Best gem

Justin Taylor writes this on his blog at Between Two Worlds.

"A mature Christian is easily edified."

Chip Stam cited those words by Harold Best in the first video I linked to earlier. Those words have been rolling around in my heart and mind for the past couple of days.

Easily edified.

Isn't that a wonderful goal--a sign of good mental health and genuine obedience of faith?

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What would "selfless abandonment" look like in our worship?

Some give and take on a recent post.

Me:
.... May the Lord give us increasing measures of joy and selfless abandonment to him in the midst of our corporate praise!

Anonymous: 
Can you define "selfless abandonment?" I thought we were getting better at it and now it seems like our expressions may be a bit reigned in. If we can get excited about sports contests and show our enthusiasm in certain ways, why not in the much more important act of worship?

I agree. 

When I speak of "selfless abandonment" in worship, I'm thinking, in part, of Charles Wesley's phrase, "lost in wonder, love and praise," in the hymn, "Love divine." He urges us to think deeply how we'll worship the Lamb when glorified. Can you imagine -- utter freedom in worship -- body (at least in the new earth) and soul, without any remaining/ corrupting sin, without any self-conscious reservations?

I'm also thinking of Joseph Addison's earlier hymn where he confesses, "When all Thy mercies, O my God / My rising soul surveys / Transported with the view, I’m lost / In wonder, love and praise." He dares to say this marks our worship here and now!

I don't mean by "selfless abandonment" some kind of unholy loss of self-control, some sort of nervous meltdown. I'm not urging some kind of old-fashioned Shakers meeting just to prove we're free in worship! No, I do mean, however, that we should be so wholly fixed on Christ, that we move beyond fear of what others may think of us while I sing. I mean that our bodies should also be involved in the acts of worship -- singing, shouting, raising of hands, hand-clapping, dancing (however that would look!), etc. Not all at once, of course, and not on every song. The psalter itself presents to us a full complex of human emotions and response. Not always celebration, not always grief, etc. And always we have 1 Cor 14 in mind (doing things decently, to build others up). But I mean that I long to see the kinds of physical expression we find in the psalter marking our public worship!

I have often wondered, by the way, if my being self-conscious isn't a fundamental disposition resulting from pride inherited from Adam. In other words, perhaps we should repent of our self-consciousness in worship? I'm quite convinced that New Covenant worship should know something of "selfless abandonment," by faith, now. 

Our elders are convinced (and I completely agree) that we must labor to bring the entire congregation along in our worship. It's not okay to leave a few sheep straggling behind, without having exercised much patience, much love, much listening and instruction. This blog is part of that effort. (I have no idea if it's helping -- I sincerely hope so.) Not everyone is comfortable with clapping, with singing cherished hymns in a contemporary fashion, etc. I mean to diss no one in saying so. I'm sure some hold earnest opinions that differ from my own (imagine that)! 

In time our shepherds will teach more on these things. They continue to labor "behind the scenes" to help all of us learn how to love each other more sincerely -- especially at times when it may come in a musical style I don't care for. For what it's worth -- not everyone is crazy about the old hymns I teach, either. This business of loving others is a responsibility we all share.

I don't know, of course, how far HBC will move in physical expression in worship. I am committed, however, to be all the help I can be -- and not irritate anyone because I lack sympathy for his/her point of view.

Thanks for your question.

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Peace to my anonymous friends...

To my dear anonymous correspondents,
Thanks for your kind words. I do understand the freedom of being able to discuss deeply-felt issues like music worship w/o making an awkward situation of it. If I can help you, or if I am only able to clarify issues, or to whatever extent we can "sharpen iron" and build each other up, then I will be thankful.

I can accept your desire to remain nameless....

To help me interact better with you, what if, at the least, you give yourself some kind of moniker, a pseudonym for this venue? Such a thing has a long pedigree in the history of correspondence. When writing, sign your comments as coming from "Earnest," or "Friend #3," or "Brother J" or something like that. I think it will allow us to actually think things through together. 

