Okay folks, I’m sorry I disappeared for awhile there. I overloaded myself last semester and I had to cut off all my blogging (except for uploading photos to my regular blog via flickr through my phone) and focus on schoolwork. All that to say sorry I was scarce for so long. I’m going to try and post once a week – not sure if I’ll get back to my goal of posting on Mondays and Wednesdays and random Fridays – but hopefully I’ll be back on that this summer.

I have been reading through John Piper’s “Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist” (10th Anniversay expanded edition). It’s really knocking me around – in a good way. The third chapter is on worship and I thought I’d post a few “quotables” from there. If you haven’t ready “Desiring God”, get yourself a copy and read it. Even if you don’t agree with everything he says, you really should at least engage and wrestle with it.

Okay, here are the quotes:

“…worship has to do with real life” (p. 73)

“Worship must engage emotions and thought.” (p. 76)

“Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.” (p. 76)

“…worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth.” (p. 78)

“[The] reflection of God’s glory in nature is not conscious. The mountains do not willingly worship. In all the earth only humans have this unique capacity.” (pp. 78-79)

In Genesis 4 we find the story of Cain and Abel. Every worship leader should meditate on this passage because it is the first recorded act of worship after the fall. The Bible doesn’t detail how they knew they were to make an offering to the Lord, only each of them brought an offering for him. What the passage does emphasize is that Cain and his sacrifice were unacceptable to God. This is why the passage is so important for worship leaders to meditate upon, because it clearly details an act of unacceptable worship.

Note how the Bible emphasizes that both Cain and his offering were unacceptable. My pastor pointed this out this past Sunday, and it was something I had never noticed before. The person is as important as the offering they are making. Note Hebrews 11:4, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.” (ESV) The author of Hebrews helps us better understand what is going on in Genesis 4 – Abel’s  faith is the key to his accptable worship.

Even at the beginning of the Bible, when men are just beginning to worship the Lord, God is establishing a standard for the worship offered to him. The condition of the heart is what is important to God in worship. But never neglect the understanding that what is done is also just as important as the heart that offers it. Do you really care about worshipping God if you do not take the time to understand what type of worship is acceptable to him?

To me, the “why” behind worship goes all the way back to the beginning, the very beginning. In fact, when God called everything “good”. After creating everything and placing man in the Garden of Eden, he instructed Adam to “tend and keep” it. In fact, there are very strong arguments to translate that phrase “worship and obey”. I was able to take Hebrew from a professor who had worked with some translators of a newer version of the Bible (I think it was ESV, but I’m not too sure on that…), and he actually talked with us about how he presented a complete argument for this translation, but he was over-ruled by others. Yet he is not alone in his opinion, for there are many scholars who agree with him in this.

That translation would highlight an aspect of the creation story which is not quite as evident at first glance. Unfortunately, to me, it seems that most read the creation account as a story of “how we got here” – a historical account. And though the Bible contains an historical record, it’s actual purpose is theological, not historical. Therefore the real reason God saw fit to include an account of creation in his revelation of himself  to us (that is, the Bible) is so that we will know “why”. Thusly, Genesis 1-3 becomes less a historical record (though it is that) and more a revelation of “why we are here.”

Noel Due, in his book Created for Worship, writes that “God’s decision to create the universe is the effective cause of worship.” (p. 35) When God moved and created, the only correct response of that creation was worship. What I really want to emphasize here is that worship, as a purpose to life, predates the fall. Before man turned to sin, his only purpose was to worship (I will not even go into the connection between work and worship which this understanding also draws out). Though we worship the Lord because of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, that is not only why. Had there never been sin, never been a need for the cross, there still would have been worship. And if Adam and Eve had never eaten that apple, we would all have an unfallen nature – but we would still be worshipping.

I challenge you to take a little bit of time and meditate on this concept of worship being a purpose to all life. How the command to worship actually predates the fall. Think about how sin hinders our worship, and how Christ, in coming, dying, and rising again brought about a way to redeem our worship and enable us to worship as God intends us to.

Here’s a quick thought for Friday:

The goal of a worship team is to be distraction eliminators

This goes for everyone from the drummer to the singer to the sound technician to the lyric display technician. The instrumentalists are not there to jam out (though they might get a chance…), and the singers aren’t there to show off their vocal range. No, the response your congregation should have to the music portion of a service is, “How great is our God?!” not “What an awesome guitarist!”

This should be stated up front to all new praise team members as they are trying out, and it should be continually emphasized and reinforced from week to week and practice to practice.

