Worship Music on the Campus

 

            Last week's post opened the discussion on worship by focusing on how music is used in our church services. Concentrating predominately on the more charismatic, Pentecostal, non-denominational employments of music we asked the all important question: is it a crutch rather than an impact-full part of our services? We asked with difficulty if worship was preoccupying our focus from the Gospel and being Christ's hands and feet, being cultivators and creators of culture, restoring broken people and elements of our world. Personally I think there are large indications we are, namely the lack of increase of Christians in America and the absence of restoring work in our cities. Sure there are good works happening and Christian groups are doing great, edifying activities, but they are few and far between. We have churches with great worship services and exceptional musical capacity, however many of those fail to connect to their cities, fail to meet the needs of the people they desire to recruit, and often divide more than unite. Is worship a crutch, in many churches yes, but what conclusions do we draw from that?

           Regardless of it being used as a crutch or being the embodiment of a church service, it still serves a purpose. Churches have just as much responsibility to cultivate the people in the walls as it does in reaching those outside. So, if attendees are being edified, brought closer to the Lord, praise God's essence, relish in God's works, and brought to repentance, then worship is serving a great purpose. God is not angry with our worship, though there are many Old Testament stories referencing His displeasure with sacrifices and vain worship, so let us be quite careful in that we do not forget our commission and particular vocations. 

        Third we talked about a "How He Loves Us" dilemma in which we do not cultivate worship. This is where I have the largest problem. Good worship points us to Christ, understands personal experiences, and pushes us out into the world to show love in the daily opportunities we have. Church worship leaders are not being cultivated, and many are not respected by church staff. Some have that respect and honor, but are not pushed to contribute to the church in a unique way which edifies that body. Many are pushed but not reimbursed, thus they have a form of taxation without representation or reciprocity. Then you have the churches who want the band to sound like Tomlin or the new female vocalist to fall in line with Kari Jobe's level of talent. Thus there are many unrealistic expectations and worship becomes pedantic. Perhaps the best way to sum up the last post, rather than rewriting it, is to check the song below out. It is amazing and challenging.  

               Well, let's skip to the new stuff, worship on the college campus, specifically the College of Charleston. I asked students questions about worship, following the questioning in the last post, and received a few responses. I will not use their names since I did not ask for permission, but I will share quotes and summarize points as well as possible. Everyone responded according to the five questions, so we will follow that model here.

Question 1:Why do we worship in campus ministries? Is there a purpose? Do we really understand why we do music in campus ministry? 

Answers and conclusions 1:

          

                 One says "we worship to praise God"- I say very true and straightforward. Two others responded differently yet raised such a good point, namely that it provides a variety. Specifically, we use music to give students something else rather than the sitting, studying, listening to speeches or lectures, etc. One of those in that realm of thought also mentioned that it is one of her favorite parts of the week since she can enjoy the peace and calm. She also goes back and mentions the purpose as being to glorify God, so there seems to be a consensus that there is a purpose, that being to praise, but that does not really satisfy my question. I think the why is deeper and want to know what others think. What's the deeper discussion about the why? Lastly, another says that yes the worship does bring a variety but it also contributes to the enjoying of the whole weekly meeting. I have a bone to pick with this conclusion in that we don't know the basis of enjoyment. Are we enjoying the singing, or the results of praising together with others of like faith? Are we enjoying the variety from the daily grind or cherishing discussion, music, and fellowship? I know this person and believe his conclusion is much more developed than he said, yet that is the challenge. Let's think hard, make solid, developed conclusions, and use those as goals for how we conduct our meeting times. 

         I really do not believe there is a consensus on the "do we understand why" portion of the question. I firmly believe we do it because that is what we do, overall. Bad worship serves no good purpose when you can be studying the Bible, discussion critical questions, and figuring out how to create culture. We do worship with music, maybe subconsciously, because that's what Christians do or because we want weekly meetings to look like church. Thankfully, like with The Journey, there is a huge focus on developing the music weekly in what is sung, how it is sung, and what purpose it provides. There is great discussion going on with the leadership and musicians on how best to use the music to praise and cultivate a culture within the community. It will be great to see how that operates throughout the year. Hopefully more ministries are doing similar things, and from what I know it is to some degree. As I find more out, I will let you know.

Question 2: Is worship helpful? Is it helpful to non-Christians who come to experience whatever is going on with a particular group?

Answer and Conclusions 2:

         This will be the last part of this post so it does not get too long. Discuss and comment here on these two questions and whatever else is mentioned in this post. More opinion is desired and welcomed!

