Contemporary Christian Music: A Debate, Introduction

Well folks, I’ve been slowly working up the courage for this particular topic. As you can guess by the title, I will be picking through the debate that exists between two general camps: those who see that the contemporary style of worship music has a place and is theologically valid, and those who don’t. Some of you think this debate is dead, and to some extent it may be. However, it can stretch even further and we can ask ourselves if we think that heavy metal can really give a Christian message, or if screamo music can portray Christ just as equally as a hynm night.

Throughout this debate, which will be long (I can assure you of that), we will be browsing through the different genres of music and discussing with various people their authenticity and feasibility within the Christian world view. I urge you to give as much feedback as you deem necessary to this debate, because while I might have an opinion or bias, the whole point is to get to the truth of the matter.

I plan on learning a ton throughout this endeavor, and hope you do as well. Stay tuned!

Love As I Have Loved

I was pondering John 15:12 last night as I was reading more of “Worship Matters”, and I got this distinct sense that the North American Christian (yes, including me) has a serious deficiency here.

A common argument is that while we must love someone, we don’t have to be friends with them. If you believe that, I want to cast it away as an absolute falsehood right away. The verse says “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” We are quick to forget that last part. “…as I have loved you.” How did Jesus love us? We have to know that before we can even begin to understand how we are to love others.

I won’t go into the specifics of what Jesus did for us because of His love, because you can already generate your own examples. They key here is to remember that we can’t love God and not love our brothers and sisters at the same time. That would be lying. 1 John 4:20 tells us this. So when we consider our relationships with the people we know, we can already see how short we fall in the area of love. What about our enemies? We are to love them too, and in a very real and transparent way. So I want you to think about that for as long as it takes. Do you love the worst person on the planet enough to die for him/her? Enough to be crucified in their place? Willingly? Until we can truthfully answer ‘yes’ to that question, we have not demonstrated the love of Christ that has been commanded. That is the exact love that He showed, and we do it a disservice when we pretend that we can love while keeping an arm’s distance from those we dislike.

Take this to heart in your worship team. Do you love them enough?

The Words

Well, election day has come and gone, and the winner decided. It will certainly be an interesting time ahead of us, so, like I said in my last post, let us pray for our leaders and bless them as they move forward into this HUGE undertaking.

For the real message of this post, I want to impress upon you something that I have gained from the book “Worship Matters”, which I am hoping to give a full review on shortly. The basic idea was that the words in the song are the important part, if you had to pick one. The music does add another element to those words and allows you to express them with certain emotional overtones, but the words are the heart; they are the message. So, even if you don’t sing, how much do you focus on the words? This part of a song is what ministers to us, and there is a reason we don’t just play instrumentals on Sunday! Remember that God didn’t just beam down a tape player (do people even use those anymore?), from which emitted this face-melting solo, and then His people got the message. No, instead He gave us His Word. Everything written in that book was meant to be spoken, and while the importance of music in worship is stressed throughout, it isn’t the cheif component of our worship. So, do you know the words to the songs you play? Do you simply read them off of the sheet as you go? Put these words into your heart, folks. Study the songs you play, glean the turths, find the scriptures that correspond, and know their significance. That really is a major factor to intentionalizing your worship. What good is the Truth if you don’t know it? Or if you don’t speak it?

Men’s Conference Update

Well, as I type I am in the 3rd session of 6 this weekend, and so far each message has varied significantly. They all attack the same issue, just from different angles, which is something to be appreciated. As I said earlier, the general theme is that men of courage act with no compromise in today’s world (which, coincidentally, chides you into a life of compromise). This is an important topic today, and for a number of reasons.

As most of you already know, men in church seem bored. There are endless books and works out there depicting this problem, so I won’t really get into it. This means that the church hasn’t captured the attention of men, and while the blame doesn’t rest on the church alone, it does present a siginificant problem; if men aren’t interested in church, what are they interested in? What do they invest their time and energies in? Unfortunately, the answer is already clear to many of you. As I always stress, none of us are perfect, so this isn’t a big “judge guys” post. However, there are some key areas that men really do struggle with, and the obvious answer is the church. Guys are stuck in a rut with their marriage, their sin, their job, and any other number of things. So the general question these pastors are asking us is this: Are you going to stand for that? You are getting the life sucked out of you, and you know it is happening, so what will you do?

