Warning: The following post is intentionally over the top and may cause emotional damage to self-proclaimed "Worship Leaders." Though it represents a genuine expression of the author's views on the subject of W.L.s, he has written with a light heart and means it all in good fun.
WARNING: The following post was born out of the author's annoyance. Having had his fill of secularists celebrating the Advent season with songs about: a) chestnuts b) yule logs c) snowfall d) drummer boys (who, having just gotten her baby to sleep would encourage a drum-toting toddler to begin banging away????) e) logs on the fire filling people "with desire" (logs have never done this sort of thing in my experience.) f) sleigh rides Through the author's rejection of such secular trivialities he has come to have some appreciation for other secularists - namely those who make some attempt (however, poorly and/or whimsically) to actually articulate the real meaning of Christmas. The videos posted below reflect this. Sure... I know... Pastors aren't supposed to like such things. And normally I would eschew the world of washed-up, falsetto-screaming, leather-clad rockers - but alas! I was once an aspiring rocker and these are just too good (and ridiculous) not to enjoy during this wonderful season! How should they impact Christian living, thinking, and the worship God each Lord's Day?
A few words on the use of music in worship from my colleague, benefactor, and personal friend, Pastor Alistair Begg of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio.What do these things have in common? * Praise * Prayer * Proclamation I’ll give you a hint... they all have something to do with worship music. I’ll explain in a moment, but first let’s think about the wonderful problem of worship music. Why it's wonderful...Shakespeare said, “The man that hath no music in himself... is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils." I’ve never understood people who don’t care about music and I can see what Bill Shakespeare was driving at when he said that such people were better suited for “treasons, stratagems, and spoils.” There just seems to be something criminal about the kind of person who can sit idly by in a restaurant, chewing a sandwich and carrying on a conversation with a friend all the while being totally unmoved by the Nickelback “song” that has just begun oozing out of the speakers above them. How can they just sit there???? How can they be so callous???? Why aren’t they on their feet demanding the speakers be unplugged and the radio ran over by a steamroller?  Rod Stewart sporting a jacket from the Aunt Dixie collection As you might gather, when I hear bad music in a restaurant (or anywhere else) my reaction is much different from the aforementioned persons. Suddenly my sandwich turns to ashes in my mouth. Filled with a nameless dread I lose all interest in conversation. With a blank expression on my face and a hopeless look in my eyes I begin wondering aloud to my waitress whether I can substitute one of my side-dishes for a pair of reliable earplugs. All of this to say, music REALLY matters to me. When it comes on, regardless of where I am, I instinctually pay attention to it. I just can’t help it! To my mind music is the queen of all of the arts. It is something to be treated with integrity and reverence. It is a vehicle through which the deepest expressions of the human soul can be conveyed... And yet somewhere along the line we exchanged all of this for Rod Stewart... oh, dear! While I appreciate all forms of good music I nevertheless contend that the highest form of music is worship music. Here’s why; when properly utilized, worship music allows Christians to fulfill the main purpose of their existence – namely, to glorify and enjoy the triune God. Why it's problematic... C.H. Spurgeon co-opts youth pop-culture in an attempt to 'get young people in the doors.' I think many church leaders have forgotten why we have worship music in our church services at all... and this seems to have led to a great deal of confusion within the Church. What else would we expect to happen when previously shunned musical genres (particularly those common to youth pop-culture) are suddenly adopted within churches and promoted by leading Christian voices? Confusion has also arisen because of the adoption of a new pragmatic philosophy defending these genres against any who question their place in the worship of God (ever heard this one – “If you really want to get young people in the doors you need trendy music”???) All of this does not appear to have led to the strengthening of the modern-day Church... If anything it appears to have created further divisions along artificial lines – namely, contemporary, traditional, and