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Archive for the ‘Worship in Cirisis’ Category

Advice to a Worship Leader

Posted in Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , on June 9, 2024| 3 Comments »

If you are a worship leader, you must realize that you are there to lead people in praise and worship to God. It is possible to not realize this fact, that you are to lead the congregation. Seems simple enough. But leading people means your goal is to get people to open their mouths in praise unto Him. That means that you are not there to perform. You must play songs that are well known to the congregation, songs that they can wholeheartedly engage in. You might have a lovely voice and be good at setting a groove, but if the congregation is not engaged, you have failed at leading. Your first priority is playing songs that people know.

I have seen it time and time again! Congregations that are not engaged. They just stand there listening to the band. Mostly because they don’t know the songs. I have had countless people say the same thing to me, they don’t know the songs. Why do we have this problem? It is usually because the band wants to do songs that they like. Usually the latest popular songs that are being put out by big churches and record labels. Some dislike the old hymns, they feel the need to be relevant.

When you pick songs to play, you also need to make sure the theology being put forth by the song is solid. That means you need to be in the Word, getting Biblical knowledge and spending time with God. This is very often overlooked by pastors choosing musicians.

The Bible is clear about requirements for pastors and deacons, 1 Timothy 3:1-13. Why do worship leaders not have the same requirement or one like it? It is a leadership position!

Try singing Amazing Grace in your church without any instruments, you will be amazed at the level of participation. Leading worship has one goal, to get the congregation to praise the Lord.

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Something Beyond Song

Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , , on March 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

by A W Tozer

There is a notion widely held among Christians that song is the highest possible expression of the joy of the Lord in the soul of a man.

That idea is so near to being true that it may seem spiritually rude to challenge it. I have no wish to pick theological lint nor pluck the wings off religious flies for the thrill such a sadistic act might afford. There are probably hundreds of wrong notions in all of our heads, notions that, while they are wrong, are still too insignificant to deserve attention. They are like the minor physical blemishes which we all have, harmless if not beautiful, and altogether too trivial to rate mention by serious-minded persons.

The idea, however, that song is the supreme expression of all and any possible spiritual experience is not small; it is large and meaningful and needs to be brought to the test of the Scriptures and Christian testimony.

Both the Bible and the testimony of a thousand saints show that there is experience beyond song. There are delights which the heart may enjoy in the awesome presence of God which cannot find expression in language; they belong to the unutterable element in Christian experience. Not many enjoy them because not many know that they can. The whole concept of ineffable worship has been lost to this generation of Christians. Our level of life is so low that no one expects to know the deep things of the soul until the Lord returns. So we are content to wait, and while we wait we are wont to cheer our hearts sometimes by breaking into song.

Far be it from us to discourage the art of singing. Creation itself took its rise in a burst of song; Christ rose from the dead and sang among His brethren, and we are promised that they who dwell in dust will rise and sing at the resurrection. The Bible is a musical book and, next to the Scriptures themselves, the best book to own is a good hymnbook. But still there is something beyond song.

The Bible and Christian biography make a great deal of silence, but we of today make of it exactly nothing. The average service in gospel circles these days is kept alive by noise. By making a lot of religious din we assure our faltering hearts that everything is well and, conversely, we suspect silence and regard it as a proof that the meeting is “dead.” Even the most devout seem to think they must storm heaven with loud outcries and mighty bellowings or their prayers are of no avail. Not all silence is spiritual. Some Christians are silent because they have nothing to say; others because what they have to say cannot be uttered by mortal tongue. Of the first we do not speak at the moment, but confine our remarks to the latter.

Where the Holy Spirit is permitted to exercise His full sway in a redeemed heart the progression is likely to be as follows: First, voluble praise, in prose speech or prayer or witness; then, when the crescendo rises beyond the ability of studied speech to express, comes song, then comes silence where the soul, held in deep fascination, feels itself blessed with an unutterable beatitude.