This is an incredibly relevant message for men in North America today. We are rich and bored, which is obviously not a good combination.

I’ll do another update tonight to finalize the thoughts on today’s sessions and hopefully again tomorrow before we leave this place.

Oh, and as a side note, Lake Louise is beautiful, as always. The food is incredible, too. Until tonight!

Handling Minor Disagreements on the Team

I guess the title really gives it away. I won’t give you any hard and fast rules to live by, namely because each situation is unique. They key ingedient to solving these small disputes (whatever they may be, political, musical, opinion-related, etc) is always grace. Each person has been bought for the highest of prices, has been saved by grace alone, has seen mercy when they deserved wrath, has experienced God’s goodness and is witness to the love of Jesus Christ. All too often we choose to argue over comparitively petty things, and they cause division among us. In 2 Timothy 2:23, Paul says “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” It goes on to say that the Lord’s servant should not quarrel, be able to teach and not be resentful and to be kind. Sometimes, this is an awfully contrasting image when we look at ourselves. So, take that to heart, and ask yourself: “In the grand scheme of salvation and Almighty God, how big is this issue I want to bring up?”

Basically, don’t be so anxious to demand repentance and make everyone see your side. Rejoice in the fact that you are all saved by the blood, and the petty arguments will fade away like they were never there.

Key Ideas to Leading your Worship Team, Part 1

I am going to start up a series on leading a worship team from a follower’s perspective. Too often, the onus is laid upon the follower to simply be a servant and do what is asked. This is a good thing to teach, but you leaders out there have got to step it up with them! Here are some things you can try that will make your job a LOT easier, and make your band mates follow you out of a sense of desire, not duty. These ideas come from multiple sources, ranging from books to the RCAC curriculum to personal experience. These tips are intended to foster that servant heart you seek in your team.

Patience. This one is tough to have sometimes, when the team as a whole just isn’t getting the groove or someone isn’t listening. Here are some not-so-obvious reasons why your patience is a huge requirement for leading the team:

You need to square with the fact that not every task will go just the way you want it to. Therefore, allow for change to take place. Be ready for non-compliant band members. They might have their own thoughts and ideas, and if you don’t demonstrate patience and willingness to hear them, you will not only lose influence over them, but they will also lose sight of your heart and vision.

Decisiveness. Being able to make a sound and timely decision is one of those things we are afraid to do sometimes because we might step on someone’s toes. In some cases this may be true, but there are some components to this quality of a true leader that might no be readily apparent:

Follow up on that decision, especially if it had to be made at the drop of a hat. The buck stops with you, but that doesn’t mean you make the decision and leave it as is. Once all is said and done, ask your band how they think it went, and LISTEN. Showing that you actually care how it affected the team will go miles in making sure that none of them walk away with hurt feelings or unspoken frustration. Don’t think you can get away without doing this either…even some of the most outspoken people won’t tell you everything unless you are intentional about it and ask.

Confidence. You need confidence in God, your superiors, your followers, your aim and yourself. If you lack that in any of those areas, don’t wait. Build it now. Here is what you might not have realized about confidence:

It is extremely easy to spot a leader who is complacent with any of the above mentioned things. Confidence is very contageous, but a lack thereof is as well. Once you know of your own confidence in these things, make sure that your team has the same. You need to know about issues going on between your team and the church leadership, or if they don’t think that your vision is quite on par. Once you know those things, you can address them face to face. Share WHY you are confident in these things, but think about it first. Communicate that message clearly, and it will be easier for your followers to catch on.

This is by no means the end, and there is much more to come. Until next post!

Interesting Search Terminology

I was cruising through my WordPress Dashboard just now, and saw that someone stumbled upon my site while searching for the reason ‘why we shouldn’t have worship teams’. This is more of a question and a challenge to take up that side of the debate, even if you don’t agree with it. Lay it on me! Why do you think that worship teams should be abolished?

Worship In All Things

Hey there folks, and happy Thanksgiving for the Canucks among you.

