I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

U2 is one of my favorite bands. I enjoy almost all of their songs, from the oldest to the most recent. One of my favorites is entitled, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

Not only is it a good song, but the title also describes exactly where I am when it comes to the church. I know what I'm looking for, but I haven't found it. My hope is to gather in community with other followers of Jesus Christ who live simply and radically for our Lord. My desire is to follow the model for the body of Christ that God has given us in scripture. Let me be clear: I'm not searching for perfection. Rather, I just hope to someday be able to grow close to other believers who acknowledge God's plan for His church that He has provided in the bible.

For now my wife and I get together weekly with a few other folks. It is nice, but it's not what I'm hoping to find. I realize that part of the problem may be me. I'm more than willing to change if someone can convince me through scripture that my thoughts about the body of Christ are incorrect. Until that time, I'm going to keep looking.

What about you? Have you found what you're looking for?

What Is Leadership?

On Modern Worship Choruses

Linking: The Imminent Decline of Contemporary Worship Music

I have no interest in the ongoing evangelical "worship wars." However, the older I get the more I prefer the great hymns of the faith to modern praise and worship choruses. While the hymns generally have both beautiful tunes and theological depth, the choruses seem designed to whip the audience into some sort of warm fuzzy through repetition. This difference does not always hold true; I'm speaking in generalities. Churches ought to sing a variety of songs of differing styles, all with sound theology.

The church would do well to reconsider its current love affair with praise and worship choruses. Frankly, it may just be the latest fad. Twenty years from now most of today's popular choruses will be long forgotten.

About a year ago T. David Gordon wrote an interesting piece entitled The Imminent Decline of Contemporary Worship Music: Eight Reasons. Gordon offers some solid insights into why modern worship music is already fading. While I don't agree with some of his views on church life, I do believe this article is worth reading.

Speaking of music, a few years ago I wrote a post named (not too creatively) My Top Ten Favorite Hymns. While I do not know whether or not all the links still function correctly, the hymns I've listed remain my favorites.

Why Do So Many Christians Gather for "Worship"?

If you ask most Christians why they gather together (usually on Sundays), they will tell you that it's for worship. If you then ask them why they get together for the purpose of worship you will likely receive a blank stare. This is because most Christians have never pondered this before. It's also because the bible gives no indication that the body of Christ comes together for worship.

In the New Testament we see the church meet for a different purpose: edification. I Corinthians 14:26 says, "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification." The point of the gathering was the building up of the members. No confusion there.

However, there is plenty of confusion today. How did we get into this mess? In order to find out we must look back at church history (in fact, we'll find many of the answers to these fifteen church-related questions by searching through church history).

Not long after the first century a clergy system began to form. Specialists emerged who did the bulk of the stuff as the church gathered. This gradually morphed into the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. The priests led the Mass, which became the primary gathering of the people of God.

Enter the Reformers. Men like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc. rejected the Mass for the heresy that it was (and still is). They recognized that when churches came together something other than "another sacrifice of Christ" must occur. The Reformers did a good thing by jettisoning the Mass. However, they failed to follow the biblical model when they replaced it. The Reformation saw the rise of preaching as the center point of body meetings.

Fast forward to today. The Catholic Church still performs its Mass. Protestant churches focus their gatherings on music (now known to many as "worship") and preaching. Neither group gathers specifically for edification. Over the years the Protestant versions have become known as "worship services." This is fascinating because the worship is poorly defined and no actual service takes place. Regardless, because the gatherings are known as worship services, many of the people think that they gather for worship.

The biggest problem with this situation is that it leaves the church largely unedified and spiritually immature. Gatherings are supposed to build up the body. However, in worship service ceremonies very little communication occurs or is encouraged among the people present. Edification happens mainly through the carrying out of the one anothers; this cannot happen during a ceremony. Thus, the body does not grow spiritually.

Many, many Christians think they gather for worship because they know little else. It's what they have always done. It does not stem from scriptural teachings, but rather church history. The church suffers because of it.

We do well to challenge this way of thinking.

Let's tell and show our brothers and sisters in Christ that edification occurs best in simple gatherings.

One More Time

Please indulge me for once again posting this clip of my favorite hymn. The video is nothing special, but the audio is wonderful. Thank you Charles Wesley for penning this so many years ago. I love it!

Merry Christmas!

I Love This Hymn!

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty is one of my favorite hymns. It takes a little while to get going, but it is wonderful. My wife Alice and I like it so much that we had everyone sing it at our wedding. What a powerful piece of music this is!

I Absolutely Love This Hymn!

"Before He Speaks"

When I was a pastor I always tried to avoid using my wife as any type of sermon illustration. The ladies in the below video (which is a parody of this video) warn us: pastors' wives DO NOT take lightly being made fun of. Yikes!

Let's All Be the Proclaimers We've Been Called to Be

The word "preacher" has taken on all sorts of traditional baggage that was never intended. A "preacher" in scripture was someone who shares the good news with unbelievers. Today it usually refers to someone speaking to the church from behind a pulpit. For this reason, I much prefer the word "proclaimer." This word is free from the distortions of tradition.

I'm happy to see that the translators of the ESV decided to use "proclaim" instead of "preach" in one of the key Great Commission passages. In Mark 16:15, Jesus says, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." Mark 16:15 is not directed to only some specific subset of special Christians. Rather, it applies to all of us. Therefore, let's be the proclaimers God calls us to be.

Below is a favorite song of mine by a group called The Proclaimers. They are not a Christian group and this is not a Christian song. Despite that, I really like the music.