At the risk of being written off as an extremist or a borderline fanatic we offer it as our mature opinion that more spiritual progress can be made in one short moment of speechless silence in the awesome presence of God than in years of mere study. While our mental powers are in command there is always the veil of nature between us and the face of God. It is only when our vaunted wisdom has been met and defeated in a breathless encounter with Omniscience that we are permitted really to know, when prostrate and wordless the soul receives divine knowledge like a flash of light on a sensitized plate. The exposure may be brief, but the results are permanent.—The Root of the Righteous – A W Tozer

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Worship Replacement Theology

Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , , on January 9, 2024| 2 Comments »

When someone says the word worship or you read the word, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? This has been my concern for many years, that true Biblical worship has been replaced by music and songs. There are very few teachers pointing it out! It is not that leaders are intentionally teaching this false doctrine. Rather it is an unintended consequence of having so much focus on what we now call “worship”, i.e. the music, the song service, and the “worship” team.

I call it worship replacement. To our own hurt, we are not being taught what real Biblical worship is. The Word of God is being diminished. There are about 100 places in the New Testament where the word worship appears. And none of those places have any mention of songs or music. They have deeper and more serious meanings for us to comprehend. There are only 4 or 5 times in the New Testament where songs or singing are mentioned, and worship is not really associated with those times. Those times were related to praising God. There really is no mention in the NT about having such a huge focus on the way we worship today. Historically, it is really a modern concept.

In the Old Testament, the first place worship is mentioned is when Abraham was going to offer up Isaac. Think about the seriousness of that! How serious the obedience, how serious the commitment, how serious the humility! We can not replace this knowledge of worship with the song service!

There is a distinction between praise and worship that has been lost in many circles. Many will not go to a church unless they have a good “worship team”. The modern music scene has created new celebrities pumping out new “worship” songs. It is now its own genre. Many of the record companies putting out this new music are secular. Think of it, “worship” music has been monetized.

We should still have a “praise team” and sing songs to praise God and to encourage one another. Eph 5:19 “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

We are to give praise, and we should make that distinction. Let us not lose the true meaning of worship. It is easy to sing a song, too easy. It is much harder to be a person who worships God, and understands the difference.

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The Great God Entertainment

Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , , on September 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »

by A W Tozer

A German philosopher many years ago said something to the effect that the more a man has in his own heart the less he will require from the outside; excessive need for support from without is proof of the bankruptcy of the inner man.

If this is true (and I believe it is), then the present inordinate attachment to every form of entertainment is evidence that the inner life of modern man is in serious decline. The average man has no central core of moral assurance, no spring within his own breast, no inner strength to place him above the need for repeated psychological shots to give him the courage to go on living. He has become a parasite on the world, drawing his life from his environment, unable to live a day apart from the stimulation which society affords him.

Schleiermacher held that the feeling of dependence lies at the root of all religious worship, and that however high the spiritual life might rise, it must always begin with a deep sense of a great need which only God could satisfy. If this sense of need and a feeling of dependence are at the root of natural religion it is not hard to see why the great god Entertainment is so ardently worshiped by so many. For there are millions who cannot live without amusement; life without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable; they look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional entertainers and other forms of psychological narcotics as a dope addict looks to his daily shot of heroin. Without them they could not summon the courage to face existence.

No one with common human feeling will object to the simple pleasures of life, nor to such harmless forms of entertainment as may help to relax the nerves and refresh the mind exhausted by toil. Such things, if used with discretion, may be a blessing along the way. That is one thing. The all-out devotion to entertainment as a major activity for which and by which men live is definitely something else again.

The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin. The growth of the amusement phase of human life to such fantastic proportions is a portent, a threat to the souls of modern man. It has been built into a multimillion-dollar racket with greater power over human minds and human character than any other educational influence on earth. And the ominous thing is that its power is almost exclusively evil, rotting the inner life, crowding out the long eternal thoughts which would fill the souls of men if they were but worthy to entertain them. And the whole thing has grown into a veritable religion which holds its devotees with a strange fascination, and a religion, incidentally, against which it is now dangerous to speak.

