Antidotes for boring services: Worship

Perhaps provocatively, I would like to talk about boring church services.  You may therefore feel nervous about forwarding it on to your pastor!  Please assure them that I’m not pointing the finger at any church or church leader… For the record, I find my own church to be a mixture: sometimes our services are sharp and engaging, other times less so.  And I’m forwarding this to our pastors too, in a spirit of robust, loving encouragement!

Getting music right can surely play a part in reducing boredom, as can understanding the culture well, having a great welcoming process, and having gifted people on the platform.

I’m sure there are plenty of suggestions that astute people have made over the years for how to grab the attention of the gathered folk, hold it for an hour or so, and then promise it again for the following Sunday.

Some churches try technology.  Others try winsome, charismatic leadership style.  One pastor who is a good friend of mine has in his service plans a column for something unusual every week, just to make sure he keeps it interesting.

But although these various initiatives can be a great way of loving our people, I’m not sure these are in themselves the solution.  I think there are deeper issues at stake.

I now refer briefly to my background for some context.  I belong to the Reformed Evangelical arm of the Anglican Church here in Australia.  I grew up in Sydney as the son of an Anglican minister and studied theology at Moore College for 4 years.  I’ve been in full time ministry now for 9 years at Holy Trinity Adelaide as the music minister, and have no particular urge to move to any other church or denomination.  I don’t think we’re the best or worst denomination, but neither do I think that matters.  I have a heritage amongst people whom I love and respect deeply, though I also have many friends in other denominations or churches with other styles.

I provide this detail because readers from different backgrounds will tend to have a different experience of church services, and of the efforts that have been made to make them interesting.

I often hear people say they wish they could find a church that has Reformed Evangelical Anglican (REA) preaching with a Hillsong version of music and service structure.  “What a combo,” they say.

I’m not convinced.  That implies that REAs have preaching worked out and Hillsong has music worked out.  Don’t get me wrong: I think we can all learn from each other.  It’s just that I’m looking for something deeper than comparison or benchmarking.

So at this point, I want to try to clarify what I think the question is.

My title suggests that boredom is an issue in church.  But you know, we are flawed creatures, and even if the Lord himself had visited us during his earthly ministry, we would still have been likely to drift off because of the weakness of our flesh.  We get sleepy; our worldly interests still tug at our hearts; we haven’t got a vision of Christ in his full sin-smashing glory.

So maybe boredom isn’t quite the precise category we’re looking for, since it often says more about those of us in the pew than about the program being delivered from the platform.  But there is a biblical category that governs what we should be doing in church, and that is edification.

Now this sounds less exciting than my title, but perhaps the question is simply, “Are our services edifying?”  The problem here is that the term “edifying” has fallen down a crevice between a vapid, inoffensive word to describe positive learning experiences (e.g. “that movie was marginally edifying but not particularly exciting”) and a technical theological term that ministers use rather vaguely and unconvincingly (e.g. “I hope my sermon today edified you in some helpful way”).

What I will seek to do in this 4 part series of blogs is to try to say some things about edification in the gathering and what our role is (those involved in planning or running services) in trying to bring it about.  I’m not going to do an extensive survey of New Testament usage, but rather focus on broader biblical principles and a few key texts.

The first of these relevant biblical principles is worship.

Where we find ourselves

I refer again to my REA background.  In my stable, I think many of us (including myself) have become very hesitant to use the word worship to describe what we are doing in a church service.  This is because our “whole of Bible” understanding of worship has rightly pointed us towards worship as a “whole of life” activity, not simply the activities that we undertake in church.

Let me list some of the things we’ve reacted against.  We have reacted against the reducing of worship to congregational singing when it has so much more of a wide scope than this.  We’ve reacted against the use of the term ‘worship leader’ to describe the song leader when the preacher is at least as eligible for that description, if not anyone up the front urging people to submit their lives to God.  We’ve reacted against the confusing idea that expressing worship is primarily about expressing feelings… we would agree that feelings associated with our awe of God are a natural by-product of worship, but we’ve insisted that they are not its essence.

However, I think we’ve seen an over-reaction to this imprecise word usage that has had wide and deep implications for the way we run our services.  In our reluctance to describe the activities of our gatherings as worship, we have found ourselves without an adequate vocabulary to describe the vertical or God-ward aspects of our meetings.  As a result, those God-ward aspects have often been pushed aside.  We’ve picked up the New Testament’s emphasis on edification when we meet, and tended to focus more on the horizontal aspects of our meetings.  But somehow in doing this, I think we’ve created a division between worship and edification, and here is the nub of the problem.

I have found myself asking, “What exactly is edification?”  I realise it’s the idea of building… that we are built up into Christ.  It’s the idea of Christians becoming stronger and more numerous.

