Renew Your Worship – “Session 3″

This past Wednesday we asked “Does Worship Have a Structure?” Our author, Robert Webber, drew a parallel of the structure in worship to a dinner party. To drive this point home we had a bit of a dinner party in our class. We had some pizza and drinks and the first part of our class was a time to just commune together and feast. As we started to discuss the chapter it was easier to draw the parallel to this dinner party mentality in the structure of worship.

Webber says that there are four parts to worship: acts of entrance, a ritual of communication, a ritual of eating, and acts of dismissal. If you are to apply this to a dinner party it is pretty simple. We enter someones home at their invitation…greet each other…then we sit and chat for a bit…usually followed by a meal amidst conversation…then we leave and say our goodbyes and thank-you’s. So if we look at worship this way we can see it as well.

Feasting: This was a topic that we picked apart a little bit. Within feasting we decided you cannot keep that to just the idea of communion. Our thought was that feasting was encompassing of many things. We thought it was being fed as well as communion/community/unification and substance spiritually.

What we did in class was took one of our actual orders of service and divided it up with these four parts. This was the result:

Order 1/24/10

Announcement Countdown
411 – Announcements
Opening Song – “Reign In Us”
Prayer
Congregational Greetings
Offering
Worship Scripture
Congregational Worship
“Victory In Jesus”
“Jesus Messiah”
“Jesus Paid It All”
Pastoral Prayer
Sermon
Closing Prayer

We discussed that the first five items were all acts of entrance. The ctdwn. was a time for people to enter in and converse…the 411 is in an invitation to the events happening at FBC, the opening song was not only and invitation to the people to enter into worship, but in this case it was also an invitation to the Spirit of God to reign in the sanctuary and in our hearts and minds…Prayer was another invitation and congregational greetings was a time to commune once again.

Offering – this was looked at as part of our feasting or a covenant meal. We discussed that through offering we are giving a sacrifice. So we are laying our best at God’s feet.

Worship Scripture – Teaching and also part of feasting.

Congregational Worship Through Song – Teaching through lyrics but also feasting and communing with the Lord

Pastoral Prayer – Communication

Sermon – Teaching and feasting together

Closing prayer – Act of dismissal

So we can see that this structure is very evident in our worship service. We did, however, discuss that our acts of dismissal was a little lacking. Sometimes service ends abruptly and we don’t have the opportunity to process and communicate and in some cases say thank-you to the Lord. As a result we had a long discussion about how we could fix this. I met with Pastor Gerten and Kris yesterday and we began to brainstorm some possible things that we could apply to the end of service. So we are in the process of figuring some of this out as we all saw it as a need.

Be encouraged that we take our discussions seriously and want to hear the voice of the people in the church. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Renew Your Worship – “Session 2″

This past week we dove in and asked the question, “What is worship all about?”. There is a very simple answer to this: Worship is all about God and not about us.

We talked about the mystery and vastness of God. This is a direct parallel to our worship of Him. There is such a vast mystery in worship that we can overlook sometimes. If God is so big and unable to comprehend, then our worship should be a mysterious thing too. We often frame our worship into Sunday morning experiences of music and word and table. However, God calls us to live a life of worship so we must break down the walls of what we think worship is. As the book we are reading says, “Worship, like God, is a mystery that can never be exhausted.”

So let’s break it down.

First, Worship Extols the Character of God. p.12 tells us “God loves to be worshiped, God loves to hear us say, ‘We worship and adore you, we bless you, for you and you alone are God. There is no one besides you.’ This is what we do in worship. We worship and adore God simply because of who God is.”

Second, Worship Remembers Jesus Christ. “The God whom we worship – the God of the Bible – is a God of action.” – p.13. “Worship remembers the living, the dying, the rising of Christ. Through that action it promotes the overthrow of the powers of evil.”

Third, Worship Is An Experience of the Holy Spirit. We spent a lot of time on this thought. Here is why: “In worship we adore and magnify the Father…we remember the work of the son…we experience the work of the Holy Spirit.” – p.14. “Most of us in the western world are better at adoring and remembering than we are at experiencing…as we are open to the enabling work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit brings us into communion with the Father and the Son…As we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit working in worship, the Holy Spirit will enable us to experience the healing work of Christ and to know the reality of God. Faith is rekindled and revived – not by reasons that prove God – but by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit at work in worship.” So as we venture further into the idea of worship we need to remember that we serve a trinitarian (if that is a word) God. Are we experiencing the Spirit in our worship? Are we wrapped up in His presence?

Ways We Have Experienced the Holy Spirit:

These are some of the things our class mentioned that we feel the Spirit was moving in our own lives:

- Physically – the spirit moved in a group of people to the point where they were overwhelmed physically with his greatness

- Voice of God – the promptings of the H.S.

- Invitation – He is inviting us into His presence

- Awareness of Communion with God – this is something that we can expect and depend on if we are living in community with God. He will be there with us.

