A Taste of Heavenly Worship

April 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

In Revelations 7, John had a glimpse of what worship would be like in heaven:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

I was privileged tonight to attend the 50th birthday of an Elder-Statesperson (if that is the right description) of worship in our city, Stephanie Truscott.

Ling and I must have known Stephanie for nearly 10 years, having first seen her from afar leading worship at big Christian gatherings like Church Together and then getting to minister with her in her gospel ensemble “Garments of Praise”. We used to do gigs in prisons, hospitals and churches together. We had even taken gospel-style worship to Telethon fundraising days and university muliticultural fairs – truly beyond the walls of the church.

I am the first to admit that I didn’t (and still don’t) have an awesome voice, but yet Stephanie included me in her group and coached me to become a better singer. I remember glorious times of worshipping together in her lounge room as we prepared for gigs and we would just move into spontaneous worship.

Tonight, many old friends gathered to celebrate this woman of God’s milestone birthday. And true to form, Stephanie launched a new CD (a mix of gospel and Messianic sounds) and gave free copies away to all who came.

Stephanie4

As the night went on, group after group of worshippers came up to the stage to “perform”: a parade of worship tributes, if you like. And I remember ministering together with many of these worshippers in the past.

What really struck me was how it must have been so much like worship in heaven. There was no sophisticated sound system, stage lighting or glitz. Just a keyboard and mics and passionate hearts singing together and glorifying God. And what made it even more like heaven was the fact that there were so many of us from so many different ethnic backgrounds who had been in one way or another impacted my Stephanie’s ministry.

We saw Justina Truscott spontaneously mime-dancing to a new song from Stephanie’s album. Ling and I were blown-away by Justina’s artful, prophetic movements.

Stephanie1

And another young indigenous man from Kalgoorlie who was taught to sing gospel by Stephanie at a young age and now at the age of 23, ministers in a family gospel ensemble. He also made the auditions for X-Factor.

And another young indigenous lady who sings just like Stephanie.

I thought about how through Stephanie’s mentoring, the lives of young indigenous people were being transformed through the power of worship.

And then there were the powerful harmonies of an African group.

Stephanie2

 

And Kathy Susnjar with whom I also used to sing, leading us in Messianic worship with dancers from the Perth Messianic congregation.

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Ling and I (we were the Asian contingent!) even got roped into doing a worship song with Stephanie without any forewarning, let alone rehearsal.

As I watched each group come up to the front to lead us, I realised just how far-reaching Stephanie’s ministry and impact was. How she had bridged the gap between the Indigenous, Africans, Asians, caucasians and Messianic worshippers in our city. This is how worship should be like: every tongue, tribe and tongue gathered before the throne.

Thanks Stephanie for inspiring us, teaching us and leading us; for forging the way for the next generation of worshippers in this city; and continuing to always break new ground (even though you say you are old school!). Happy Jubilee year!

 

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Taking our Place at the Love Feast: Good Friday Reflections

March 29, 2013 — Leave a comment

Today is Good Friday. On this day, Christians around the world celebrate one of the greatest events that changed the course of history:  the death of Jesus on the cross.

My wife and I usually like to go to a well-programed, evocative, sensory church service on Good Friday. If we can, we try to fit in a service at Riverview Church, Perth’s largest congregation, which every year puts on a high production-value service which ultimately gets the tears flowing. This year, we had a cell group outreach and we spent most of the morning preparing, so we didn’t get time to get down to any of the services at Riverview.

But I think spending Good Friday with our cell group, our close-knit Christian community and a few invited guests, sharing a good meal, worshipping together and taking the bread and wine is as close as we get to properly observing and celebrating Good Friday.

Good Friday always evokes in me some contradictory feelings. It’s a sorrowful day when you think about the sufferings of Jesus, how he took our place and our punishment.

But it is also a time of joy, of celebrating our deliverance and liberty, knowing that all our sins are forgiven and because of Jesus’ death, we now have right standing before God and are called His children.