But the problem is, often the attempts to edify me fail.  I was once taught that singing in church was for my encouragement, and yet I usually felt sapped by it.  In fact, one of the reasons I went into formal music ministry was that so much church music made me feel discouraged.  I couldn’t just sit around and complain about it – I felt I had to do something.

So how does the church get built?  It’s by the strengthening of individuals and by the adding of people into it.  2 parts to this I guess: the Christians and the soon-to-become-Christians.

Strengthening the Church by strengthening insiders

For Christians to be strengthened, the Bible has a few ideas.  In Paul’s letters, as in other parts, there is the very common indicative-imperative pattern.  Things are said in the indicative mood (describing), indicating the grace of God, the plan of God or the glory of Christ.  These are then followed by the imperative (instructions or appeals), calling us to adapt our behaviour or our thinking.  Paul doesn’t tend to give out rules – mostly just implications.  If we knew just how much we were loved, we’d love in return.  If we knew the spiritual reality of being in Christ, we would act in Christ and not in a fleshly way.  And so on.

Edification is always grace driven.  It’s always driven by the character of God or a description of the work of God.  And here is a key point: to be edified, we need to be drawn to God himself.

We see this in the book of Hebrews as well, where a series of warning passages are alternated with a series of passages persuading the reader/hearer of Christ’s incomparable glory, and of the manner in which the new covenant in Jesus stupendously surpasses the old.  The key thing is that these words of edification and encouragement to Christians are interwoven with words of praise and acclamation.

Before I go any further, let me say that the alternative is a very dangerous path.  God has saved us by grace, through faith alone, not by works, so that no-one can boast.  If we slip into preaching sermons and running services that for some reason have lost their grace mooring, then they potentially lead people into falsehood.  We can unwittingly preach about the importance of evangelism, or the need to stop sinning, or the putting on of virtues, without couching these in the terms of response.  Every good deed must be a response to God’s gracious work, or I’d argue that it’s not actually a good deed but an attempt to win God’s favour through our own merit.

I should also say that the majority of the time, our failure in this is unintentional… I think!  Those who have the privilege of ministering from the platform in a church are usually very clear in their heads about the grace-driven nature of our faith, and perhaps we make assumptions about the people in the seats.

We get a sense that people need to be reminded to share their faith and so we create a program or a timetable.  We ask people to sign up to things or attend events, and our meetings can start to feel like a campaign meeting in a political party.

We kick off the year with all sorts of new structures, goals and targets that we’re sure will be a vehicle for God’s blessing, and we present them to the congregation much like you might present at an organisation’s Annual General Meeting.

We know that we need to pray to God for our people and our ministries, so we list them off to him much like we’re placing an order at a drive-through window.

I have no doubt that these things are all well intended.  But what I feel is missing when we do this… is worship.  Call it what you will: I don’t mind if you call it a God-focus or a grace motivation.  What matters is that we never make assumptions about how the church is strengthened.  It is only in God that people are edified.

So how might it look to shape our meetings to be services of worship?  I think that the time when we gather together as Christ’s people to sit under his word is specifically a time of worship.  That is, it is a time when we enact our submission to Christ’s lordship in some very particular ways: we sit under his word (which is a first order act of worship), we respond to him in words of faith and repentance, we sing and say together words of praise and thanksgiving, directed both to him and to each other, and through all of these things we remind each other of the kingdom and its implications for our lives.

Now we can have strategy and planning meetings, we can set aside time in the week to review our approach and make improvements.  We can have fun times chatting about interests we might have in common other than the kingdom of God.  But there must be a time in our week dedicated to those activities at the end of the previous paragraph.

This time of worship will actually provide the greatest edification of your entire week.  But if it is watered down to just a meeting of like minded people, then it runs the very high risk of losing its God-ward focus, and therefore not being as edifying for people.  The church struggles to grow because its message becomes like that of the advertisers… yet another appeal for our time, money and energy.

What about the 3 examples above… can they still be done in a service of worship?  Yes.  The first related to evangelism.  But if you want people to evangelise (I run the risk of giving the false impression of being an expert here), you need to proclaim to those around you the glory, love, mercy, wisdom, power and holiness of God as revealed in Christ, and challenge people about whether this message has transformed them.  I would much prefer it if that was the bulk of what was communicated in the service, and that the particular details of the strategy were referred to concisely, not in detail.

I’d say the same with our structures, goals and targets.  Hand out a document if you like.  But use the time in the service to draw people’s minds yet again to some aspect of God’s glory and grace that will make them excited to read your document!

