"...leading worship starts with the way I live my life, not with what I do in public." (p. 43) In chapter five Kauflin talks about setting an example of worship in everyday life not only when we are seen publicly (like on Sunday morning) but in everything we do. This chapter was a really good reminder to me that the way I interact with God and others every day is more important to my ability to lead worship on a Sunday morning than the songs I've picked, the arrangement I've planned, or the mix of the music. People want to follow someone who is authentic and shows that they are a worshiper of God not only on Sunday morning but in all areas of their life.
"...set an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12) We (as leaders of worship) are responsible to set an example to others in all these areas at all times whether someone is looking or not. Obviously we aren't perfect and we rely on God's grace for the times that we sin but we need to always seek "to grow in [our] trust in God." (p. 47). I hope that we can all agree with Kauflin when he says, "I don't ever want people who see me lead worship publicly to be surprised by the way I live privately. It's not my songs that define my worship; it's my life." (p. 45) As a worship team our job is to do all that we can to help people encounter God. The best way for us to do that is to make sure that we our encountering God daily (through talking with Him or reading and studying His Word) so that He can help us to set an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. This point seems to come at me again and again, that I need to have time with God as the top priority of my day, every day. I found it encouraging though, to remember that perfection is not expected of us on our own. As Kauflin says, "The standard isn't sinless perfection. But there has to be a consistent lifestyle of Godliness." (p. 45) Only Jesus was perfect and it is only through His sacrifice that we can be made acceptable to God. Obedience can't win salvation for us but our obedience through modeling worship each day brings honor to God. We will be able to lead worship best when we are in that place of a consistent lifestyle of Godliness, while acknowledging our need for and dependance on Jesus Christ.
What moved you or stood out to you in this chapter?
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Chapter 4 - Blancing Heart With Skill In Worship
I'm on vacation this week, so I'm going to keep this post short and hope that many of you will have something to add to it.
Chapter four is a great reminder to us as a worship team that worship is not only about the heart. Worship involves skill and the honing of our skills as well. In our particular case, as a worship team our musicianship is one of those skills. As the worship team and worship leaders for the congregation we need to have and work towards a level of skill that allows the congregation to engage with God through the songs without being distracted by musical mistakes or uncertainties (Don't let mistakes get you down though. If you are working on developing your abilities, know that you are giving God the best that you can at that time and that He is "hearing the sound of our hearts" as Kauflin said it. This chapter isn't meant to attack people for making mistakes during worship. Rather it is an encouragement to develop your areas of giftedness and skill.) In my mind a musician (or sound man or anyone involved in a worship service) can never really make it in their skill. There is always another avenue of learning that can help a musician (or sound man) get better at what they do. It could be technique, style, theory, memorization, or a number of other things, but there is always some way to continue to improve our skills. I think as we improve these skills (with a heart that is right before God) we bring glory to God and worship Him even in the times of training or practicing that allow us to improve. Not only that, but the more we improve our skills the easier it will be for the rest of the worship team to play and sing with us, the easier it will be for the congregation to engage with God, and the easier it will be for ourselves to connect with God. As we build our skills we become more comfortable with our instrument or voice and it is easier to focus on God rather then on making sure we are playing or singing or mixing the song correctly. We need to make sure that as a worship team we have a balance of skill and heart as we help to bring the congregation into an encounter with God.
Chapter four is a great reminder to us as a worship team that worship is not only about the heart. Worship involves skill and the honing of our skills as well. In our particular case, as a worship team our musicianship is one of those skills. As the worship team and worship leaders for the congregation we need to have and work towards a level of skill that allows the congregation to engage with God through the songs without being distracted by musical mistakes or uncertainties (Don't let mistakes get you down though. If you are working on developing your abilities, know that you are giving God the best that you can at that time and that He is "hearing the sound of our hearts" as Kauflin said it. This chapter isn't meant to attack people for making mistakes during worship. Rather it is an encouragement to develop your areas of giftedness and skill.) In my mind a musician (or sound man or anyone involved in a worship service) can never really make it in their skill. There is always another avenue of learning that can help a musician (or sound man) get better at what they do. It could be technique, style, theory, memorization, or a number of other things, but there is always some way to continue to improve our skills. I think as we improve these skills (with a heart that is right before God) we bring glory to God and worship Him even in the times of training or practicing that allow us to improve. Not only that, but the more we improve our skills the easier it will be for the rest of the worship team to play and sing with us, the easier it will be for the congregation to engage with God, and the easier it will be for ourselves to connect with God. As we build our skills we become more comfortable with our instrument or voice and it is easier to focus on God rather then on making sure we are playing or singing or mixing the song correctly. We need to make sure that as a worship team we have a balance of skill and heart as we help to bring the congregation into an encounter with God.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Chapter 3
In the first couple pages of chapter 3, Kauflin addresses the importance of having both heart and mind involved in our worship of God. He says, "Regardless of what we think or feel, there is no authentic worship of God without a right knowledge of God." (p. 28) I believe that many churches and many Christians today have missed this vital aspect of our relationship with God. It seems that many people today equate worshiping God with an emotional experience. Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with having an emotional experience while worshiping God, in fact I think that emotional experiences can often be very helpful in building our relationship with Him. However, if worship was only an emotional experience without our minds involved then it would be inauthentic and perhaps even idolatrous as Kauflin suggests. As Christians we must have a balance between our hearts and our minds. We must have a truthful understanding of who Jesus is and what He expects of us in order to worship Him appropriately.
