Worship Notes #1 - January 27th, 2021
Good day Mountainview Folks,
Let’s call this “Worship Notes #1”
First of all, thank you to the many who sent me your heart-songs! So good. I especially appreciated when you could articulate how God was present in a particular song, and why you felt compelled to sing it, and how the music moved you and formed your faith. Wonderful testimonies. I would love to hear from more younger folks yet please and thanks: teens, kids, young adults! Text me: 416-992-6299
Secondly, let’s talk about differences in musical preferences. I’m sensing (based on some of your emails and conversations I’ve had) that some of you are anxious about worship. I invite you to consider these words as encouragement as we approach this time of worship leadership transition:
1. “It’s not about you”…
said Rick Warren many years ago in his small group/video series “The Purpose Driven Life.” This is as true for worship as it is of your life: though we think that worship is for us, it is not; it is for God. And our personal preferences in style/music/readings/atmosphere/instruments are simply that: personal preference, and not a matter of morality (right or wrong; better or worse). Come for God first of all. Please don’t come to worship to evaluate, to assess, to line up the pros & cons of the worship leadership and song selections: come with a heart eager to do the active work of WORSHIP. Look for ways that God is transforming your heart and your life. [The word “liturgy” actually means “the work of the people”… yup, that’s us, the people: Be active participants, not a passive audience].
“When we as members of the CRC evaluate worship, we are tempted to focus, first of all, upon the quality of the sermon or the music. But God looks first of all for people who, having died and risen with Christ, are seeking to lay down their lives for the gospel, to serve God and not money, to love each other with deep kindness, people who come to worship expecting to meet God and leave worship determined anew to obey God. Nothing else matters if the worshiper does not approach worship with a heart truly seeking God.” – Authentic Worship in a Changing Culture p. 50
2. Loving “the other”
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” - Philippians 2: 3-4
What if our first response to music we don’t like, an instrument we can’t appreciate, a song that doesn’t appeal to us is this: How does this help another person to worship? For example: “This video engages the antsy 10-year old.” “This organ prelude brings a sense of familiarity and joy to the grandmother.” “This repeated chorus allows a hurting mom to immerse herself in God’s grace and presence.” Being a Christ-follower means looking first to the other.
3. Be Kind
I invite you to find kind ways to discuss your disagreements; listen well to one another; walk in one another’s shoes. “Loving the other” means not making disparaging comments, unkind criticisms, unfair judgments, or using divisive words.
“When our hearts are right, we will refuse to be controlled by caricatures of the worship of those with whom we disagree. We will resist labels like traditional and contemporary when they are used to put down others. We will quit trashing hymnals and traditions and quit using highly judgmental words like ditties and schlock to describe contemporary music. We will not come to church looking for things with which we disagree in worship, but we will come to WORSHIP, regardless of what happens “up front” in a particular worship service.” – Authentic Worship in a Changing Culture, p. 52
4. And finally, find JOY
I encourage each one of you to find joy as we worship together. We are one body of Christ, and our intergenerational unity ought to be a source of encouragement and learning from all sides. It will be sometimes be messy, I’m sure of it. There will be frustrations, you can count on it! God will work on us even in the mess, though. I invite you to be amazed at what God can do! He is good, and gracious, and faithful: let’s also reflect God’s grace and goodness in our attitudes and conversations about worship.
I will make the best decisions that I can for each service based on the theme, the tone, the scripture, and the direction of the preaching. Asking questions like: how can we praise this week? How should we pray? What is God asking us to do? How can our faith be comforted AND challenged? Eventually (once I’ve got some things figured out) we will have more of the arts in worship too, not just the musical arts. Will every service be exactly the perfect blend of old and new? Nope. Maybe over the course of a month or 6 weeks we will have been able to worship through both familiar and un-familiar things. But not so “everyone will be happy” (see above, it’s not about you), but so that all of us can see and learn and grow in our faith, being formed by the comfortable and the un-comfortable; the simple and the complex; through our hearts and our brains; through movement and stillness.
Could I ask you to hold off on your critique for 3 months? Could we have a moratorium on commenting about if we “liked” worship or not? Let’s work at looking for the good, humbly considering others, and leaving room for the Holy Spirit to work in mysterious and unexpected ways through our time of worship together. After Easter, let’s talk again.
In Christ,
Ruth Ann