why can’t we all just get along?: part 4

April 13, 2007

Here is the fourth installment of my presentation on worship at Missouri Baptist University last month- Why Can’t We All Just Be Reconciliators: A Third Way. Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Here’s a rundown of where we’ve been. In Part 1, we looked at the preservationist and innovationist camps. In Part 2, we looked at the traditional, contemporary, and emerging church contexts. In Part 3, we looked at a biblical description of what being a reconciliationist looks like.

Today we look at the final part of my presentation in which I talk about what unites [or should unite] us in worship. I’ve also added some thoughts from John Piper along these same lines that I didn’t include in my presentation at the end of this entry.

What are the things that unite us in worship?

Gospel: It is the starting point for our worship; Christ initiating relationship with us through his death

Christology: “Christ is the crux of history and the focus of our worship” - Robert Webber

Mission/Missional: missionary used as an adjective; we as believers should function as missionaries as culture and true worship should propel us to be ‘missionaries’ in our communities and in the world

The heart of worship/transformation: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

From John Piper’s article, “What is the Philosophy of Worship That Unites Us?”

God-centeredness: A high priority of the vertical focus of our Sunday morning service. The ultimate aim is to so experience God that he is glorified in our affections.

Expecting the powerful presence of God: We do not just direct ourselves toward him. We earnestly seek his drawing near according to the promise of James 4:8. We believe that in worship God draws near to us in power, and makes himself known and felt for our good and for the salvation of unbelievers in the midst.

Bible based and Bible saturated: The content of our singing and praying and welcoming and preaching and poetry will always conform to the truth of Scripture. The content of God’s Word will be woven through all we do in worship and will be the ground of all our appeal to authority.

Head and heart: Worship that aims at kindling and carrying deep, strong, real emotions toward God, but does not manipulate people’s emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking about spiritual things based on shareable evidences outside ourselves.

Earnestness and intensity: Avoiding a trite, flippant, superficial, frivolous atmosphere, but instead setting an example of reverence and passion and wonder.

Authentic communication: The utter renunciation of all sham and deceit and hypocrisy and pretense and affectation and posturing. Not the atmosphere of artistic or oratorical performance but the atmosphere of a radically personal encounter with God truth..

The manifestation of God and the common good: We expect and hope and pray (according to 1 Cor. 12:7) that our focus on the manifesting of God is good for people and that therefore a spirit of love for each other is not incompatible with, but necessary to authentic worship.

Undistracting excellence: We will try to sing and play and pray and preach in such a way that people’s attention will not be diverted from the substance by shoddy ministry nor by excessive finesse, elegance or refinement. Natural, undistracting excellence will let the truth and beauty of God shine through.

The mingling of historic and contemporary music: And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matt. 13:52)

I have decided to extend this topic in the form of a book review. We will be looking at Terry York’s excellent book, America’s Worship Wars over the next few weeks. I hope this further stimulates thoughts about worship within evangelicalism today.

Posted in Bible, Gospel, church, community, missiology, music, worship