Fanatic :: What do you worship?

I had one of the most awesome experiences at church Sunday. People worshiped the Lord. They really, truly, worshiped God. It was incredible, and it’s sad that we don’t have experiences like that every Sunday.

We started a new series this Sunday called “Fanatic” (borrowed from our friends up at LifeChurch.tv – we used the series design although our messages are unique). The entire concept of the series is, “What do you worship?” and I was fortunate enough to have the chance to put together the entire service for this past Sunday myself – I led worship AND gave the message. (Incidentally, if you’ve ever thought it was a lot of work putting together a solid message for Sunday, try adding a full worship set to your work load and see what you think.) The end result was that I was able to speak about something I have a deep personal passion for, and by all accounts God used it to really impact our church. Listen in and enjoy!

Fanatic on the FOSM website

Direct mp3 download

Brian

I set up a video camera during the service this weekend to record our band. The camera did an okay job picking up the sound – it didn’t get the bass very well, but it’s pretty good overall. Here are a couple of my favorites.

“Marvelous Light” by Charlie Hall

“Closer” by Wilfred Cuthbert

An excerpt From the book “Why Men Hate Going to Church” by David Murrow

“Music In the Local Church Fits the Tastes and Sensibilities of Women and Children

Children’s songs about Jesus always present His gentile side. I learned this song before I was three years old:

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where he lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

Such songs are appropriate for children, but many people carry a picture of sweet, passive, sleeping Jesus their entire lives. Some boys never recover from this image. To balance this impression, the church used to allow aggressive, warlike images of Jesus as well. In 1865 English composer Sabine Baring-Gould wrote this song as a children’s march:

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle, see His banners go!

But by the turn of the twentieth century, hymns had taken a decisive move toward the feminine. In 1913, C. Austin Miles wrote ‘In the Garden’. Notice the difference in tone:

He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ is passe’ in most congregations, but ‘In the Garden’ is still widely sung. Christ has put down His sword and picked up a daisy. He is no longer a warrior; He is a lover. The very image of Christ taking up arms (as He does in Revelation 19) is simply unacceptable in a lot of churches today.

Praise music as accelerated this trend. Not only are the lyrics of many many of these songs quite romantic, but they have the same breathless feel as top forty love songs.

‘Hold me close, let your love surround me. Bring me near, draw me to your side.’

‘I’m desperate for you, I’m lost without you.’

‘Let my words be few. Jesus I am so in love with you.’

‘You’re altogether lovely… altogether wonderful to me.’

‘Oh Lord, you’re beautiful. Your face is all I seek.’

‘You are beautiful, my sweet, sweet song.’

Think of the mental gymnastics that must take place inside a man’s subconscious mind as he sings lyrics like these. He’s trying to express his love to Jesus, a man to lives today, using words no man would dare say to another, set to music that sounds like the love songs his wife listens to in the car. (By the way, men never call each other beautiful, lovely, or wonderful.)

I think this is why women generally enjoy praise music more than men do. Lyrically and stylistically, praise music resonates with a woman’s heart. Men can and do enjoy praise music, but it’s an acquired taste.

We can’t go back to ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’, but no on has composed a masculine praise song to take its place. Songwriters, please fashion some songs that speak of battle, strength, and victory. Imagine Christ as our Commander, Coach, or Scout, not our Boyfriend. If you need inspiration, look to the Psalms. It’s time to balance Christ the Lover with Christ the Warrior again. The men are depending on you.”

I originally sent this letter to our band. Hopefully you will benefit from it too.

As I was sitting here thinking about worshiping God, it struck me how fortunate we are to be the ones God has chosen to lead his church in music. Alone we are nothing special- each of us is a man or woman who is full of sin, deserving of nothing apart from God’s grace. And yet he called and equipped each of us to play music and lead our brothers and sisters into his presence to worship him. How awe-inspiring is that! At times I feel proud to be a musician at church. I feel as though I should be looked up to or praised for what I do. But when it all comes down, I am no different than anyone else. I am no more special than the guy who vacuums the church every week. We are both serving God by serving his church. And the same is true for each of us. We are on stage, doing what we love, but we are there only by the grace of God. My prayer is that, were God to ask any of us to step down and just vacuum the church every week instead of being up on stage, that we would gladly do so- just for the joy of serving Him.

In the end, what it all boils down to is realizing the greatness, grace and love of God, and worshiping him with our whole heart because of that. When we give him our absolute best, he takes over and does things through us that we never thought possible. As for myself, I am learning what it means to be a worship leader every moment of every day of my life. I face countless times where I have no clue what the heck I’m doing or why God chose me to do it. But somehow, in the end, those are the times I end up seeing how deep God’s love is, and how he wants to use my weaknesses, our weaknesses, as much as our strengths. As we play this weekend, be humble. Be willing to admit your weaknesses to God and allow him to make you stronger. Be ready to go places with God that you never thought possible. And above all, be prepared to worship with everything you have.