Excellence in Worship: 7 Ways to Overcome the Tension Between Excellence and Performance

Posted on December 2, 2011 by

If you’re a church musician, I’m sure you’ve heard, said or been a victim of one of the following statements:

  • “Worship is not a performance, so stop showing off every Sunday.”
  • “God is more concerned about our hearts in worship, so you don’t need to practice as much for worship as you might for another gig.”
  • “I don’t believe we should practice for worship. We need to let the Holy Spirit lead us.”

I’m reminded of the pastor who told his parishioners that he only wrote the first half of his sermon and he prayed for the Holy Spirit to finish his sermon while he preached. After one of these sermonic experiences, an elderly lady approached him and said, “Sonny, I think I like your sermon writing better than the Holy Spirit’s.” I hope he got the point! :)

Before you write this off as ludicrous, please know that I have heard variations on all the above statements. In fact, my wife was even recently approached by a well-intentioned homeschool mom who said, “I know you and Phil care about bringing excellence to this performance, but we just want our kids to have a positive experience. Don’t stress them out.” Our hearts sank.

Last year I was looking for a worship job and I was told by several churches that I was “too good” or they couldn’t afford someone as good as me. Really? I thought I was leading worship for Almighty God, the King of the Universe, who is accustomed to holiness and accepts our best as a sacrifice of praise. I honestly don’t understand the movement I see in many churches to hire untrained musicians to lead worship. I wonder if it’s a reaction against this performance debate?

The Way of Escape

Ultimately I do agree that the way through this issue comes from the heart. For the artist, worship can become idolatry when we pursue excellence for its own sake. For the worshiper, excellence becomes idolatry when we start evaluating the artistry instead of allowing excellent music to lead us to ponder the excellencies of God’s greatness.

The story of Matt Redman’s song The Heart of Worship comes to mind in this context. His fellowship had become guilty of becoming worship connoisseurs. The pastor saw the trend and decided to cancel planned worship services so the Lord could teach them the meaning of true worship. Redman’s song came out of this season and illustrates the importance of our heart in worship. I believe this season profoundly shaped Matt’s worship writing in content and skill. He didn’t stop growing in excellence, but instead kept his heart focused on Jesus.

He and the pastor discuss the story here:

7 Ways to Overcome the Tension Between Excellence and Performance

1. Remember God is thrice holy - The angels continually sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” If God is absolutely perfect in his character and actions and has said “be holy as I am holy,” then wouldn’t it make sense that he would want us to bring our best?

2. Obey God’s call to be skillful in our worship. Psalm 33:3 says, “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.” Proverbs 22:29 says, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” While these verses don’t provide the last word on excellence, it’s obvious that God wants us to pursue excellence–especially in our worship.

3. Don’t assume excellence has a universal measure. The parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30, Luke 19:12-28) demonstrates that Jesus doesn’t see all Christians as equally gifted. We can all handle differing amounts of responsibility and treasure. What is universally true, is that we will all be held to account for what we’ve done with our talents. I played last night with a flautist in our fellowship who has been hiding her talent from me (and the congregation) for 15 months. I’m glad she brought it out for all of our sake, even if she’s not ready to go play with symphony any time soon.

4. Talent is overrated. This may sound like a refutation of the last point, but I offer an entirely different perspective. Geoff Colvin, in his book Talent is Overrated, studied many of the highly skilled and highly successful people in our world (modern and historical). He found that a vast majority of these shared a common attribute–and it wasn’t talent, but hard work. But not just mindless hard work; it’s what he calls Deliberate Practice, which shares these 5 features:

  1. Designed specifically to improve performance – in other words, it focuses on key elements of excellent performance.
  2. Repeated a lot – repeat it until it becomes second nature (a.k.a. muscle memory).
  3. Feedback is continuously available (through mentors, teachers, peers)–and I might add that feedback is intentionally sought.
  4. Highly demanding mentally – If you’re not challenging your mind, you will become bored and give up or slack off.
  5. Not much fun – this hard work is necessary and rarely brings great joy–except in the results.

