Worship: Beyond the Act of Singing.

"Worship:  Beyond the Act of Singing."

By: KC Knippa

 

“Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
       the world, and all who live in it.   Let the rivers clap their hands,  Let the mountains sing together for joy;  let them sing before the LORD!” [Psalm 98:7-9, NIV]

Recently, I had the privilege to attend an amazing worship conference, led by many leading thinkers and shakers within the current Christian culture.  The best part of this conference was the fact that it challenged me to rethink the reasons for and purpose of what worship truly is… asking the simple, yet complex question, “Why do we sing?”

Have you ever thought about that before?

On the surface, this question appears to be simple, but when you really think about it, it begins to blow your mind! (Or at least, it did for me.)  Out of all the things; the sounds, noises, or actions that a human can make… Why is it that we choose to sing in order to praise our Lord?

For me, the conclusion that I have drawn is twofold:

First, we sing because it is truest form of emotional expression a person can make.  I have heard that physiologically speaking, the sound of singing and the effort to do so is related the closest to that of moaning… a deep guttural expression running the gambit of anything from happiness to pain… complete joy or anguish.  Now think about that in light of worship… Singing is the only way that we could possibly lift up in adoration the full complexity of emotions that our awesome Lord desires and deserves!

Which leads in to my second conclusion, that we sing because it is the closest expression we have to the divine.  Think about it, scripture is littered with this idea, explaining about how the Lord sings over his people or about how creation constantly rejoices and sings to the Lord.  Music has always been ethereal in nature… an art form to help us more fully understand the world around us… a precious gift from God, linking His people, to Him. 

So maybe the question shouldn’t be “Why do we sing?” but instead, “Why wouldn’t we sing?”  When it comes down to it, reflecting on all that the Lord has done for us… creation, salvation, and transformation… How can we not sing praises to God?

Besides, when we come together and lift up our voices, we are simply just joining the chorus of praise that creation has already been singing since before time began. 

Are you singing yet?

- KC

They Don't Believe... But They Know.

"They Don't Believe... But They Know."

By: Pastor Jack Schneider

“We pray this so you may live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every good work, growing in knowledge and being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might.  May you have great endurance and patience and joyfully give thanks to the Father Who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light!”  [Col.1:10-12, NIV]

Man, that’s some prayer!  It shows Paul took seriously his role as mentor of God’s people and, hopefully, that they took seriously their role as students of God’s Word.  I know we’re doing that on this campus today because Pastor Andy stated this as one of our goals: Biblical literacy.

Interestingly, the newest Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has found from a survey of 3,400 Americans that, on average, atheists and agnostics are better with answers to factual questions about religion than Protestants and Catholics.  No joke.  When given 32 basic religious questions, average Americans answered only 16 correctly.  Mormons and evangelicals did better on questions about the Bible and Christianity; Jews and atheists/agnostics scored higher in areas about world religions and religion in public life.  To quote the tag-line from the newspaper article reporting this event, they don’t believe, but they know.

Hmmm.  Sounds like we need more prayers, doesn’t it…and more study, too.  You see, skeptics prepare themselves because they want to discuss the topic intelligently and from a position of understanding.  Unfortunately, it does not speak well of Christians when we come across as uninformed and disrespectful toward others.  When Paul spoke to the crowds on Mars’ Hill in Athens, he spoke with knowledge, with respect, and with effect.

Remember why we’re here.  Go back to the Great Commission of Matt.28 and the unique translation so fondly spoken around here.  “While you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing, make sure you’re doing this: making disciples.”  It has been said people don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.  This begins with our immersion in God’s Book of Wonders, His life-giving Word, and it’s lived out in the way we sit and listen, share and pray in the name of Christ.  At last Wednesday’s “Digging Deeper” class ten folks ran through the 32 questions from the survey.  No one missed more than three.  Now, we can either feel smug about that, or we can ask, “How are we doing at loving our neighbor in Jesus’ name?”

Where do you think we all need to start?



- Pastor Jack