blended lines. Many churches even segregate their congregations along these lines, offering separate services to ensure that the respective musical factions will never have to worry about bumping into those with differing tastes. These services receive their labels form the type of music included and from the accoutrements of that particular style of music – things that run the gamut from vestments and pipe organs to sandals and drum-sets. Surely, there is something very problematic about all of this.... right? Plato is often misquoted as having said, “when the mode of the music changes the walls of the city shake.” Though this is a misquote, I for one believe that there is great wisdom in it. As the mode of music has changed within the Church over the past couple decades a very great and unhelpful shaking has accompanied it. Today in many places the music used in the worship of God is adrift on a sea of trends. The blustery opinions of every windbag with a love for a given genre seem to blow unrelentingly upon the church. In many places well-meaning pastors and musicians unknowingly shortchange their flocks with the kind of highly-commercialized, FM-friendly, theologically-vacuous songs that pockmark the landscape of "worship" today... And again, I believe that it all goes back to the fact that we seem to have forgotten why we have worship music in the first place. What's the solution...The solution lies in understanding what these three things have in common:
* Praise * Prayer * Proclamation Figured it out yet? Ok, fine! I'll tell you... In the Bible, music fulfills three roles within the context of worship – the three categories listed above. The reason we have worship music at all is to engage in one of these three actions - praise, prayer, and/or proclamation. As someone has helpfully defined these three categories: Praise is the lauding of God for His acts and attributes, acknowledging His supremacy in all things. Prayer is communication addressed to God (did you realize that the vast majority of the songs you sing in church are actually prayers?) Proclamation encompasses any activity that proclaims the Word of God – quotation, explanation, teaching, and preaching. The author of these definitions concludes: “I contend that when worship music is properly fulfilling these roles according to biblical principles, discord dissipates, unity increases, and the Spirit utilizes music for it’s highest purpose...” And I fully agree! Here is our solution – whatever genre of worship music we choose, let’s evaluate its usefulness and propriety based on the principles of the Bible. Let’s ensure that our choice of worship music is not rooted in the world, in pop culture, in pragmatism, or in mistaken notions of success... Instead let’s seek, by God’s grace, to conduct our worship music in such a way that every Christian under our care will be better enabled to fulfill their chief purpose – namely, to enjoy and glorify the triune God. Some Thoughts About Truth John Lennon once sang a song, the chorus of which said: "All I want is the truth! Just give me some truth!" Clearly John Lennon was raising a very important issue, namely, if there is truth where can it be found? Allow me to offer a twofold answer that is so simple you might be prone to dismiss it: 1) I believe truth exists 2) I believe that the purest of all truth is to be found in God's Word, The Bible. Why do I believe these things? I believe them because Jesus Christ believed them. In one of His great prayers for his followers Jesus made the following request of God the Father followed by an objective truth-claim about the nature of the Bible: "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth" John 17:17 Perhaps you might respond - but if it's really true then why is the Bible considered so controversial? Why do so many otherwise intelligent and rational people dismiss it as a collection of fairytales from the childhood of our species? One way to answer this is to make the observation that genuine truth has always been controversial. Even the pagan philosophers of the ancient world realized this - take this quote from Plato for instance:  Did you notice in the above quote how Plato, inadvertently aligns himself with a couple of the constant drumbeats of the Bible? Plato, not only acknowledges that truth exists but that those who believe in the truth and disseminate the truth will encounter mocking opposition. Let me encourage you to ignore the opposition - whether that opposition comes from outside of you or inside of you. Read the Bible. Pray that the Lord would help you to understand His truth. And as you do so, be encouraged that God's Word declares: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."