Wayman Tisdale’s story provides an inspiring case study. After a successful  NBA career, for which I’m sure he’ll enter the NBA Hall of Fame, he decided to become a professional jazz bassist. With the same focused determination that caused him to stand out as a basketball player, he attacked learning the bass. He quickly distinguished himself as a legitimate bass player, earning the attention of his jazz heroes. Wayman wasn’t necessarily more talented than other bassists. He just knew how to focus his desire through a deliberate practice regimen. 

You may know that Wayman Tisdale died at the age of 44 in 2009. This tribute from his funeral talks of the legacy he left. I was particularly impressed with the comment that Tisdale accomplished more in 44 years than most people do in 80 plus years. That can be attributed to his ability to deliberately develop a skill and use it for the glory of God:

5. Avoid the temptation to find short cuts. A friend of mine recently posted this picture on Facebook. While I’m not sure about the math (I’m more accustomed to the 80/20 rule), the point deserves attention. I’ve asked my college music professor friends about this, and they all agree. They can predict with a high degree of accuracy which students will succeed as musicians based on how well they practice.

In his book, This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin provides scientific evidence for the rule of 10,000. He contends that it takes 10,000 hours to master a musical instrument. If that is true, at 15 minutes a day, it would take you nearly 100 years to master an instrument. Even at an hour a day, it would take 27 years. At four hours a day, it would take 6 years. This fits with what I heard Bob Kauflin tell a young worship leader. The student had asked him how he could learn to play piano like him. Bob replied simply, “It’s easy. Just go to college, become a piano major and practice 5 hours a day.” I doubt Bob knew the rule of 10,000, but a four year degree at 5 hours a day would start to approach 10,000 hours, especially when added to the assumed number of hours put in prior to music school.

6. Pay attention to your heart. After all this focus on your skill, I would remiss if I didn’t address the heart issues. I constantly have to repent when I play saxophone in worship. While I would say that sax is my voice in worship, I also know the strong temptation to draw attention to myself through my playing. As a jazz musician, I’ve been trained to play for applause after my solos. In worship I constantly have to make sure I’m playing for the Lord and not the applause of man. This is a battle that can only be fought on my knees and in community.

7. Define excellence in your community. Finally, your church needs to spend time thinking through what it means to “bring your best” to God. What looks like authentic worship in one community may smack of “performance” in another. Some of that is purely cultural.

I found that the high level of virtuosity expected in New York City or Chicago isn’t necessarily what people are looking for as I lead in Wichita or rural Georgia. That doesn’t excuse laziness or sloppiness, but it does show a different value system for our current community. Make sure to spend time prayerfully understanding this for your community.

It’s your turn. How have you wrestled with this tension?

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Keeping Worship Fresh: Insights from Worship Director, David Hampton

Posted on November 29, 2011 by

How do you keep your worship services fresh after 5, 10 or 15 years in the same church? What do you think about when you lead a congregation filled with world class musicians?

I was wondering some of these questions and so I reached out to my friend, David Hampton, to get his insights on these questions and several more.

David Hampton has been the worship director for Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN for over 16 years. He has worked with Founding Pastor Scotty Smith that entire time.

I’ve recorded this interview as two short podcasts. You can hear by clicking on the links.

Part 1 – View this portion of the video:

0:01 –  Connecting the dots between life and worship. David blogs weekly to help people prepare for worship. He gets real about his own life. See David’s blog here. It’s called a Rock in My Shoes o

3:37 –  Planning for worship as a community. Pastor, elder, worship director and other staff (admin, a/v, etc…). Pastor defines what he wants to have people leave knowing. Since the bulk of their singing happens after the sermon, its important to be able to respond well to the sermon.

6:12 –  Worship planning from start to finish. Avoiding disposable elements of worship.

Part II – Hear the 2nd half of the interview here

0:01 –  Leading worship that engages non-artists.

3:50 – Some books that have helped in his spiritual journey. David finds reading outside of the tight realm of worship helps him in his cultural exegesis.