Today’s post after the Thanksgiving hiatus deals with worshiping in all things you do. Recently, I posted about doing more in church than just playing on the worship team. With that post in mind, I’d like to push that a little more and suggest this: expand your horizons with regard to which activities can be worshipful, while eliminating the things in your life that you know are not and can never be.

This is a pretty huge task to take on, because you are broadening horizons while pruning branches, so to speak. I’ll start with the first half, and then continue on in the next post. Some people think that worship can only be done in the church, while listening to music (or playing it), and that is the defined time of worship. If you happen to fall into that category, let me rock your world for a moment. Exhorting one another, learning the Truth from your pastor and applying it, feeding the hungry, acting out of servanthood for one another; all of these things that are done can be done with an attitude that points somewhere other than the self. More specifically, acting as Christ would have us act (as He lays out throughout the New Testament) throughout our daily lives is glorifying to God, because it displays our devotion to Him over ourselves.

Remember that something that can be worshipful can also get turned on its head if we misuse it or approach it incorrectly. If we play music just so people can see how cool we are, the worship team is up there to create their own worshipers, instead of acting as mirrors and reflecting the praise upward. In the same way, something that is not currently a worshipful task for you could easily become one. All that needs to be done is that you focus on Christ, as opposed to the deeds of the flesh. Ask yourself “How can I do this for God?”

A good example that I will finish on comes with a bit of a confession. I like to play computer games. There we go, I said it. Now, for a long time, this was all for my own personal enjoyment. I wondered on occasion how cool it would be if I could transform this hobby into a form of worship…a sign of some kind of dedication. I then discovered (begin shameless plug here) Christian Gamers Online. These guys are actually an online ministry, specifically focusing on bringing gamers to God. They run servers for several online games, they do a Bible study, men’s group and much more. Obviously to me, this was revolutionary. Check them out at www.christiangamers.net and see for yourself. So there you have it. Something not ordinarily considered as a worshipful activity has been transformed into an evangelistic platform.

D2W Update: Personal Worship

Now this was an awesome session. The talk actually centered around our attitudes as individual worshipers. I’ll stick with one main thought, because it impressed upon me something that I have had a heart for ever since I saw a Christian say this for the first time.

Have you ever told God in prayer that you weren’t worthy? I know I have, and I have heard others say it too. It might seem like the right thing to say, but know this: It is completely and totally untrue. It was the fact that Jesus redeemed us that we became worthy in God’s sight. God says to Israel that they have been made holy, and they are to act as such. He never said that we had to act in a certain way in order to attain holiness.

Remember how the Tabernacle worked. You would enter the outer area, the holy place. It was there that you would make your sacrifices and make atonement. Only afterwards would you ever enter into the Holy of Holies. Now, that atonement has been permanently made, and there is no blockage to the Holy of Holies. Now, this doesn’t mean you just barge in! Recognizing what Jesus did is crucial to even knowing God, since nobody ever gets to the Father except through the Son in the first place. This doesn’t just apply to salvation, because Jesus is ever interceding on our behalf. Asking for the forgiveness of sin is still necessary today, but the fact that you can go into that Holy of Holies at will without being destroyed is amazing in itself! God no longer resides in that tent. The tent was torn, and He now resides everywhere. He is with you always, and it is all because of the work of Christ. Wow…

Conferences And You, Part Deux

Ok, last post I made a bit of a challenge to step out and maybe take a financial risk on a conference where you otherwise might not have. Here is where I will qualify that statement.

I don’t think that everyone is meant to go to every conference. Yes, you could potentially be fed at each one, but I can’t claim to know God’s heart in this for everyone. Sometimes He wants you to go, sometimes He doesn’t. What it calls for is discernment. Seeking God’s will is all about hearing His voice. There are so many voices pulling on you in this world, let alone your own and Satan’s, that picking out God’s voice without actually learning how to can be fairly dangerous.

SO, the key isn’t necessarily to step out and go for every conference out there. But WHEN God calls you, you go. Obstacles for us are non-issues for God. I firmly believe that the reason we struggle so much in this area is because we aren’t quite sure where God calls us to. Imagine how nice it would be if He’d just send us an angel assistant for every decision…

Let me know what you think! How do you know when God says to go, and when He says to stop?