First Corithians 11:23-33 says this:

 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,“This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.

Verse 29 says that we need to “discern the Lord’s body”, or to bear it in mind.

I think a lot of us misunderstand the significance of the Holy Communion. If you’ve been in the church long enough, it’s sometimes just treated as another part of our Sunday program once a month when on top of the bags we pass around, we also pass around a little plastic cup of juice and some crackers. In our church, we’ve maximized the convenience factor with a presealed cup and cracker combination.  Our little commercial, mass-produced cup almost lends a flippancy to the occasion.

On the other hand, we can approach it with deft solemnity.  I remember when I was younger hearing from the pulpit that we shouldn’t partake of the bread and cup unworthily in case we invite judgment on ourselves. In particular, if you weren’t born again, you shouldn’t partake. It’s as if being unsaved wasn’t bad enough, but the combination of being unsaved and taking something so sacred would somehow invite special judgment. The pastor would say that this was what was meant by taking the bread and cup in “an unworthy manner”.  So sometimes, when I was worried about whether I was saved or not, I would let the cup pass.

But both attitudes betray a lack of understanding about the significance of the Holy Communion and exactly what Jesus was calling us to celebrate.

Luke 22 describes how Jesus instituted the celebration of communion on the Jewish Passover. He could have done it on any other day, but he picked this significant day (the day before He was charged and crucified) – and it was no coincidence.  By doing so, Jesus was making a statement that he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament type of the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12, when Moses told the Jews to sacrifice a lamb without blemish and smear the blood on the doorposts of their homes so that when the angel of death passed, those identified by the blood would be spared. The Passover became the catalyst of the liberation of the Jewish nation from Egyptian captivity.  Since then, the Jews have generation after generation celebrated the Passover in remembrance of that great day of their deliverance.

The Jews traditionally ate the Matzah bread during Passover and this was the bread Jesus would have used when he instituted the Communion.  The Matzah is actually very symbolic, particular in the context of Isaiah 53.

  • The Matzah is unleavened, meaning it has no yeast in it. In the Bible, yeast is often associated with sin. So the Matzah is symbolic of the sinless of body of Jesus – He who knew no sin, became sin for us.
  • The Matzah is also flat because when it is being prepared, the dough is beaten flat. At Calvary, Jesus was beaten and flogged. Isaiah says of Jesus that “he was crushed and bruised for our iniquities”.
  • The bread is then put through fire to be baked. Jesus bore the fire of God’s wrath and judgment.  Isaiah says it this way: “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.”
  • If you look carefully at the bread, it has holes in it. Isaiah says “He was pierced for our transgressions.”
  • And you can also see the stripe marks.  Isaiah says that “by His stripes, we are healed and made whole.” Even as we take the bread, we believe that by faith that God can do a healing work in our lives too: healing our diseases and illnesses; emotional brokenness; disconnectedness; breakdown of relationships. God can heal all these things.

And then comes the wine. Jesus said of the wine that this represented the blood of the new covenant, poured out for us.

What is the new covenant?

Under the old covenant, the law was instituted to prescribe behaviour and standards fitting of the people of God. If you could do everything according to the law, then you will be blessed. But if you failed, then you would be cursed and punished. The apostle James says that if you fail in one aspect of the law, you fail the entire thing.

God saw that it was impossible for us to keep the law in its entirety.  Justice demanded punishment, so God sent his Son Jesus, who was completely sinless to die in our place. On the cross, the demands of justice and the wrath of God were completely exhausted in the body of Jesus.  As we are in Christ, the principal clause of the new covenant is in Hebrews 10:16-17 is that God has now written His law on our hearts. But not only that, He says that our sins and lawless acts He will remember no more!

The blood was also a mark of distinction. Like in Exodus 12, by the mark of the blood, the people of God were distinguished from the people of Egypt. When we drink of the wine, we remember how God has sealed us by His Holy Spirit as His own – we are His children and nothing can snatch us out of His hands.