"Do you do singing sermons?" The above question came to me from an amiable furniture salesman I met while shopping for a new couch. Before I could answer he volunteered his views about singing sermons, "Pastor Janet, the new minister at my church - it's the church over on the corner just out here - do you know Pastor Janet? No? Well Pastor Janet always does a singing sermon at least once a month and it is to die for!" Unsure how to respond to this man who described Pastor Janet's singing sermons in the way other people would describe chocolate cake I simply smiled and made a noise that was supposed to be sound like an interested "ah" but came out more or less like the a bleating sheep. Ignoring my bleat the salesman continued with a bright smile on his round, jovial face, "So, do you do singing sermons?" "Well you see..." I began, "I... um... well, frankly the thing about it is..." and right then and there in the futon section I proceeded to share with him what the thing about it was. Namely, I had to let him in on the fact that I do NOT do singing sermons... a truth that left the man somewhat crestfallen. I mention this story because it helps raise another question: "What kind of sermons will I hear at All Souls Church?"Here at All Souls Church we are committed to Expository Preaching – and particularly a method called “SCEOTS” or Systematic Consecutive Exposition of the Scriptures (a phrase that I believe originally comes from Leith Samuel’s autobiography, “A Man Under Authority”).
Face it! We are living in a Walmartized culture. And why not! Walmart provides a useful service, they offer their customers any product they could possibly want at rock-bottom prices. All of this is well and good in its proper place but what happens when Walmartized desires slip into other areas of life, like – say – the church? What happens when churches begin marketing themselves as little more than sanctified superstores offering a plethora of religious products and novelties to church-hunters who have become little more than religious consumers? When these things happen it is clearly time for those looking for a church to roll back their expectations. We need to remind ourselves that the church and Walmart are two distinct institutions just as consumerism and discipleship are two different outlooks.
In such a confusedly consumeristic culture what should a person be looking for in a church?As a pastor I want to suggest that when looking for a church one must resist the temptation to ask “does this church have what I want” and one must instead ask, ‘what makes a church a church in the first place?’ Another way to ask this question is to say, ‘what are the true marks of a true church?’ The Reformed tradition of Christianity (of which I am part) encourages people to look for a church by raising this very question and likewise, the Reformed tradition provides a few helpful answers. According to the Westminster Confession of Faith (one of the historic Reformed statements of Biblical Christianity) true churches can be distinguished as those where: “the doctrine of the gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed (with) purity.” In other words the three features that we in the Reformed tradition invite church-hunters to look for are: 1. Does this church teach and embrace the gospel? 2. Does this church faithfully administer the means of grace? 3. Is there purity in this church’s public worship. Let’s consider each of these in turn: 1. Does this church teach and embrace the gospel? When visiting a church your first question should be what does this church believe and why do they believe it. Attending a single service should be enough to give you some answer to this question. However, if you cannot get an answer to this question or if you can only get vague or clichéd answers chances are the church might not place a great emphasis on the gospel. This is a very tragic but very common situation in many churches. There is nothing more important than understanding a church’s stance on the gospel. By “gospel” I mean “the good news of Biblical Christianity” and/or the entire body of Christian truth from Genesis to Revelation sometimes referred to as “Redemptive History.” Knowing a church’s stance on this should determine whether it is the church for you. From a biblical standpoint all true churches of Jesus Christ should clearly and frequently articulate a few key concepts that are central to the gospel. Here are some example: · That there is only one gospel (Galatians 1:8&9) – and therefore one true Savior and one true religion (i.e. the Christian faith) · That the central figure of the gospel is God’s Son, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:18-22) · That the work of Christ can be summarized thus, “God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor. 5:21). · That all believers are saved by God-given grace through the God-given gift of faith. (Ephesians 2:8&9) · That all people are sinners and can only be justified (made right with God) on the basis of Christ’s righteousness. Regardless of the programs it might offer, the attractiveness of it’s facilities, the personality of its pastor, or the appeal of its worship music, if you visit a church and go away