Tag Archives: Worship

Paul Baloche Glorious

4 Dec

“Worship” musician extraordinaire (regular readers of bernardshuford.com will understand the irony here…) Paul Baloche has released a new album today. 

I like Paul.  I like the new album.  I like his focus on music that truly glorifies Christ and the Cross. 

I debate the idea of a certain kind of music at a certain time on Sunday being “worship”, but I love the idea of a guy spending his time writing songs that can be used to worship God in real and honest ways. 

My conundrum here is multifold.  I love to sing songs that are classified as “worship songs”.  I love to play them.  I love to sing them with others.  I believe them to be wonderful songs. 

Yet. 

When we call Paul Baloche a “worship songwriter” but relegate Fanny Crosby and myriads of others to the obscurity of “the old hymns”, I believe we terribly miss the point. 

Is it possible that all music is worship music, just with different targets?  Do not love songs, in a basic form, worship the lover?  Isn’t this issue somehow connected to worship music?  Aren’t there heartstrings being tugged?  Are they the same strings? 

When I sing “And Can it Be”, I guarantee you it’s worship.  “A Might Fortress Is Our God”. 

Am I advocating a return to old hymns?  Yes.

Do I support the use of new music? Yes. 

So, what’s the point?

I don’t know.  Something is wrong with how I’ve seen this, and I’ve lost my passion for worship in a musical form.

I want that passion back.  But I MUST know that it’s real, or I won’t trust it to be real passion.  I refuse to fake it. 

When I sing a song of worship, I refuse to act as though I’m worshipping God simply for the sake of inducing audience emotion.  Or soliciting compliments. 

To use the words “let’s enter into a time of worship” seems painful to me, largely because of this statement but not it alone…

“We’re always worshipping.  Sometimes, though, we stop worshipping God.”

Worship – “All to Jesus, I surrender.”  The surrender, not the singing. 

We worship God when He is the MOST important thing, to the exclusion of all others.  When He is second to nothing – not to our bank accounts, not to our cars, not to our families, not to our churches, not to the music, not to the drums, not to the preacher, not to the potluck dinner, not to the color of the carpet. 

To claim to be “in a time of worship” when I have not submitted such a huge portion of myself and my life to Him AT ALL is a farce, an insult, and a slap to God’s face.  In effect, I say this – “I haven’t given God the first consideration today, but I’m now going to enter into a time of worship, where I will sing and shout and tell Him how great He is.  That will be my worship for today.”

This easily becomes legalism. 

That bothers me, too.  I can never be good enough to be in the presence of God.  Only the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ as my covering can allow me to worship Him at all. 

Yet, I must ask, where is my heart?  Is my heart truly “on God”?  Is the desire of my heart to follow after Him? 

Those days in Atlanta spun me upside down in ways I still don’t understand. 

Unlike

Worship

3 Dec

There’s something at a very deep level bothering me about “corporate worship”. 

It started at Promise Keepers 2008 in Atlanta, which was my first experience with large-scale “worship” in a while. 

I can’t put my finger on it. 

It has something to do with the leaders being expected to perform in a certain way. 

It’s not that the leaders are doing anything wrong.

It’s more that congregations expect worship leaders to make it easy for them to worship, and if they don’t do it right, then the congregation doesn’t know how to worship. 

So, as congregations, we do whatever the leaders lead us into, and we learn to do whatever it is that the leaders do.  That’s not to say that what they do is wrong.  I love the songs.  I love the leaders.  I love the music.  But I don’t think it’s “worship”. 

Singing songs that celebrate Jesus, celebrate salvation, and glorify God is an OUTGROWTH of worship.  It’s an ACT that we do BECAUSE we worship God. 

I’m unconvinced that “worship time” is the right language. 

Suffice to say that I’m very unsatisfied with the idea of “worship” equalling “singing a certain song in a certain way.” 

Worship is a life. 

Bothered. 

Unlike

Bluegrass and Worship

13 Jul

As a huge fan of Christian worship music, I sometimes watch videos of worship artists and envy the atmosphere and spirit of worship that just seems to pour out of them.  Kari Jobe, Kim Walker, Paul Baloche, Michael W. Smith, Steve Fee, Chris Tomlin.  On and on we could go, but that’s enough to make the point, I think.  Whether or not we are fans of the particular artist, I believe it is obvious that there is something “different” that happens when an artist of this caliber takes the stage and an audience is led toward a corporate encounter with the Holy Spirit. 

I’m not sure if this is an anomaly, but I’m also a pretty solid fan of “new” bluegrass.  To many, I realize that those two words can’t go together, but I want to establish that I am not a fan of Scruggs, Monroe, or any of the other pickers of the past who holler out nasally intoned renditions of songs about flowers in bloom.  The songs are fine, but the vocals often ruin my entire day.  I’m a huge fan of the Lovell Sisters, Allison Krauss, Chris Thile, Bryan Sutton, Tony Rice, The Isaacs, and others of that ilk.  I’m not really too interested in ‘grass that was recorded before 1980 or so, even though the tunes are timeless and enduring and I still like to hear them if done by modern ‘grass artists. 

