Worship Restored: How it should be

This is a discussion about a subject close to my heart... and a shameless excuse to post some of the songs I like.

Worship music should be deep, truthful, glorifying to God, joyful, wide ranging in the themes and emotions it covers, corporate in its arrangement and language, easy to sing, centred on God and the Lord Jesus, memorable, understandable, deep.

Those who participate should know that they have been in the presence of God, have their faith increased, be cleansed of sin and be strengthened by the truth. Music is a huge part of our culture and it should be a huge part of our Christian culture. All revivals have featured many new songs being written and sung.

Why should the Devil have all the good music? It wasn't Larry Norman who first said that. It wasn't Cliff Richard. It wasn't William Booth. It was probably Martin Luther.

I like old hymns. I like contemporary worship. As long as it is doctrinally accurate, truthful and glorifying to God.

I believe that worship should be:-

• About participation, not entertainment
• Scriptural, not cliched
• About how good God is, not how devoted we are
• More "We' and 'us' than 'me' and 'I'
• Strong, not soppy
• To our Lord, not our best mate

Here's something to listen to to begin with - an oldie. Jesus the Very Thought of Thee, by Bernard of Clairvaux

1. Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills the breast; but sweeter far thy face to see, and in thy presence rest.

2. O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all the meek, to those who fall, how kind thou art!  How good to those who seek!

3. But what to those who find? Ah, this nor tongue nor pen can show; the love of Jesus, what it is, none but his loved ones know.

4. Jesus, our only joy be thou, as thou our prize wilt be; Jesus, be thou our glory now, and through eternity.

Getting Ready for Christmas

I plan to post a series on worship sometime in the future, but this post is a one-off.  I'm a bit of a fan of Keith and Kristyn Getty.  I thought this might help someone while it's a reasonable few weeks before Christmas.

On Labels: Pre-Augustinian - Grecian 2000

Thanks to Augustine of Hippo and some others, most of the last 2,000 years have seen the church influenced largely from Athens rather than Jerusalem.  Western Christianity is largely a fusion of Greek philosophy and Biblical thinking.

Here are a couple of examples from our British culture.

Our traditional Universities like Durham, St Andrews, Cambridge and Oxford.  Originally built on a collegiate system with Christian foundations, the idea of a 'University' is a Greek one.  Some would argue that the world's first one was founded by Plato in Athens.

Our school system has an uncanny resemblance to the system of state education described in Plato's Republic.  Children were to be given guardians and separated from their fathers and mothers and taught reading, mathematics, music and physical education from the age of six.  In Hebrew thinking, children were taught in their local community, either in the home or at the local synagogue.  You could argue that a Christian School or a 'Faith School' is a fusion of Biblical and Greek thinking.

I am now going to give you a list of differences between a Greek and a Hebrew thinker.  Which one are you?

Greek Thinkers	Hebrew Thinkers
Separate the physical from the spiritual.  Hence, baptism and communion are empty symbols with no spiritual consequence.	Integrate the physical from the spiritual.  Hence, as in 1Corinthians 11, some people died by taking the Lord's Supper for the wrong reasons.  In 1Kings 13, Naaman was healed by being 'baptised' seven times in the River Jordan.
Separate clergy (priests, vicars, pastors, ministers) from the laity using academic degrees, titles etc.	See us as a royal priesthood.  Brothers and sisters.
Send children away from the family into academic institutions with qualified teachers and age segregated classes	Teach from father and mother to son and daughter.
Teach through catechisms and systematic theologies	Teach through parables, stories.
Teach by lecturing an audience through wisdom and oratory	Teach by the power of the Holy Spirit, interacting with an audience
Teach that a disembodied soul goes to a spiritual heaven	Teach the resurrection of the dead, the existence of a new body and a new heaven and a new earth
Read the Bible allegorically, looking for the spiritual meaning behind narratives	Read the Bible literally, noting people and places in their most straightforward meaning
See the church as the 'new' Israel	Differentiate Israel and the Church
Limit musical worship to standing up and singing	Extend musical worship to clapping, kneeling, shouting, silence, dancing and other physical expression Value family and community
Value institutions Separate 'Christian' service (pastors, evangelists, missionaries) to 'secular' service, like teaching, manual trades, medical professions.	See all work as sacred.
See God as perfect, but impersonal.  Don't expect God to speak through visions, prophecy or other forms of revelation	Listen to God as well as speak to Him in Prayer
Think in terms of social democracy, state power	Think in terms of Kingdom

I want to put it to you that we need to rid ourselves of the Greek thinking and go back to a more Hebrew mindset if we are to recover the power of the early church.  We need the church to be pre-Augustinian.

For a fuller explanation of what I have written here, may I recommend David Pawson's talks on De-Greecing the church.

On Labels: What Charismatic does not mean

The term 'Charismatic', in church circles, has become synonymous with a whole lot of things that go on, some of them harmless but nevertheless unrelated to the filling and gifts of the Spirit, some distasteful inappropriate embarrassing or unwise, some just wrong.  This is why I need to do a list of things that charismatic does not mean.

Here goes.  'Charismatic' does not mean...

• A particular style or volume level of worship, lighting level or amount of electronic gadgetry
• A particular set of weird noises, manifestations, physical twitches or the habit of falling over in meetings
• Large numbers of people speaking in other languages in unison after a song accompanied by a musical instrument with no attempt at explanation or translation
• Teaching on an apparently random topic week after week based on 'what I think God wants to say to us'
• A larger than usual amount of hugging, ranging from slight side hugs to passionate bear hugs with no thought given to how well I know the person,cultural sensitivities, personal space or possible sexual attraction
• A more informal style of teaching with more than the usual daft jokes and self-indulgent anecdotes
• Allowing absolutely anyone to teach or 'share' from the front without any consideration of the person's character, commitment or background
• Because the worship is going so well, doing more songs and scrapping the teaching session, then treating it as a kind of triumph
• Regular prophecies of imminent revival or 'outpourings of the Holy Spirit' in the town or city the meeting is in without any reference to repentance, commitment, obedience or even competence
• Going around prophesying over people blessings without any reference to repentance, commitment or obedience
• Inviting prophets or healers to take meetings/missions/weekend schools without adequately checking their lifestyle, reputation, financial probity, track record or theological stance
• Basing major decisions on leadership or other personnel based on 'what God told me/us' and on various signs and co-incidences without reference to the person's character, biblical qualifications or suitability
• Using 'God told me...' as the last word on any decisions that have been taken
• Doing things because one 'feels led' and not checking things with other more mature people

That is why I can define myself a a 'Charismatic Evangelical' Christian.  A church like the Living Springs Victory Fellowship (see my next post!) would wholeheartedly call itself charismatic.  But it needs to look carefully at what that does and doesn't actually mean.  I have seen all of the above (and more) in churches and meetings that would call themselves charismatic.  But it doesn't actually mean they are.