For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was—a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. For this she got herself abused roundly by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse and has gotten over the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theaters where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.

The great god Entertainment amuses his devotees mainly by telling them stories. The love of stories, which is a characteristic of childhood, has taken fast hold of the minds of the retarded saints of our day, so much so that not a few persons manage to make a comfortable living by spinning yarns and serving them up in various disguises to church people. What is natural and beautiful in a child may be shocking when it persists into adulthood, and more so when it appears in the sanctuary and seeks to pass for true religion.

Is it not a strange thing and a wonder that, with the shadow of atomic destruction hanging over the world and with the coming of Christ drawing near, the professed followers of the Lord should be giving themselves up to religious amusements? That in an hour when mature saints are so desperately needed vast numbers of believers should revert to spiritual childhood and clamor for religious toys?

“Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach…. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim” (Lamentations 5:1, 16-17). Amen. Amen.—

A W Tozer, excerpt from The Root of the Righteous

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Counterfeiting the Holy Spirit

Posted in Church in Crisis, False Prophets, Prophetic Mixture, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , on July 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

By T Austin Sparks

Then, as to the third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, so much should be said here. He (the devil) is out along this line to counterfeit the Holy Spirit, there is no doubt about it. If this is the dispensation of the Spirit, this is the dispensation of the counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. What is the work of the Holy Spirit? Well, it is many-sided, but, beloved, the enemy can give false signs, which are an imitation of the signs of the Holy Spirit. The enemy can give false guidance which is an imitation of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Experiences? Yes, you can have experiences, supernatural experiences, which are a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. Teaching? Yes, teaching as from the Bible: doctrines of demons, false doctrine. But they would not be deceptions, delusions if they were not based upon Biblical content. Yes, imitating the Holy Spirit. Miracles, working great signs and wonders, calling down a fire from heaven to deceive them that are on the earth. Miracles, signs, wonders, power, yes, and even life, to give life unto the image, power to give life unto the image, and – now listen – conversions: apparent new birth, changing lives; and here we are on perhaps the most terrific ground when we say that. The question would at once arise: “Does the devil make men pure and turn men from godlessness to a life of God-interest?” “Does he really change men for the better?” Is that true? He will stand at nothing if he can get his ultimate end. If he can give you a false baptism of the Holy Spirit so that you have a wonderful experience, full of wonderful sensations, sublime sensations, and accompanied by remarkable gifts, powers, supernatural abilities; if he can give you that and let you glory in that for a time and then withdraw it, and with the withdrawal suggest to your mind at once “you have sinned against the Holy Ghost,” “you have committed the unpardonable sin.” Thus he has cut from under your feet the ground of any hope whatever. The power of the precious blood of Jesus Christ is no longer of any value to you because there is no more pardon. What is the good of the blood if there is no more pardon? All the atoning work of Christ is slain for you if once you take that suggestion on. Christ and His Cross have lost their value for you.

Yes, Satan will stand at nothing if only he can really strike a vital blow at faith in Christ, and he has done that with many, and he is doing it. There are many dear children of God who, if only they knew, if only they had light and the knowledge, would be saved from the most awful state of mental hell today under that pressure of accusation from the enemy that they have sinned beyond forgiveness, they have grieved the Holy Spirit from them. There are many dear children of God like that today. I say we need help in these days for the people of God to be made secure, to be saved from these awful deceptions. And in many other ways the Deceiver is imitating. He can use Scripture as much as anybody. He can provoke worship, he will set up his own church, “the synagogue of Satan”, imitating; he will teach wonderful teachings, Biblical truth, to get people in a corner and bewildered and eventually get them into such a mess that they do not know where they are, they get into a place of fatal inertia – can they ever believe anything again? You see, delusions!

Excerpt from “Christ the Power of God” Chapter 3 by T. Austin Sparks

https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002158.html

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The Heart of Worship

Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , , on July 8, 2023| 2 Comments »

Matt Redman’s Heart of Worship song really hits the nail on the head. Worship is so much more than just a song or music.