If this makes sense to do so, I welcome your interaction, as brother to brother.

For Jesus' sake, 

David

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Choosing songs for worship

I read a couple of posts recently on how not to write worship songs -- funny if not so often true. 

Big Point Not To Be Missed: In every age when there is an explosion of new hymns & songs -- think late 18th cent England, late 19th cent America/"gospel song" -- you can find many songs that surely failed at building up the body. Many songs were published that never lived past their generation. Many songs would have failed a "10 point test" back then. To my dear Reformed friends who find contemporary songs ill-suited for worship, I remind you that poor song-writing is not some new affliction, or some argument against our trying.to sing God's praise afresh for our generation. May God give us more the like of Getty, Kauflin, Altrogge, Tomlin, etc. May God give us anew the "songs of Zion" in ways that speak to the hearts of our generation.

It occured to me that choosing our songs for this Sunday's worship is no less daunting a task -- and one requiring as much care and prayer. I remembered something I read in one of my (many) old hymnals -- a plymouth brethren (1881) edited by Darby. And -- wonderfully -- I found it tonight online. So here it is -- good reflections for choosing songs. I don't think the theological difference we (Reformed) have with his dispensationalism muddy his points. They are well worth considering:

Three things are needed for a hymn book;

1. a basis of truth and sound doctrine;

2. something, at least, of the spirit of poetry, though not poetry itself, which is objectionable, as merely the spirit and imagination of man;

3. and thirdly, the most difficult to find of all, that experimental acquaintance with truth in the affections which enables a person to make his hymn – if led of God to compose one – the vehicle, in sustained thought and language, of practical grace and truth which sets the soul in communion with Christ, and rises even to the Father, and yet this in such sort that it is not mere individual experience, which, for assembly worship, is out of place.

In a word, the Father's love, and Christ developed in the soul's affections, rising in praise back again to its source. God alone can give this so as to meet the wants of an assembly.

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Multiple styles of worship?

I found these two insights at The Worshiping Community in a thread about churches having multiple styles of worship for different services. We see it here in our town -- churches having a "traditional," "contemporary," or "blended" services. Intuitively I've never liked the idea. Here's some real-world experience having their say. Worth pondering.

By the way, when pushed to describe our music/worship style, I say "eclectic." Never liked "blended" -- sounds like some kind of jello and whip cream concoction.

Russ Hutto writes,

What a lot of larger churches that serve up buffet style worship are seeing a generation later is that segregating the church based on worship preference is successful in 2 things:

1) Dividing the church.

2) De-emphasizing the family.

Lemleroy writes,

I found this quote from J.I. Packer pertaining to multiple worship styles. I thought it'd be appropriate to post as a followup to my original post. This is an excerpt from Shane Rosenthal's "An Interview with J. I. Packer: The State of Evangelicalism" in Modern Reformation. J. I. Packer is the author of the Christian classic, "Knowing God".

Shane Rosenthal: "What do you think about a niche marketing approach that has by virtue of the different worship styles - teen pop, alternative, and adult boomer - created generational segregation?"

J. I. Packer: "We have separated the ages, very much to the loss of each age. In the New Testament, the Christian church is an all-age community, and in real life the experience of the family to look no further should convince us that the interaction of the ages is enriching. The principle is that generations should be mixed up in the church for the glory of God. That doesn't mean we shouldn't disciple groups of people of the same age or the same sex separately from time to time. That's a good thing to do. But for the most part, the right thing is the mixed community in which everybody is making the effort to understand and empathize with all the other people in the other age groups. Make the effort is the key phrase here. Older people tend not to make the effort to understand younger people, and younger people are actually encouraged not to make the effort to understand older people. That's a loss of a crucial Christian value in my judgment. If worship styles are so fixed that what's being offered fits the expectations, the hopes, even the prejudices, of any one of these groups as opposed to the others, I don't believe the worship style glorifies God, and some change, some reformation, some adjustment, and some enlargement of spiritual vision is really called for."

Because of Mercy,

David

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