You will notice that in Luke 22, there are actually two cups.  In the Jewish tradition, the first cup is known as the cup of sanctification.  Ephesians 1:7 says in Him we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.

The second cup is known as the cup of praise. It is an acknowledgment of the goodness and love of God that has brought us all His benefits.

So I go back to 1 Corinthians 11. To drink in an unworthy manner has nothing to do with our own sinfulness because we are already deemed worthy in Christ. But the challenge in 1 Corinthians 11 is all about how we regard the wine and the bread (our attitude towards Christ) and how we regard one another and the people around us (our attitude towards others).

Just as Christ’s physical body was broken to bring us wholeness, Christ also resurrected, not just a physical body, but also His spiritual body: the church.

And that is why on Good Friday, as we celebrated the Passover meal, I think God was smiling on our small group as we gathered to eat together and fellowship.  Nothing unites more than fellowship and feasting. Today was all about remembering Christ’s death and sacrifice, but it was also about celebrating HIs redeemed body amongst the gathered community and taking our place at the love feast.

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New Song: Open Up Our Eyes

March 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

Dave Wong, one of the worship leaders at Faith Community Church, recently introduced this song to me.

One of the things I’ve found in recent times is that a lot of songs coming out of the modern worship movement is becoming more and more difficult to sing. The melodies are more unwieldy and the lyrics sometimes lacking in depth of content. There is a distinct lack of predictability which makes it less likely for a song to be memorable and therefore become part of a congregation’s post-service repertoire.

But Elevation Worship’s “Open Up You Eyes” breaks that mould. It has a catchy hook, a simple, soaring melody and is directly Biblical. It’s a song of battle grounded in the original Old Testament battle song, sung by generations of God’s people “For The Lord is good and His mercies endure forever.”

The bridge is probably one of the most inspiring parts. The strong declaration that “our God is fighting for us always” rang in my heart days after I heard the song for the first time.

This song is destined to be a contemporary classic that is representative of a new breed of congregational songs that are written to be sung, and to be singable, by the congregation.

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Book Review: Future Worship by Lamar Boschman

March 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

One of the assignments I have to complete as part of the Metro Worship Academy is a book review. Students were given a select list of texts on worship to read and review. I chose Lamar Boschman’s Future Worship because it is one of the key texts which have shaped my own views on worship practice. So I am killing two birds with one stone: I’m recommending an important book to those who read this blog (particularly if you are a worship leader) that will help you understand the intersection of worship and culture. And I’m also completing an assessment item at the same time. Win!


Future Worship

I have long considered Lamar Boschman one of the pioneers of the modern praise and worship movement. Not only did Boschman model church worship expression through his worship leadership, he also provided, as a teacher, the much needed Biblical blueprint that laid the foundation for the movement.

I first read Boschman’s Future Worship (Ventura: Renew Books, 1999) some years ago. Reading it again recently, with many more years of ministry experience under my belt, I was confronted by just how many of Boschman’s predictions about the coming shape of worship in the new millennium were beginning to be realised.

Blending references from theologians, philosophers and futurists (just so you know that this is going to be a meaty book), Boschman begins with an indictment on the current state of worship in many churches: overly plastic, image-conscious and performance-based worship that has fomented consumerism, dislocation and spiritual disconnectedness. In his wry style, he states:

Today, worship is too often a cacophonous, raucous, aerobic dance class. People stand on platforms and command you to do stuff that you would never do in any rational moment of your life… like turning to the total stranger next to you and screaming, MY NAME IS BRADLEY AND I’M A JESUS POWER RANGER! (pp 41-42)

But yet, there is hope. After all Future Worship is not just about the present, it is about learning the lessons of the past so we can paint a glorious future.

And so, the theme of birth pangs and contractions dominate: the idea that perhaps, the disillusionment and unsettledness is the result of the conflict between a dying era and one that is struggling to be born. Boschman states (at 48):

While most people may not describe that succinctly or eloquently, most are aware of a prevailing and bewildering sense of confusion and ambiguity. What they may not possess, however, is a sense of perspective about it: these things are merely the beginnings of birth pangs…. A new world is being born.

