Just got back from the Lincoln Brewster concert.  And Yes I got a picture with him.  He was positively fantastic.

One of my favorite parts of the day was getting to go to his guitar clinic.  I was one of maybe 20 people so it was very intimate and just plain cool.  I learned a ton and so did my dad.  I was almost as excited for Brian as I was for myself.  He plays bass for the worship team at Faith and he got to go to a clinic taught by Norm Stockton, Lincoln’s bass player.  Brian was one of only two or three in the class so he got some real personal attention.  Brian left saying that he now knows what he needs to do and be learning to become a better bass player.

The concert was great too.  He is a phenomenal musician.  I can’t wait to sit down and watch his instructional DVD I got.  He signed both the CD and DVD SWEET!!!

As I mentioned in my first post, there is a marked difference between the first and second services.  Not that there are not people worshiping, it’s just as a whole the second service seems either apathetic about singing to God or unengaged. I’m not sure what has been going on in the second service.  It seems as though it has been a progression from just being kind of weird to, like today, just plain bad.  

Today (in second service) as we began our five songs to end the service, we started with How Great is Our God which is one of our churches favorite songs and during the last chorus I stepped back from the mic to let the congregation sing.  What I heard, or didn’t hear, surprised me.  I was having trouble hearing the congregation singing.  Then I moved to teaching the new song He is Lord.  The next song was This is Our God and where thing got dicey.

As we were singing I began to get angry.  But I wasn’t angry, if that makes sense.  As I looked across the congregation I saw people sitting as if they were lounging around watching a TV show.  Even when we were singing the bridge there was so much apathy about it.

Freely you gave it all for us, surrendered your life upon that cross

Great is the love poured out for all, this is our God

Lifted on high from death to life, forever our God is glorified

Servant and King, rescued the world, this is our God

How can you sing those words and yet be apathetic?  After the service someone referred to what I was feeling as “holy anger.”  This is what I felt God saying…(this is not what I shared in the service)

How dare you sit there pretending to worship Me.  Your lips move yet your heart stays silent.  WAKE UP!  Your hearts are focused on other things.  I alone am worthy of praise.  

Obviously I did not share these words because they would have done more harm then good.  What I did share was the bridge that we were just singing.  I tried to draw our attention to the cross and to Jesus.  I spoke of how through the cross and Jesus sacrifice we no longer relegate the presence of God to the holy of holies in the temple.  We no longer need a priest to intercede for us.  Jesus is now our great high priest who intercedes on our behalf directly to the Father.  Jesus is the one that leads us to God’s presence.  It’s not a song, a particular worship leader, a cool musical arrangement that ushers in the presence of God.  It’s Jesus.  Yet many sang that bridge with such apathy and a disconnect between lips and hearts that God was angered.  God is a jealous God.  He will not share his Glory with another.

This is what God the LORD says— 
       he who created the heavens and stretched them out, 
       who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, 
       who gives breath to its people, 
       and life to those who walk on it:

  ”I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; 
       I will take hold of your hand. 
       I will keep you and will make you 
       to be a covenant for the people 
       and a light for the Gentiles,

  to open eyes that are blind, 
       to free captives from prison 
       and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

  ”I am the LORD; that is my name! 
       I will not give my glory to another 
       or my praise to idols.

Isaiah 42:5-8

I’ll talk in length later this week on why the cross is crucial to worship.  I hope that God uses this to stir our hearts to be more vigilant in our pursuit to see Him glorified.  Please also pray fervently for the second service.  There is some kind of spiritual oppression going on, the prayer team and myself are not sure what it is or where it is coming from, but as we seek the lord this week we pray that he would open our eyes to see what (right now) is hidden.

I am very excited…I was already planning to go to the Lincoln Brewster concert on Monday in Mesa when our church administrator, J’Anne, handed me a paper.  Apparently, Lincoln is giving a guitar clinic in the afternoon before his concert.  I have wanted to go to one of Lincoln’s clinics since I started following him.  Here is a video of Lincoln talking about one of my churches favorite songs.  Let the Praises Ring!