“When the music fades,all is stripped away, and I simply come

Longing just to bring something that’s of worth, that will bless Your heart

I’ll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself, is not what You have required

You search much deeper within, through the way things appear, You’re looking into my heart

I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, it’s all about You Jesus

I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about You, it’s all about You Jesus” by Matt Redman

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What Is Worship In The Bible

Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , , , on June 13, 2023| 1 Comment »

We are in an age where the Biblical meaning of worship is fading quickly. It is being replaced by something that is less reverent, and more pleasing to our souls. It is less serious and will result in us losing the real meaning. I have put two verses from the Old Testament and two verses from the New Testament below, they will give us insight into the things we may have forgotten.  

Ex 34:8 And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.

2 Chron 20:18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD.

Matt 4:8-9 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me.”

Revelation 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God.

Biblical worship is bowing in reverence. There are many places in the Bible where these types of verses appear. Those verses support each other and give us a clear understanding of what worship is. Worshiping God has to do with bowing in honor to Him, and in many cases, it meant bowing down, or falling down before Him. It is the realization of the greatness of God, and the littleness of man.

Most of the cases of worship in the Bible really have no music or musicians during those acts of worship. Yet our modern culture has made the music the main element of our worship. That makes it enjoyable for us, yet in Biblical worship there is an element of fear and reverence in many cases.

It is important that we distinguish between praise and worship. As a worship leader I recognize that what I do is lead people in praise to the Lord. While there can be times of “bowing in reverence” during a service, it is mostly praise. Praise in the congregation is a very important aspect, and leading people in praise is of great importance. We are commanded throughout the Bible to do so. We are commanded to praise Him and we are commanded to worship Him, let us not lose the distinction between those two great words.

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By His Abundant Grace, I Enter and Bow

Posted in Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , on June 13, 2022| 2 Comments »

What a wonderful verse in Psalm 5 verse 7. “But as for me, by Your abundant graciousness I will enter Your house, at Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You”. What a clear picture of true worship, “bowing in reverence for You”. We hear very little about reverence for the Lord these days. These are the days of His grace. Since Jesus came and made the way for sinners, God’s grace has been extended to all who will repent and come to him. Because of His abundant graciousness, we are able to come before Him and obtain mercy. His mercy allows us entrance into His holy temple, where out of thankful hearts, we are able to bow in reverence for Him.

Not so for the unbeliever. When the age of grace ends, and Jesus returns to judge the earth, those who did not turn to Him during this age of grace, will be forced to honor Him. And out of fear and terror, “every knee will bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord”. Phil 2:11 The terror will overtake unsaved people when they realize they were wrong about life, about Jesus and about how they chose to live their lives. When He returns, they will draw back and fall to the ground in fear, as we saw in John 18:4-6 “Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, came out into the open and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I am He.” And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. Now then, when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground”. Even when Peter, James and John were on the mount of transfiguration, when they heard God’s voice, “they fell face down to the ground and were terrified” Matt 17:6. This will happen in the end to unbelievers, probably believers too.

The unsaved will be forced to worship God, forced to bow! In terror will they bow. To bow is to worship. And when they look upon Him, they will utter praises from their mouths. As in 1 Kings 18:38, when “the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood, and the stones and the dust; and it licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God!”. This praise, this proclamation, will be on the lips of all creation. We who have already received His grace, proclaim it now, “The Lord He is God, the Lord he is God”!!! By His abundant graciousness, we will enter His house, at His holy temple, we will bow in reverence for Him.

