Question for Worship Leaders: Lent Song Selection
I’m slowly piecing together liturgy and songs for our Lent season, and I am wondering what songs you might be singing during this season. Let me know what you have in mind; I’ll post some of my ideas next week.
"Worship should evoke memory, our common memory especially. And here we have a steep hill to climb: for many the stories of the Bible are either such a distant fading memory or unknown completely that the songs we sing can’t make sense. Read the Bible and the songbook will come alive; ignore the Bible’s stories and the songbook will gravitate to personal experience songs."
3 Great Advent Music Resources
Advent begins this coming Sunday, November 27th. It has quickly become one of my favorite seasons of the Christian calendar, and each year, I come across different music resources for those designing worship for the practice of Advent in their communities. Here are three Advent albums I hope to make use of this year:
1. A Child is Born - Sojourn Music: This is the second Advent album released by this band of musicians in Louisville, and like its predecessor, the album wrestles well with the tension of waiting and arrival in the Advent/Christmas season. Very musical, very creative. A great source of ideas for planning this season.
2. Half Spent Was The Night - Redeemer Community Church: Redeemer is a young church in the Birmingham area with a growing depth of liturgical resources coming out of their community. This is their first recording project, a number of fresh, simple folk arrangements of hymns and songs from time past and their current journey. A lot of talent, and a lot of great content for a gathering.
3. Volume 3: From The Belly of a Woman - The Opiate Mass: On first listening, you may not know what to do with this group, but the more I listen, the more I am stunned by some of their musical and theological ambitions. Check them out, especially the opening track, an arrangement of a portion of Handel’s Messiah. Seriously.
Worship Design, Pudding, and Pragmatism
In the comments section of my last post on Worship Leaders and Theologians, Chad noted that many times one of the most pressing needs we have in worship design is people, and that sometimes the best we can do is find someone who can make X happen. We need someone who can sing, or doesn’t mind praying aloud, or someone who brought their Bible and so can read Scripture. Chad called this “liturgical pragmatism”, and I think the term is spot on.
Pragmatism is rooted in the belief that theories that are just theoretical are worthless; theory finds its validation and life in the way it is practiced. Think of the maxim, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” - we only know how accurate, effective, or valid an idea is when we see it in practice. In a worship (or liturgical) setting, then, liturgical pragmatism is the way that our theological and theoretical ideas come to be embodied through what we do when we’re together.
It is important to note, then, that every serving of pudding ever made was made with a recipe. Every action has theory or ideas embedded in them, whether intentionally or not. Even the most basic, needed choices we make in worship are undergirded with some form of thinking, and that line of thinking transfers in and through the action itself. Therefore, when we make decisions about what happens when we gather, even on the smallest levels, we are saying something about what rightfully should happen when we gather. We are stamping it as theoretically (or theologically) approved.
Remember this, then, when it comes time to fill the roster for your gatherings. Pragmatic choices are not neutral choices, and to fill a role without thinking through the what, how, why, and to what end of that role could leave your pudding with some unintended extra ingredients. Think through and set up guidelines for the roles people play before, not after, you give them the role, and do not let someone serve in ways that distort or compromise you (or your team’s) leadership and theological vision.
Worship Leaders and Theologians.
(for @howertonjosh)
Yesterday, my friend Josh posted this:
Historically, musicians and theologians have had a contentious relationship. Biblically, we need them to have a symbiotic relationship.
To which I asked:
Is that because musicians often don’t see themselves as theological? Or because they aren’t often considered so by theologians?
Josh thought that both were possible, but probably more 1 than 2. When asked for my thoughts, I retreated here to flesh them out a little more.
1. In worship design, we must realize that everything we say and do is inherently theological. Everything. This means that we must look not only at the theological content of our sermons, our prayers, and our songs, but the theological orientation of how and in what ways these elements are enacted as we gather, as Christ is revealed, as we respond, and as we are sent.
2. Pastors, your theological concerns for your services must extend beyond the boundaries of your sermon. And again, this isn’t simply about singing songs that are not theologically horrid; this is about participating in the larger movement of revelation and response as it occurs in your times of corporate gathering. Every aspect of the corporate gathering says something about God and what it means to be His people, not just the sermon. As shepherds, you are responsible; take it all seriously.
