of God’s self-revelation in Scripture. The better (i.e., the more accurately) we know God through his Word, the more genuine our worship will be. In fact, the moment we veer from what is true about God, we’re engaging in idolatry. We can’t lead people to worship a God we don’t know very well.

The ESV Study Bible is an excellent tool to help us know God better. Although I’m only working my way through Genesis at this point, I already have ten reasons why I appreciate the work that Justin Taylor, Wayne Grudem, and many others have put into the ESV Study Bible.

1.    It’s based on the English Standard Version, which is one of the finest and most faithful translations available today. While it’s always good to consult various translations for study, the ESV does a great job recognizing variants in translation in the footnotes.
2.    The introductory notes to each book are informative and helpful, and don’t overwhelm you with interesting but non-essential background information.
3.    The notes are extensive and answer questions I actually have about the text, without avoiding difficult passages.
4.    The notes cover material that is not only helpful, but pastoral, aimed at helping me understand God’s Word better and loving God more.
5.    The notes are well laid out. Larger section, shorter, then vs. by vs. I’ve found them easy to follow along with the text.
6.    The treatment of the first few chapters of Genesis is very even-handed and well-researched. The notes aim to give us an appreciation for the interplay of science and the Bible without giving ground on the ultimate authority of Scripture.
7.    The focus is always Gospel-centered. The notes seek to answer the question, “Where does this section of the Bible fit into the larger story of God sending Jesus to redeem a people for his glory?”
8.    The articles in the back of the Bible are almost a book in themselves (I’d love to see Crossway publish these separately), and address many significant issues clearly, briefly, and effectively. They include Biblical Doctrine, Biblical Ethics, Reading the Bible, The Reliability of Bible Manuscripts, The Bible and World Religions, and the History of Salvation in the Old Testament. In addition there are several additional articles between the Old and New Testaments that shed light on the inter-testamental period.
9.    The maps and illustrations actually contain the cities, areas, and details I want to know about, and are placed close to the passages they refer to.
10.    The notes don’t go beyond what the text says. They affirm what is clear, and plainly present different views when a word, phrase, or passage is unclear.

The only negative comment I’d make at this point is that the Bible is so big it’s hard to imagine carrying it around a lot. Unless I also want to use it as part of my exercise program.

But it’s a Study Bible, especially useful for personal devotions. I’m so eager to read through the ESV Study Bible that I’m setting a goal to read through the entire Bible with text notes by the end of 2009. It’s an ambitious goal, at least for me. The Bible and text notes come in at almost 2500 pages. Over 14 months, that’s about six pages a day, without missing a day. Like I said…it’s ambitious. But I’d rather aim high and fall short of my goal than aim low and miss it. I’ve found that I do better when I attempt a Bible reading plan that necessitates God’s grace than one that I can accomplish on my own.

And if I don’t make it by the end of 2009, that’s fine. I’ll keep reading until I finish it. And I’m sure I’ll know God better and love the Savior more when I do.

Oh, and one more thing. If you purchase an ESV Study Bible, Crossway gives you access to the ESV Online Study Bible. Everything in the print version appears in the online version, plus some additional goodies. I guess that makes eleven reasons I appreciate the ESV Study Bible.

If you’re already using a study Bible that you’re benefiting from, great. If not, I want to recommend you get an ESV Study Bible, and even join me in setting a goal to read through it. If you do, let me know. I’ll be posting updates on my own progress along the way.