Spirit

16 April: Tuesday Refocus

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“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2

In view of everything that has come before in Romans 1-11: the saving work of Christ, the power of God, God’s righteousness, our justification through faith, the reality that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, that God has united us to Christ, that we have been adopted as sons and heirs, and that there is future glory, in view of the heart, and character of God, in view of what God has done and will do, in view of the entire counsel of Scripture and God’s revelation of Himself - offer yourself as a spiritual act of worship.

In a world that on both sides of the political spectrum chants ‘my body, my choice,’ in a world that says ‘as long as you are not hurting anyone else, you get to use your body however you’d like, Scripture says, no. You have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:20). Scripture says, no, in view of God’s mercy offer yourself as a spiritual act of worship. Offer your body - all that you are - as an act of worship to God. Not just your ‘Christian activities,’ but your very life as a spiritual act of worship.

God may we offer all in response to all of You, in Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Amen,

AB

17 March: Liturgy + Set List

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  • GOOD GOD

    Call to Worship: Psalm 68:4-6, 19-20

    Good morning and welcome to worship on this Lord’s Day, and this fifth Sunday in the season of Lent. During Lent, we remember our death and the sin that has won for us death. But more than that, we remember the life of Christ - the life that is ours through Christ - because God is a God of salvation.

  • GRACE ALONE

  • TRISAGION

    BCP Corporate Confession

  • Sermon: Galatians 4:4-7

    If you want to know what God the Father is like - look to the Son. Scripture says we see the glory of God in the face of the Son, and Jesus says in the gospels: if you know me you know the Father, because I have done nothing that I have not first heard and seen from the Father. And if you want to know the Son, look to the Spirit - who leads us into all truth, which is Jesus, who seals and guarantees our salvation, and who reminds us of who we are. Let’s use these next few songs as prayers of invitation, inviting the Spirit to move the truth we may know in our heads, down into our hearts, and to be embodied in our lives.

  • HOLY (JESUS YOU ARE)

  • HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR US

    Benediction

16 January: Tuesday Refocus

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“Calm me, O Lord, as You still the storm. Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm. Let all the tumult within me cease. Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.” - Celtic prayer

The rest and rescue we most desire cannot be found in created things. Both within and without the ground of our being and beneath our feet is sand. Shifting, sinking. No amount of interior exploration, or exterior distraction can level out the most unsettled places of our souls.

But there is good news, there is hope - Christ our Savior is a firm and fixed hope, an anchor for our souls (Psalm 18:1-2, Hebrews 6:19). Upon the throne of grace is seated a Savior who lives to make intercession - daily bearing us up at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 7:25, Psalm 68:19, Romans 8:34). Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne, and steadfast love and faithfulness go before Him (Psalm 89:14). Even in the chaos of the world and our hearts, no one can be snatched from the hand of the Savior (John 10:28).

Father, in the middle of storms within and without, may our gaze be fixed, my our lives be anchored, my our souls rest in the life, death, resurrection, and intercession of Your Son, Jesus. In His name, amen.

Wrestling and resting,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: November 7

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“Glory to the Father who created us; glory to the Son who redeemed us; Glory to the Spirit who sanctifies us; glory to the most high and undivided Trinity, whose work is inseparable, whose kingdom abides, world without end. Amen.” - Augustine

We created beings have no glory of our own in which to boast. 

No saving work of our own in which to trust.

No ability of our own to grow up into godliness.

And what a comforting reality that should be!

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

    for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” - Psalm 115:1

Father, forgive our attempts at earning, achieving, or possessing our own glory. All glory belongs to You, and You alone. Amen.

Amen,

AB

Worship Leaders And Presence

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The music really ushered me into the presence of God this morning.” I’ve heard it said, and I’m sure I’ve said it myself. Does this sound familiar to you? Certainly, as musicians, there is an affection that we experience for the Lord as we play or listen to music. It speaks to something of the transcendent life for which we have all been created. But the truth is there is no combination of chords that usher us into the presence of God. There is no perfect set list, no skill level of musicianship, and no flawlessly executed liturgy which ushers us into the presence of God. Because there is only one who ushers us into the presence of God - the God-man, Christ Jesus. For followers of Jesus, there is no moment where we do not stand in the presence of God because we stand in Christ who is before the Father in this moment making intercession for us (Romans 8:34).