       One responds " As a strong believer in the idea that music connects everyone I honestly believe that worship music, if its not in a "we're shoving God down your throat" kinda way, can be helpful to anyone.

There are some songs that tell stories that can just reach to your soul you know? I don't think that has to be 

specific to one kind of person."

Another responds similarly stating that helpfulness depends on the person and the setting: " I think worship is helpful depending on the setting. I think it is helpful to non Christians who are visiting as well. I think that it depends on the setting because sometimes one needs quiet to reflect what is going on during a service. At times worship can then be a distracting. The use of music has to be appropriately used in the context of what is taking place."

Personally I agree, to a degree, with both of those because they are totally valid observations. The response I agree with the most, since it really gives the hard to hear answer, is the following: "Worship can honestly be a big turnoff to non-Christians, however, I do think it sends the message that we are not only here to reach people, but to grow ourselves. We don't tailor Christianity to reach non-Christians. We just aim to show them love while still growing ourselves."

Worship at colleges really do not do much other than attempt to edify those who think and act the same way. Ministries are not growing, with the exception of The Journey and Intervarsity, and more people are really not reflections of growth but rather collections of like-minded people. What purpose is a church made up of people who all think alike and are disconnected with those outside their ministry? Nothing but to focus on themselves! Christians should inherently be the most outgoing, gregarious group in that their purpose is to reach people and share a message of good news. Thus their music and worship should reflect that goal. If it is not, then scrap it! We are not commanded to have worship services with music but instead to go and make disciples. We are called to protect the innocent, bring justice, take care of the widows and orphans, and create culture which leads to a productive and blessed society. If music does those things, then praise GOD! If not, it serves no productive purpose. 

This Worship Stuff: From the Church to the Campus - Part 1

       Welcome back friends, and thanks for reading. This post should be pretty intriguing and raise a lot of questions, not only from the ones I give and am mulling over but the ones triggered in you. Hopefully those triggers will result in a contemplative moment where we all engage more with a topic we do not talk about enough, namely worship.


       This, and the next couple of posts, are shifting a little bit away from campus ministry specifics and what is going on mainly because school is out and things have not been revamped yet. So the aim here is to take topics which apply, step out some, then apply them back to the City and campus-Christian communities. Worship may bring a few things to your head. One perhaps is people lifting their hands, jumping, dancing, singing, or things of that sort. Two, maybe you think of how Christians act outside of church, a more theologically deep thought which can be a whole other topic. Thirdly, maybe you think about the band at church, the songs you play, how people respond, and the rock concert on Sunday morning. These are three thoughts of many pertaining to worship yet we focus here specifically on worship in terms of music. There is already a plan in the mix to post on the musical, artistic, and cultural side of this, so stay tuned and get ready to discuss since there is so much on that topic which we need to bring forth and so many implications for Christians and the lives we lead. However, this is specifically on worship in terms of the music, how we do that in church, then how it works in campus ministries, mainly those in the Charleston area. A Facebook message has been sent out too in order to get other opinions, words of insight, and perspectives. Those who respond are included in the analysis. If you did not get it and want to contribute, please please please comment on this post, send me a message, or whatever you prefer. There is so much to this topic and I am trying here to condense for the reader's sake.


       So let's just jump into it. Worship an the the Church...what do you think of? Do you like it? Do you/we tend to pick churches based on what they sing or how well they play? If there was no music, would Sunday morning be drastically different? There are tons of questions to ask, but these are just a few. The easiest way to answer is simply, yes. We really do, generally speaking even though this generalization is pretty well accepted, characterize our church, or one we visit, by its music. The preaching may not have been that great, but "the worship was just phenomenal. I love singing 'How He Loves' us. The Lord really moved in me through worship." Or, "pastor's preaching was solid but that worship team just did not have it together today." Or better yet, "we always sing those songs, over and over again; it's annoying." Lastly, "why do we always sing new songs? You cannot worship if you don't know the song." All of these are either things I have said or heard having played viola and bass guitar for a church band and constantly having the music as the first thing I notice when I visit a church. Whether it is the new Tomlin hit or "At the Old Rugged Cross", music is a central focus on our weekly church service. We want to go to Hillsong because their worship is "out of this world." Or we constantly sing songs from Australians like Hillsong and Planet Shakers because we like them, they are powerful, and they are comfortable. We can go on and on, but I think it is pretty clear to us that worship music is at the forefront of our minds even though we do not discuss often its purpose and effects.