Losing My Religion

When I was in college (Houghton class of 1993), R.E.M. was one of my favorite bands. The title of one of their most popular songs describes where I've been for the last few years. If "religion" describes man's attempts to get to God, then I'm done with it. Just give me Christ and His bride, the church. That's enough.

How to Write a Worship Song (in 5 Minutes or Less)

"O Holy Night"

"Feliz Navidad"

"A Holly Jolly Christmas"

I love this song. It always makes me happy. I don't know why.

Tim Hawkins and Chick-fil-A

Hallelujah!

Click and enjoy.

A Visit with Christ Church Anglican

Most of our church family traveled about two hours away this past Sunday to spend time together at a lake in South Carolina. Although this sounded very nice to Alice and me, I am both exhausted by work and in chronic pain. Therefore, we decided to stay close to home and rest.

Since we had nothing scheduled, I decided to visit an Anglican church here in Savannah. The reason for my visit is that Christ Church Anglican has taken a strong stance for the gospel. A few years back they departed from the Episcopal Church in the USA. Christ Church left, quite simply, because the Episcopal denomination has drifted from the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Last year Christ Church was forced by the courts to surrender their building to the Episcopal Church. It is their stand for the gospel that made a visit worth it.

Another reason for my visit (our daughter Mary decided to come along with me) is that I had never been to an Anglican worship service. I knew going into it that it would be very "high churchish" and based in the Book of Common Prayer.  Although worship services are not my preferred manner of gathering with the church, I desired to express Christian unity by meeting together.

I knew I was in for something different when a number of folks walked down the aisle in robes to begin the service. It felt more Catholic than Baptistic. However, the themes were Protestant in content, focusing on the gospel of grace in Christ. In particular I loved the music. We were treated to singing "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty," "Amazing Grace," and "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing." The recessional was to the tune of "Crown Him with Many Crowns." These are some of my favorites.

The teaching was excellent. The rector preached on the topic of the Kingdom of God. I appreciated his willingness to tackle a subject that many Christians know little about. I wish we had been able to dialog, but this was a worship service after all (no talking allowed out of turn). I was pleased that there was a time of prayer when anyone present could voice whatever prayers they had.

The entire service had an atmosphere of reverence, awe, solemnity, and majesty. There was clearly deep respect for who God is and what our place is before him. I respect the effort the staff put into arranging the service.

That said, I struggle with the very concept of worship services. I've written on this before so I won't go down that path here. Suffice it to say that this service was like any other in that it was led by the clergy, the laity were generally passive, it was scripted, and preaching was the biggest single component. There was little interaction between the people until the ceremony was concluded.

My biggest struggle was with the celebration of communion. Instead of being a full meal, it was the typical wafer and drink. The people lined up in a row, received the cracker from a rector, then handed it to another rector who dipped it in wine and then stuck it into their mouths. This reminded me way too much of a Catholic Mass. Worse than that, it looked nothing at all like what we see in the bible. Because of these issues, Mary and I abstained from taking part.

Despite these differences, I am very glad that we attended on Sunday. The people we talked to before and after the service were very kind. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ; therefore, I desire to be united with them. The folks of Christ Church have a love for the same Christ Jesus that I do. Spending time with them was a joy.

The worship service is something that I enjoyed, but would not want to take part in every week. It might, however, turn into something we do occasionally. The music is tremendous, the teaching solid, and the atmosphere one of awe. These are edifying aspects of their gathering.

I'm thankful for any church body that stands for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We may have significant differences in secondary doctrines, but we remain united in our head, King Jesus.

What About Musical Instruments?

A few days ago I wrote a post entitled Hymns and Simple Church: Not a Simple Fit. Scott left an interesting comment to that post, asking, "I was curious do you know of any NT passages that prescribe or describe instruments being used to accompany singing in Christian worship gatherings?"

It's a great question because it's one that most of us never think about. We automatically assume that the use of musical instruments in church gatherings is fine. I grew up going to worship services that had beautiful organ music. Questioning that never came to mind.

Let's ask the question. What about musical instruments?

When we look at NT church gatherings we see singing. The most well-known passage describing this is Ephesians 5:18-20. Paul writes, "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

What about instrumental accompaniment? We don't see it anywhere in the NT that I know of (please correct me if I'm wrong on this one.)

What about the Old Testament? Interestingly, we find plenty of examples of musical instruments when we look there. The book of Psalms in particular is full of references to the use of instruments. For example, the final Psalm (150) says, "Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!"

This is an interesting situation. We see instruments in the OT but not the NT.

Let's ask a related question. What is the purpose of the church gathering? The NT's answer is clear: body edification. In light of that, we should ask whether or not musical instruments help or hinder edification. There is no easy answer to this question. On the one hand, many Christians truly enjoy listening to instruments as part of the gathering. However, these same instruments can be loud and dominating. They also have a tendency to create passivity on the part of the people. The active gathering can slip into a passive show of sorts. When church families sing with no musical accompaniment, more people tend to actually sing. Also, more folks feel free to bring songs to sing because no one has to know how to play the music that goes along with them.

What then is a good answer to all this?

It seems that musical instruments could be used some of the time when the church sings together. However, the biblical evidence suggests that this should be the exception rather than the rule. For example, during a gathering the body might sing four songs. Maybe one of those could be accompanied by an instrument. If a musically gifted person desired to share that gift, he or she could always sing a solo along with playing. The key is that the instrument(s) not take over the gathering.

Of course, there are all types of church gatherings. Some may be much more appropriate for instrumental usage than others. In the end, we should be careful to avoid the usual default of using instruments all the time in gatherings without even asking whether or not it is beneficial.

It's a question worth asking.

What do you think?