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” 1 Timothy 2:5

There is no place in all of creation where God is not present. But as followers of Jesus, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we carry the presence of God with us everywhere we go. When the people of God gather to worship, God is present and enthroned upon the praises of His people. As we open the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit is present and active, lifting our eyes to behold the beauty of Jesus.

We may sense God’s manifest presence in a unique way as we gather, sin, and expectantly wait for God to speak to us through His Word - but God is no more present in these moments than he is as our people get ready for work the next day, fight with their spouse, take their kids to school, and go to sleep at night.

Nothing ushers us into the presence of God or the throne room of grace apart from the God-man, Christ Jesus. And nothing can separate us from the presence of God. So when people tell you that something you did ushered them into the presence of God, remind them - and yourself - it is only Jesus who has done that.

J. Ryan Lister is a clear and helpful writer. If you are looking for more resources when it comes to learning and studying about the Presence of God, I found this short article very helpful.

Worship As Pastoral Care

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I once heard Bob Kauflin comment that if worship leaders were to do any kind of continued education, he would encourage them to study Biblical Counseling. Isn’t that interesting? Not necessarily theology, or music theory, not necessarily Greek, Hebrew, or composition, conducting, or sight-reading. No, Biblical Counseling. The longer I lead worship the more I am convinced that leading worship is primarily a pastoral function before it is a musical one. It is pastoral because we are dealing with real human souls. Souls in all of their brokenness and joy, souls in all of their immaturity and experience, souls in all of their comfort and distress, and we are seeking to guide, instruct, teach, and care for them through liturgy, song, Scripture, prayer, and preparation.

Worship As Pastoral Care by William H. Willimon, was one of the books that helped me continue to put language to the pastoral aspect of leading worship. Willimon says,

The history of pastoral care shows two dimensions of the care of our souls: (1) the preservation of spiritual health through preventive or protective care as well as daily guiding and sustaining care and (2) the restoration of spiritual and emotional health if and when dysfunction occurs…

Liturgy is education.  The question before us… is not whether our people will learn when they worship.  The question is, what will they learn when we lead them in worship?  We sometimes forget that we are engaged in education every time we lead the congregation in prayer or in the Lord’s Supper or in any other occasion of public worship.  Unfortunately, people often learn things when they worship that we may not have intended - but they still learn.

Public worship is always an invitation to the individual to risk communion, to move out from oneself into the larger body…

We are not simply choosing songs, we are forming people. Conviction and comfort is the work of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit will often work through the people of God to voice that conviction or comfort. We must be attentive to the voice of the Spirit in our preparation as well as in our leading. We must choose songs that enable…

The line between work and worship, between the everyday, pedestrian details of the workaday world and the world within the liturgy should be a thin and frequently broken line.

When we see the liturgy and gathering as the people of God as more than something we do once a week, but something we inhabit - something which inhabits us - we are beginning to invite the conviction and comfort of the Holy Spirit more fully into the rhythms of our lives.

Karl Barth says: ‘It is not only in worship that the community is edified and edifies itself.  But it is here first that this continuously takes place.  And if it does not take place here, it does not take place anywhere.’ If the community does not worship, it is not a Christian community.  If worship does not upbuild and sustain the community, it is not Christian worship.

The liturgy is ‘the work of the people,’ it is the action, the yearning, the heartbreak, and the outstretched hands of those who are gathered around the Table and the action, the yearning, the heartbreak, and outstretched hands of the God who deems to meet them in the flesh.

Quotes [Part 1]

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A full week into a new year. As you find your feet, I hope these quotes inspire your heart, shape your imagination, and fuel your worship:

C.S. LEWIS

Praise is the culmination of our enjoyment of anything.