With the example of prayer above, this is something that people could take onboard for leading prayers in the service or in a home group, or even in their private devotions.  Here’s the thing: I struggle to find a prayer in the entire Bible that doesn’t keep making references to God and his wonderful wisdom, mercy and strength.  If we could see clearly with our eyes who it was that we were addressing, we would just find ourselves compelled to refer to him and to what he has done and is doing.  All prayer should be expressions of our worship… not in a high and righteous tone – he is our loving heavenly Father as well as our Sovereign Lord – but in the deep respect and awe of him who holds our lives and livelihoods in the palm of his hand.

Strengthening the Church by adding outsiders

Now briefly, the soon-to-become-Christians in our church services: I suggested that the church is built by people becoming Christians, as much as it is built by our worship bringing conviction to those who are already believers.

The clearest Biblical example of this type of conversion is in 1 Corinthians 14:21-25.  Paul is arguing in this chapter that prophesy is more useful in the church than tongues, since the unintelligibility of tongues usually only enables a person to have an individual communication with God, whereas prophesy enables shared communication which can strengthen others.  In verse 21-22 he even suggests that tongues are a sign of judgement for the unbeliever… yet prophesy is a sign for the believers.  But although prophesy is for believers, there is a circumstance in which it can be for unbelievers, and this is when they witness it happening among Christians.

I won’t go into the discussion of precisely what Paul means by prophesy, other than to say that it is words prompted by God for the uplifting of believers.

But an unbeliever enters our meeting, hears the word of God intended to make strong the believer, and is personally convicted and called to account.  “The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you”.

So, through our edification can come evangelism.  I think this happens every Sunday in every city, although some definitions of prophesy would lead some to disagree in relation to prophesy… but perhaps agree in the general sense that powerful edifying words lead outsiders who are listening in to join us in worship.

That is, a person becoming a Christian is joining the worshipping activity that the church is already engaged in.  I don’t think Paul is implying that the brand new believer is the only person in the room who is worshipping and falling on his face.  He (or she) is joining in the worship undertaken by God’s people.  We get a glimpse of the church at worship in a passing reference in Acts 13:2.

This bringing to worship through edification is helpful as we plan and lead our gatherings.  I think we feel like we need to jazz it up at church.  We do get bored… sometimes just because of our flesh.  But is it possible that we are feeling an urge to use whatever techniques we can to make our meetings count, week by week?  Are we unwittingly drawing techniques and methods from the creation rather than from the creator?

God is after all the life of the party.  The church is the place to which the world can come to meet this God.  But sometimes I feel that, rather than inviting him to the party, we’re just skyping him in.

Biblically speaking, wherever people encounter God in his glory, worship follows.  Think of Moses told to remove his sandals whilst standing on holy ground – an act of submission and awe that God required of this not-yet-ready saviour for Israel.  Think of Isaiah’s vision of God in which he calls out “woe is me for I am lost; I am a man of unclean lips… and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts”.  God’s presence demands his utmost humbling.  Think of the disciples who when they saw the risen Christ on the mountain worshipped him, “although some doubted”, reminding us that worship is not some triumphant act of super-spirituality.  In each of these instances, worship is the humble surrender to God in the acknowledgement that he is all in all.

This is the God whom we present to the world when we meet for our church services.  Yes, people will see us during the week showing a Godlike love.  But when they visit us on a Sunday, it must all become clear to them!  They should encounter God as he is, hearing his word powerfully proclaimed in speech and song, seeing people’s response of worship in their engagement, humility and deep love of God.  And they should smell the aroma of this beautiful message about Christ.  And so through our worship, they can meet God.

I hope to spell out a bit more detail of what I think Biblically edifying services can look like over the next 3 blogs.  In the next one, I want to look at the idea of drama or gravitas and how God uses this to draw us to himself.

*****

Extended Footnote: a definition of worship (and some key texts)

Although the doctrine of worship is not simple, I do think it can be described simply as the expression of our humble submission to God.

But a bit more detail: Jesus preached “the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15).  This message is foundational to understanding worship: Jesus’ coming was about the establishment of a kingdom.  A kingdom means a king and worshipping subjects.  The particular response to that news of a kingdom was about how to become one of these worshipping subjects: turn from sin to God and believe the gospel about Jesus.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus fills this out a little more when he says that true worshippers will worship in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23-24), indicating that it is through the work of the Spirit of God and the Son of God that people would be enabled to worship.

In summary, to be one of the worshipping subjects of the King, you need to repent and believe: you need salvation that God has brought us through Christ and implanted in our hearts by his Holy Spirit.  And worship is living out that salvation daily, in reverence, submission and service.

It’s really important to see that true worship isn’t initiated by human beings.  It is made possible by God himself, through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So worship is one of the very characteristics of being a Christian.