My first (paying) gig as a worship leader was just after I graduated from high school for a church in Scottsdale called Scottsdale Wesleyan.  I was worship leader there for about two and a half years.  In that time the church went from about 60 in attendance to over 170.  During that growth we made the decision to two services instead of one.  Now Scottsdale Wesleyan had quite a few seniors that attended the church and hearing we were going to two services asked that we do two different formats, have a traditional service first hour and a contemporary service second hour.  So the pastor and I gathered that group together and asked them how they would like the music to be done.  Unanimously they said that they wanted just hymns.  No choruses.  No band.  Just piano and hymns.  So that’s what we did.  The first week doing two services was great, we had over 60 people in the traditional service.  The second week we had 40.  We thought it was just a fluke but the next two weeks told and interesting story.  The third week had 30 and the fourth 20.  In one month we succeeded in killing a service.  So the pastor and I met with the group again to inquire if we had done things wrong.  They had no answers for us.  They just said they didn’t like it.

Nostalgia- noun

a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

Nostalgia is an interesting thing.  It tends to remember the good feelings or thoughts surrounding a particular thing.  In this case hymns.  The group from the church remembered a time when all they sang in church was hymns and all of the good time, the youth of that day, the potlucks, the community.  What they forgot was how far musically church had come.  Worship music is more vibrant, expressive, personal and passionate then ever before.  When I did get answers from the group they said the service felt lifeless and lacked energy.  (for those of you that know me I rarely lack energy)  So the pastor and I prayed a lot about it and decided to continue the traditional service with some tweaks.  We kept piano but added a guitar, we kept the hymns but added some newer choruses and eventually a couple more singers.  The service thrived quite well under those conditions.

I guess since I am writing about worship I should define the term worship.

These definitions will go from narrow and lacking some important parts to broad and accurate.  Feel free to comment on these definitions.

Most Narrow-

That feeling you get when you are singing your favorite worship songs to God.

Less Narrow- 

The Sunday Service.

Less Broad-

Any meeting with believers where the word is preached and songs are sung.

Most Broad-

Our lives, everything that we do is an act of worship.

Romans 12 talks about a life of worship where your body is offered as a living sacrifice in worship.  Basically everything that you do, everything that you are should be an offering of worship.  Worship is giving glory to God.  Proclaiming his greatness, his power, his majesty.  Everything that you do, if glory is given to God, is an act of worship.  And why shouldn’t everything we do give glory to God?  He is the creator of everything.  He is a sovereign God in control of everything.  Our worship of God should never cease, it should be a habit.  Now I am bummed right now cause I can’t find the verse reference I wanted to use for the habit of praise bit.  Well here is another that is just a good.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. (Hebrews 13:15)

I’ll try to find that verse for a later post.

The year is 1744.  Hymn writer Charles Wesley is in Leeds, England, holding a prayer meeting in an upstairs room.  Suddenly there is a creak in the floorboards, followed by a massive crack, and the whole floor collapses.  All 100 people crash right through the ceiling into the room below.  The place is in chaos–some are screaming, some are crying, some just sit in shock.  But as the dust settles, Wesley, wounded and lying in a heap, cries out, “FEAR NOT! The Lord is with us; our lives are all safe.”  And then he breaks out into the doxology: “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow”–perhaps a bizarre choice of song, considering what just happened!  But here is the point: While everyone else was still licking their wounds, the heart of this unstoppable worshipper was responding with unshakeable praise.

-Great Hymns and Their Stories by W.J. Limmer Sheppard

An unstoppable worshipper lets nothing hinder them in their quest to glorify God.  Their offerings of worship are just as vibrant outside of the church as inside.  Many times worshippers are met with opposition, things that hinder their worship.  David’s first public act of unstoppable worship came when he faced Goliath.  Israel was so afraid of Goliath that no one would face him even though he had dishonored the Lord’s name.  So in walks David, too small for a suit of armor and still just a boy.  Yet this passionate lover of God cannot stand anyone disgracing the army of God (or God).  He faced Goliath so “the whole world will know there is a God in Israel” ( 1 Samuel 17:46)  Anointed by God and driven by a passion for Him, David overcame Goliath.  Through this act David glorified God not only to Israel but to the Philistines and the world.  

