Call to Worship -- February 4, 2007

Call To Worship: Revelation 4:11 >> "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created."

The earth is full of the glory of the Lord. Only the blind do not see this. His glory is there because He created it -- because on it we see the fingerprints of the one who formed it. That is why when we do see, we are mystified, we are struck with the beauty of the stars and the trees, and the hills and rivers…
By God’s will, by His constant action and His hand of mercy, all His works exist from moment to moment.
But the glory of the Lord also includes what creation eventually will be. When God’s glory becomes more fully realized at a particular time and place, we get a hint of what His plans are for His creation, for His people. What will that new creation look like? God makes His glory more clearly visible in a bush; and it burns and is not consumed. His glory fills a cloud; and flames and lightening come from it. John sees the ascended and glorious body of Jesus in heaven -- eyes like a flame of fire, feet like brass, refined in a furnace, a voice as the sound of many waters. He sees what Jesus is, and what we will be Let us come and worship.

The Lord’s Supper Meditation - January 7, 2007

John 1:6-7: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

The word 'fellowship' is of course, the word ‘communion’ -- koinonia. But saying that we are going to have communion now, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to happen.

There are few things that are more enjoyable than a family eating a meal together, when there is love and loyalty and joy. The food is good and there is real thanksgiving as we share it together, as we talk and hear about each other's day...we share our own lives with each other, we enjoy, we rest.

There are few things that are more miserable than a family eating a meal together, when there is anger, or name calling, or arguing. The food is good but you can’t really taste it. You would like to eat more, but you just want to finish; to get away from the others. You may have said a prayer of thanks, but no gratitude is visible.

We have communion with the Lord, and with each other only when we are walking in light -- only when we are living obedient, thankful, grateful lives before Him. Let’s come and receive the food and drink he offers us: with thanksgiving, with joy, and with obedient and cheerful hearts.

Call To Worship – September 24, 2006

“But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." (Habakkuk 2:20)

One of the assumptions often made about worship is that God’s people must have always done it like we do. In fact, that is not the case. If you had been alive in the days of Moses, when our forefathers brought their animals to Aaron and his sons to be sacrificed, you would have noticed that worship in the tabernacle was very different from what we do now. Aside from the obvious differences of killing animals and draining their blood, you would have noticed a strange silence. There is no indication that there was any singing during worship at the tabernacle, nor any speaking either. The people worshiped in silence.

This was true until the time of King David as he was making preparations for his son, Solomon, to build the temple. We all know that David wrote songs, but I Chronicles 25 tells us that David also arranged certain families of priest to sing the songs and to play instruments. This was new, something not heard before. Singing was brought into the corporate worship of God’s people. In addition, I Chronicles 25:1 tells us that these singers and musicians were under the leadership of the captains of David’s army, which seems to be a very strange arrangement. But not so strange to David, who knew that the songs he was writing in the Spirit, to be sung by the priests, were combat songs, battle songs; the weapons of warfare for the people of God.

Again, God’s people have not always worshipped as we do now. During the late middle ages, the congregations were silent. The priest would sing the mass, and possibly there would be choirs of monks in the larger churches. But God’s people were silent. The reformers, Luther, Calvin, Knox, and others, restored the work of singing to the people. But why did they do so? Because they understood that all believers in the New Covenant are priests. And since the days of David, priests are called to sing.

The priests under David “were instructed in the songs of the LORD, all who were skillful" (I Chronicles 25:7), and we have tried to incorporate this into the life of our own church, as each Sunday after our service, we learn to sing more Psalms and hymns, and to grow more skillful as we do.

Our call to worship tells us that there are times when it is appropriate to be silent before the Lord. But it does not specifically say that the church or Israel is to be silent -- but the earth, the world is to be silent. Perhaps that is so the world can hear us sing.

Emasculated Singing

Here's a great post by Greg Wilbur.