Imagine this situation, let's say there is a husband who is very emotionally attached to his wife and claims to love her more than anyone else, but at the same time he doesn't take the time to really know who his wife is. He doesn't learn about what she likes and dislikes, he takes no interest in her work or hobbies, and he doesn't really know anything about her character or who she is as a person. How well do you think this marriage will work? It won't! A relationship, while it includes emotional attachment, must be based on truth and knowledge of the other person and not only on emotions. But this is exactly what many Christians are trying to do today in their relationship with Jesus. They say, "Yes, I love Jesus and I worship Him passionately!" but they don't even know who He really is or what He likes and dislikes. Our study of and knowledge of the truth of Jesus should inform our emotions. The more we study Him and learn about Him the more we become amazed and awestruck by who He is and the more reason we have to show our love to Him.
"Good theology helps us keep music in its proper place. We learn that music isn't an end in itself but rather a means of expressing the worship already present in our hearts through the new life we've received in Jesus Christ." (p. 30) I liked this quote from Kauflin a lot and it points out a couple of important things. First, obviously, it points out that music is not an end in itself but rather a means to worship. The second thing it shows is less obvious. He says that music is a means of, "expressing the worship already present in our hearts". If music is a way of expressing the worship that is already in our hearts then it tells us something about music. Music itself is not worship. Instead music is just one way of expressing our worship to God.
Worship should be something we do throughout our lives each day. Something that we can express in many ways in different avenues, not just through music. We worship Him by showing love and kindness to others in our interactions. We worship Him by reading and studying His word. We can worship Him through all kinds of things each day and I think they could all be summed up in one word, obedience. We worship God each day when we choose to obey His commands out of a desire to honor Him and bring glory to His Name. This brings us back to incorporating mind and heart. For our mind we must know who Jesus is and what He commanded in order to be obedient to Him. For our hearts we must have love for Him which gives us a desire to honor Him and bring glory to His Name.
This chapter was a great reminder to me to focus on strengthening my relationship with Jesus. Often times I've let my prayer and study time slip because of a busy schedule, but this time is more important than any other item in my schedule can be. Through those times of prayer and study I can gain a greater understanding of who Jesus is so that I might be able to worship Him in a better more authentic way with both my mind and my heart.
What did you find helpful or interesting in this chapter? Do you agree or disagree with Kauflin's and/or my thoughts?
Imagine this situation, let's say there is a husband who is very emotionally attached to his wife and claims to love her more than anyone else, but at the same time he doesn't take the time to really know who his wife is. He doesn't learn about what she likes and dislikes, he takes no interest in her work or hobbies, and he doesn't really know anything about her character or who she is as a person. How well do you think this marriage will work? It won't! A relationship, while it includes emotional attachment, must be based on truth and knowledge of the other person and not only on emotions. But this is exactly what many Christians are trying to do today in their relationship with Jesus. They say, "Yes, I love Jesus and I worship Him passionately!" but they don't even know who He really is or what He likes and dislikes. Our study of and knowledge of the truth of Jesus should inform our emotions. The more we study Him and learn about Him the more we become amazed and awestruck by who He is and the more reason we have to show our love to Him.
"Good theology helps us keep music in its proper place. We learn that music isn't an end in itself but rather a means of expressing the worship already present in our hearts through the new life we've received in Jesus Christ." (p. 30) I liked this quote from Kauflin a lot and it points out a couple of important things. First, obviously, it points out that music is not an end in itself but rather a means to worship. The second thing it shows is less obvious. He says that music is a means of, "expressing the worship already present in our hearts". If music is a way of expressing the worship that is already in our hearts then it tells us something about music. Music itself is not worship. Instead music is just one way of expressing our worship to God.
