more to worship

My friend Randy pointed me to Nancy Beach's article on More to Worship than Music in Christianity Today. The first three points (choose singable songs, no need to repeat so much, and we don't always have to be standing) are practical. The last two (stretching lyrics and worship is more than singing) are Biblical.

Our song lyrics should reflect our theology and they should be words that we really mean. They should be (like the "preaching") adoration, proclamation, declaration, etc. - and they should be instructive in that they teach and challenge us. I continue to wrestle with the right name for that part of our liturgy.

We call it worship but the whole meeting should be worship. We think of the message as formative, yet shouldn't the songs be formative? The whole meeting should have some elements that are consistent and I think we have wrongly separated the meeting into sections and then assigned purposes to these that are much less than what they could be.

I had dinner with David last night and we discussed worship. We sing about giving God our all, I wonder how often we understand what we are saying and if so, do we mean it. I have found it very helpful when the band leader finds the appropriate time to read the words to the song and then to pray or challenge the congregation with those words. It's even better to link these to Scripture.

I'd love to see us figure out how to break our patterns of song singing for this kind of thing. I would really like to see us add time for contemplative reflection, perhaps actually get down on our knees, etc.. I love the arts and other creative forms...it would be so cool (and glorifying to God) if we could allow more space for that.

Marlin does a cool thing at the Heidelberg Vineyard. They open the meeting with just a couple of songs, then bring the message, and then close with a time of songs. This allows for worship and praise based on the Word brought through the speaker and flows nicely into time for ministry (prayer, repentance, contemplation, etc).

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