LEADING THIS GENERATION IN WORSHIP 11
Leading This Generation in Worship
Christian
Worship Leadership
Ken E. Read
Spring 2014
Worship Leadership course packet,
Containing materials from various sources.
Sources cited where appropriate.
Compiled and edited by Ken E. Read.
Why Are We Here?
We are created to worship. That is a bold claim right off the bat. Is it true? Were we created to worship God? Is that the center of why we are here?
Well, certainly I am not here just to please myself, grabbing for all the gusto I can, because I only go around once in life. Most Christians would agree that there is a higher purpose, a higher calling, and it has to do with God. I am not here for Me.
I am also not here for the primary purpose of doing good and making the world a better place. While that purpose is certainly more noble than pursuing my own dreams and wants, in truth I am only expanding my self-absorbed circle to include others in my pursuit of fulfillment. The Bible does not tell me that I am here for Me, or that I am here for We. So, what does the Bible say about why I am here?
I think that even a cursory overview of Scripture will show me that I am not here for Me or even for We, but I am here for He. You and I were made, we were placed here, we were invited to bring God glory by walking in fellowship with Him. So you might say that we were created to worship in a special two-way relationship with our Creator. Consider the evidence:
· Adam’s sin broke the fellowship he had walked in with God. Suddenly he was ashamed and hid from God. But God came seeking with a plan to restore him.
· God called Abraham his friend, based on Abraham’s faith. And when Abraham’s faith passed the ultimate test, God came calling his name.
· God also called to Moses by name from the bush. Later, Moses had conversations with God, and God listened. They spoke as a man would with his friend, for God made known His ways to Moses.
· David was chosen by God to be king because he was a man after God’s own heart.
· The eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth seeking to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. God was still initiating wholehearted relationship.
· Solomon went through an entire lifetime in pursuit of wisdom. And in the end, his conclusion was to fear God and keep his commands.
· Malachi likewise summarized the duty of man. Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with (not apart from) your God.
· Jesus summed up all the law and the prophets by telling us to love God, and to love our neighbor.
· Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that God is seeking worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth.
· Paul told believers to be filled with the Spirit, and to walk in step with (not apart from) the Spirit.
· Paul says that Jesus went through all that He did in order to prepare for Himself a bride. That’s the church. Bride and Groom. That’s close fellowship.
· Paul’s greatest goal was to know the Lord. Not to know about Him, but to know Him.
· In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, many details of that relationship are revealed. And, in the end, the bride and the groom experience a wedding feast.
So, let me invite you on this journey to come and worship. Touch the hem of his garment. Hear him calm the troubled sea. See the light of his glory. Pour perfume upon his feet. Taste and see his goodness. Read and know the Master’s plan. Engage all of your heart and mind and soul and strength to love God with all of you. Come and worship him.
My goals for this course are like this:
1. To help you assess your church and its worship values, and to help your church know how well they are achieving their own values.
2. To talk around the peripheries around musical worship leading, so that what is in your current “worship box” is expanded, and you think and act out of the box. (Specifically, we will be looking at the Jewish roots of Christian worship, and at the large body of liturgical and other traditions of worship.
3. Along the way, I hope to help generate some opportunities for worship moments in your life.
4. Eventually, I hope to speak very directly and practically about how to be better prepared as a worship leader yourself. Both for those who already lead and do well at it, and for those who might never actually lead up front, but who will nonetheless influence the direction of worship in your church.
Simple Worship Plan: The Glories of Jesus Christ.
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How?
Why?
A GOOD/BAD WORSHIP SERVICE
Sunday Service
September 8, 1991
Senior Minister: _______________________
Associate Minister: _______________________
Organist: _______________________
Pianist: _______________________
Music Director: _______________________
PRELUDE
PRAISE
Opening Hymn “Victory in Jesus” 415
Hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” 354
Hymn “In My Heart There Rings a Melody” 514
Hymn “Ivory Palaces” ___
SHARING
Prayer Needs
Offering Meditation “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” 435
Offering Hymn
Offering Prayer
REMEMBRANCE
Communion Meditation
Hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” 186
Communion Prayer
MESSAGE IN:
Song
Sermon
INVITATION
Hymn “Just As I Am” 342
CLOSING
Key Announcements
Prayer
Song “God Be With You” 602
MARA (INTERGENERATONAL WORSHIP)
Opening song: You Are Good
Exod. 8:27 (read in unison) All children and adults, we are going to have an interactive, do-it-yourself, musical sermon. You know the story. Let’s walk through what happens next. (Children must cross “water,” which is the adults, who part. On the other side, we sing and celebrate.)
Children of Israel cross the Red Sea
This is a long song. How did they sing it without a projector or song books? I think they must have made it up as they went. Let’s do that. There will be a refrain that will be familiar, and if in doubt, make up your own song thanking God. The content of what we sing may be a bit uncomfortable for our New Covenant ethics, but in context it was a great moment. And we can always spiritualize our enemies and celebrate victory over spirits of oppression, addiction and anger. So let’s celebrate!