One of the places Paul refers to worship in the Christian life is in Romans 12:1, where he says that the presenting of our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, is our spiritual worship.  This underlines the manner in which our whole life is submitted to him in service as an act of worship.  He makes reference to the old system of worship – the official sacrificial system of the Mosaic Law – and shows how for Christians this is fulfilled by presenting our bodies for service.

Whilst Romans 12:1 is a key text, it is not an exhaustive text.  For example, we shouldn’t assume that the sacrificial system was the only aspect of Old Testament worship – worship was all-of-life for Israel too.  Many sections of the New Testament are devoted to clarifying how the Law was relevant and not relevant under the new covenant, and this is one of them.

Hebrews 12:18-29 particularly helps to show how worship now focuses on the heavenly Jerusalem, rather than around Mt Sinai or on the earthly Mt Zion.  Our orientation should now be the heavenly glory of Christ, rather than the glory seen on earth by Moses.  So the kingdom that Jesus was proclaiming in Mark’s Gospel has now been established, since the king has been enthroned and there are thousands of worshipping subjects, referred to as the “assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”.

God is described as a “consuming fire” and therefore we are to “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe”.

It’s important to note that the words that follow on immediately after this are about love, respect and church life in general.  So the writer wants us to maintain both the heavenly view of Christ’s exalted glory and the earthly view of day-to-day life in the church.  I think it’s fair to say that it is this vision of the glory of the exalted Christ that empowers us to serve in the seemingly less glorious ways of respecting leaders and remaining pure.

Finally, the New Testament’s picture of worship is shaped by John’s vision in Revelation.  Several texts outline the eternal worship of the church as it gathers to offer reverence, submission and service to God, such as Rev 5:8-10, 5:11-14, 7:9-12, 15:2-4, 19:6-8.

This is the picture of the end – the shaking of all things that will finally establish the unfettered rule of Christ the King.  And our doctrine of Church today should affirm that we manifest this reality now, even though it is a future reality.  The New Testament writers are at pains to state that we are with Christ in heaven, “seated with him” and so on.

In particular, as I’ve stated above, when people see our good deeds and come seeking God, it is in the church that they will find him.  They should find a worshipping community.  But fundamentally, where they find a worshipping community, they should indeed find… God!

Now although worship involves a horizontal component (e.g. Rom 12:1, Heb 13:1), it must also involve a vertical component by definition.  There is no such thing as worship without a vertical component.

Peter actually makes this point very clearly in 1 Peter 4:10-11, where he says that whoever serves should do so in the strength that God supplies “in order that, in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ”.  That is, the reason we serve others is because we worship God.  Worship, or bringing glory to God through Christ, is the driving motivation for all godliness.

So the church is the open community of worshipping subjects in the Kingdom of God.  It is most visibly the dwelling place of God when we gather together physically.  We seek to display the glorified Christ through our worship, which both strengthens the believer and draws into eternal life the unbeliever.

 

Music Ministry: Trellis or Vine?

I was recently asked whether music ministry is a “ministry of the word” or a “ministry that supports the ministry of the word”.  Interesting question!  There’s quite a bit behind the question, which I’ll get to.  But I should clarify at the outset that by “the word”, the questioner was referring to the Bible and the message of salvation contained within it, not just to a general sense of word versus musical note, or visual image.

Ever since I started as Music Minister at my church (Holy Trinity Adelaide) I’ve been encouraging people to think of music as a ministry of the word.  In particular, one of the key New Testament verses that shapes our ministry is Colossians 3:16, which every church musician should memorise:

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  (NIV 2011)

The idea is that the congregation sings the word, and sings in response to the word.  This message of Christ is the key topic and the key driver and shaper of our singing.  So in one sense, the answer is obvious.  Yes, music is a ministry of the word.

But if someone is thinking of getting involved in music ministry, are they getting involved in a ministry of the word?  Let me put it more sharply: if someone has gifts of being able to lead a Bible study as well as being an accomplished musician, should they choose Bible study leading at the expense of the musical blessing they can be to the congregation?  Let’s face it, we yearn for our music to sound good!

A few years ago, I came across a book called The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.  It challenged some of my thinking around ministry, particularly by showing the priority of word ministry.  The word is the vine… it lives and grows.  The book of Acts talks about the word as if it is a character in the story (e.g. Acts 19:20).

But a vine needs the support of a trellis to grow properly.  In ministry, trellises are those supporting activities that open doors for word ministry, make it happen more efficiently and effectively.  Think accounting, plumbing, and electrical.  Or think strategy and vision meetings, or in a gathering itself, think counting attendees, welcoming visitors, operating the sound desk and lighting… the list could be very long.

These things are all essential for word ministry to happen.  In Acts 6, the Apostles were set aside from having to wait on tables specifically so they could devote themselves to the ministry of the word and prayer.  Then, 7 men known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom were appointed to manage the logistics of life in church.  The first Christian martyr (Stephen) was of course one of these 7.

