Sermon-6/11/06-Effective Worship
Intro.-Teen came home from church bored, began to complain to his dad about the music.
“Dad I’m tired of singing only same old Psalms to outdated tunes, don’t you think that God might enjoy hearing something new from his children?”
This was not the first time his father had heard such complaints from his boy, but rather than argue with his son or come down on him for not appreciating the old psalms of the faith, his father challenged him and said “Why don’t you give us something better, young man!” so the young man took the challenge and before the evening service that night he had composed his first hymn, That was the first of over 600 hymns that Issac Watts went on to write in his lifetime including “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, O God, our Help in Ages Past”, and “Joy to the World”.
Effective worship-not a new struggle
-look @ what worship is
-brief history of Worship
-Some guiding principles from Col.
-Why we are trying to come to grips with this at this point in our church’s history
-finally, how we are trying to find ways that we can worship together as a congregation.
Pray
I. What is worship? Two meanings in OT & NT either bow down in reverence .
Schach (shaw-khaw)-to prostate oneself, to bow in homage, do reverence
Segid-Arabic-to do homage
Proskuneo-to kiss toward
to serve
Abad-to work, serve
Latreuo-service
The English word that we have for worship comes from the old English word “worthship”, literally to attribute worth. So as we come to worship God, we come in reverence, humbly before God to acknowledge Him because He alone is worthy of worship. Also worship through our service, this morning focus rather narrowly on worship as a body.
II. As we look back at the history of worship, it has continually been changing, ever since the beginning of time.
-Beginning see individuals offering sacrifices to God for different reasons
Cain & Able/Noah/Abraham
-Eventually we see God establish the sacrificial system and instruct the Israelites to construct the tabernacle.
-Hundreds of years After they had arrived in the promised land they constructed the temple a permanent place of worship.
-In the NT Jesus comes and shakes up the entire way that people were to worship God, He taught that no longer was worship going to be tied to a place (the temple) but that God was seeking those who would worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
-After Jesus ascension the HS came to dwell in believers and now that was where the presence of God dwelt, our bodies became the temple where the Spirit dwells.
-Romans 12:1-2-we are to live our entire lives as spiritual acts of worship. To worship we no longer have to go to a certain place, we are called to worship God with all we do.
-From the day of Pentecost down till today, the forms, styles, and ways that believers have worshiped have been continually changing and being impacted by culture from architecture (house church, basilica, cathedrals, building of today) to media (passed on orally, scrolls shared, only clergy had bibles, printing press, overheads/slide projectors, video projectors/computers/internet), to music.
Little instruction in the NT regarding how we are to worship God through music. 2 parallel passages that give us the a few of the specifics that we have are Eph. 5:19 & Col. 3:16.
IV. Guiding principles from Colossians 3.
In both of these passages we are instructed to worship God through the singing of psalms & hymns and spiritual songs.
Psalms-psalmos-Greek term for musical accompaniment, lit. twitching or striking of strings, probably referred to the Psalms of David and the rest of the psalter.
Hymns-humnos-songs of direct praise to God, hymns are about Him, songs sung to Him.
Spiritual songs-ode-this is the general greek word for a song. So spiritual songs would extend beyond the psalms, and hymns to all forms of song as long as they are spiritual.”
Read Col. 3:12-17
Few highlights from what Paul had to say there as I see them relating to where we are today as a church:
What does Paul tell us to “Put On”? The things that characterized the life of Christ. Tenderness, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and most importantly love.
We are actually commanded to put on the qualities of Christ. These are the things that should characterize our lives and our interactions with others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.
At vs. 14 he arrives at the main theme of the passage, the unity of the body.
Love binds us together in unity
As members of one body you are all called to live in peace.
The key to all of this is the person of Christ, we must put on His characteristics, his attributes, including His love that will bind us together.
Vs. 15-The peace of Christ is to rule in our hearts then we can live in peace.
Vs. 16-The words of Christ are to live in our hearts. We then use His words to teach each other and worship in song.
Vs. 17-whatever we do or say should be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, as we give thanks through Him.
As we have approached this area of worship that has been our goal-the unity of the body, the whole body of Christ here at Lifegate. All of the generations that pastor talked about last week.
Builders, boomers, busters, bridgers
(pre-WWII) (‘43-62) (63-82) (83-02)
This is a tougher challenge today than at possibly any other time in church history for a couple of reasons.
#1-Longer lifespans=more generations living at one time
At the beginning of the 19th cent. The average life expectancy was only 50 years-consequently only 3 generations coexisted at the same time. But today with life expectancy approaching 80 years we will have 4 and potentially soon 5 generations living together.
Combine that with the fact that Things are changing faster than ever. .
Select Stats on Change:
In the 1950’s:
-a car cost $1,220
-gas $0.23
-College Tuition- $525
-round of golf @ Pebble Beach $2
-Coke, Hershey bar, coffe- $0.05
-stamp $.03
-Annual Salary for a teacher $2,640
-computer $500,000
It took the radio 40 years to reach 50 million domestic users. It took TV 14 years to reach that number, and the internet only 4 years.
In 1969 there were only 4 primative web sites.
in 1990 there were 330,000
Today there are over 10,000,000
There are over 120 million unsaved people in the United States. That makes the US the third largest mission field in the world behind only China and India.
Facing an incredible challenge as we try to find a worship style for that range of ages/styles.
Builders, boomers, busters, bridgers
(pre-WWII) (‘43-62) (63-82) (83-02)
Traditional Contemporary Multi-sensory
Some different approaches that have been tried.
Other approaches:
Seeker targeted-
Seeker sensitive-sensitive to unchurched but doesn’t target them, xians
Multiple-track-diff. styles in diff. services, separate min. tracks/targets
Satellite model-more than one service in multiple locations
Rebirthed model-completely stop using one style/philosophy and begin using a new one.
Our Approach
Blended worship-combine 2 or more styles in one service. Transitional atmosphere, tension.
We have chosen blended
Blended worship is only a temporary worship form on the journey to a new form that is just right for our congregation. The exact blend of mix of worship elements may change several times on the journey. Transitional, this is not the destination, but the journey. Most churches that start down this road eventually end up with 2 separate services: one traditional/blended & one modern.
As we are on this journey together blending allows us to demonstrate our unity as a body, by meeting different needs, providing diverse ministry opportunities and honoring the past and the future while we try to give people time to change.
Our goal is the unity of the body, as we worship together as one body and we move through this transition together. Trying to be sensitive to everyone and include elements that all of the generations will enjoy.
Talk to me or deacons is you have comments, complaints, suggestions.
Or be here Wed. nt. For discussion of the sermon & our direction/future as a church.
Close by reading the opening section of chapter 4 from Anne Ortlund’s book Up with Worship, written 31 years ago.