Worship should be something we do throughout our lives each day. Something that we can express in many ways in different avenues, not just through music. We worship Him by showing love and kindness to others in our interactions. We worship Him by reading and studying His word. We can worship Him through all kinds of things each day and I think they could all be summed up in one word, obedience. We worship God each day when we choose to obey His commands out of a desire to honor Him and bring glory to His Name. This brings us back to incorporating mind and heart. For our mind we must know who Jesus is and what He commanded in order to be obedient to Him. For our hearts we must have love for Him which gives us a desire to honor Him and bring glory to His Name.
This chapter was a great reminder to me to focus on strengthening my relationship with Jesus. Often times I've let my prayer and study time slip because of a busy schedule, but this time is more important than any other item in my schedule can be. Through those times of prayer and study I can gain a greater understanding of who Jesus is so that I might be able to worship Him in a better more authentic way with both my mind and my heart.
What did you find helpful or interesting in this chapter? Do you agree or disagree with Kauflin's and/or my thoughts?
Monday, August 8, 2011
Chapters 1 and 2
After I read through these chapters again (for the third time) I had underlined, circled, and wrote comments in the margins all over the place. There is a lot of good thoughts and questions that are brought up in these chapters that could be discussed but I'll just comment on a few ideas and questions that stood out to me the most. Please add comments about any areas that you found particularly enlightening, that you had questions about, or in response to the thoughts I had.
Right on the first page of chapter 1 (page 15) Kauflin brings up the issue of "going through the motions" during a worship service time after time after time and how this can lead worship teams to a feeling of pointlessness and hopelessness in what they do. I confess that I have had this feeling of pointlessness many times over the last 9 years that I have been a part of leading worship.
What I've found is that when I begin to feel this way it usually is because my focus has begun to shift away from what is important, namely God. It's easy to get caught up in "playing to the crowd" where instead of wanting to please and honor God with our worship time I begin to want to please and honor the congregation.
Pleasing the congregation is certainly not a bad thing, but when that becomes my goal, pride starts to creep in. I want the audiences approval, I begin to accept applause from the congregation instead of joining them in applauding God, it becomes all about me and how well I did instead of about God and how great He is. When this happens then it has become a truly pointless and hopeless venture for me. As Kauflin puts it "That's exactly what it would be like without [God] - pointless." (p. 19). Worship matters when God is the object of our worship. If we replace God with anything else, whether it be ourselves, entertainment, pleasure, or people, our worship truly becomes pointless.
Another point that stood out to me was when Kauflin said "In too many churches we detected a disconnect between the God they worshiped on Sundays and the one they seemed to follow during the week." (p. 18). This made me ask myself, "Am I (are we as a worship team) consistent in following God from Sunday to the rest of the week? Am I (are we) maintaining a relationship with Him by setting aside time to specifically talk with Him and study His word each day? Are my (our) choices and decisions honoring Him as I (we) choose what movies and TV shows to watch, what music to listen to, what websites I (we) frequent? Is the way I (we) speak bring Him glory when talking with friends or strangers?
These are questions and issues I've encountered and struggled with before (as I'm sure you probably have as well) but this was a good reminder and helped me to see how much I need His grace and helped remind me that there are areas in my life that I need to be giving over to Him in order to be more consistent from my Sunday worship to my worship during the rest of the week.
There were so many points that made an impression on me that I could go on and on, but that would simply take too long and I'm sure you're tired of reading my thoughts by now. What are some thoughts and/or questions you had in the reading this week?
Right on the first page of chapter 1 (page 15) Kauflin brings up the issue of "going through the motions" during a worship service time after time after time and how this can lead worship teams to a feeling of pointlessness and hopelessness in what they do. I confess that I have had this feeling of pointlessness many times over the last 9 years that I have been a part of leading worship.
What I've found is that when I begin to feel this way it usually is because my focus has begun to shift away from what is important, namely God. It's easy to get caught up in "playing to the crowd" where instead of wanting to please and honor God with our worship time I begin to want to please and honor the congregation.