One of the arguments of The Trellis and the Vine is that we should follow this priority of the ministry of the word over its supporting activities.  The reality is, a lot of Christians get very distracted by the supporting activities… there are so many things to keep in mind.

There is a real temptation for churches to lose their way.  We can even find ourselves thinking that trellises create growth in our churches.  We see business strategy, marketing or restructuring working in the secular world, and we assume that we could expect the same results within the church.  We hear extraordinary music played at a concert and we feel that we could impact lives for Christ by trying to emulate the same powerful performances and high production values in the church.

We are well advised not to fall into this trap.  I’m not saying that we should ignore the wisdom that we can glean from the world.  I’m not saying we shouldn’t have music that is even higher in quality than what you would hear in a concert hall or rock music venue.  I’m just agreeing with the writers of The Trellis and the Vine that it isn’t these things that grow the church… it is the gospel: the message that Jesus is alive and that he brings eternal life.

We need constantly to let that message be the engine room of all church activities.  If we’re going to do strategy, let it be gospel strategy.  If we’re going to do marketing, let’s market the gospel.  If we’re going to do music well, let it be music driven by, and seeking to make known, the message of Christ.

So is music ministry trellis ministry or vine ministry?

I think like many other activities, it’s a bit of both.  Bible study leading for example involves emailing people to organise things, buying food, making tea and coffee.  These are all trellis activities.

But it also involves the crucial task of opening the Bible, both in preparation and in the study time itself, and seeking to bring it to bear on the lives of the people in the group.  Sometimes the study itself will be sufficient to teach and admonish.  Other times one-to-one follow up might be needed to help people to apply the Bible to their lives.

Music ministry similarly has both vine and trellis aspects.  If you’re involved in arranging scores, planning or running rehearsals, tuning, fixing or even playing instruments, you may be in trellis ministry alone, depending on the approach.

But there are 3 key aspects of music ministry that are vine ministry, and potentially a 4th.  They are: song writing, song choosing, and song leading.  The possible 4th is band leading, if the manner in which you lead your band involves opening up the word for the band.  Let’s look at them in turn.

1. Song writing – we have a group of budding song writers in my church network.  Whenever they write a song, they are deeply buried in the Bible.  They’re trying to understand things, apply things to everyday life, and re-express things in their own words.  When I’m writing a song at the piano, the music stand becomes my Bible stand.

2. Song choosing – when I get together with band leaders, one of the things we regularly do is choose the songs for the next time they will lead.  This involves usually a half hour or more of me asking searching questions of the text, trying to determine the big idea, key ways to apply the text, and the response that a passage demands of a congregation.

I do this with my music interns on a weekly basis.  As a result, they are receiving training in Biblical exegesis that is not widely available in our church: weekly one-to-one Bible coaching by a senior staff member.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that music leaders often make great Bible study leaders.

3. Song leading – when I’m leading singing at a conference or in church, I see myself as being in a role very similar to that of the preacher.  I’m on the platform, throwing my heart, soul, mind and voice into the task of urging, persuading, encouraging and admonishing people through the message of Christ.  They are often not words I’ve written myself, but they are words that I own personally when I’m up the front.

Different churches have different models of song leading.  On some platforms, the song leader is given the opportunity to introduce the songs verbally, using ideas from the song, a verse or two from a relevant part of the Bible, or prayer or word of encouragement.  In other churches, song leaders lead by simply singing the lyrics of the song.

But regardless of the distinctions, it’s pretty clear that they are in the job of communicating the message of Jesus.

4. Band leading – I believe rehearsals should be times of Christian growth.  In our AM church band rehearsals, which I’ve been running in a fairly consistent format for most of the last 12 months, we always talk about the message of Christ in the songs.  I ask everyone to place aside their instrument or microphone and come and sing around the piano.  We have a simple process:

  1. Choose a song to sing through (often a less familiar one, which has additional benefits!)
  2. Sing it once
  3. I ask the group what the song is about… we talk about it, I summarise the thoughts and try to persuade everyone how significant the content is.
  4. We sing it again, this time with far deeper connection with the ideas
  5. We launch straight into prayers of praise, thanks and appealing to God to bring these same truths home for the people who will gather in the services we’re rehearsing for.

Only then do we get into rehearsing the songs as a band.

So in my music ministry, I’m trying to increase the number of people involved with the word/vine aspects of what we do.  For me this means developing what it means to be a song leader or band leader.  There are plenty of players whose chief area is trellis work, but a growing number of people directly involved in vine work.

