Preaching on Worship

My first real venture into the world of preaching last Sunday. Topic ofcourse is worship. Click here to have a listen.

Worship and men

What would a bricky (builder) in his early 20's think of church sung worship, has been the question I've read so much of lately. A bricky being the man's man and his response being the ideal barometer to how masculine church worship is. Joel Virgo in his piece for Resurgence comments on how more masculine corporate worship is possible.

Is it possible for men to come into a Sunday worship service and reflect: "Now this is a masculine environment?" I reckon it is, but you have to be intentional to get there. Some of our songs lend themselves to a masculine response, and they should be chosen over others. I'm talking about songs full of objective truth that help guys know what they're singing about.

As for songs that subjectively express our love or our longing for Jesus, well they are entirely biblical. Just beware of unbalance. A normal masculine man is going to be troubled by his first visit to church (even if he got saved at Alpha), if it consists of standing to sing for 40 minutes to an ancient Jew words he would find awkward writing in a card to his girlfriend! You know the songs I mean.

And as a rule, maybe your worship leaders (if they are guys) should be the sorts who remind you of Johnny Cash rather than Art Garfunkel!

Michael Jackson and Celebrity culture

It's difficult to ignore the news and hype around Michael Jackson's death. William Crawley's blog post makes a great comment on celebrity culture in general.

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." I've no idea who said that, or if it has much merit, but it's eminently quotable. It also has the virtue of being an "idea", albeit a fairly pedestrian one.

But it prompts a conversation about celebrity culture and our global obsession with Michael Jackson. Perhaps one of the reasons why so many people are building "shrines" at locations related to Michael Jackson's story is that celebrity culture has taken the place that religion once had in our society. Celebrities are secular saints. Their deaths become moments of pseudo-religious intensity. People make pilgrimages to celebrity sites where once they travelled to Canterbury.

Celebrity is also a replacement for family and for a sense of community. Postmodern people live postmodern lives. Often separated, often isolated, they crave community through virtual connections. The common experience of a media-generated narrative becomes a unifying feature of their lives.

Is that why we're all talking about Michael Jackson so much?

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Chris Moyles and worship

One of the things you get used being a Christian in the UK is the media's misconception of Christianity and the church. Partly it is justified as many churches have become little more than museums though the media haven't really caught on to the fact there is more to the UK church than liturgy, hats, solemnity, old cathedrals and blue rinse.

So it's exciting when a extremely popular prime time radio DJ and 'shock Jock', Chris Moyles gets excited about a Pentecostal church service (Kingsgate Community Church) that he's accidentally seen on TV. Check out the video. Probably the best I've seen or heard Tim Hughes' 'Happy Day' been played in a church.

Art from the Church should be a rampant ....

A great quote on missional art from a guy who's name has been popping up a lot recently in what I've been listening to and reading

Art from the Church should be a rampant, outspoken, prophetic invader. For
instance, write simple tunes on Sunday morning to serve the liturgy,then go “out
there” in culture as prophet, going to the edge of who you are, creatively
Harold Best

Re:Sound free sampler

Have just been listening to the free sampler from Re:Sound, the new music ministry from Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill Church. Download it from here though be quick as it's only on for another few days. It's pretty good stuff, most of the songs lack the usual cheese and predictability we've come to know and love from worship music.

Tozer on Song

A good reminder for corporate worship leaders

"Song cannot bring the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit invariably brings song."

A.W. Tozer God’s Pursuit of Man

Unfinished Song: O Great Spirit of God

Another unfinished song. Inspired by the old hymn Spirit Divine attend our prayer by a guy called Andrew Reed




Light of God expose our darkness
And lead us along the paths of righteousness
Fire of God burn in our hearts
And let our lives be completely yours

O great Spirit of God
Come attend our praise
O great Spirit of God
Come fall afresh

Peace of God rest in our soul
That all may know the sacrifise You made
Wind of God inspire our hearts
That all may see the glory of you face

@copyright Colt35 music

Unfinished song: Jesus

Another nearly complete song. I think this one needs another verse and maybe another line for the chorus.




Jesus came from the fathers side
Jesus God revealed to man
Jesus human yet fully God
Jesus we come to worship you

We join in the neverending song of praise
to the one who gave us all

Jesus who took God's wrath for us
Jesus hung cursed on a cross
Jesus alive now death powerless
Jesus we devote our lives to you

@copyright Colt35 music

Worship Star

A satirical song by Shekelback taking a swipe at the Christian music Industry

Blog statistics

I've been blogging now for nearly two years. I really haven't blogged or given as much time as I intended to due to posting being low on my list of priorities. Though it's always exciting to see the variety of different countries where people have been reading this blog from thanks to Google Analytics. The majority may have stumbled upon it by accident and quickly moved on but it's encouraging when you get the odd positive email or comment.