For students of worship, Boschman puts the modern worship movement in its historical context like no other book on worship (except perhaps say Robert Webber’s Worship Old and New). Boschman provides a sweeping analysis of communications media (from the oral tradition, to the printed word, to the electronic age and finally to the new digital revolution) and how they have shaped the development of the church’s worship expression and its core values. He tells us how we got to where we are. And then, importantly, he tells us to look beyond the familiarities of the past towards new frontiers of possibilities.

In the past 20 years, church (and its worship) has changed. Churches are becoming more “post-modern” and “emergent” even though they may resist those labels.

But the key point in Boschman’s analysis is that the new digital age is facilitating a convergence of the best elements of the preceding ages. He states (at 164):

A crucial part of this unhindered Church of the future is the principle of convergence – the recognition and blending of various strengths of worship found in the oral, print and electronic ages of the Church.

Personality cults are beginning to fade into the background as even the most insignificant of voices are given expression and validity through the digital platform. Communities are reaching beyond denominational, racial and geographical lines as members of the body of Christ connect and network across cyberspace towards truly realising the vision of a church universal. The rigidities of time are being overthrown. Even ancient kinships (as Boschman puts it) are being rekindled.

This is the new worship revolution. As another prophetic worshipper once put it, it is where “all the streams flow as one river / To wash away our brokenness” (Martin Smith, “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble”).

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Re-Post: Next Generational Leadership

March 19, 2013 — Leave a comment

It’s actually been a while since my last blog post. In the last couple of months, I have had many ministry opportunities come my way which have kept me pretty busy (hence the radio silence), including taking up a bigger role in my home church. This evening, I was working on an assignment as part of my course of study at Metro Worship Academy and I was writing a book review on Lamar Boschman’s Future Worship. As I was getting distracted reading through my blog (and considering what it means when Boschman talks about the birth of a new worship culture), I came across this post on “Next Generational Leadership”. I was again struck by the relevance of what I wrote here last year to my current journey some months later. So I’m regurgitating this post because for me, it has taken on new meaning in a new context. Especially when I again see the great pool of talent in the generation of leaders that are coming after me.

I was off work today, recovering from a cold, and I spent a good deal of the day devouring Ross Parsley’s new book, Messy Church. Yesterday, I suggested that everyone should get a copy of it. See my post here.

I’m about halfway through the book and what Parsley is advocating is to see the church and its mission through an entirely new lens: the church, not as a well-oiled corporate machine, but as family, where life reigns over structure, relationship reigns over protocol. And where there is life, there is usually mess. But it’s okay for church to be messy.

I couldn’t agree more.

Part of the appeal of this book is that many of the lessons learnt were forged in the context of worship ministry, when Parsley was the worship pastor of New Life Church. It is interesting to see how worship ministry is often the place where a lot of the issues of church are often played out most sharply.

As I read this book, I saw a lot of my own philosophies of worship ministry being articulated, and articulated well.

In 2010, when I was one of the worship ministry leaders setting up a new satellite service planted by my then church, one of the things I was keen to do was to involve and grow the next generation of leaders. My co-leader and I decided to establish what we called a “Think Tank”, a group of emerging leaders in the worship ministry who would bring fresh and innovative ideas into worship ministry, but who would also get the opportunity to work alongside, and to glean from, more seasoned leaders. I even challenged some of them that in two years’ time, they could take over my job and I would remain to stand alongside them, rather than to lead them.

Parsley presses the need for a multigenerational approach to ministry, which he calls the “family worship table”. The key is to invite the younger generation to the table, because freshness and innovation lay with that generation. He says:

“The family worship table” was a way to describe our multigenerational approach that would help every age-group embrace people at different points on the age continuum….