I generally work towards music ministry constituting a part time involvement for people, unless they’re doing an internship or some other intense program.  I am keen for everyone in our ministry to be involved in a range of other ministries, both vine and trellis ministries.  In particular, I believe that if people have the gifts to be involved in the ministry of the word, then the best training is diverse training.

Perhaps this next statement is controversial for some, but the logic is hard to beat: Someone who develops Biblical understanding through song choosing and through Bible study leading will be better equipped than someone who only develops understanding through Bible study leading.  There is just so much to learn by choosing songs.

Most of our music ministry members are also either Bible study group leaders, youth group leaders, children’s ministry workers, preachers, members of young adults groups, and members of all sorts of other groups in which they serve.  I work hard not to over-schedule people, because burn-out is always a risk with people giving loads of their time.

But I need to finish with what I think is a really important point.  There is a real tendency to de-value trellis work.  And I think this is just as unbiblical as it is not to set aside vine workers for vine work.  In 1 Corinthians 12 & 13, Paul speaks about a range of gifts, including those that we should eagerly desire.  But love is to be the driving characteristic of how any gift should be exercised.

The distinction between trellis and vine is not about one person’s work being more valuable than another’s, but about the fact that neither should be jeopardised by everything being blurred into one category.

It is appropriate that ministers be set aside for preaching and praying, just as the Apostles were in Acts.  But it is also appropriate for us to have high standards that we expect of those we recruit into trellis work, just as was applied to the wise and Spirit-filled 7 in Acts.

So in music, I am deeply grateful for gifted musicians!  And I know our congregations are too.  Their trellises enable the vine aspects of our work to be presented clearly and strongly, without distractions, appropriately carrying the lofty content of the word of God.

We often talk about the PRIORITY of preaching… perhaps this is a good way to think about the distinction in music too, without saying that some people are greater than others.   Let’s try to see the gospel as the great gift, and our skill-gifts as means to honour the gospel gift.

Everyone in the church should be seeking to make sure the preaching of the word is happening as the primary activity, both those who support it with wide-ranging trellis type gifts, and those who are given that unique Biblical insight and communication ability.  All of us in the church should pray for that deep yearning from within the soul to see the church and its visitors dwelling richly on the message of Christ.

 

 

 

 

A new vision for Revelation

Revelation Music is an initiative of the Trinity Network of Churches based here in Adelaide.  I’m the music minister of Holy Trinity Adelaide, which is the main planting church within our network.

It’s been wonderful to see God’s blessing on our city over the last decade or so (I’ve only been here 8 years), with growth to a network of 6 centres or campuses, with 12 gatherings every Sunday, and about 2000 people gathering to hear the word and respond with faith, joy and obedience.

Over this time of growth, it has become obvious to me that a music conference was essential to enable us to move forward with common goals in music ministry, given that the churches in our network operate largely independently of each other, and yet we desire to maintain a common ethos.

So we started Revelation Music and Ministry Conference in 2011, with my father (David Peterson – author of “Engaging with God”) as the main speaker, and Geoff Bullock and Nicky Chiswell as the guest artists.  The conference was opened up to those outside the Trinity network, and we’ve never looked back.

We then had an enormously successful follow-up conference in 2012 with Peter Adam as the main speaker, and Nathan Tasker and Garage Hymnal as the guest artists.

Well in 2013, Revelation is in an expansion phase.  We want to be more than a conference – we want to be a community of people sharing together in music ministry.  This will be a community based on the sharing of resources and ideas: whether songs or recordings, tips from old hands or from up and coming musicians, training courses, a growing web resource, and of course Revelation conference, which will now run once every two years around September.

In view of this expansion, our team has come up with a vision statement that I think will help people to see what we’re trying to do.

Vision: That as God’s people encounter him together, they praise him in a Biblically derived way with vitality, strengthening one another by singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord (See Eph 5:18-20), and that seeing this, non-Christians come to faith.

There are 4 aspects worth highlighting:

  1. We want to focus on the times when God’s people get together.
  2. We believe in a response of praise that is Biblically based and full of vitality.
  3. Our singing addresses each other and God, the crucial two-sides-of-the-coin approach of key New Testament verses such as Colossian 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18-20.
  4. Our singing has an evangelistic edge: there are always non-believers in our midst, and we want our music to be infectiously engaging for them too.

Well, this is what we think is important for us to aim for in our music.  There’s much more flesh to put on those bones, but it’s a start.  I’d love your thoughts.

Mark

 

 

Diary of a musical transition: Part 3 – why ask people to change?

I don’t like doing things that make people hurt.  I’m often more likely to back down than go through with things that I know are unpopular.  I hate seeing people in distress, especially when it’s my decisions that have brought this about.