Fourth, Worship Is the Sign of the Future. “Worship as a sign of the future is a momentary experience of the future. In worship we enter the future…with the angels and archangels, with the the cherubim and seraphim and with the whole company of saints in God’s redeemed creation to cry and shout aloud, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, the whole earth is full of your glory.’”

Fifth, Worship Is My Response to God. “In worship we intend what it is that God would have in worship.” (Notice: it is not what we bring to worship but what God wants us in worship) “We intend to be open to God…to glorify and magnify God’s name…to remember the living…dying..and…rising of Christ…to receive…the power of the Holy Spirit…to be a sign of the church, the future.”

So, worship is such a broad thing that we cannot fully define it in a sentence. We also can’t expect to only experience worship on Sunday mornings. We must broaden our idea of what and when worship is. Feel free to share your thoughts.

“Renewing Your Worship” – Session 1

We started our new class, “Renewing Your Worship”, last night in Iron Men. It was a great time of conversation. For those of you who were not able to make it, I will be posting some of the main thoughts weekly and also allowing for those outside of the group to share their thoughts.

So, let’s get started.

Last night was an introduction to the book “Renew Your Worship” by Robert Webber. In the first session we dove in to what worship renewal is. The question was raised from Robert Webber, “How is it, I asked myself, that this same community of people have so much fun at a church outing, a church picnic, a potluck dinner, or social gatherings in the home, but become so rigid, so lifeless, so formal and cold when gathered for worship?”

Here is what the group discussed:

Tradition: Many of us were raised with the idea that church is a place to sit and be respectful. You do not make a scene. You are there to watch a sermon and sing respectfully.

Fear of Change: Because of the above tradition, we find it hard to take a step forward in worship because we are afraid of what change might bring.

Relationships to God and others: Our relationship to God may be weak and therefore our worship is a reflection of that. While our relationship to others may be strong outside of a church setting.

Offending Elders in Church/Respect: There are many in the church that we have looked up to and consider men and women of faith. If we are to express our worship and be full of life we don’t want to offend those who may find it distracting or disruptive. It is an issue of respect.

Preparedness: We may not be prepared to worship. We come in with the weight of the world and are not ready to jump right into worship.

Space/Sanctuary/God’s House: The space in which we gather is much different than when we have a church outing, picnic, or potluck. When we are in the sanctuary we are in God’s house and we must be respectful of that.

So these are some of the hindrances, but what exactly is worship renewal? According Robert Webber it is, “the celebration of God’s saving deeds that results in a much clearer sense of the power of the gospel at work in the assembly of people who have gathered to worship. It is also the reception of God’s power in our own lives…”

The guys came up with our own thoughts on what worship renewal is:

Application of worship and relationship with God: It is an extension of Sunday morning “singing”. Worship is applying what we sing about and living in worship with our relationship to God.

Response to the Holy Spirit: It is an openness to the movement of the Spirit. We are aware that the Spirit is there and react to it when prompted.

Communal: It is something that happens with more than one person. It may start with one but should spread to the community.

Evaluation of Calling/What God Wants: It is a time when we evaluate how God is calling us in worship. We should first and foremost ask, “What does God want in worship today.” We should not be concerned with what I can get or even what I can give but should be aware of what God wants and desires from us in our worship.

So these are some of the many thoughts that came out of last nights discussion. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the blog. I have also attached a form to fill out that asks a few questions about our church worship. Please fill it out and get it back to me for my records. Also, don’t forget to pick up your book!

Worship Renewal Form001

Worship Renewal Form002

1 Peter 2:9

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Read this verse through and think about this…we are chosen to declare the Lord’s praises. Why? Because we have been brought of darkness! Look back on your darkest hour and where you are now, today. What is it that got you out of the darkness. In some cases, it may have been your own strength. I can promise you that God was with you all the way. In other times, you may have felt God alongside you and you rested in His strength.

My prayer for this Sunday is that we can know we are brought up out of the darkness into His wonderful light! Think about the magnitude, beauty and sheer awesomeness of God and prepare your heart now only to sing His praises but to DECLARE them!

Defining worship

As stated in the January Newsletter Article I wanted to give you the opportunity to define what worship is. Robert Webber said that “worship is a celebration of God’s mighty deeds of salvation in Jesus Christ.” Now it’s your turn! Define what you think worship is and discuss it with others.

Christmas cont’d

So the last time i wrote i mentioned needing a renewal this Christmas in my own personal worship. I had been challenged to find the story behind some of the carols and came across an article that I thought was written quite well and gave a new insight on responding to the carols this season. Please feel free to follow the link to the article.

Click Here

Feel free to share your thoughts!

Christmas is a-comin!

I know it may seem a little early to be writing about Christmas. However, I have been listening to Christmas music since August in an effort to pick out our Christmas program for this year, so it is not too early for me.

