Adventures In Missing The Point?
My Tribe can be a most peculiar people.
We've spent a lot of time arguing about music. I've heard worship leaders talk about the need for technical excellence and top-notch talent and I've heard worship leaders talk about stripping away all pretense and electricity and go for whatever it is they mean by authenticity. I've heard seminary professors get all haughty about "7-11 choruses" (7 words 11 times, ha ha ha) and I've heard students harp on the importance of repetition as a teaching tool. I've been a part of meetings where we spent an hour discussing song selections and the order they'll be sung. Don't get me started on whether the power point slide should be a solid color or if there should be a shadow of a person standing on a mountain facing the sunrise with their arms outstretched.
We've spent a lot of time using phrases like "seeker sensitive" and "seeker driven" and "purpose driven" and "emergent" and all sorts of subtle nuances all around and through similar verbage. Should we have a program that allows those that come to have fun so they'll feel at home and they'll come back a lot and then, hopefully, they'll get some good stuff and stay? Should we just be about our mission and just have the Lord's Supper and baptisms and church services? Should our room be light and airy with contemporary pop praise or should it be dark and candlelit with an air of acoustic mystery? If we go somewhere in-between will we alienate everybody?
We spent a lot of time trying to stay organized. Gotta communicate better. Gotta have a way for visitors to feel welcome. Gotta get the web site more accessible. Gotta hammer through the role of deacons. Gotta determine what each elder's ministry area will be. Gotta determine the strengths and weakness of the staff so we can get the right people in the right seats on the bus so we can stay afloat through the paradigm shift. Gotta get job descriptions nailed down. Gotta have team unity and bonding.
This morning I read 1 Peter for the final time before I teach it tomorrow to my high schoolers.
Here's what got me:
It hit me that sometimes my Tribe can overcomplicate things.
It hit me that sometimes my Tribe can focus on things that don't matter much.
It hit me that sometimes my Tribe is pretty intense and passionate about chasing the wind.
All in all it's pretty simple:
Set your mind on eternity because we're pilgrims and strangers here.
Live well, because an abundant life in Christ is the ultimate apologetic.
Love with the proper motivation of thanks for His grace.
And if we just teach the Word of God...
...well...
...seems the Holy Spirit will grow folks in His time in His way.
This ain't rocket science...even if we try to make it rocket science.
J. Vernon McGee said it best: "My friend, we need the preaching and teaching of the Word of God above everything else. I do not mean to minimize the place of music, the place of methods, and the place of organization, but there is absolutely no substitute for the Word of God today."
He is...
...absolutely...
...correct.
My Tribe can be a most peculiar people.
We've spent a lot of time arguing about music. I've heard worship leaders talk about the need for technical excellence and top-notch talent and I've heard worship leaders talk about stripping away all pretense and electricity and go for whatever it is they mean by authenticity. I've heard seminary professors get all haughty about "7-11 choruses" (7 words 11 times, ha ha ha) and I've heard students harp on the importance of repetition as a teaching tool. I've been a part of meetings where we spent an hour discussing song selections and the order they'll be sung. Don't get me started on whether the power point slide should be a solid color or if there should be a shadow of a person standing on a mountain facing the sunrise with their arms outstretched.
We've spent a lot of time using phrases like "seeker sensitive" and "seeker driven" and "purpose driven" and "emergent" and all sorts of subtle nuances all around and through similar verbage. Should we have a program that allows those that come to have fun so they'll feel at home and they'll come back a lot and then, hopefully, they'll get some good stuff and stay? Should we just be about our mission and just have the Lord's Supper and baptisms and church services? Should our room be light and airy with contemporary pop praise or should it be dark and candlelit with an air of acoustic mystery? If we go somewhere in-between will we alienate everybody?
We spent a lot of time trying to stay organized. Gotta communicate better. Gotta have a way for visitors to feel welcome. Gotta get the web site more accessible. Gotta hammer through the role of deacons. Gotta determine what each elder's ministry area will be. Gotta determine the strengths and weakness of the staff so we can get the right people in the right seats on the bus so we can stay afloat through the paradigm shift. Gotta get job descriptions nailed down. Gotta have team unity and bonding.
This morning I read 1 Peter for the final time before I teach it tomorrow to my high schoolers.