On Music in Worship

If you have worshipped with us at Christ the King Church, you will notice that we do not use what is often called "contemporary" worship or praise music. This is because we believe that most of this music is not appropriate for the worship of God. Please don’t get offended; allow me to explain what I mean. Some people do get offended by this and often respond with something like: "show me in the Bible where it says we should use that tune or we shouldn’t use this tune for worship." Well, this issue of music is not really a law issue, but it is more of a wisdom issue. It is a question of what sort of music is fitting and appropriate, not necessarily what sort of music is lawful for the church’s worship.

The church has a long heritage of worship music. A few decades ago, this tradition was rejected in favor of pop forms. It was thought that popular music is what really moves people, so the church should use this music to attract a wider audience. But as we have already seen, "attracting an audience" should not be a factor in how we plan our worship. And is it really wise for the church to throw off almost 2,000 years worth of music as it has developed within the context of the church’s worship, only to settle for contemporary pop music? I ask the question because this is exactly what has happened. There is nothing wrong with pop music per se. It has its place. Listening to some of it on the radio or in the background at a restaurant can be quite enjoyable. However, this doesn’t mean that it belongs in the assembly of God’s people when we approach the mighty throne of the Lord. One parishioner may like marching bands; another prefers New Orleans jazz. They are certainly free to enjoy these musical styles. But does this mean that we should incorporate them into the service? Why do we think that just because we like a certain kind of music, we need to bring it into the Lord’s Day service? It just doesn’t follow. The real issue is not whether or not I can ever listen to pop Christian music or any other kind of pop music.

The issue is whether or not the music is fitting for the purpose of approaching a holy God in reverence and awe. Music does communicate. We need to make sure that our music is not communicating the wrong thing about who God is or what worship is.

So am I arguing for "traditional" worship versus "contemporary" worship? Not really. I don’t care for the use of these labels because they are not accurate. Most churches that describe themselves as contemporary are usually describing their style of music. Generally, however, they are not using a strictly contemporary style of music. They use a style that baby-boomers are comfortable with. It’s the soft pop sound you can find on any number of classic or light rock radio stations. But it is definitely not contemporary. It is in a style peculiar to a specific time period (70s and early 80s). And many middle class to upper middle class Americans happen to like that style. I happen to like some of it as well. But that doesn’t mean that it is appropriate for worship.

Likewise, I reject the labeling of our worship as "traditional." It is true that at Christ the King we use many old hymns. We also make use of the Psalms, which are the oldest hymns of all (God Himself wrote them). We do not despise contemporary music. But we do recognize that we live in a time in which the past is despised. We live in a time when contemporary Americans (and yes, Christians too), do not think that we have anything to learn from those who lived in ages before ours. We, along with our entire culture, are infatuated with the new and up to date. As Christians, who follow a faith that is based on God’s acts in history and the doctrine of God’s providential working in all of history, there is no excuse for this. The corporate worship of the church has a unique atmosphere and is a unique event. For centuries, Christians have thoughtfully composed music and lyrics to use for the glory of God and for the expression of Biblical praise. A real Christian musical culture was developed over time. Is it wise for us to simply dismiss this? Is it not simply foolish to insist that what is new is necessarily better? Let’s be clear; we don’t reject much of the modern church music simply because it is new. We reject much of this "praise and worship" music, because it is itself a rejection of the forms and modes of musical expression that were so effectively used in the past; substituting in its place music derived from pop culture and commercial jingles. We at Christ the King don’t worship tradition; however, we are not going to dismiss it out of hand either. Our desire is to see the church build on this tradition, not dump it. I really believe that many of the best of the church’s hymns and music are yet to be composed. But because of our present ignorance of the tradition, our duty at this point in history is to re-educate ourselves in what our fathers in the faith accomplished musically so that we may rejoin the conversation and begin to build on the foundation left to us. Our culture’s infatuation with pop music has us building a foundation on the sand. It is one that will not last and that we cannot pass on to our children and grandchildren because pop music, by definition, is temporary; it is what is "popular."

Our goal in selecting and offering music and song to the Lord is to use that which most effectively expresses what we are doing in worship. Do the music and the words express reverence and godly fear? Or do the lyrics simply express our feelings about worshipping God, how happy we are, or how much fun we’re having? Too often, the latter is precisely what is expressed, even if it is unintentional.