      Here are a couple of more questions...Is worship preoccupying our focus? Are we too concerned with professionalism or musicianship? Are we becoming dependent on the worship portions of services? These mainly apply to more contemporary services, though the level of comfort and refusal for traditionalists to evolve certain works in this discussion, just maybe a little differently. (First off, I am not and will not be saying that worship is not important; this is to get us talking and thinking about how we utilize something which is important). Author Gabe Lyons suggests in his book The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America that our churches today have gotten preoccupied by a number of things, taking our focus off the true message of the Gospel, namely restoration (in place of a footnote: definitely read this work; it is incredibly insightful and accepted by great people of faith including Billy Graham; it is also much more than I am referencing here). We make sure there is a good set list, but forget or neglect working with the poor in our community or training our members how to think and work out their salvation (Philippians 2:12). Some may say "well, we are worshiping God so it's not like He is mad at us." To that I say we know that worship is not all music and that the Gospel does not command us to play with great pomp and style, or to sing with many harmonies and display lyrics on state of the art screens with crazy, psychedelic graphics. Again, this is more typical of charismatic, youthful churches. In no way should we devalue worship, but perhaps get back to Matt Redman's "Heart of Worship" where we discipline ourselves to remember it is about God and being about His Gospel of goodness, justice, salvation, and restoration.


      So what then do we do if we concede to the point that worship is preoccupying our focus negatively in many of our churches? Let's look at what I am calling the "How He Loves Us" (by John Mark McMillan) conundrum. This song became the Christian anthem for the last couple of years as the Holy Spirit really moved in many people's lives. Truly people were touched by being able to sing and shout the truth that God actually loves us. John Mark's lyrics hit an emotional and spiritual trigger with his imagery and vulnerability that people just grasped a hold of and refused to let go. How amazing it is that one song has had such an influence on so many. Not only did the song get picked up by David Crowder and Bethel, but it crossed cultural bounds to be sung in everything from the Southern Baptist churches to the Pentecostal services to the AME churches known for very emotional and impactful services. Is there an issue with all this? Not with the effect, but I suggest there is when you think about worship overall. Why did our experience evolve around one song then die with it too? Clearly the song is overplayed today in our churches and I really think it is because we have lacked music to take us further. Thus we hang on to a song and justify that by saying "well, it is just such a good, honest song that it does not need replacing." I am a firm believer in singing to the Lord a new song (Psalm 96:1 and Isaiah 42) yet we struggle to do so regularly. Some oldies are great and don't need to be shunned, but overall there is a principle in those verses, namely keep moving forward. Keep developing your abilities to express your love, anguish, gratitude, etc. to God. Keep opening and expanding your mind toward an infinite God.


         John Mark McMillan talks about writing for the local church (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsGmGIkdKSw). Originally he did not start writing songs with the thought in mind that they would be sung in a corporate setting. He describes how he searched for a language to express what he wants to say to God or about what is going on in his life. Personally I think that is profound- we are to search, yes SEARCH, for language to express what we want to say. John Mark says in another interview that in Charlotte they have developed a culture of writing for the local church. His task at his first church when he began leading worship was to write and sing all original stuff for the church body there. He was not allowed, in a sense, to sing Tomlin's stuff, or Bethel's stuff. And guess what...Charlotte has been on fire with worship because they have created and honed a culture that sees worship in light of the Gospel. They write and sing based off collective experience and what God is doing there locally and use it to create a culture which draws in the community resulting in restoration. I strongly believe this should be the example for the church in America. Praise God we can sing others' songs and grow from that! But! We should move towards writing for our local church, focusing on how worship with music is to extend the Gospel.


        There are many different styles in worship and I am thankful, in spite of me liking them or not, for the Phil Wickhams, Kari Jobes, and Matt Mahers. They really help lead the charge. However we should not use their gifts as crutches for ourselves. Instead we must take the high road, cultivate our musicians, treat them well, perhaps pay a worship leader and be clear on the goals you (the Pastor) have set. We established that music is a key part of church life and that we really are attracted by it, deterred, or put up with it. We know too that musical worship is very Biblical. How so? Well one of our most read and quoted scriptures are the Psalms. (This can lead to whole other topics on poetry, art, expression, and language, but we definitely won't try to dive into any of that here). There are also tons of examples throughout the Old Testament, one being King David dancing in worship down to his underwear (2 Samuel 6:14), and Paul's exhortation to the Ephesians (chapter 5) to sing to one another hymns and speak psalms together for encouragement. So we know it is important. Paul in his letters tells us these things in light of the Gospel though. We do these things to encourage one another, live in peace with our brothers, and share Christ with our neighbors. If that is not happening, then we have an issue.