unclear as to its position on the gospel you should almost likely steer clear of it. 2. Does this church faithfully administer the means of grace? When choosing a new church you should remember that God works through means. God has provided us with certain tools through which He promises to build His church, develop His people, and call sinners to salvation. We call these God-given tools “the ordinances of the Church” or “the means of grace” and the ministry of a true church will always have these means at its core. According to Acts 2:32-38, three of the means of grace that God has given for the maintenance and growth of His church are: · Preaching · Sacraments (Baptism & The Lord’s Supper) · Prayer Let’s take a moment to summarize each. First, when visiting a new church listen carefully to the preacher and ask yourself; why does this man talk like this? What is he really saying? Please avoid the error of Walmartization at this point by asking yourself questions like; do I think this man a good public speaker, does this man move me emotionally, is this man “relevant” to me and my felt needs – ultimately these questions are of much less significance than the question of what is he actually saying. The Bible teaches that preaching should be rooted in scripture itself. The man in the pulpit is not doing his job unless he is letting the text talk. If he is being faithful to the text of God’s word his sermon will reflect upon who God is and what God has done to graciously save sinners through the work of His Son. Preaching that fails to do this is not really preaching at all. Second, as you look for a new church ask yourself what role do the sacraments have in its worship. Scripture teaches that the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are to occupy an important and regular part of the church’s life as a covenant community. The sacraments are God-given signs and seals of the covenant God has made with His people and they are intended to remind us of the promises of God, and of our communion with him and with one another. These are solemn, sacred, serious, and blessed ordinances that God has given to no other people on the face of the earth save His church. Realizing this, a faithful church will seek to administer the sacraments faithfully and regularly and will avoid the all too common error of down-playing the sacraments or dismissing them as mere religious traditions. Thirdly you must determine is this church a praying church – prayer being another means of grace. The Bible shows us that prayer is one of the ways in which God humbles us and conforms our will to His will. The public prayers of God’s people lead by the pastor are a wonderful way for the whole church to express its dependence upon God and to acknowledge its trust in Him alone. In addition to this the Bible commands that God’s people pray and it gives fairly specific guidelines for how prayer should be used corporately. A faithful church, therefore, must be a prayerful church. 3. Is there purity in this church’s public worship? Finally, when looking for a new church carefully inspect its worship. Perhaps no area of assessment is more fraught with the danger of a superstore mentality than this! Todays consumeristic culture has conditioned many church-hunters to deem a church’s worship as worthy only if it produces in its worshipers a glandular reaction of some kind – but this is clearly wrong. We must resist the urge to assess a church’s worship based upon personal desires, subjective impressions, emotional responses, cultural preferences or musical genres. The purity of a church’s worship is not to be measured by any of these things. It is only to be measured by Scripture. It is the Bible alone that tells us what is more or less pure concerning worship and therefore, what is more or less pleasing to God as we worship Him. It is also very important to remember that worship is ultimately about the One being worshiped and not so much about the one’s doing the worshiping. In other words, worship is not a chance for us to receive what we demand as consumers but to give God what He deserves as redeemer. It is not about us, it is about Him. It is not to be constructed and conducted around the dictates of our preferences but around the direction and purity of His Word. CONCLUSION Well, there you have it. Here are the marks of a true church. Here are the things to look for when choosing a church. Ask yourself is this a place where: 1. The gospel is taught and embraced 2. The means of grace are faithfully administered 3. There is purity in the public worship of God If so, regardless of your personal preferences I urge you to stop your church-hunt and settle down in this faithful community of God’s people. If this sounds overly simplistic, it is truly not meant to. No doubt, choosing a church in a Walmart culture is and will remain a challenging, sensitive, and deeply personal issue for you but if you make your decision in an informed way, taking into account the things written above, and looking to the Lord for guidance you will make the right decision as opposed to becoming yet another consumer looking for yet another sanctified superstore. How To Wield The Regulative Principle of Worship No one