Lukewarm and Lovin' It?

Lukewarm and Lovin’ It?

If you have known me for any length of time you know that apart from God I have two great passions in life: music and coffee. In fact my website/blog is even called “coffeeshopgod.com”, even furthermore a majority of these newsletters are written as I sit at my favorite coffeehouse. I am predictable in the coffee that I drink; I prefer a cup of hot, bold, brewed coffee. I guess you could say I’m a traditional coffee drinker. However in recent years coffeeshops have made a ton of money by selling new drinks iced, frozen/blended.. I could not tell you how tired I was of making frozen/blended coffee drinks in the summers that I worked at Starbucks in Mississippi. They were a huge seller. In all my time that I worked at Starbucks there is one type of coffee I have never heard anyone order, lukewarm coffee.

There was a city in the first century called Laodicea. Laodicea was self-sufficient city, a commercial center and the site of a thriving medical and textile industries. They did not view themselves as poor; they were sufficient by their own industries, not really dependent upon God for their daily needs. In many ways you can say that the community of Laodicea is similar to the modern day United States of America. As a vast majority of Americans we are self sufficient and do not have to wonder where our next meal will come from, where we will sleep, or whether we will have clothes on our back. Just as the city of Laodicea, we are not desperate for God; in fact I would make the statement to say that as a whole, we as American’s are Lukewarm. Sure we claim to “know God”, we may go to church on Easter or Christmas, we may be able to quote John 3:16, and our grandparents might go to church, we won’t renounce God completely, but we are not desperate for Him. We are lukewarm.

John, through the divine author Jesus Christ, has something to say the church of Laodicea in Revelation: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were one or the other!” So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit (vomit) you out of my mouth.” These are incredibly harsh words to be spoken to someone who doesn’t claim to not follow God, but who is merely not desperate for God, right? Wrong! “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform any miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

God views men and women who say “Lord, Lord” but live lives consumed with their own glory, as a cup of lukewarm coffee. He will spit them out of His mouth. Are you desperate for God? Who does your life give glory to? Think about these things as you have your daily cup of coffee.

Worship Wars Pt. 3 (Sorry I missed it)

Worship Wars:

Part III

What is Contemporary Worship Music? Is God glorified through it?

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

Psalm 96:1-2

What is contemporary/praise/worship music? Is it a style? Is it a time frame? If so, when did the transition from hymns to contemporary music began? Contemporary is defined as being of the present time or modern. So could we say that at one time all worship music was contemporary? I would argue that we could. Could we say that at one time all worship music was contemporary and was controversial? I would argue that we could. Could we say that contemporary music generally is not judged by the text but by the style of the music? I would strongly argue that we could. No one can define when what we refer to as contemporary worship music began. Ask 10 people of different ages and you will have 10 different answers. Some would say the 70’s, some the 80’s with songs, and others the 90’s. Some refer to Gaither music as contemporary, some refer to Gaither music as traditional gospel; there is no clear indication of when contemporary worship music began.

So what is contemporary worship music? That question itself is even hard for me to define. To me as a person who studies worship music day in and day out I have two modern distinctions: contemporary Christian music and worship/praise music. Contemporary Christian Music, or “CCM” is a lot of what you would hear on the radio if you tune to your local “CCM” station. It’s music, written in a style similar to what worldly music is being written in, with only Christian lyrics. I guess you could refer to it as pop music with Christian lyrics. I personally don’t care much for this style of music but I think it is great if people want to listen to this rather then to the top 20 on a worldly station. Then there is the distinction that I have defined as “worship/praise music”; these are songs that are written by a church for the church. These songs are written by Music Ministers around the world for their church to sing. These are the contemporary worship songs that we sing in our church; songs such as “The Power of the Cross”, “Mighty to Save”, “You Never Let Go”, and “How Great is Our God”. However over the last five years a phenomenon has began to occur with worship/praise music that I think is unhealthy, groups that have sung “CCM” music have recognized the fact that they can re-record worship/praise music as “CCM” music and sing it as a trendy type music with the intention of profit. I think this is unhealthy and can take away from a text that was written for the church.

Does contemporary Music glorify God? Yes. Do I have to be careful to always analyze the text to see it is profitable for us as a church? Yes. One of the ways I do that is I will not lead us in any text that is under a year old. I want to make sure that the text is sufficient for us a congregation to sing. Many times I will wait for my professors at the seminary to approve of the text, knowing that they are much wiser then I, before leading that text at our church. You know this by heart now: We sing songs of the old because they show that God was alive and working before we were here, we sing songs of the present (contemporary) because it shows God is still at work, and we will sing songs of the future because God will remain to be alive and at work. God is still at work around the world.

“Is God Glorified in the continual battle of traditional vs. contemporary? No, Satan is. God desires unity in His church.”

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/

Worship Wars Pt. 2

Worship Wars:

Part II

What is Traditional Worship Music? Is God glorified through it?

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:8

What is tradition? Is it a bad thing? I would argue that tradition is good in the perspective of allowing reflection upon the many whom have come before us, sacrificed for the beliefs we have today, and died so that we could have freedoms such as the word of God in our language. I would also argue that tradition in the perspective of music is good because it allow us to see times when God moved long before we were around. However I would caution that we should not look so intensely at God’s movements in history that we fail to see Him move among us today. Our tradition should never become our religion. We worship the God that was the cause of the tradition not the traditions themselves.

So what is traditional worship music? In my short five years that I have been working in churches I have come to a radical conclusion. Traditional music means something different to everyone. Traditional worship music to a person in a high church might mean singing an arrangement of a song from the order of the mass, in the reformed traditions it might be singing 17^th century music of Luther, and in a majority of Baptist churches it could be songs from the 1890-1950 revivalistic music era. I have also discovered that one’s definition of traditional is closely related with songs that the songs that one or one’s parents sang while they were growing up, or either associated with some type of spiritual or emotional mountain top that one had while they were in church. Using the previous definition I could say that traditional music to me, the music I grew up with, is everything from “Beulah Land” (1973) to “Heart of Worship” (1999). As we see the term traditional can be quit confusing since there is a variation in the definition.,

Does traditional worship music glorify God? Yes. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2 to stand firm and hold onto the traditions that we are taught, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 to respect those who labor among us and are over us. Yes we should remember those who have come before us, the movement that God did in their lives, and the dear price that they paid for what we have today. Can traditional worship music not glorify God? Yes. If we allow the music itself to become more important the one it was written about, tradition can become a bad thing. We see this greatly in the catholic church. Many times the ones who go to the church service can recite the order of the mass, bud do not know the God that is to be worshiped. Paul says in Colossians 2 that we should see that no one takes us captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human traditions. We should never allow our tradition to become our religion. So why Traditional Worship Music? To reflect upon God’s movement in history.

“Is God Glorified in the continual battle of traditional vs. contemporary? No, Satan is. God desires unity in His church.”