Bluegrass music is a very pointed contrast to Christian worship music, in a very sad way. 

Christian worship music is focused on God.  The God that we worship is invisible.  In effect, the entire “production” is done with the intent of singing TO a person who is, to the uninitiated, not even there.  The voice of the singer(s) must be good, the skill of the musicians must be good, and the overall effect must be good, but there is little or no focus on individual skill.  There are instrumental breaks, but they are done with the intent of emphasizing the song lyrics or adding to the atmosphere, rather than to draw attention to the skills of the artist. 

Bluegrass, on the other hand, is hugely focused on the performer.  The lyrics of the songs are often completely irrelevant.  It’s all about playing the instrument exceedingly well.  It’s not always a contest, but bluegrass music is famous for “fiddle contests” or “flatpicking contests”.  People drive hundreds of miles to compete against other “pickers”.  There’s a lot of need, just based on the history of the genre, for excellence as a solo performer.  If a fiddler or a banjo picker performs a break, it’s almost insulting if the audience doesn’t applaud his or her ability at the end of that break. 

“Worship music” as we often think of it, is using skills that musicians are gifted with to lead a larger group of people into an experience of worship.  Bluegrass music is normally thought of as entertainment for a larger group by highly skilled individuals.  Is the counterpoint as obvious to you as it is to me? 

In a church setting, bluegrass gospel often stirs Christians to participate, but the nature of the performance doesn’t allow for it.  Thus, many Christians express their worshipful thoughts in a way that is fairly noticeable.  True worship music pulls the audience into a situation of worshipping together, and leaves little room for individual expression, even though it encourages worshipful thinking and participation. 

Bluegrass musicians are capable of worship.  Bluegrass music can and should be used to worship God, for He is the giver of the talent and ability that is required to create bluegrass music.  The nature of bluegrass does not excuse a picker from properly using his music to worship God. 

So how is an artist in a genre that focuses on the artist supposed to deflect “worship” from himself to the Creator?  How can a “person centric” genre of music be used in the church to lead believers into the worship of Christ? 

Virtually all worship music today is what I refer to as “rock based”.  That’s not my way of calling it “bad” – it’s my way of defining the type of music it’s based on. 

Can bluegrass be used to lead Christians into worship and non-believers into belief?  Or will it always be doomed to being performance and performer based?  Even if someone succeeds in using a couple of songs in a set to worship, will they be able to avoid the inevitable requests to “show off”? 

Is there value in bluegrass?  Or is it hopelessly human centered?  Can we push the genre of “worship music” to include more than guitars, drums, and a bass?  Can lovers of bluegrass ever experience the worship that occurs when we stop worrying about the music and focus on Jesus Christ? 

Questions.  Thoughts.  Discussion?  Anyone?

Unlike

Books

18 Apr

I want the ESV Study Bible.  Hardback is okay.

I want the MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV.  Hardback is okay.

I want Grudem’s Systematic Theology.

I want various Spurgeon books.

I want the Chronicles of Narnia. 

Andrew Murray.  Arthur Pink. 

I want Eldredge’s Wild at Heart. 

I saw some new “Tozer” books that I would like to read.  One, in particular, about Tozer’s perspective on worship.  Looked like some really good stuff.

There are also SEVERAL Henry Blackaby books, primarily about “finding the will of God” and “hearing the voice of God” that I would really like to sink my teeth into.  17.99 each (I think) doesn’t fit well into the “broken arm / baseball season” pocketbook.  Eeek. 

Now, admittedly, I do not believe that ANY of these books (except the Bibles) has the power to change my life in the way that the Bibles I ALREADY own can do. 

Yet, the Bible grows dusty while I search for new reading material. 

I claim to believe that the Bible is the very word of God. 

Yet, I treat it as a reference book that I really don’t care to read. 

I admit, something is very wrong with this picture. 

Yep.  I’m blogging while I COULD be reading the Bible. 

Unlike

Disruption

5 Apr

So many things are disrupted right now for me.

Our church doesn’t have a pastor, and everything about that ministry is disrupted for me.  Everything.  Music, Sunday School, worship, you name it.  Major disruption.

My employer is having a hard time keeping employees busy.  I am one of the least busy employees, in one respect.  Except for the fact that I contribute to the sales effort significantly, I’m pretty sure that my life would be disrupted by the lack of employment.

Of course, my arm is VERY disrupted.

Praise God for my wife.  THAT isn’t disrupted at all.  She rocks.

And the TarHeels are currently winning…

Unlike
← Previous Entries
Next Entries →