I must admit, I didn’t realise that the prospect of musical change would cause pain.  I think that pain has been partly caused by the implementation of something new that people say they don’t like.  But really, I think the main cause of pain has been the fear of losing something precious.  I think the precious thing is actually not just the music, but the experience of church.  This place in which people have been meeting together in Christ’s name for many decades for some of these people… it’s kind of tied up with organ music for some reason.

I really think our memories and fond recollections are crucial to consider in any changes that we implement to how we do church.  Although these memories are not the gospel themselves, they have often been part of the means by which people have heard the gospel.  Let’s face it, they’ve been joyfully and persistently singing the great old hymns, which are full of the wonderful truths God has revealed to us about Christ and what he has done to give us hope in this life.

Of course singing involves the integration of a whole load of different musical elements to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts – so it is very difficult to change melodies, speed or instrumentation without giving the impression that they whole thing just isn’t the same.

So why ask people to change to contemporary music, when I know it’s likely to cause pain and a sense of loss?

  1. I don’t think it’s actually going to be as painful as people are fearing it will be.  The transitional weeks we’ve had with a band playing in the lead up to the service restructure has brought 95% positive comments.  It simply hasn’t been the wholesale stripping away that people have been worried about.  And the negative comments I have received have been mostly just saying “the jury’s still out”.
  2. I don’t plan to remove organ music altogether, since my goal is not to get rid of anything, just to rebalance.  So whilst I think there is a sense of loss that 2 out of the 4 songs will no longer be done on the organ, I think there is much to gain at the same time.
  3. Change is actually good.  It has shown us the things that we care about, and a number of people have made comments around the fact that being challenged in what they hold dearly has helpfully reminded them of what’s important.
  4. I think a blend of contemporary and traditional is actually more invitationally relevant.  We’re not talking hard core or death metal music.  We’re talking middle-of-the-road broadly accessible, contemporary songs that just happen to sound better with a band than an organ.  And let’s face it: in the wider community today, a contemporary band is a lot less alienating than a pipe organ.
  5. Doing things that aren’t our preference encourage us to love each other.  It is so important that everyone has a generous spirit in relation to music.  Music can be so divisive, but it should not be.  I want to love your music even if it’s not my preference, because I know how much it means to you.  But I’d love it if you can try to engage in my favourite music too, because you know how I connect with it.
  6. The Bible says absolutely nothing about style.  We won’t be having this conversation when the Lord returns.  We’ll be rather more preoccupied with the object of our singing than with the accompaniment.  Perhaps that should be our guide to singing this side of heaven too… let your singing be praise of Jesus.  Let your worship of him be both encouraging and uplifting to others, remembering that a focus on Christ is much more helpful to people than a focus on musical issues, no matter how important we think they might be.

 

Contemporary v Traditional: 8 reasons it’s hard to choose

Having just returned from 2 refreshing weeks of holiday, I found a message from a friend asking me about the pros and cons of traditional versus contemporary music in church.  I couldn’t resist putting a few ideas down, and thought I’d share them with you.

I’ll be upfront: I write contemporary music, I listen to mostly contemporary music, my church does mostly contemporary music (although we have a couple of congregations that do traditional, or a blend of traditional and contemporary).  But here’s the funny thing for me:  As I think back to my favourite musical moments in church, there are as many traditional moments as contemporary… perhaps even slightly more.

What about you?  I don’t think there should be a war between history and the present day.  I think the challenge for us is to connect.  But think carefully about that.  We need to be connected to our history, otherwise we have nothing.  We also need to be connected to our congregations today, as well as to those who might join our congregations tomorrow.

Call be boring, but I’m not going to come down on one side or the other.  Here are my conciliatory, complementary, and perhaps not particularly concise 8 points:

  1. There is good contemporary music and good traditional music for us to sing, but there’s also bad contemporary music and bad traditional music – I don’t think the issue is how old the music is.
  2. One of the benefits of traditional music is that you remind the listeners that we are connected historically. One of the benefits of contemporary music is that you are using sounds that connect with contemporary ears, so there’s an evangelistic benefit.
  3. One of the difficulties of doing traditional stuff is that it can sound irrelevant and archaic because it’s from a bygone era. I have a few thoughts about making it sound more relevant (see link). One of the difficulties of doing contemporary is that it can feed a desire to be fashionable, which is irrelevant to being followers of Christ.
  4. Different churches have different repertoires, with a different ratio of traditional to contemporary, which is their choice – this choice is probably something that should be discussed from time to time with a range of people from the ministers through to the parishioners.
  5. You can’t please everyone ever, and you can’t please anyone all the time. In fact, singing a style of music that we don’t like but we know that others in our congregation do like is good, because it requires love, and that’s a good thing for the church. It’s something we should all be willing to do.
  6. There’s a difference between the origin of the song and the style in which it is performed: eg contemporary songs are sometimes played on the organ or with a small classical ensemble; traditional songs can be performed by a contemporary band. We need to take account of the musical preferences and also the musical gifting of the congregation. If the musos would pull it off better in a manner in which they are skilled, it may work better to let them do this.
  7. Although the musical elements are important, lyrics are more important, because the cost of getting them wrong is greater than the cost of getting the music wrong.  Though I still think the cost of getting the music wrong is high, in particular, a massive lost opportunity to connect with people.
  8. Hymn lyrics are often more poetic and colourful (though not always); But contemporary lyrics are often more concise and simple (and not always!). People need a balance in this, because clear communication and rich expression are both essential to maintain. Try to find songs that do both.