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Spiritual Songs

Posted in Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , , on May 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Spurgeon commenting on Psalm 18 and King David-“Being possessed of poetic genius, he served the Lord by composing this Psalm for the use of the Lord’s house; and it is no mean work to conduct or to improve that delightful part of divine worship, the singing of the Lord’s praises. Would that more musical and poetical ability were consecrated, and that our chief musicians were fit to be trusted with devout and spiritual psalmody. It should be observed that the words of this song were not composed with the view of gratifying the taste of men, but were spoken unto Jehovah. It were well if we had a more single eye to the honour of the Lord in our singing, and in all other hallowed exercises. That praise is little worth which is not directed solely and heartily to the Lord. David might well be thus direct in his gratitude, for he owed all to his God, and in the day of his deliverance he had none to thank but the Lord, whose right hand had preserved him. We too should feel that to God and God alone we owe the greatest debt of honour and thanksgiving.”

Charles Spurgeon- Treasury of David Volume 1

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What is Worship? 3

Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged , , , on November 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

As I was driving down the road the other day, I went past a church that had the following “advertisement” on their billboard.

“Three styles of worship, one just right for you”.

I tried to call them to see what they were, but there was no answer. My guess would be that the three styles were traditional, contemporary and blended. If you do a search online, you will find more than three, here are some of the others I have found, Taize style, coffeehouse style, liturgical, etc. The list goes on. Here is a brief list of how I interpret the styles-

Contemporary means more upbeat, similar to what I call soft rock, with a full band,

Traditional means hymns and chorus’, usually with a piano,

I would guess that coffeehouse style would be an acoustic sound, with acoustic guitars, and less amplification,

Progressive style leans more toward rock and roll, full band, with lots of bass, drums and heavy amplification.

Taize style- look it up online yourself.

Again, I will emphasize that we have lost the original meaning of the great Biblical word “worship”.

A person can worship God without any of the mentioned styles, or without any instruments or music at all. I used to think about people that are deaf and dumb and think that they were missing out because they couldn’t worship God, I know that sounds absurd, but sometimes it takes the absurd to bring a point across. From what little research I have done, it appears that musical instruments really weren’t used in the church until about 200 years ago. It wasn’t allowed.

For most of us, we understand what that billboard means, and we ourselves are governed by some of those styles. Most of us, when we are looking for a church, take their style of worship as one of the most important factors in whether or not we will attend there. We equate certain styles of music as more spiritual than others. And unfortunately, it is governed by our likes and specific tastes in music.

To me it would be wise to call our music and singing something other than “worship”, we can certainly call it praise or celebration, which would be more appropriate. Why diminish our understanding of what true “worship” is?

When Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 23“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” was he making any reference whatsoever to music and singing? Absolutely not, yet that is how we think of it.

In the Old Testament, God Himself laid out all the laws and requirements governing their “worship”, down to the smallest details. If we make “worship” into something that is governed by our likes and tastes, or our dislikes, we are in great peril. Worship is God’s requirements placed on us, not our preference in what feels good to our liking. What other Biblical word will replace the true meaning of “worship” if we lose it? What are we teaching the next generation?

Some of the most difficult times of worship in my life were not accompanied by any music or anything that felt good. Much like when Abraham went to offer Isaac, it was a time of very severe inner turmoil, as was the case in the life of Joseph. If you read that story, there were several instances where Joseph wept bitterly before he told his brothers who he was. What was he going thru? Was he tempted to get revenge? Could he get past that, as he thought of what they did to him? Giving forgiveness to those who don’t deserve it, even though they in fact are guilty, is an act of obedience and worship to God. What manner of dealing with God brought Joseph to the point where he recognized in Genesis 45:7 “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance? 8“Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God;”  In the same manner Jesus prayed to the Father, “Forgive them, they know not what they do”. These are examples of true worship, obedience to God; even though it might be at great peril to ones self.

So what is the end result? Well, we are certainly still able to enjoy the music and singing as much as we ever did. It can still be an expression of praise and adoration to Him. But, we have to understand that our music and singing is not really a necessity in worshiping God. It is a blessing that we have and maybe we put too much emphasis on it. Remember the saints in China, when they gather, cannot sing or have music, because they are in hiding. And, the deaf and dumb are not able to enjoy what we enjoy. But they can still be true worshipers of God, and even be more committed to God than we who sing. Sela!

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