Exod. 15 (improvised song of celebration)
Now let’s read what happens in the next verses. Ex.15:22-24 (read in unison)
In Exodus 8, how far did God say they were to go into the wilderness to worship him? And how far did they travel when they got to Mara? Could it be that this was the very place that God intended to lead them? But rather than responding by faith, asking God why he had taken them to a place of bitterness, they respond in the flesh, complaining against Moses. At least Moses bothers to pray and ask God what His plans are, and God provides a simple solution, involving a branch, and all is well. This is a very common story in the Bible, isn’t it? Someone is led by God to a place that is hard, but it turns out to be the launching pad of God’s blessing. Joseph in prison. Jesus in Gethsemane. Now comes the do-it-yourself part: what are some other Bible stories?
Now let’s provide some personal illustrations. This may be tougher, but very personal for some of us. Let me get it started while you think. AJ (Seemed at birth to have been born in the wrong place, but now after 3 years we see that had he not been in that place, he never would have come to us. And now he is in a privileged place, in the top 2% of the world’s population, with a warm bed in a dry safe house with all the food he cares to eat and surrounded by a family that loves him. He was born in the right place!) Okay, now add your own stories.
LEADING THIS GENERATION IN WORSHIP 11
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD :
"I will sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a warrior;
the LORD is his name.
4 Pharaoh's chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh's officers
are drowned in the Red Sea. [a]
5 The deep waters have covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
6 "Your right hand, O LORD,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O LORD,
shattered the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty
you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
it consumed them like stubble.
8 By the blast of your nostrils
the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood firm like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 "The enemy boasted,
'I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
and my hand will destroy them.'
10 But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
in the mighty waters.
11 "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ?
Who is like you—
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand
and the earth swallowed them.
13 "In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling.
14 The nations will hear and tremble;
anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people [b] of Canaan will melt away;
16 terror and dread will fall upon them.
By the power of your arm
they will be as still as a stone—
until your people pass by, O LORD,
until the people you bought [c] pass by.
17 You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling,
the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.
18 The LORD will reign
for ever and ever."
21 (Miriam) "Sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea."
LEADING THIS GENERATION IN WORSHIP 19
The Ultimate Worship Experience
LEADING THIS GENERATION IN WORSHIP 19
Many of us have spent our lives looking for the ultimate worship experience. We seek the Presence of God, longing to see, to touch, to feel, or in some way to sense his nearness. We need God’s love and acceptance, and cry out for intimacy. We want to be friends with the Almighty.
Can there be intimacy without sacrifice? Apparently not. Adam walked in unhindered fellowship with God, but since The Fall, a restored relationship with a holy God has required sacrifice. Abel offered an animal, Moses threw down his staff, Aaron washed before entering the Tabernacle, David paid for the threshing floor, and Jesus surrendered His will to the Father’s.
John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus the Christ, just as surely as the Old Testament Law precedes the New Testament Gospel, winter gives way to spring, and Lent leads into Easter. First, we repent, and then seasons of refreshing come. (Acts 3:19)
Abraham and Laughter Boy
Abraham, the father of our faith, provides an example of the path to intimacy with the Lord. His is a strange story, but it makes perfect sense to God. After an impossibly long wait, God gives a promise that makes Abraham laugh. He is to have a son, and God tells him to name him Laughter Boy. A year later, Isaac is born!
God watched as the old man’s heart skipped a beat at his birth, and He heard Abraham’s laughter when he first held his newborn son. Father and son laughed through infancy, cherishing every new smile and every new word. “Did you hear that? He said, ‘Abba!’” Abraham laughed at Isaac’s first step, and all the way through toddlerhood.
I’m sure he was over-protective, doting over the boy at every childhood injury or cold. I imagine that well-meaning friends said, “Isaac, now that you are turning five years old, don’t you look forward to riding the bus to school this fall?” Well, Abraham walked Isaac to kindergarten that first day, and then just couldn’t let go of his little boy’s hand. He said, “Thanks a lot. Sorry. I think we will homeschool.” And he turned around and laughed all the way back home.
This was his only begotten son, and there certainly would be no more. Not at his age. The oldest man in the county, and he’s out there, laughing while he plays basketball in the backyard with his son. He shows his boy how to care for a sick lamb and how to run the family business that he will inherit.
God watched while Sarah called them to dinner, Abraham and Laughter Boy. Isaac is getting so tall, she notices, and now he’s the one reaching out to steady his father as they walk over the rough spots.
The Lord has watched all of this with pleasure, but the Lord knows what has happened in the heart of Abraham. This is Abraham, who without question was willing to leave his father’s household to follow God. Abram showed that he loved God more than his own family back then. What choice would he make now? Has he left his father’s idols and been granted a promise, only to have that very promise become an idol itself?