The books mentioned by David:

Anne LaMott’s Bird by Bird
Nicholas Wolterstorff - Lament for a Son
Benyamin Cohen - My Jesus Year
Daniel Pink - A Whole New Mind - Cultural writer

Two new songs mentioned by David are:

What thoughts do you have from these lessons?

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Celebrating Advent: 4 Songs and Resources to Aid in Your Worship

Posted on November 25, 2011 by

With Thanksgiving behind and Christmas ahead, many churches will enter the Advent season this Sunday. If you’re like me (raised more generally evangelical), the richness of Advent is often an after thought.

I know for many churches this is the time of year we play Christmas songs and light Advent candles. The Sunday after Christmas becomes a New Year celebration and then we go back to church as usual until Easter.

But that’s not how the church has thought of Advent for many centuries. Advent comes from the Latin word veni for “to come.” Advent approaches Christmas from three temporal perspectives: 1) Jesus has come as a baby; 2) Jesus is come because of His perfect life, death and resurrection, by His Spirit, in His Church and through His Word; and 3) Jesus is coming again. The celebration of his birth takes on fresh meaning as each of these perspectives are explored.

Like you, I’m always in search of resources to help me deepen my awareness of Christ and his arrival during this season. Here are some I’ve come across recently. I’d love it if you would share songs, books or websites that you have found helpful.

4 Resources to Aid Your Advent Celebration

1) Bruce Benedict and his friends at Cardiphonia have created a great list of Advent related worship albums coming from local churches seeking to be biblically rooted and culturally relevant to their communities. See the albums here. Bruce also compiled a listing of great devotionals. I encourage you to check out the one from Christ Church Berkeley.

One of the music projects highlighted comes from Sovereign Grace Music. I like this song:

2) Dave Meserve and his artist friends in Denver, CO have created three different advent devotionals. Each devotional looks at the advent prophecies and fulfillment from various perspectives, always allowing great art and modern renderings to guide the journey. See the guides here.

3) Worship Leader Magazine also recently released a list of new Christmas projects. One of my favorites from this list comes from Keith & Kristyn Getty. They provide some classic sounding songs with rich lyrics and the soothing sound of Irish instruments.

There are many good songs on this recording, including this one:

4) BibleGateway also has a listing of free email devotionals you can receive during advent.

Your Turn

I’d love to hear what advent devotionals and albums you’ll be using this year.

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Offering New Songs of Thanks: Three Stories to Inspire Your Thanksgiving Celebration

Posted on November 22, 2011 by

Football, turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Add in family, friends and some fall colors and you have Thanksgiving, right?

I don’t think that’s what the pilgrims were thinking. The food and celebration overflowed from a place of gratefulness they had survived a very harsh first year in the New World –only half of them remained. The point of that first Thanksgiving actually continues a refrain sung by true believers throughout history.

Three Stories of Thanksgiving to Catalyze Your Own Stories of Thanks

As I reflect on the pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving, I remember three stories that might inspire you as you celebrate Thanksgiving this year.

1) Martin Rinckart - Martin pastored a church in Eilenburg, Germany during the 30 Year War. In 1637, the year of the Great Pestilence, he remained the only pastor as one abandoned his post and two others perished. Martin buried nearly 5000 souls during that year–including his own wife. Yet, he was able to write in faith the words of perhaps our most famous Thanksgiving Hymn: Now Thank We All Our God.

Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
and keep us still in grace,
and guide us when perplexed;
and free us from all ills,
in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given;
the Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven;
the one eternal God,
whom earth and heaven adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

There are many amazing arrangements of this hymn (including this organ setting by J.S. Bach), but I must give a nod to John Rutter’s arrangement shown here with the Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia:

2. Psalm 136 provides the classic model of thanksgiving that pervades all aspects of life. The chorus of “his steadfast love endures forever” underpins our songs of thanksgiving with an acknowledgement that God’s love is reason enough for thanks. The psalmist leads us to lift thanks for a myriad of blessings, including: God’s character and sovereignty; God’s rule and reign over creation; God’s provision of food and shelter; God’s position as the ruler over all kingdoms and the universe; and God’s defeat of all our enemies–foreshadowing the defeat of Satan.

