Worship Wars Pt. 4 (Final)

Worship Wars:

Part IV of IV

What is Unified Worship? Is God glorified through it?

…the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “ Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 4: 10-11

What is unified worship? What does it look like? Is it a certain musical style? Is it a blended musical style of worship? Is it when everyone’s needs are satisfied? How are we as a church unified in our worship? These are not questions that just I am asking; I just finished watched an hour and a half video from the heads of both Lifeway Worship and Lifeway Research discussing this very issue, Unified Worship. This is and has always been a hot topic in the church. However the dilemma is over, I have come to a overwhelming conclusion!: The Church will never be unified if we look to musical style to bring unity. Period.

Musical style will always bring diversity, always. Many times Natalie and I cannot even agree on a radio station, she prefers pop music and I prefer acoustic/jazz/blues music. Musical style will always bring diversity. So what is the solution? Do we come to a truce as Natalie and I do by listening to pop music? No! Never in the church do we come to a truce over musical styles! All we have done when we come to a truce is attempting to please everyone. So what do we do?

We Worship. We Worship the triune God; the God who died on the cross so that our sins are covered by His blood. The blood unifies us. Musical style does not matter when we are unified in the God whom we worship. Mike Harland the head of Lifeway Worship put it this way, “If our Worship is not unifying the body, then we have a larger problem than one of Musical Style.” Our supreme purpose of Worship is to Glorify God; there are however secondary outcomes of worship, one of those being to reach the lost and hurting community around us. When the lost see us as a church dis-unified what does that preach about the God whom we serve? If we claim to follow God but cannot love each other more than our preferences what Gospel are we preaching? This is a lesson that I am having to continually learn as a young minister.

So what does unified worship look like? Unified worship looks like an older man putting aside his dislike for the musical style of “You Never Let Go” and Worshiping God with all his heart mind and soul by seeing that the God we worship is bigger than a musical style. Unified worship looks like our younger generation singing a “Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, understanding that the man who wrote the text, fought so that we could have a bible in our own language. Unified worship looks like a people who dress different, talk different, and who are all different ages, casting down our crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” “Is God Glorified in the continual battle of traditional vs. contemporary? No, Satan is. God is Glorified in the unified church.”

source: http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/

SENT 2009: An Urgency for the Gospel

I had the opportunity to go to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention's SENT Conference this past weekend in Houston. I had opportunity to meet many people who work with college students all over Texas as well as people who work with missionaries all over the world. A question that I heard over and over is how do we get people to live missional or on mission? According to much of what I heard it's is not a great problem to get people to give money for missions or to get people who will go on short-term mission trips away from where they live, but getting people to share the love of Christ with people that they come into contact with daily is almost impossible. Thus living missionally, or on mission in our day to day surroundings is not being accomplished.

There must be an urgency for the Gospel. In a society where it is more and more common not to talk to people you come into contact with even in the marketplace, where we keep to ourselves, as Christians we must be the odd-balls and be exceptionally open and reaching out daily to those around us. It is uncomfortable - especially in our society where we can live a totally anonymous lifestyle.

Think about it we can go to the ATM to bank, pay-at-the-pump gas, and self-checkout at the market. We can go all day without having to come into contact with someone who we don't know. Through this process that we have found ourselves in it has become increasingly "awkward" in society to talk to someone and get any deeper then where is a product; if you ask how someone's day is going they flip out because it is just totally absurd now. The larger society/metroplex you find yourself in the more true this statement becomes.

There must be an urgency for the Gospel - your neighbors are going to hell - the people checking you out in the market are going to hell - the person you just cut off because you were reading this on your iPhone is going to hell - we must have an urgency for the Gospel and can no longer be casual Christians who have our "fire-insurance".

Be Awkward. Care. Share.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience......
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?....
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:18-39