       That's it for this blog. I can see it is kind of long and it is just the first part of what has been going on upstairs in my head. Let me know your thoughts. I would like to hear your answers to some of the questions posed and here any challenges you have. This is also a link to an interesting article you may like to read which talks about the "Death of Praise and Worship": http://samnunnally.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/the-death-of-praise-and-worship/. It is very intriguing and raises many good points. I do not agree with all of it, especially some of the conclusions, but it is a good article.


      The next post will get into the campus ministry worship. This post leads us to it. At the time I have received some input from some college students and will be waiting to see these comments as well. Thanks a ton! God bless you!


~Alex

Back to the Grind

Hello everyone,

       It has been almost two years since this blog has been active and that really bothers me. God really put something on my heart I wanted to translate and I really do not think I did such a great job stewarding that vision or idea. But today is a new day and great things are happening in Charleston, SC. That being said the rest of this post is short, in order not to take up much time at all from you, and gives you a glimpse into what you can expect the rest of 2012 from "The Charleston Awakening."

   A brief history is warranted here I believe. The Charleston Awakening, or TCA, began as a way to communicate how the Lord has been moving spiritually in the city. Many people connected with a vision of unity I developed out of much prayer and devotion; that idea was simply to see the Christian community unite primarily at the collegiate level in Charleston. To those familiar with awakenings and revivals throughout the world, they almost all have there genesis in universities. Honestly I think God just knows that collegiate aged students are passionate, ready to get engaged in culture, and have no entangling commitments for the most part. So, my passionate heart sought out others who resonated with a desire to develop hearty, deep, Christian community, at the College of Charleston in particular, which showed the love of Christ to the university as a whole. We did this through worship events and other small venues which really did not take off, but, as I will get to in a moment, I think there was a purpose to that. Amazingly we had many people connecting in 2009 and 2010. However, some things prevented the growth of this vision.

     One, my commitment to a particular campus ministry prevented me stewarding this vision. This ministry did not support what God had put on my heart and I decided to submit myself to their mission, biblical and good. Although I regret letting this get in the way, I really did learn a ton through discipleship and submitting myself to another. That decision was a good one in that the experience was quite valuable in many ways (you can ask me if you'd like). A second contributor to the lack of growth was simply my youth and naivete. The lack of a mentor and devoted partners was followed by a lack of knowledge as to how and organize such an endeavor. Over the past two years I have learned valuable lessons and gained cherish-able knowledge on how to steward a vision and follow the Lord's leading. Lastly there was a lack of knowledge as to how the Holy Spirit was operating in various places around Charleston, which leads into the second to last part of this  blog.

    No matter how passionate someone is about sharing truth, love, and hope, all found in Christ, efforts will be in vain if one does not extend his mind, good character, and capacity to steward visions and people. These past four years have given me first hand knowledge as to how God is moving in various churches around the Charleston area, as well as what the city needs spiritually. Campus ministries like CRU suffer not from an outdated vision  but an out of date method as to how to disciple and engage. There are many CRU communities doing great things around the country and globe, and I have been so blessed to see that. However many campus ministries are suffering increasingly, not knowing how to engage students and focusing on  what Gabe Lyons would see as a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Gospel, namely not telling the full story. Our attempts at "making a difference" on campus have been terribly unsuccesfull due to perceived obsession with evangelism, being offended instead of provoked to change, and out of touch with non Christians thinking we must remove ourselves from this world. Our Christian communities on campus lack holistic, sound theology, become increasingly cliquey, and fail miserably to meet the needs of fellow students. That being said the Lord is shaking things up. Organic, passionate, restorers are on the rise as the Lord inspires action motivated solely by a love for ones fellow man. Two examples of this include a new ministry at the College of Charleston called "The Journey" and another which has existed at CofC and around the US for decades named "Intervarsity."

    These two ministries are quite different, but both share key similarities which will be mentioned not discussed. One, they are humble. So, each one knows that it is not the end all be all, the remnant of God's will, the last hope for mankind, etc. There overall mission is the same, namely to show students love and connect them to Christians so that they may grow holistically as a person. So it does not matter if this happens in either of the ministries as long as it is happening. There is so much to this, but we cannot dive into it here. Two, their leaders are devoted and focused on one campus. Many ministries have staff working on three locations and wonder why growth is not happening at the same time the staff is burnt out. No one can grow like this! Three, and lastly for today, they have genuine relationships with students and staff across the campus. Their existence and extension as a ministry is complimented by both being in good standing with the campus and their involvement in what the College of Charleston is about. They meet people where they are at instead of trying to lure others into their way of life.

