Chapter 18 - Guiding Principles

Chapter 18 is a brief intro for the next section of the book which will be all about healthy tensions to have in any given church service. 

One of the things that made me pause to think was when Kauflin said, "Are we doing what we do on Sundays because it's Biblical, or is it just our preference or simply what we've always done?" (p. 153)  This was a good reminder to me because I know that it can sometimes be easy to get stuck in a rut doing something a certain way again and again, just because it is easy and because it's the way it's been done for a long time.  Perhaps something that started out as a good idea that was based in Scripture (or maybe not) over time lost it's Scriptural reasoning and it just became a tradition without any real purpose.  I'm certainly not against all tradition by any means, but tradition is only helpful if it has reasoning behind it rather than because it's what we've always done.  It's good to re-examine the way we do things from time to time and make sure that each part of what we're doing in our services (as well as in our personal lives) has a solid purpose that is founded in Scripture and then perhaps remove, modify, or change up things that have lost their original meaning due to repetition or a drifting away from their original purpose

Another idea that Kauflin touched on in this chapter that was an excellent reminder was the idea of keeping the main thing the main thing and not letting small differences become walls between fellow believers.  Instead of criticizing and fighting one another over small issues we should look to learn what we can from one another while acknowledging our convergent beliefs on the core issues.  Kauflin says of a fellow worship leader who holds very different views from his own,

"For starters, we agree on the most important issues.  The Bible is our authoritative and sufficient standard for everything related to life and doctrine.  God alone determines how we approach Him, what we call Him, and how we relate to Him.  Jesus is the only Savior, who died and rose for all who would ever turn from their sins and trust in His atoning sacrifice for forgiveness.  Worshiping God is impossible without the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.  These are nonnegotiable truths that aren't open to discussion.  But...there are several aspects of worship that we view, or at least practice, differently.  Rather than just endlessly discussing disagreements we try to learn what the other might have that we don't.  We're trying to embrace what I call the healthy tensions of worship."

When we have disagreements with one another, lets remember to keep the main thing the main thing.  Rather than obsess over small things that aren't that important in view of eternity, let's try to learn what can from the differences that we each have while maintaining a mutual respect for one another.


I'm excited to begin reading with you this section of "healthy tensions" and hear what your thoughts are on the various areas that we will cover.