3. Musicians, you are theologians whether you want to be or not. Your theological awareness must extend beyond your set list. If you lead or help design worship in any way, you are a theologian. You shape the way people perceive, understand, and respond to Christ every time the church gathers. The Fathers used the phrase lex orandi, lex credendi to describe the relationship between worship and belief: “the law of prayer is the law of belief”, or how we pray is how we believe. This places the responsibility of shaping belief on those who design how we participate in corporate communing actions like prayer, worship, and proclamation. In this sense, the worship designers become the primary theologians of the church, and for this reason, we have to look beyond the songs that are most popular or accessible and towards what brings about the kind of belief we find in Scripture.
4. Pastors and Musicians, you must see this as your joint task, and strive to see it unfold together. The biggest enemy to great worship design is seeing music and theology as a binary, or on two different ends of a spectrum. Tearing down this way of thinking will require humility (especially among those who have had more opportunities for theological training), openness, time, and a growing love for Christ and his church. This may mean having conversations that have never been had before, by either group, and could mean that your Sundays look radically different than they ever have before (and not for the sake of new-ness, either). Josh is right in saying that this relationship must be symbiotic: the tensions between these two groups are a testimony against the unity Christ’s death has brought us, and we should strive to see this kind of thinking eradicated from our churches by coming together as sister and brother, for the sake of the church and the world.
““I don’t make music because I want people to worship me. I make music because I want people to worship themselves.” - Lady Gaga
Click the link to read more…
"What people revere, they resemble, whether for ruin or restoration."
Dave Campbell’s Becoming Album
Just a quick plug for Dave (@dctune) and the album he just released on itunes today. I’m about five tracks deep on it now, and he’s got some great things happening here. It’s a worship album, it’s got lots of loops, and his theological commitments are worn on his sleeve. Check it out if you have time…
Worship Design: A Test Case
Last time I posted on WD, I talked about the gathering. The next move should follow into the pattern of worship, revelation and response. The idea is that after we gather, we tell the story of the Triune God in history, specifically revealed in Jesus Christ. As the Spirit speaks through the Word, the people respond to what has been revealed (and what is being revealed through the re-telling) and we become worshippers in the truest sense.
While I’m going to write more on this, I wanted to post some Scripture from Nehemiah that highlight this pattern. While Jesus is not preached (obviously), the idea that the people gather to hear how God has revealed himself and respond is obviously there. There is also a fourth move, one that follows gathering-revelation-response; do you see it?
And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, won the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, chelped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
And Nehemiah, who was ethe governor, and Ezra fthe priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; hdo not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and isend portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.”
And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. (Nehemiah 8:1-12)
Gathering Around Our Story
There is a form of worship design that has been followed in the church for a long time that embodies the pattern of revelation and response well. This form involves four distinct focuses: gathering, revelation, response, and sending.
The opening action of gathering or coming together, in a way, speaks already of the work of God: he has done something that brings us all into this place for a specific reason. We gather as a response, but we also gather to remember and re-tell this reason. It orients who we are and what we are to be about.
We gather because God has already revealed himself to the world in Jesus Christ; we gather as people who have seen, but in part, and who seek to see more fully. We gather because what we have seen in Jesus Christ is beautiful and worthy of worship. We gather because when we saw Him, we were transformed by Him, and we also became more aware of our deep need to continue to be changed.
In this line of thinking, then, worship design must see the gathering as the doorway into the continuing pattern of revelation-response. The gathering states three really important things to those coming to worship:
- God is here.
- You are welcomed here by God.
- We are welcomed here together by God, and so we welcome one another.
Good worship design immediately highlights the reality of God’s presence and the invitation to all to participate in this reality together. This is why the story of salvation must become central to worship design: it tells us of the reality of what God has done to make a way for all to participate fully in this reality everyday. The story of Christ reminds us that the transformative presence of God has been made ours through his sacrifice, and the power of his life is ours through his resurrection and given Spirit.
So we gather, then we remember together the truth of what God has done by re-telling the story of Jesus. The Gospel is the key to revelation, and in the next section, we begin to re-tell the story of salvation.