JEN WILKIN

Songs of faith are teaching tools, and effective ones. In an age of widespread biblical/theological illiteracy, leaders must choose those songs with care. Many who will sing them under our leadership are spiritual infants. Imagine if the lyrics of the ABC song were 85% accurate.

J.C. RYLE

All services without heart-service are unprofitable and vain.

JOHN CALVIN

We need to have songs which are not only honorable but also holy. They should spur us on to prayer and the praise of God, to meditation on his works, so that we love, fear, honor and glorify him.

In true worship the believer exercises faith and repentance as he meets with God according to His Word and grows in grace.

Singing has a great force and vigor to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and ardent zeal.

With Expectation

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It is easy for regularity to breed repetition.

And repetition to breed familiarity.

And familiarity to breed contempt… apathy… indifference.

But if we believe that God is living and active, He speaks to us through His Word, and He desires to meet with us, to confront us, comfort us, and conform us - there is no such thing as just another Sunday.

In your planning and preparation, in your rehearsals and communication, in your set up and serving, do you expect God to speak?

Do you expect Him to move?

Do you expect Him to do what only He can do?

As those leading and serving week in and week out, we have to fight against the ease with which we can go on autopilot - just plan another setlist, just schedule another team, just set up and sound check another time, just lead another service.

May your leadership, your team, and those you serve be marked with expectation and desperation for God to do what only He can do in, among, and through His people. Because there are no such things as just another Sunday. So come expectant.

The Holy Spirit And Leading

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Last week I wrote about listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our preparation. That being attentive to the Holy Spirit and leading spontaneously and speaking, praying, and communicating extemporaneously does not necessarily equate to being led by the Holy Spirit - that we can in fact be led by the Spirit in our preparation. But what about the corporate gathering? What does it look like to be led by the Spirit there?

It still looks like prayer. Union with Christ, communication with the Holy Spirit. Asking Him, seeking Him, inviting Him to do what only He can do - lead people to Jesus, convict people of sin, comfort people in their affliction, transform hearts and lives. For me, I will often leave more space in between verses, or a chorus, or in between songs as I ask the Spirit to speak to me, and I press in to hear Him.

It looks like observation. It can be tempting when we are leading worship to simply close our eyes and get lost in our own private worship world. But we are there to serve people by leading them in song. As you listen to the voice of the Spirit, listen to the voice of the people - watch them, pray for them, let their response or lack thereof shape the way that you communicate and lead. Not so much in a ‘give the people what they want,’ kind of way - but as a shepherd, leading and guiding them to see and respond to the Holy Spirit.

It looks like communication with your team and the congregation. In rehearsal practice and communicate to your team the moments where you may do something different than planned. I heard Charlie Hall one time talk about how preparing for moments of spontaneity with his team was like opening a window - everyone knew where those window moments would be in the song or the setlist, and they would approach together, open the window, see if the Spirit was using that opportunity to lead them in a direction different than they had planned. I have often found it helpful to communicate to the team something along the lines of ‘when we get to this point of the song, I think we will either go here or here…’. Maybe that’s repeating something we have already sung, maybe that is tagging something from another song. But communicating prior to being in the moment so that your band can be aware, and know how you’d like them to respond is important. Likewise, we must communicate with the person running lyrics - having options ready, and preparing them for where things may change, and any kind of verbal cues you may give to help them lead with you rather than trying to catch you. And finally, we must communicate with the congregation. Leading them through, rather than running out ahead and asking them to try and keep up. Verbal cues, inviting them to sing with you, inviting them to lean into the voice of the Spirit together.

We can be Holy Spirit-led in our preparation and in our leadership. But we can be neither if we are not Holy Spirit-led in our daily lives.

The Holy Spirit And Preparation

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What does it mean to be led by the Holy Spirit?

Over the years many of my conversations with worship leaders would lead me to believe that most of us think being led by the Spirit equates to one thing: spontaneity in the corporate gathering. Now, I am not against spontaneity. I have led worship making subtle and significant changes to songs, or the way that I am communicating because of the Spirit’s prompting and leading at that moment. We never want to be so rigid that we tune out the still small voice of the Spirit. But we also need to stop blaming our lack of preparation and intention behind our choices and calling it being led by the Spirit.