The commitment to use Sundays as a gathering place for the “family worship table” began when I started thinking about how to integrate fresh faces and young hearts into the leadership of worship at New Life Church. We made a shift in our church to remain musically relevant, and I struggled to get people to understand what we were doing. New Life had always been a charismatic church theologically, but our style and culture had stagnated. We were thriving spiritually but hadn’t progressed in our expression artistically or musically…. The church continued to grow, and we built the foundations of a successful worship ministry with strong musicians and biblical teaching, but we weren’t moving culturally at the speed we needed to. I recruited some young college graduates to inject life into our ministry and help chart the course ahead….

Slowly, we began to change and experience genuine multigenerational worship. New Life was a thriving and healthy church, but as we began to change musically and artistically, the process uncovered some poor attitudes and selfishness in some who had been there for a while. Some of the family did not want to invite the kids to the table. They wanted them to stay at their own kids’ table.

Parsley goes on to make a pretty bold claim: “Young people create the culture of our tables, our churches, and our country… Our job as parents is to raise them – to influence them and give them our hearts”.

My own experience agrees with this statement. The older I get, and the longer I have been in worship ministry, the more I realise how “uncool” I’m becoming. Even using the word “uncool” betrays my lack of “coolness”. Young people interact and integrate with, and influence, culture in a way I can’t even begin to grasp. Some of the guys in our “Think Tank” were actually “back seat driving” our worship culture by telling me to listen to new songs and to deploy them in our worship sets. In the end, our ministry owed a lot to the young people for pushing us all forward.

However, we are often like Eliab (David’s older brother) and Saul. When Goliath stood there day after day, taunting the armies of Israel, Saul was paralysed, with no new strategies for victory. In comes David the young punk to deliver some cheese to his brothers. And Eliab tells him (with a great deal of indignation perhaps), “Shouldn’t you be back home looking after the sheep?” When David finally gets to confront Goliath, Saul gives his armour to David: ill-fitting, heavy and speaking of old methods and paradigms. Instead, David rejects the old, and launches an assault that is completely innovative (but birthed by God): a sling and a smooth-stone to the forehead of the giant.

Many of us who have been in the game a long time are reluctant to hand control over to the young, because in our minds, they are tempestuous upstarts who lack credible experience. If we let them play, we become like Saul, forcing old paradigms and old wineskins in the hope of somehow containing the new flow of the Spirit and the new wine.

By the way, anyone who thinks that we don’t need to keep renewing our worship expression stands on dangerously tenuous ground. We simply can’t keep singing the songs that are 20 years old and expect the next generation to connect with them. Personally, I love the songs of the 90s because they were the songs I was first taught as a young Christian. But stylistically, they mean nothing to the present generation. They simply make the church look old and weary. Of course, there can be space for blending of old and new (I often like to throw in an old song into every worship set) but if we don’t keep moving forward, as they say, we are actually moving backward.

Parsley goes on to say:

Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could take the maturity, wisdom and resources of age and put them together with the energy, enthusiasm, and creativity of youth? Our churches would be an unstoppable force in our communities….

Creating opportunities for young and inexperienced leaders is one of the most effective tools we have to continue to make the church dynamic and relevant in our culture. Helping young leaders is extremely challenging because it demands accountability, it involves some risk, and it can be downright messy; but it is indispensable to a church that is committed to longevity.”

I don’t think the question we should ask is whether our young people are ready. If we ask that, we will always conclude that they are not. The question is whether the older generation is ready to stand alongside the youth, to nurture them, to father them, to guide them and to create safe spaces for them to take risks and push established boundaries.

So, this is a call for worship ministry leaders to participate in the “family worship table”, to build up the next generation of leaders of our churches and ministries.

Will it work? I believe that the results speak for themselves. New Life Church and Desperation Band, through Parsley’s leadership, remains one of the cutting edge forces in the worship landscape today, producing worship music that is relevant, edgy and yet congregation-friendly. And that sort of legacy can be ours too.

In Church, Team Building, Worship Leadership , , , , , , ,
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