I enjoy singing Chris Tomlin’s modern interpretation of this psalm, especially at Thanksgiving. He simply calls it Forever.

3. My Story - When I travelled across the U.S. with Caleb Project in 1991, my team made a commitment to spend weekly time in focused thanksgiving. We spent an hour every week remembering God’s faithfulness, protection and action throughout the previous week. We took turns writing down the many specific words of thanks we offered during those rich times of prayer. At the end of our 3 month tour we had filled a journal with hundreds of prayers of thanksgiving.

To this day I try to spend time in regular prayers of thanksgiving. Keeping a journal gives you something to reference when you become overwhelmed by your present circumstances.

A New Thanksgiving

A friend of mine, born and raised outside the U.S., commented yesterday that she wouldn’t be celebrating Thanksgiving, as it’s an American holiday. Internally I was sad, because the original intent of Thanksgiving was not to be a day of national gloating in our victories and blessings. Instead, Thanksgiving is a day when people of all nations can acknowledge the blessings of being loved by the eternal God. Of course, we can do that every day and every week–we don’t really need a holiday. But the national holiday provides an annual reminder to become people of thanks.

Darlene Zschech of Hillsongs wrote a beautiful song of thanks called Worth is the Lamb.

Your Words of Thanks

Instead of just filling up on football, food and fellowship this year, I encourage you to take time to write your own psalm of thanks. Perhaps use Psalm 136 as a model. Maybe even write a song, if you’re so inclined. I’d love it if you would post your psalm here. Here is mine:

A Psalm of Thanks
by Phil Mershon
Thanksgiving 2011

I praise you for your infinite mercy
I thank you for the depths of your love
I worship you for making me holy
For giving me life through your blood

I thank you for your perfect provision
For work, a house and family
I praise you for your wise direction
For leading me home by your grace.

Chorus:
Thank you for your love
It endures forever
Thank you for your grace
It surely knows no end
Thanks for sending
the Holy Spirit
I thank you for your never ending love.

I thank you for the friends you have given
I’m grateful for prayer and Your Word
I praise you for your Holy Communion
And all the ways you show me grace

Bridge:
Thank you, Asante, Gracias and Merci
There aren’t enough words to help me say thanks
Danke, shukran, shia shia, spasiba
All the world can give you thanks

Time for your psalm

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God’s Call to Worship: 5 Ways Psalm 95 Shows Us How to Worship

Posted on November 18, 2011 by

Do you know how to worship God?

Sounds like a silly question, especially on a site about worship for worship leaders and serious worshippers. But this is a vital question, “Do you really know how to worship?”

Sixty years ago A.W. Tozer lamented that Christians had more resources for knowing about God than ever in the history of the Church. Yet, worship had become a ritualistic program. Fifteen years ago, James Boice lamented that the problem had become even worse.

Neither of these authors could’ve predicted the explosion of worship resources we’ve seen in the last two decades. We have more worship songs, websites, training courses and books than you can image. Worship leaders can even obtain degrees in worship from many different colleges and seminaries.

You could say we’re more educated ABOUT worship. Yet, I still ask the question, “Do we know HOW to worship?“

The Church’s View of Psalm 95

The Church has used Psalm 95 as a call to worship (called the venite) since at least the 4th century. Many traditions even see Psalm 95 as creating a form for worship based on the three Hebrew words for the word “come.”

All this familiarity can cause one of two mistakes: 1) we just look for what makes us feel good in worship, and thereby ignore God’s stiff warning in verses 7b and following; or 2) we miss God’s voice speaking to us and we start to worship the forms and rituals of worship (a most serious case of misplaced affections).