In all seriousness, I have had something on my heart about worship at Christmas. I know this is a personal thing and I am sure that there are others who struggle with this as well. I have found it is easy to lose true worship at Christmas in our music specifically. We join together and sing some worship songs and some carols most every Sunday leading up to Christmas. This is great. God has called us to meet together and worship corporately. But are the songs we are singing truly worship from our hearts? We sing carols that may have lost some meaning. Are we thinking about what we are singing or just going through the motions of the “Christmas Carols”. Do we look at the words “Joy to the World the Lord is come; let earth receive her King” and think to ourselves I am joyful that my king came to earth as a baby only to die for my sins so that I may be free or do we think “oh, what a pleasant song to sing at Christmas time”. This may be just me, but I want to worship and celebrate even more at this time of year. Think about what he did for us! It is a wonder that he was willing to come for us and in such a lowly state. Isaiah 53 says,

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

He was willing to come and be despised only for us to know what love is! My challenge to myself and everyone who reads this is that this Christmas we worship our God like never before. We think about the songs we sing. We consider lifting our praises to the Lord in carols, modern praise songs, classic hymns, our own personal songs and in our very lives. Make Christmas a time to truly celebrate and not just go along with what we do every year, but to break the mold. I personally am writing a Christmas song because I want to express my gratitude toward God in the way he has blessed me. We expect to be given gifts every year. Why don’t we give the gift God has already given us and turn it right back to him?

Hurt, Hard Times and Hope

This past week we started our new series: Hurt, Hard Times and Hope. The thing I love about this title and the series as a whole is that it leads to something. You look at the title and you can focus on hurt and hard time and feel the weight of those words but once you look at the word hope, you know it is leading you somewhere. Without hope we have nothing to look forward to. We are stuck in darkness. But that is why our God is a God of hope! We need to look to him and continue moving forward. I learned this first hand with my recent problems with my health. The moment I decided to live in God’s strength is when I noticed a drastic change. Too often we try to live in our the hope of ourselves. That will lead us nowhere! God is our hope, our strength and salvation.

This Sunday there will be a song performed called “My Hope” off of Matt Redman’s latest album. You will recognize some of the lyrics from the hymn “The Solid Rock”. I want to encourage you to take just a few minutes out of your busy lives and meditate on these lyrics. Some of you may not want to do this because you can’t see the hope beyond the hurt and hard times. We need to take those moments of “selah” to recenter ourselves and make sure we have open eyes to see the glory of the hope of God! Please pray for God to reveal his hope to you.

“My Hope”

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly live on Jesus’ name

When the mountains are falling
When the waters are rising
I shall be safe in You
Though the nations are quaking
Every kingdom be shaking
Still I will rest in You

When darkness seems to hide Your face
I rest in Your unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.

When the mountains are falling
When the waters are rising
I shall be safe in You
Though the nations are quaking
Every kingdom be shaking
Still I will rest in You

Medical Results – Praise God In Everything

So the last few months I have been undergoing tests and have had many Dr. visits trying to figure out why I have a pain in my shoulder and numbness in my arm and hand. I had an arthrogram (which is a fairly painful procedure) and an MRI on my shoulder. It yielded no results. Then I had an X-ray on my neck which showed some abnormalities and looked like I might need surgery on my neck. They sent me to get an MRI to be sure. I got the results back today and it turns out I do not need surgery. That is a huge answer to prayer. I am trying to look at this as somewhat of a healing from God. A week ago I was panicked thinking I would have to go under the knife and on my neck of all places. Now I am still in the dark as to why I am having pains. But I live in the light knowing that God is in control of it all. I may have to just wait it out. I am currently in therapy trying to relieve some tension on my neck to see if that makes my nerves stop flaring up. Please pray that I will either be healed of the pain or that an answer can be found so I can be treated. It is a trying time because it is easy to get discouraged when there seem to be no answers.

Jon

Acts 16:25-31

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…”

What a great story of the power of God! Paul and Silas were facing dire circumstances and yet the continued to sing their praise to God. Our God is so gracious that he showered his love upon them and set them free because they were worshiping. Think about that. Worship is meant to be us giving our love and service to God and yet he responds! When we get “praise” from people do we respond by blessing them? God does!

No matter you are going through in your life, he can set you free! Just keep worshiping him with all that you are.

In my life, I have been undergoing many tests and doctor visits trying to figure out where my pain is coming from. I have numbness and pain in my arm and shoulder. I have been extremely distracted by everything. God gave me clarity this week and gave me a song. We are called to be free not only from sin but also distractions. Here are the lyrics to the song that we will be singing this Sunday during service. Please read it over and meditate on God’s great freedom.

Free
Jon Gerten/Kris Tarkiewicz

E C#m A
We come before You
E A
With hearts filled with praise
E C#m A
We bow before You
C#m A
And we come just as we are

E C#m A
we all have distractions
E A
We all have pain
E C#m A
we’ve all been sinners
C#m A
but you created us to be

E
Free in You presence
C#m A
We are Free in Your strength
F#m
You’ve broken our chains
E/G# A
and set the captives free
B E/G#-C#m-A
Praise to the King

C#m E/G# A B
We give thanks to the One who sets us free
C#m E/G# A B
We glorify the King above all Kings…..We are (chorus)