likes dragons. Dragons are always villains and the disrupters of life. This is why in fairytales dragons are to be slayed… but the question of every fairytale is how? For the dragons lurking in the shadows of corporate worship I suggest we slay them with the regulative principle. Maybe you are asking, “what in the world is the regulative principle?” According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, it is simply an acknowledgement that: “the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself and... limited by His revealed will (in the Bible).” This means that our worship services should only contain those elements that we can show to be appropriate from the Bible. In other words, the regulative principle asks, “Why don’t we just worship God in the way He wants to be worshiped and avoid introducing elements to our services that have no Biblical warrant?” Some Of The Dragons The Regulative Principle Slays Trendiness, circa 1977 1. The Dragon of Trendiness As we all know what's trendy today becomes what's laughably outdated tomorrow (see photo). Today’s pastors are under tremendous pressure to conform to the latest trends of Christian pop-culture. In many churches this pressure is painfully obvious. In my own experience it is possible to visit a church and to come away from it with something not unlike motion-sickness. The whole atmosphere of the place seems to be one of frantic movement to keep up with the latest trend. As a result the ministry lacks steadiness and the church is constantly being retooled to attract this or that demographic. The Bible is put on the back-burner and imaginative novelty becomes the determining factor of what is “relevant” in worship. The regulative principle slays this dragon.  Tragic Hollywood Death Scene 2. The Dragon of Preference Opinions are like… well… they are very, very prevalent. Of course, the regulative principle cannot totally eliminates the role of opinion and preference within a given congregation but it can go a long way to free a church from going to war over such things. Also, the regulative principle acts as a nice filter to run our preferences through. I recall being in a worship service once where a pastor preferred to forgo preaching and instead play tragic death scenes for the congregation. After which he gave an emotional appeal to turn to Jesus before it was too late. For all I know the pastor in question might have been very well-intentioned in what he did that Sunday but… well... it all came across as fairly goofy in my opinion. The point is, the regulative principle would have weeded out his approach to Sunday morning worship. (After all, nowhere in the Bible is the watching of Hollywood death scenes sanctioned as an acceptable method of worshipping God.) The regulative principle slays this dragon.  One Lady's Take on Christianity 3. The Dragon of Monoculturalism Here’s a shocker: Americanized Christianity is not necessarily Biblical Christianity. For that matter neither is Russianized Christianity, Anglicized Christianity, etc. Though the Church is an inculturated body we have to avoid becoming slaves to our cultural norms. The regulative principle helps us to do this. Like all other aspects of Biblical Christianity the regulative principle allows the Church to transcend cultural, ethnic, and even geographical boundaries. What determines the elements of our corporate worship is not “what does our culture want and/or value?” But rather, “what does the Bible say?” Therefore, simple services with singing, prayer, the reading of Scripture, preaching, and the administration of the sacraments “work” anywhere in the entire world and help the church truly embrace her identity as a people from every tribe and language and people and nation. The regulative principle slays this dragon.  An Actual Pastor Debating Whether To Include Pet-Blessing In An Upcoming Worship Service 4. The Dragon of Confusion
My friend Alistair Begg often says, ‘the main things are the plain things.’ There is great wisdom in that, you know. And yet, how confused we often are when it comes to the elements of our worship services. Someone wants to do a liturgical dance. A group of young people want to do a drama. Here comes a man with a gift for whistling. A cat-lady wants the pastor to add a pet-blessing element to the service once in a while. A group of old timers suggest a concert of Southern Gospel quartette classics for Lord’s Day worship…. And on and on it goes… What is a poor pastor to do? He simply must point his people to the Bible… to the main things…. to the plain things… He should patiently ask his people, “What were Christian worship services like in the Bible?” And together they can discuss the following points: The Christians sang the Bible. They read the Bible. They preached the Bible. They prayed the Bible. They administered the sacraments in light of the Bible. And the God of the Bible was pleased. “Why don’t we just stick with that too?” The pastor can ask. In so doing the pastor is helping his congregants slay the dragons lurking in the shadows of corporate worship. |
Rev. R Crabtree"...a son, a husband, a father of 6, a friend, a Presbyterian Archives
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