Now our hinderances to worship may not be as blatant as David’s but we all have things that distract us from our quest to glorify God.  It may be busyness, TV, books, lack of time, (the less obvious) kids, family, church.  The devil can even use good things to derail our quest.  We must not let anything hinder us from glorifying God.  If we do not God will simply make the rocks cry out. (Luke 19:40)

Hillsongs newest album, This is Our God, is probably one of their best in terms of music the church can use.  As I have listened to it over the last month I struggle with which songs I should introduce to the church.  There are so many that lyrically are amazing then add to it the great music…well I just can’t say enough.  I have already introduced the title track, This is Our God and Healer.  I am going to do Your Name High and With Everything at the next Freedom (Nov. 2nd).  This is one of my favorites…

He is Lord

Oh blessed lamb once slain will reign forevermore
His hands once bound now save our God will never fail

He is Lord, He is Lord, Sings my soul He is the Lord
And He lives, Yes He lives, I’m alive ’cause Jesus lives

‘Tis at the cross of Christ, where earth and heaven meet
Where sin is overcome To God the victory

And now let the earth resound with praise
For our Saviour God He reigns, he is high and lifted up
Arise, For the King of glory waits, He is coming back again

I’ll probably introduce that one soon.  I’ve been following Hillsong for eight or nine years and they have come a long way.  On their first CD’s Darlene Zschech wrote most of the songs now she has empowered new generations to write.  This most recent CD has different writers on almost every song.  The other progression has come in their music and the way that the live recording is produced.  By Your Side circa 1999 led by Marty Sampson to Sing to the Lord circa 2008 led by Marty Sampson.

I’m gonna purchase the new Chris Tomlin CD, Hello Love, later this week.  I won’t review it for a month or so because I feel it takes time to decide if a worship song has staying power.

Just got home from the Hymn Sing a little while ago…when my dad introduced a song I said to Peter “that sounds like something my mom would say.”  It was a hymn that I had never heard before called Count Your Blessings.  I have bolded some phrases that really spoke to me.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Refrain

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings. Wealth can never buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be disheartened, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Well everyone (and by everyone I mean peter, brian and my wife),

I have officially taken the plunge into the world of blogging.  I have been told it’s hard at first to consistently update you blog but gets easier over time. (and hopefully better)

When I write about our worship services I will be focusing more on the spiritual side as opposed to the musical side of things.  We could be the greatest band in all the world but if God is not being worshiped in our services we should all be fired.  Sometimes the musical side of things will enhance our worship and sometimes it will distract.  My goal is that the music takes a back seat to what God is doing through our worship.

9-21

I normally play guitar and lead our services but because of a lack of drummer I became the drummer today. (and Scott led)  It was kind of weird sitting at the back of the stage.  When I lead I tend to watch the congregation to see how they are responding.  By watching the congregation I can get a feel for where they are at in their worship: are they engaging with God, are they distracted, what is distracting them.  When I see that people are not engaged I pray that God would show me how I might help them connect with God.  Sometimes I say something, sometimes I just need to be silent, and other times I will repeat the chorus of  song, it really just depends on what I feel God wants me to do.  

Today I felt separated from the congregation.  Part of it was I was playing an instrument I am not as comfortable with so I was really focused on my playing.  The other part was I was at the back of the stage and couldn’t see everyone in the congregation.  It was hard to get a feel where the congregations was at.  One thing that I did notice and have been noticing over the last few weeks is that the first service is far more responsive and engaged then the second service.  I’m not sure why that is…this is something I will have to investigate more and I’ll keep you updated.

Well that’s it for my first post. Off to the Hymn Sing