5 Ways Psalm 95 Teaches Us How to Worship

There are many things we can learn about worship from the 11 verses found in Psalm 95, but I want to focus on five:

1. Worship is joyful and reverent. Pastor Scotty Smith has developed a set of worship continuums that diagnose the hearts of believers and churches in worship. One continuum could be drawn between joy and reverence. Most churches would fall on one end or the other of this continuum, but Psalm 95 shows a place for both. We are to delight joyfully in God and His salvation. What greater cause for a party could there be?!! Yet, as we draw near to God, He becomes larger in our eyes and we become smaller leading us to acts of reverence like bowing in humble adoration. Joy and reverence coexist to increase our delight in God and his glory in the eyes of a watching world.
Joy_________________________________________________Reverence
(where do you place yourself and your church on this continuum?)

2. Worship is not limited to singing, but singing is vital to worship. I believe it was Martin Luther who said, “Hymns are theology on fire.” C.S. Lewis noted that Christianity is inherently an emotional religion and music allows us to connect our theology with our hearts. The Old Testament and New Testaments are full of references to the place of singing in worship. Even Jesus sang a hymn before going to the Garden of Gethsemane and his ultimate death.

I say all this because I have looked over numerous congregations and watched many pastors in worship over the last thirty years. I am sometimes shocked by the 30% or more who don’t sing—even pastors. I understand that some feel like they can’t sing and certainly some shouldn’t sing on a microphone (I remember the time when the sound team forgot to turn a pastor’s mic off during the hymn singing. It was particularly painful in the narthex where you could only hear the pastor’s voice and not the accompaniment!). But God calls and commands us to sing. The Apostle Paul says it’s for our encouragement and edification (Colossians 3:16).

3. True worship will take us outside our comfort zone. Twice the psalmist calls us to shout. For many of my Presbyterian friends, the only times we shout are at sporting events and when the President does something we don’t like! But God calls us to shout in worship.

He also instructs us to humble ourselves by kneeling or bowing down prostrate. I’ve been in worship services where there is complete freedom to sing, dance, shout, clap, kneel, raise hands, stand and even sit in worship. Unfortunately, there are too many churches where the only accepted behaviors are to sing, stand and maybe clap. God wants our worship to be a wholehearted and whole bodied endeavor. You might ask why…

4. Deep worship magnifies God in our eyes as we diminish. John the Baptist said it first, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Psalm 95 paints a clear, but concise picture of the greatness of God. He rules over all kings, the earth and the sea. His greatness is unrivaled. As that picture emerges, we also see God as our tender shepherd.

When God becomes great in our eyes, what we do doesn’t matter so much. But it also gives us freedom to abandon ourselves in worship: heart, soul, mind AND body. This thought undoes me every time: The Great God, who rules all nations and the universe, is my shepherd who leads me to his saving grace.

5. Worship involves hearing and doing. It’s easy to treat the last four verses of Psalm 95 as unrelated, but they are highly relevant. Worship that ignores a responsive listening to God’s voice becomes like clanging cymbals and is an empty form. Israel’s problem at Meribah and Massah is they had short memories; they forgot God’s gracious deliverance and provision at the Exodus. It’s easy for us to do the same.

I look at Psalm 95 and see that on any given Sunday I fall short on at least one of these 5 points—often on several. The same could be said of churches around the globe. None of us know how to worship Christ perfectly. In fact, it’s not a technique, but a matter of spiritual passion and discipline. As soon as we diagnose our worship based on technique, we begin falling down the slippery road toward hardened hearts and idolatry. May God revive our worship every day!

Some Songs that Echo God’s Welcome

Here are four of my favorite songs that echo God’s call to worship Christ.

A Prayer for Sunday’s Worship

God save us from empty religion, vain singing and worship that seeks to conjure feelings that aren’t ours. Instead meet with us today and this Sunday. Open our ears to hear your voice. Open our eyes that we would see just how great you really are. Open our mouths in joyous songs and shouts of praise for your great salvation. Open our hearts that we would obey and love your commands. Open our lives that the world would see the greatness of our God. Amen.