 

Since starting there's been nearly 3000 visits direct (doesn't include viewing from a reader) to my blog from people across 72 different countries. Many of these have stayed on my blog for a matter of seconds. Here's top ten breakdown of visitor numbers

 

                                             visits
1. United States                    1,273
2. United Kingdom               952   
3. Canada                            117  
4. Australia                          114   
5. Netherlands                     30  
6. South Africa                    29   
7. Germany                         27   
8. India                               24  
9. Singapore                       23 
10. Philippines                    23   
 

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Extreme Acoustic guitar

Pretty impressive. Apparently they call it extreme guitar picking

Unfinished song: Because of Jesus

When it comes to writing songs I find it easy to start them but extremely hard to complete them. I've very unprofessionally recorded several of my songs and I'll post them over the next while. All the songs are at different stages of incompleteness. Hopefully this can give you an idea of what I'm trying to do with the songs.

This song is nearly complete. I wanted a song to describe what Jesus has done, what that means and how we stand in confidence because of the gospel.





I'm standing here in the light of the cross
Humbled by God's amazing grace
I'm standing here justified
No longer needing to prove myself

Because of Jesus
I'm free

I'm standing here as a new creation
Adopted as a child of God
I'm standing here freed from curse
No more condemned or broken

I'm standing here with all I need
Equipped with heaven's resources
I'm standing here in anticipation
of the hope of the life to come
@copyright Colt35 music

Grace and the worship leader

Continuing in my thinking about grace, what does it mean to stand in grace as a worship leader?

As worship leaders knowing that we stand before God righteous because of Jesus dying on the cross:
- Frees us from the need to perform.
- Frees us from having to be the next Matt Redman
- Frees us to be who we are when leading
- Frees us from depending upon the congregation or Church Leader’s approval
- Frees us from trying to continually prove ourselves as good enough
- Frees us to view failure or musical train wrecks as a learning exercise instead of being ministry shattering
- Frees us to fail
- Frees us from trying to be perfect.
- Frees us from expecting others to be perfect and lead worship the way we want
- Frees us from being hard on ourselves for not reading the bible, praying or practising enough
- Frees us from guilt that we’re not doing enough, being more creative, taking risks etc
- Frees us from comparing ourselves to that other worship leader who leads so much better
- Frees us from worry that we’re playing the right songs for a Sunday morning

Grace

Have been really thinking about grace lately. Part of my realisation is that I've been a bit of a legalist for the last while. Somehow since my last revelation of God's lavish grace I've lost that awareness that I'm righteous in Christ and reverted to adding my own little rules onto the gospel.

Boy can legalism drag you down. It's such a tiring pursuit. You try to prove yourself not alone to God but also to others. You start performing to an audience of many gaining some sort of peusdo salvation from their approval.

The burden that is lifted off shoulders for those that have grasped grace is immence. Terry Virgo is brilliant at communicating this great truth. Check out his 4 talks on grace. Well worth a listen.

Here's a great quote from his recent blog:


"You don’t need to live as others who have no hope; to amass wealth and put your trust in uncertain riches; to embrace short-term values and goals; to play safe and avoid danger. Grace releases you to live dangerously in the present – because you know that the one who holds world history in his hands is with you. "

Fear

A sad report on the BBC website about a woman with agoraphobic who hadn't left her house for 18 years. Fear is such a thief! I hate fear! I hate the fear in me!


Fear condemns
Fear controls
Fear traps
Fear hides
Fear rejects
Fear procrastinates
Fear hoards
Fear bullies


Christ frees!

Whatever Happened To Music Ministry?

Is it me or does there seem to be more and more posts, articles etc like this one by Cross Rhythms journalist Mike Rimmer.

Someday

Someday, we'll need this very useful tool but for now it's still excel


Introducing Planning Center Online from Planning Center on Vimeo.

To infinity and beyond ............

I've read many great blog posts recently but this one by Shaun Gorves stands out. Something I'm continually challenged on, how I spend my time best. To see your life as a speck in eternity and how this life, all 80 years of it, can affect the next trillion years plus ad infinitum.

We need more driving

Interesting point made by Jordan, should a worship leader not alone be encouraging or preparing worship on a Sunday morning but also be actively encouraging worship the rest of the week? Or is that the pastor's job?

If you drive to God’s address Monday through Saturday, you need less of a roadmap to get there on Sunday!