I believe that before we can be led by the Spirit in the corporate gathering, we must be led by the Spirit in our preparation. And our preparation should always begin with prayer. Prayerfully reading the text for that service. Spending time reading the Spirit-inspired Word of God. Asking God to speak to you and lead you in your preparation. Pray these three prayers of preparation.

Another way that we can be led by the Spirit in our preparation is by playing through the setlist. Spend time singing to God through the songs that you have been led to select for the gathering. Not just during rehearsal with the team, not just to make sure you know all of the parts, but for you to be able to be present with God and to God as you sing. What does your heart want to say in those moments? What moments of the songs, or movement throughout the setlist do you need to lean into? How can you fill out the songs with Scripture, prayer, silence, or speaking to continue to lead and guide people as you yourself are being led by the Spirit?

Be attentive to the movements of the Spirit in your own walk with the Lord. The more we learn to listen and obey the voice of the Spirit in our daily lives, the more we will be able to identify His voice and leading in the way we prepare to lead and serve His people. Jesus says that His sheep know His voice. We cannot know His voice in our leading if we do not know His voice in our private lives. Cultivate hears to hear, minds to know, hearts to understand, and lives to obey His voice and leading and it will flow into the way that you prepare - in the Spirit - to lead His people.

Team Devotions

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There is so much that happens during a rehearsal - especially if that rehearsal is immediately before service. Set up, soundcheck, practicing parts, transitions, and working on harmonies just to name a few. Yes, rehearsal is in part for working through the practical details of the worship gathering, but shouldn’t it be more than that? My hope is that a rehearsal also gives us a chance to take a breath, to be present with God and with one another as we serve the people of God together. But do not be fooled, this does not happen by chance - your rehearsal must be intentional.

Ideally, every person serving comes practiced-up, and prayed-up. Fully prepared in skill and spirit to lead and serve. But even if that is the case, how can you as a leader use the rhythms of your rehearsal to prepare your team not just practically, but also to prepare their hearts to serve together? Prayer is never bad. Reading Scripture is never bad. I believe those two elements should be the baseline for leading our team in a time of devotion and personal preparation for our service.

Personally, I like to place a time of devotion following setup and sound check. More often than not, I like my devotional time to be reading through the passage of Scripture being preached, and then walking the team through the progression of the morning - why I chose these songs in this order with this particular text, what I hope will be the threads running through the morning. At that moment I want to encourage our team to lift their eyes to see the beauty of Jesus, the wonder of the Gospel, the glory of God, our dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and the joy and gift that we have to gather and to serve.

I have served in churches where the whole team has been reading through a book, or devotional together and will use this time to share what they are learning. Some teams like to rotate responsibility for leading the devotional time, focusing on a specific reading, a passage of Scripture, and a brief exhortation to live in light of God’s Word and to serve from that reality. Another consideration for a time of devotion is focusing on different aspects of a theology of worship. There are many ways that you can redeem your rehearsal time to train, encourage, and equip your team. If this is all new to you, start slow, and think through these questions:

What does my team need? Does this team need a deeper understanding of worship? More discipleship in how what we are doing connects to what is happening this morning? Do they need encouragement? Do they just need time to seek God’s face in the quiet of their own hearts, and collectively as a team?

Who is here? Are there other voices that can shape this team spiritually? Maybe another team member, or a pastor or elder would like to lead a short time of devotion, reflection, and preparation for the rehearsal.

How can I make the space? If this is new for your team, you will have to train them to expect this time. Maybe you need to move rehearsal back by 15 minutes to make sure that you are not rushing through this time.

Help your team prepare musically, practically, and spiritually. If you’d like another place to start, you can download my free worship leader devotional. A 52-week study with Scripture quotes, and questions to ponder as you prepare your hearts to live lives of worship, and lead in sung worship. Download it for free here.