Posted in Preparation for Worship, Worship Leadership | 2 Comments

Finding Songs for Worship: 7 Sets of Questions to Answer When Selecting Worship Songs

Posted on November 15, 2011 by

Do you wonder why some songs become instantly popular in your church and across the country, while others fall flat? If you’re a worship leader, do you have a systematic way for evaluating new songs or do you just look at the latest CCLI top 25 to find song ideas?

Thoughts about CCLI

I think the CCLI list has merit in finding songs that will be easily recognized by church members and visitors alike, since many of these songs are also played on Christian radio. But if you rely exclusively on these lists you risk a couple of dangers: 1) you’ll miss out on some gems that originate from less common sources; 2) you’ll develop a distorted worship theology in your congregation as most top 25 songs avoid many important topics like lament, repentance and judgment; and 3) you will also not find many songs with rich, thoughtful lyrics (In Christ Alone by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend being the only exception on the current list).

You may notice a very narrow list of contributors on CCLI’s top 25 list. For example, Chris Tomlin’s name appears 6 times. Paul Baloche, Matt Redman, Brenton Brown and Joel Houston each appear twice. In most cases, the songwriters who appear often on these lists have built a popular audience through conferences like Passion, through a mega church like Hillsongs or through commercial publishing houses like Integrity Music, Maranatha Music or Word Music. Those are all great sources and audiences and budding songwriters should take note that having a built-in audience gives your song a great chance for broad acceptance.

I find most of the songs on the top 25 to have a fairly short shelf life. That doesn’t mean I won’t use them—I’ve actually led all but 3 of the currently listed songs, but most of these have already dropped off my active list because they are lacking in one (or more) of the following ways.

7 Questions for Evaluating New Worship Songs*

I evaluate worship songs on three fronts: words, music and impact.

Words:

1)   Timeless message – Do the lyrics rehearse the classic Christian faith from a fresh, but timeless approach? Can I imagine my parents singing this just as easily as my children? In other words, do the lyrics transcend generational and regional idioms? Do I get bored singing these lyrics after a few times?

2)   Lyrical content – Does this song address an aspect of the Christian life not currently in your repertoire? Is it biblical? Does this song jive with your theological tradition (e.g. a Calvinist congregation would struggle to sing an Arminian song about salvation)? Are the lyrics worth putting in people’s minds and hearts? Assume you’re going to sing this song at least 5-6 times in the next year. Do you want people singing this song throughout the week?

3)   Biblical artistry–Do the lyrics feel like good art? Too many modern worship songs focus on the melody and the lyrics feel like an after thought. A timeless worship song will have lyrics that feel like good poetry (the rhyme and meter work).

As much as I like the songs Revelation Song and Forever (and I’ve done them both this month), I find it difficult to lead these songs as a group because the melody has to change for each verse to fit the lyrics. That can be tough for a congregation unless you commit to doing the song numerous times. I’ve worked around this by having a soloist sing the verses.

Music:

4)   Memorable melody – Do I find myself singing this song after the first or second time of hearing it? Does the melody fit within a normal singer’s range (C to C is best with the occasional D or E)?** Could a non-musician grasp this melody easily (if not, maybe it’s best done as a presentational song and not congregational)?

**As a side note, if you’re not a trained musician and don’t know what the melodic range of a song is, find a pianist to help you. I remember visiting a church where the pastor was going hoarse before his sermons because the worship leader was leading songs in keys that only tenors can handle. Selecting the right key is a pastoral concern: you want all your people to be able to sing. If a song doesn’t fit your vocal range, but is good for the congregation, find someone else to lead it.

5)   Interesting music and/or arrangement – Does the song feel timeless in it’s musical palate (chord progressions, harmonic choices, tempo and rhythmic possibilities)? Does the music fit the musical genre in which it’s written? Many of the top worship songs feel instantly familiar, yet somehow fresh every time you sing them.

As an illustration of this last point, note these different renditions of In Christ Alone. Keith Getty intentionally tries to write songs that can be approached from many different genres. That’s not easy, but serves the church’s goal of trans-generational worship.

modern:

with choir:

4-part a capella:

Here are a couple more worth hearing: an orchestral arrangement and the Newsboys.