   So, what can you expect from The Charleston Awakening. One, to share what God is doing on the College of Charleston campus and give commentary as to what effective campus ministry looks like. You will here what is going on in various ministries as they do events and engage. Hopefully you will hear of personal testimonies as long as people are willing to share. You can use this as a weekly update as to what new things are going on in the spiritual world around Charleston. Second, I pray we have more worship events. The goal is to develop a band devoted to creating an atmosphere of worship which students and visitors can connect with God and develop spiritually. Third, we pray this community will grow as we engage our culture where we are. May this be a place we can all share our stories, spread the word of God's love and restoration. God has destined us all to be stewards of His love, so let's do it together. This is my promise until I leave Charleston and this has run its course.

God bless you all! Stay connected, comment, share your stories to me by email so we can share them more, and, above all else, pray, asking the Lord to meet the needs of His people and develop a generation of restorers.

Most Sincerely,


~Alex Kirby

Worship starting up again!

Hey everybody,


I just want to let you all know about tomorrow night. We just want to worship and seek the presence of GOD because HE is GOD. For no other reason should we seek HIM aside from the fact that HE is. Talk to the other leaders and get them there at 7pm in the practice rooms of the old arts center on the fourth floor. It will be a great time in GOD's presence, catching up, and being encouraged. GOD bless you all and call me if you have any questions.


~Alex

PS: Sorry for such a late notice. This will be a weekly thing, so put it in your planner and expect GOD to touch you as you reach toward HIM!

What: Worship, encouragement, prayer, community, unity
Where: Fourth floor of Old arts center in the Practice ROOMS
Why: because GOD is good and HE deserves our praise and adoration.
Who: Those who want to seek GOD and need HIM
How: get off your butt and walk there!
When: 7-8pm Friday Oct. 15th
TONIGHT or TOMORROW depending on when you get this.

A blog from my pastor, Kevin Baird

St. Patrick

March 17, 2010

I am not an expert in the origins of holidays, but I know enough church history to be able to tell you that the person we honor today as "St. Patrick" is not who people think he is. He is considered the first apostle to Ireland and went there as a Christian missionary in the mid 5th century. I use the term "went" there loosely as he was actually captured as a slave and sold into slavery. His father was a priest (the days before celibacy) and so Patrick grew up in what then would have been known as a Christian family. History tells us that before his capture, young Patrick was not all that religious or spiritual. However, enslavement markedly strengthened his faith (Hmmm?). He eventually escaped Ireland and returned to England only to be called by God to go back and be a missionary to a predominately druid nation.

His first convert was a guy name Dichu who gave Patrick his barn for the first church. Eventually this barn became a monastery and it is the location Patrick died. Patrick was known for his ministry of evangelism and it was accompanied by some notable signs and wonders. One such story is told that all fires in the nation were to be extinguished and then renewed from the "sacred" fire of a druid king. When Patrick's fire was attempted to be extinguished, it refused to go out. It symbolized the dominance of the fire of God. Patrick was also known for banishing all the snakes of Ireland which symbolized the sign of the Pagan priests of that time. He is also credited with using the shamrock, a "three-leaf clover" to teach the precept of the Trinity in response to the Arian heresy that was popular as well.

I tell you all of this to underscore this thought: Why are we (as a society) getting drunk over this Christian Missionary? It's not just foolishness, but nearly borders on the blasphemous. We have turned holidays ("holy days") into times to feed our flesh rather than ponder on the sacrifices that were freely expressed by the people we honor. We just don't get it.

I realize that there is no way any of this will change. In fact, most people would think me nuts for even writing about this. I guess I do it simply to underscore the concept of "drifting". Whether it is our personal lives or our cultures perspective, we have to be vigilant to keep from "drifting" away from God and His precepts. There must always be a Christian witness in the land to remind us of those things that are unchangeable in God.

I wish you all a happy St. Patrick's Day, but not for the same reason the rest of the world says it. I trust that you will reflect on your own sacrifices and commitments and refresh them before the Lord today. I know most of the world will be "bellied up to a local bar", but I choose the "new wine" of His Presence. The best part is, the Holy Spirit hangover will forever transform your life!

Planting a Cross

Pastor

Love over Self-denial

Sorry about the extremely long lag in posts. None-the-less here is something to take to heart...

"If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire."

~C.S. Lewis

Awakwening to the HOLY SPIRIT

Hey guys and gals,

In the last message I said that the worship and prayer would be in Marion Square on Friday night, but due to the expected forecast of possible Thunderstorms that night, Saturday is now the date we can gather together.

It'll be Saturday at 8:00 pm in Marion Square directly across from the statue of Calhoun. You can't miss it. Come with a towel or a chair if you want to sit, but we'll be worshiping and praying, so sitting is your choice.

I can't wait to see you there. Saturday the 17th @ 8:00PM!!

~Alex