Authentic worship, part 6
This should be the last part in this series on “authentic worship”. I have learned a great deal in studying Isaiah 6, John MacArthur’s commentary on the verses, as well as Dr. Albert Mohler’s commentary on the topic. Again, if you did not catch it in part 1, I shall give due credit again to Mohler’s notes/points on the issue at hand–Dr. Mohler is a very knowledgeable who has a great discerning vision of the evangelical church and where it is going. Through his website, I have gained much insight into the topic of Christian worship and how it is such an important topic for my generation.
In writting this concluding post, I am actually reflecting upon this past Sunday’s worship at my church. I was on the worship team yesterday, playing bass and singing. Yesterday, the song list was as follows:
Since my worship leader had finalized the first 4 songs a week beforehand, I expressed my concern to her in person last Sunday about “Draw Me Close”–giving her a copy of the original Christianity Today (April 2006) article by Charles Colson & Bob Kauflin’s article on the issue. After briefly discussing with her and our pianist the concerns I had with this song in our worship set (lack of theological depth, no explanation of why we can draw close to God, could easily be sung to a girlfriend/boyfriend as it does not speak directly of God)… she agreed that as a compromise, she would speak about the reasons we can draw close to God just prior to “Draw Me Close”.
There wasn’t much I could do, except to voice my concern and suggest that a song be added prior to “Draw Me Close” that proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the reason that the veil has been torn in two, that God has made a the way for us to be in close relationship with Him.
Well, the verdict came in yesterday morning. No song was added, and the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ was not explicitly declared as the means by which can draw close to God. My concern now is higher than ever as to the height from which we have fallen from authentic worship; it is nothing personal against my worship leader. The concern is for the lack of theologically-informed worship in evangelicalism as far as I can see it, in this side of the evangelical church.
As well as worship seemed to have gone, and as unimportant this issue seems to be (since nobody has approached me/the worship team about it)… I feel like all we did was stay stuck in the Old Testament on Sunday. Where was Christ in our songs? Why was Jesus missing from our lips? Why did we not celebrate the fact that we have been brought from death to life through Jesus death & resurrection? How come we did not celebrate the Cross?
Authentic worship as described in the Bible has very specific components/requirements, as I have discussed. Authentic worship
- begins with a true vision of our living God
- leads to a confession of sin
- leads to a display of redemption
- requires a response.
No worship leader is perfect; we are all human. I am sure that in the past I might have neglected one or two of these components, and in those times nobody had contacted me about missing the mark in song selection. However, as I have stepped back away from worship leading since July, I have been noticing more and more of a trend that is prevalent in our worship songs.
The heart of my concerns involves the lack of confession of sins & display of redemption in our songs. I don’t think we can ever justify our song selection by simply sharing about it between songs–we must be singing about this 2 important components. If we have really seen God and have truly gotten to know His person and character–we should in turn realize and sing about our corrupt and depraved state in and of ourselves/our nature. When we see how Holy God is, we should recognize that HE is the only one in the world who can be called AWESOME because it is a terrible, horrific thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This should cause us to fall facedown in reverence, in response to God’s self-revelation, in confession and repentance of our sins… leading to a joyful thanksgiving for the gift of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.
I have to be honest: I remember the songs we sing in church more than the pastor’s sermon. For most of us, I think it is just a natural tendency for our minds and hearts to remember lyrics infused in melodies; unless it is some catchy phrase phew of us would be able to recite the sermon we hear on Sundays. We must authentically worship God through song and singing, because by the active voicing out of such biblical truth we will remember more and more what it is that we are actually doing. We must not fall into the sin of reductionism and reduce our worship to just feelings, emotions or Old Testament theology–we must keep each other accountable in the proclamation of the glorious message of Good News and preach the whole counsel of God through song. And thus, there needs to be our worship services at least one song every Sunday directly explaining what Jesus has done for us–not just a one liner in the middle of a song.
Since there has been this lack in singing about the person and work of Jesus Christ, I get the feeling that my church’s congregation is anxious to sing and shout in jubilation about this simple fact that we are saved. I miss it, a lot! It’s been such a long time since I have cried during Sunday worship, tears of joy and thanks for the grace and mercy of God. How often are we really moved and touched by the truth saturated in the songs that we sing, rather than the emotional highs of the music itself? I pray and hope that our churches would adhere to the standard and form of authentic worship as defined in Scripture. We must always adhere to what God has said about how He should be worshipped, instead of leading worship in such a way that we think best describes how we feel about God.
We as worship leaders must strive to skillfully combine biblical truth with music. As important as music is, it is truth that outlasts the melodies–a catchy tune can be a distraction unless it helps people implant God’s truth into their hearts. Since our goal is to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, we must use music to direct people’s attention to the lyrics and not the other way around; our song choices should be made more on the basis of theology and theme rather than tempo and key. How can we really motivate the gathered church to sing if we don’t provide songs that that proclaim and cherish the truth about God?
Accountability in today’s church is an imperative even in regards to worship music. Too often we have more and more songs that move us emotionally, rather than songs that change us eternally because of the truth within them. Communication between the worship leaders and those led in worship must be happening on an ongoing basis. We should remind each other that we need to meditate on the riches of God’s Word when we sing to feed our souls, rather than just wasting the time to only expressing our own thoughts and feelings.
Of course, expressing our thoughts to God as we worship Him is right and good. Part of the dynamic of worshipping God is giving to God and receiving from Him, speaking to Him and listening for His voice. But our feelings and expressions are only reliable and true as they’re rooted in who God is, what He’s done, and what He’s said to us.
To our pastors, we must also keep them accountable, to keep the worship team accountable in worship leading. In the shepherding of God’s flock, it is the pastor’s responsibility to ensure that the church sings songs that enables them to feed richly on the Word of Christ. There are few pastors who actively take a role in the selection of songs that are sung on Sunday, and so, I am calling worshippers and worship leaders alike to get their pastors to critique and keep tabs on what is being sung during service. We can’t do worship perfectly ourselves, but together, our worship of God in the gathered church can be more and more authentic.
Worship is the one of the most important issues in church today, destined to shape not only our worship services, but especially our theology and our beliefs about God. As Roger Scruton once said, “If you want to know what a people really believe about God, don’t spend the time reading their theologians, watch them worship. Listen to what they sing. Listen to what they say. Listen to how they pray. Then you will know what they believe
about this God whom they worship. Don’t pay attention to the theologian, watch the people at worship.”
I just hope that when people see us worship, they see a true vision of our living God, that leads them to confession of sins, repentance, submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and hence to respond accordingly to God’s call of life-long worship.
SDG,
Alex Leung
[Authentic Worship: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.]
