Changed & Still Changing, part 1

After Campus Challenge 2007, my head was in a whirlwind as I began to wonder, “what does this all mean?” In as much as it was related to my own ministry and calling, it had much more to do with how I would live the next 2.5 months before I leave for Louisville. Time is short, and I am counting down to my last days here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for the next 3 years of my life. And in the midst of seeing my days numbered, I am scared at how much can change in such a short time and also disappointed at how much won’t change at the same time.

This probably doesn’t make any sense to you, as I’ve not said specifically why my mind is in a whirlwind — so let me just share with you some more concrete reflections.

Worship Wars Workshop
Since Shuling could not attend CC and thus left me to “lead” the workshop myself, I experienced what you would call my first official speaking engagement. It was something I was not planning on doing (having the spotlight on me, everybody listening to me, etc) and so I had to keep on fighting the evil spirit of pride within me. I was only able to survive and thrive in the teaching role by the Spirit’s indwelling and empowerment, through much prayer and self-deprecation. For without the Holy Ghost calling me to repent of my pride and to obey Christ’s call in humility, I would have failed miserably in accomplishing the mission He set before me.

The 1st day (Saturday) went very well, as I tried to go through the biblical basics of what worship is and should consist of with the 30 delegates who attended the workshop. In the first half of that first day, I spent about 45 minutes in the form of a monologue - sharing an expositional message on Isaiah 6:1-8 and “authentic Christian worship” as defined by the Scripture and as exegeted by Albert Mohler (the 4 points I outlined were taken from an old article Mohler wrote). Though many in the Theatre fell asleep after 10 minutes, I was still able to engage with those who were awake. I think most people got the point about the importance of how authentic worship should begin with 1) a true vision of the living God, 2) lead to a confession of sin both personal and corporate, 3) lead to a display of redemption, and 4) lead to a response.

We then spent some time singing 3 songs in an all-consuming response to the all-deserving revelation of God, led by Cedric of the CC worship team.

Then came the interesting part. The controversial part. I lead them briefly through the Regulative Principle (& subsequently, the Normative Principle). The interesting thing is, when I asked if any of them had heard of it — not a single person raised their hand. This was a sad realization, but one I brushed aside trying not to think of it: well over 75% of those in attendance were professed they were in worship ministry and yet none of them had an biblical, theological understanding of what God requires in worship. Nobody seemed to know of any rule or standard that historically many mainline denominations have adhered to. It hit me again, at why I was going through this (despite their incomplete comprehension of the principles) and why Scripture needs to be the foundation for all of what we do in worship–private and corporate.

Questions mainly centered around dance–not whether dancing in celebration of God is permitted by Scripture as a personal expression of worship–but dance as a presentation to be observed. It is amazing how such a secondary (or may it be, a tertiary) issue boils people’s blood and gets them to object to the Regulative leaning, Reformed Baptist workshop leader that I am. In the end, I realized that I still have a lot to learn about how a dance presentation could minister to me, albeit that I cannot simply chuck my Reformed conviction that such dance presentations are not permitted by Scripture. (It seems that everytime it is effectively used in a congregational setting, like Urbana, it is fused with a Christian song playing in the background). My understanding of God and how He desires to worship humbles me a lot, and that is why I am convicted that the content of our worship to God is regulated by His Word alone, and not by mere human fabrications (Lev.10:1-3).

On the 2nd day of our workshop, I had them start the afternoon off by meditating on Psalm 19 and how the revelation of God is presented–general and special revelation. I gathered them back and explained how therein lies 6 titles, characteristics and effects of God’s Word. I then presented them with books and resources to use, to spend 20 minutes developing their own “theological statement of worship” / “philosophy of music ministry”. Some people shared their statements after, and I felt it was a good chance them to develop a mission statement for their ministry that everything else during the year should center around. After that, I gave them time in small groups to develop a creative worship idea out of Psalm 19. A few groups presented songs they started writing out of Psalm 19, and another group presented a 3-part poem which I felt was very creative!

From the evaluations I got back, some people it seemed desired to have more practical worship leading tips presented in the workshop. I included a lot of such tips and how-to’s in the handouts and had absolutely no plans to cover such worship leading topics, as I was convinced by seeing where the church is at that we were missing the point. To give a workshop on how to effectively lead worship would have been great and beneficial too, but we would have missed the point. For so many people in worship ministry today, especially within the CCFs and Chinese Churches I have come in contact with, they spend too much time and effort practicing practicing and practicing to lead/play and spend way too much money on guitars, pedals and keyboards — and meanwhile spending barely any time reading Scripture and Christian books to grow in their understanding of what they are specifically doing in worship.

…continued in part 2, coming soon.