Pleasing the congregation is certainly not a bad thing, but when that becomes my goal, pride starts to creep in. I want the audiences approval, I begin to accept applause from the congregation instead of joining them in applauding God, it becomes all about me and how well I did instead of about God and how great He is. When this happens then it has become a truly pointless and hopeless venture for me. As Kauflin puts it "That's exactly what it would be like without [God] - pointless." (p. 19). Worship matters when God is the object of our worship. If we replace God with anything else, whether it be ourselves, entertainment, pleasure, or people, our worship truly becomes pointless.
Another point that stood out to me was when Kauflin said "In too many churches we detected a disconnect between the God they worshiped on Sundays and the one they seemed to follow during the week." (p. 18). This made me ask myself, "Am I (are we as a worship team) consistent in following God from Sunday to the rest of the week? Am I (are we) maintaining a relationship with Him by setting aside time to specifically talk with Him and study His word each day? Are my (our) choices and decisions honoring Him as I (we) choose what movies and TV shows to watch, what music to listen to, what websites I (we) frequent? Is the way I (we) speak bring Him glory when talking with friends or strangers?
These are questions and issues I've encountered and struggled with before (as I'm sure you probably have as well) but this was a good reminder and helped me to see how much I need His grace and helped remind me that there are areas in my life that I need to be giving over to Him in order to be more consistent from my Sunday worship to my worship during the rest of the week.
There were so many points that made an impression on me that I could go on and on, but that would simply take too long and I'm sure you're tired of reading my thoughts by now. What are some thoughts and/or questions you had in the reading this week?
Worship Matters - Introduction
Hi Everyone,
I'm excited to be going through the book "Worship Matters" with you all and I hope that through it each one of us will be able to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ as well as grow specifically in our abilities as worship leaders.
If you didn't know, "Worship Matters" is a book I read for one of my classes that I'm taking as I work towards my masters degree. It really stood out to me among other books that I have read and helped me in many ways to have a better picture of what worship is and what it means to be a part of the worship team that leads worship each week.
Each week I'll send out an e-mail to everyone with the chapters that we'll be reading for that particular week as well as a link to this blog where I will try to post some questions and thoughts that I have on each weeks readings. Comments are enabled for this blog so I hope that you will also post some of your questions and thoughts on each weeks reading as well as responding to my and other team members posts (There will be a comments link that you can click on at the bottom of each new post). Hopefully in this way we'll be able to have some discussion and dialogue as we progress through the book.
In regards to the comments I just want to lay out a couple of ground rules real quick. First, please leave your first name on each comment you make so that everyone else on the team reading it can know who left the comment. Second, the topic of worship is something that we each can be sensitive to and there are many differing opinions in various areas of it, so remember to be sensitive to others on the team as disagreements are sure to pop up as we proceed. Disagreements can definitely be a good thing as they often lead to great, intense, and fruitful discussions, just keep in mind that we don't need to win everyone over to our own opinion. It is definitely ok to agree to disagree with one another.
With that said, I pray that this will be an enjoyable experience for every one of us and that we will develop an even greater understanding of worship both personally and as a team as we continue to lead our church in times of worship each week.
I'm excited to be going through the book "Worship Matters" with you all and I hope that through it each one of us will be able to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ as well as grow specifically in our abilities as worship leaders.
If you didn't know, "Worship Matters" is a book I read for one of my classes that I'm taking as I work towards my masters degree. It really stood out to me among other books that I have read and helped me in many ways to have a better picture of what worship is and what it means to be a part of the worship team that leads worship each week.Each week I'll send out an e-mail to everyone with the chapters that we'll be reading for that particular week as well as a link to this blog where I will try to post some questions and thoughts that I have on each weeks readings. Comments are enabled for this blog so I hope that you will also post some of your questions and thoughts on each weeks reading as well as responding to my and other team members posts (There will be a comments link that you can click on at the bottom of each new post). Hopefully in this way we'll be able to have some discussion and dialogue as we progress through the book.
In regards to the comments I just want to lay out a couple of ground rules real quick. First, please leave your first name on each comment you make so that everyone else on the team reading it can know who left the comment. Second, the topic of worship is something that we each can be sensitive to and there are many differing opinions in various areas of it, so remember to be sensitive to others on the team as disagreements are sure to pop up as we proceed. Disagreements can definitely be a good thing as they often lead to great, intense, and fruitful discussions, just keep in mind that we don't need to win everyone over to our own opinion. It is definitely ok to agree to disagree with one another.
With that said, I pray that this will be an enjoyable experience for every one of us and that we will develop an even greater understanding of worship both personally and as a team as we continue to lead our church in times of worship each week.
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