Here's what got me:
1:13ff: "Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, 'You shall be holy, because I am holy.' And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence. You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed – not by perishable things like silver or gold, but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake. Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.
It hit me that sometimes my Tribe can overcomplicate things.
It hit me that sometimes my Tribe can focus on things that don't matter much.
It hit me that sometimes my Tribe is pretty intense and passionate about chasing the wind.
All in all it's pretty simple:
Set your mind on eternity because we're pilgrims and strangers here.
Live well, because an abundant life in Christ is the ultimate apologetic.
Love with the proper motivation of thanks for His grace.
And if we just teach the Word of God...
...well...
...seems the Holy Spirit will grow folks in His time in His way.
This ain't rocket science...even if we try to make it rocket science.
J. Vernon McGee said it best: "My friend, we need the preaching and teaching of the Word of God above everything else. I do not mean to minimize the place of music, the place of methods, and the place of organization, but there is absolutely no substitute for the Word of God today."
He is...
...absolutely...
...correct.
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5 Comments:
Amen, brother, Amen! It's simple and it's the word. Teach the word and let God do the rest. How easily we forget the miraculous nature of what we do. Great thoughts...thanks.
You were a big proponent and someone who wasn't satisfied with the worship at CBC in the past. Why the change in heart? Or, do you not think you've changed? :)
To anonymous...worship isn't just about the music. Worship should be what we do all the time whether at church or not. I think our problem (in our "tribe") is that we tend to compartmentalize secular and non-secular (or "sacred").
I won't even comment about the music at CBC. I will definitely offend too many. Whether it's simple or elaborate, it should always sound professional. The key to that most of the time is the quality of the sound engineers. I've heard great music that will pierce your brain because the sound board is not optimized. I've heard fair music sound great because sound is optimized. Don't get me going on this one. Just a couple weeks ago, I saw several people leave the service because the sound levels pierced your brain and was simply intolerable (I stayed with my fingers in my ears most of the time). And, heck, I even had a kid playing the music.
Speaking of making things too difficult...let's talk about Bible study. It seems like it's become more about food and fellowship and less about the actual study of the Word and prayer and caring for each other. If you just want to study the word without the "frills", well, good luck. Apparently too many prefer the food and fellowship to actually having to open their Bible.
First of all anonymous, I'm not sure why you needed to be anonymous. Seems like a pretty fair question.
Anyway, it might be an overstatement to say that I wasn't satisfied with the worship at CBC. Suffice to say that with my taste in music not played in churches, I'll be hard pressed to find any music played in churches anywhere that appeal to my musical tastes...unless Mississippi Delta acoustic blues, early punk, and/or late grunge become style staples.
That said, I was on a committee (that I later chaired, until that service was ended) that our leadership created to create a service that appealed to a younger demographic in our congregation. That naturally would involve what we call "worship" (please don't reduce worship to merely singing).
That committee was of the belief (and one that I firmly agree with) that we should have "something different" that would allow every musical taste and style the opportunity to have worship they liked. So, for example, one week it might be acoustic & unplugged. The next time it might be loud and contemporary. Another it might be classic hymns on a piano. And on and on and so it goes. In a church our size we'd probably have 6 or 8 "styles" we'd rotate and maybe a special one for country music fans or Mississippi Delta blues or grunge or whatever.
So, whatever I might've been a "proponent" of, it wasn't negative or reactionary but rather a celebration of differences and allowing everybody to get something they like rather than having a certain "style."
It's fair to say that I have NOT had a change of heart. I still believe that we're all part of a family that has different tastes and we should accommodate all ages in the same room.
And, yes, sometimes I have to get over myself on "country music Sunday" or power point images that I find terribly hokey or bad songs...
...but to say that I "wasn't satisfied" has little to do with it. It's just that I think there's room for everybody.
hummm... "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."
operative words: The LORD, strongly support, heart completely HIS!
May my business be about making my heart completely HIS... may He do what He does best.
I really liked this post. Thank you for it. It might not be rocket science - but it is a continual bending of the knee to be completely HIS. And we each can only do that within our own hearts and so there ya' go. May we all find out how to do it. But most importantly (not because I am important but because I can only do this for myself) MAY I GIVE MY HEART WHOLLY TO HIM!!!!
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