Therefore the joy in our service is not in praise for what we have done, but in the glory that God recieves from our doing it.

As a slight continuation of the thought from my last post, I wanted to touch specifically on building a praise team from scratch, something I have done several times in my varied career as a worship leader. Everyone in the position of having to do this feels the same level of helplessness and has the echoing cry of, “How?”. Well, here’s my two-cents worth. I hope it can encourage and challenge anyone who finds themselves in such a situation.

First, there are a couple of standards or commitments that must be set forth before you even begin to actively seek people on your praise team. You should discuss these with your pastor(s) to get their input as well as blessing, and you should also pray over these as well.

(please note that when I use the word “musician” I am also referring to singers/vocalists)

1. Spiritual Excellence: You should commit build your team around mature christians who’s primary motive in playing is service – utilizing their gifts for the glory of God.
2. Musical Excellence: There must be a standard of excellence among those who are brought onto the praise team – you are not looking for perfect  or professional musicians, but ones who have an adequate amount of talent, skill, discipline and motivation to not be a distraction during a service.

I’ve already touched on the first some in my last post, so I’m going to mention a few things about the second commitment here. The primary reason for this standard of excellence is a simple principle: “Excellence attracts excellence.” And this principle is double-edged, it cuts both in the direction of musicianship as well as spirituality. Just realize that if you are going to accept a “fresh” (read: untrained/unlearned) talent onto the team, it will be your responsibility to train and equip them. Sometimes to get a program “off the ground” you will have to literally invest time training and teaching people about their instruments. In that you must teach them excellence, so that when more talented individuals come on the team they won’t be left too far in the dust.

In setting these commitments to spiritual and musical excellence before you now you can take your first active step in acquiring the praise team members you need: pray. That’s the key ingredient. Pray every day, multiple times each day for each specific instrumentalist you desire God to draw to the music ministry. I’d suggest first praying for a few vocalists and an acoustic guitarist (or three – they come in handy!), a keyboardist (with a decent keyboard you can synthesize most missing instruments), and a percussionist (until you get a full band, you may want to limit percussion to a djembe or cajon for a more intimate acoustic feel). Next on your list will probably be a bassist and an electric guitarist – and a drum set!

Once you have a set of vocalists (3-4 plus you), two guitarists (one acoustic, one electric), a basist, a drummer (percusionist), and a keyboardist you can play most any of the praise music out there. You will want to seek to double and triple your resources on each instrument, for backups as well as the possibility of splitting into multiple teams assigned specific Sundays/services. Always be on the alert for God to bring you different instruments. In my last church I had barely gotten our praise team off the ground when I was blessed with a young lady who played the Cello as well as a saxophone player – that definitely made arranging our songs a blast!

Always pray for God to shape your vision for your team. The goal is not for you to have a band, but for your church to be able to worship God without distraction. Therefore sometimes you will end up with quite interesting combinations of instruments along the way. And don’t be discouraged by meager beginnings. It is better for you to lead worship with yourself on guitar (or piano) with a drum machine and maybe a vocalist or two than for you to have a full band of questionable spiritual maturity. Stay the path and wait for God to provide – he always does, and he always throws in a few surprises along the way to keep you on your toes!

If you will uphold these dual goals of excellence in spirituality as well as musicianship from the very beginning of the development of your praise team, then that excellence will be in the very DNA of your team. Trust God and then set out to do what he’s called you to do in leading worship, having faith that where he has called you he will provide all you need to accomplish his will.

Here is a simple concept, but one which is overlooked in many churches: that all those who are on stage, in front of the congregation, are worship leaders to some degree. This is especially true of your praise team. Your drummer is a worship leader. Your guitarist is a worship leader.

This is something which must be continually reinforced in their minds. Though you (as the Worship Leader) lead them as a team, as a team each of them lead the congregation. If they are not entering and worshipping then the congregation will find it difficult to do so as well.

Having this understanding in mind as you build your team is also essential. This is why the praise team is not a “missionary endeavor”, so to speak. How can someone who doesn’t know Christ help lead a congregation in his praise? And if the only reason someone is coming to church is to play their instrument or sing (or serve on the technical staff…), then they may not be at a spiritual place where they should be leading others in worship. Therefore the first qualifier of whether or not someone can be on the team should not be in their level of talent or skill but in their spiritual maturity.

Having a team of individuals who are focused on bringing God glory and encouraging/challenging others to do the same is essential for every body of believers. And that team can be made of one, two, three or forty people. But their focus is on worshipping and glorifying God – and helping others do the same!