Impact:

6)   Worshipful – Does this song move me to worship or do I leave thinking more about the musicians or myself? Does the song connect my heart and mind to God? Without being manipulative, does the song engage my affections?

7)   Gospel-centered – Does the song point me toward Christ or the Father? While not all songs should rehearse the specifics of the gospel, they should be fuel for a gospel-centered life. Does this song show me my need for Christ or increase my thanks for his grace?

Looking for Sources of Music

One of the places I consistently find music that nails all 7 of these questions is Sovereign Grace Music. Bob Kauflin brings together songwriters from throughout the Sovereign Grace movement to write songs that address a wide variety of theological themes. I find they do a great job of writing theologically rich lyrics set to modern musical arrangements that are accessible to most congregations.

One of my current favorite songs from Sovereign Grace is Jesus Thank You. I started singing the chorus yesterday in the car and my daughter kept singing it the rest of the day. That’s the sign of a good song!

If your congregation enjoys singing old hymns to modern music, there are many great sources. I encourage you to check out these:

a)    Indelible Grace Music
b)   Red Mountain Music
c)    Cardiphonia
d)   Zac Hicks

It’s Your Turn

How do you evaluate worship songs? What sources for new songs have you found to be helpful?

*While these questions have become my own over the years, I want to give a shout out to Keith Scherer at Naperville Presbyterian Church for starting me on this track 6 or 7 years ago with a list of 13 questions he asks of every song he hears. Some of Keith’s questions have inevitably found their way into my list. Thanks, Keith!

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Obstacles to Worship: Facing Down Life’s Giants

Posted on November 11, 2011 by

How do you handle life’s major challenges? Where do you turn for help when your enemies overwhelm you?

Fear can be a major obstacle to our worship. I’ve been reading about the Christians who were slaughtered under Nero’s tyrannical reign. They didn’t fear for their lives, but placed their trust in the God who had already saved them. David did the same. Reflect with me…

These reflections come from 1 Samuel 17. If you haven’t heard it, you might listen to Take 6‘s version of this story:

David and Goliath – a story of faith

Statue of David killing Goliath by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (~1625)

Many of us have heard about David and Goliath since we were old enough to sit in Sunday School. You can hear the headlines: Boy Defeats Giant With Single Stone. All the sermons I’ve ever heard have focused on staring down life’s giants with childlike faith. We can also see that God was preparing David to lead Israel in far greater battles where his faith would be his primary tool.

What I’ve never heard is a sermon contemplating what Goliath saw when he looked at David–that is until I heard my friend Asa’s sermon. We know that Goliath looked at David with contempt and defied David’s God. But if Goliath could have seen the real battle, what would he have seen? He would have realized that David was the giant on the battlefield. David was the one with impervious armor and the secret weapon of faith.

David could not fail in this seemingly impossible battle. Why? Because he understood that this wasn’t his battle, he was merely God’s servant. He also placed his confidence in the God who already delivered him from the lion and the bear. He knew it wasn’t his fighting skills or his battle know-how. His advantage came from knowing the God whose reputation had been sullied and whose power is unrivaled.

I don’t know what you’re facing today or this week. I know there are many situations that seem overwhelming and beyond me. There are people that intimidate me, goals that seem impossible and challenges beyond my control. Too often I enter these situations looking at my resources alone. Of course I’ll be found wanting.

In Christ I have a different set of resources. I am filled with the Holy Spirit. I am a child of the God of the universe. My big brother, Jesus, is sitting at the Father’s right hand praying for me – constantly. I am a member of the Body of Christ, with access to the world’s largest and most potent army. The angels of heaven are ready to be sent into battle. And there’s so much more…

Too often I stand against “Goliath” and dwell on how inadequate I am for the task. That’s true enough. But Christ has called me to dwell upon his sufficiency. That doesn’t mean I won’t lose some skirmishes. It does mean God will never fail and so I can rest in His sovereign purposes.

Another song that gives me hope in life’s battles comes from Keith & Kristyn Getty. It’s called By Faith.

How do you face life’s battles?

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