Just adding to The great worship debate
Hi all, thought i would add something about this worship/song/ issue we've been blogging about further down......I've been doing the OHP for the 9am service lately and something that struck me on sunday as i was reading the words (keeping in mind we'd just been to thirsty the night before) was every song was about God and not one was about 'me' 'I' 'my'. They were "How Great thou art", what a friend we have in Jesus, Becuase he lives, There is none like you...etc etc....and what i realised was that these songs were so much easier to sing along with because they were all about Christ, and Christ never changes, He will always be all those things i was singing about, therefore it didnt matter what i was feeling or what mood i was in, and i didnt have to question whether i was being truthful in what i was singing, (unlike songs such as "I am not ashamed" that was blogged about earlier etc) because those things will always be true for Christ. Yeah, thought it was interesting to note.
9:05 AM
Great observation Clairey!
We live in a very individualistic culture where the wants and the needs of the individual reign supreme, so where that culture permeates and saturates the church, you find God simply becomes another thing to serve our lives.
There is a point where the individual is important and we can freely bring our needs and desires before him... but the point of worship is to lift God up... to recognise Him.
One of the proud traditions of my own denomination (which has faded over time, meaning that some of us are grappling with how to revive that tradition) is the immensely powerful song writing of Charles Wesley (I am a Wesleyan Methodist).
Charles had an exact formula that he would stick to when constructing a hymn. Such an approach meant there was no simple feel good waffling, instead every word and every sentence had a meaning that conveyed something. Every single song contained necessary elements. I have the formula he used in a book I have on Christian spirituality, but I will see if I can get it on my blog in the near future.
We can bring back the strength of the old hymns by looking at such a formula and simply writing using it or something similar.... rather than writing feel good poetry that simply serves our own desires and creates a 'feeling' that we translate as 'the presence of God'.
10:11 AM
Really enjoyed reading this Claire. We need modern music that is God-centred.
Frank, I'd love to read more about Wesley's song writing. Let us know when you've posted on it...
10:42 AM
Why is it that we require modern music to worship? Why should the music of today effect how we connect with God? How biblical is that phrase anyway?
4:11 PM
Yea good point BAndy...
Alot of the times when we have combined services at church and a Hymn is being played, some of us youth just roll our eyes and stuff. But why do we let a slower or older style of music interfare with us worshiping God. Obviously each person prefers to worhsip in a different way but we shouldnt not be worshipping God just because we dont enjoy slower or older music.....And as Hairy Clarey said, the older music does seem to honour God more than todays modern worship.
I mean, I still love Thristy Worship, but yea
10:51 AM
Also, just another thing: When worshiping, how do we distinguish between the hype, atmosphere, ect. and feeling God move amongst us. I have no doubt that you can feel this but I also have no doubt that in the past I have thought it was God when really it was just the music's effect. I reeeaally don't like the thought of that.
I understand there probably won't be "Three easy steps to feeling God whilst worshiping!!", but is there anything we can look out for or test or something??
11:01 AM
Is God present in our worship if we don't "feel" Him? I worry that there are WAY too many eggs out into the experience basket in today's worship. Worship becomes about getting the consumer (the people gathered) to have certain experiences and feel certain things instead of glorifying God. It becomes more about what we can get out of it rather than being focussed on God. I worry that the Gospel gets used as a means to an end - rearranging peoples feelings instead of the end in itself - rearranging which Lord you serve. You've inspired me to repost an old post on worship BAndy.