 

What do you think?  Are there other things we can say?  Is anyone willing to say that one is better than the other?

 

 

 

 


New Release: The Name of Love

***AVAILABLE NOW ***

Order here: www.emumusic.com.au

The Name of Love is my 4th solo album, pulling together a bunch of songs I’ve been singing in my own church Holy Trinity Adelaide over the last 2 years, some my own writing and some contemporary band arrangements of a few of my favourite ancient hymns.

It was a great pleasure working with Adelaide-based producer Michael Sinclair of Blackhaus Studios.  His creativity, energy and hard work have made an album that I’m really loving listening to.

The album is in 2 halves. The first 6 songs are full studio productions. The last 6 were recorded live at Men’s Katoomba Convention in February and March 2011.

Most of the songs on the album express in some way the forgiveness and cleansing that God achieves for humanity through Jesus Christ, expressed from the perspective of the needy sinner. The title track, “In the name of love” is an exposition of Psalm 32, where the Psalmist rejoices in his own forgiveness.

Track Listing

Studio Tracks
1. In the name of love
2. Our glorious King
3. Where are the words
4. Glory in the heavens
5. Psalm 103
6. Have you believed

Live Tracks
7. Stand up, stand up for Jesus
8. Holy holy holy
9. Beneath the cross of Jesus
10. It is well
11. Be thou my vision
12. In the name of love

Revelation Conference Website Launch

This week the website for the brand new music and ministry conference went live.  Check it out.  www.revelation.org.au

Registration is all online.  Consider coming along and being part of the inaugural event.

There’ll be launching of new music (including my own new album), a whole heap of really interesting and thought-provoking workshops, plus we’ll be delving into the whole question of how our gatherings need good music!

I can’t wait to share the stage with Nicky Chiswell and Geoff Bullock – 2 artists for whom I have enormous respect, and from whom I always expect to be challenged and uplifted.

Join us!  Take the Friday off work.  Travel if you have to.

Hope to see you there.

Trinity Music Conference 2011

After 6 years of thinking about running a music ministry conference at Holy Trinity, I’ve decided (after prompting and prodding from others, plus the emergence of a number of key people to help run it) that it’s time!

So July 14-16 2011 is the proposed date for the conference, to be held in Adelaide.  It would have 3 evening sessions (Thurs, Fri, Sat) plus a range of daytime sessions during the Friday and the Saturday.  It’d be during school and uni holidays, so we’d hope to pick up a good number of students.  But we’re also hoping many workers will see the value of the conference and take the Friday off work.

Here’s why I want to run a Trinity music ministry conference:

  • Music ministry in church is harder than ever: think no more one-size-fits-all hymnbooks, think copyright hassles, think pulling contemporary bands together from largely untrained amateur musicians.
  • Church’s expectations are higher than ever: think massive growth in the Christian music and worship music “industries” and the demand for sounds that will attract a new generation.
  • The cost of doing it poorly is higher than ever: think how we’ve thrown out liturgy and replaced it with more music – so music really needs to be good, given how few prayers and biblically structured patterns we have in our services.
  • Holy Trinity is a big church with lots of resources that we want to share for the sake of the kingdom.

So it will be at Trinity music conference, but I’d really love to have people there from all sorts of churches.  What do you think?  Give me your thoughts… What could we include to guarantee that we’d see you there?

Where are the words

Where are the words (downloadable version: right click)

Ok, here’s another new song… “Where are the words”, recorded on the same night as “In the name of love” here at Holy Trinity Adelaide.  This song has already appeared in a more mellow version on the Emu Music album: Songs for little rooms.  Hope you like it!  Let me know your thoughts…

In the name of love

Have a listen to this new song, “In the name of love”.  This recording was done straight off the mixing desk (plus a stereo mic of the room) at Holy Trinity just this last Sunday (8th August).  Tell me what you think.

Mark[audio:http://www.markpeterson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/In-the-name-of-love.mp3|titles=In the name of love]

You can get a free score of this song here.