Humility in Worship

According to James (4:6) God “gives grace to the humble.” Humility suggests that we are in a fit state to receive grace.

Philippians 2:1-17 is a passage I have used to consider this issue. (I feel it is important to note that I am unsure of some parts of this passage. I am not entirely in agreement with: "thinking of others as better than ourselves" as I hope to foster an attitude of equality).

"Is there any encouragement from belonging Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as "better than yourselves". Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life."

Humility is about attitude and behaviour. It comprises:
==> Submission to God
==> Recognition of our talents but also the talents of others
==> Recognition of the limits of these talents

I believe that God does great things through the humble; as He increases, we decrease. A humble person seems to hold the balance between recognising their gifting but also the gifting of others and giving them due honour. Humility means that nothing we do is motivated by selfish ambition or conceit i.e. a desire for self-promotion and excessive favourable opinion of our own ability and importance.

In worship there is a temptation to feel threatened by those who are more musically talented, more creative or more famous than us. The temptation is to covet the gifts of others which basically tells God that what He has given us is not enough. It can be easy to lose sight of the fact that we come to worship God and not to impress others. We need to ask God for grace so that we move towards wholeness and confidence in what He has gifted us in, rather than leading from a place of insecurity.

In working with our worship teams, bands etc we want to encourage people, we want to see them grow in their gifting even if that means they may eventually take our place in our church context, become better than us or become more recognised than us. We want to be part of a worship community that places others above ourselves so that we experience unity: a little of heaven on earth. I think if we can lead from a place of humility then we can encourage those who look up to us to develop and grow in humility and hopefully we will see fruit in the lives of the people we lead and maybe a little receive a little more grace for ourselves!

Reflection TroyToy

TroyToy seemed to be alot of fun for the kids! Christian youth events can be cheesy (to say the least) but I felt that tonight was an enjoyable and inclusive event for the churched and unchurched alike. The sound was LOUD!!!!!

It was alot of fun tonight and I think it takes nights like that just to loosen us up and realise that God can handle our fun.

Our set was: Arise, Close to you, Victorious, Glory and then Rescuer. I felt that Victorious went very well, this song needs a light-hearted approach - sometimes we can take ourselves too seriously and so I think this song worked well because we relaxed and had fun with it. Again, Rescuer was great and alot of the kids seemed to move off to the prayer room during the song so I hope they were both challenged and encouraged. It continues to be a song that people catch onto but regardless of how many times we have played it I still find it a real challenge to sing with integrity but I love that it almost commands me to throw everything off and raise my hands with freedom because of what Jesus has done for us.

"O what a Saviour, freedom forever, we lift our hands with chains undone;
Hearts that know mercy, cannot stay silent, we sing a song of saving love".

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

If you read my sermon on worship (posted about a month ago) you will have seen my reference to justice and poverty. I feel really challenged about my response to the poor, I am trying to find ways in which I can serve the poor as worship to God. God is very clear about the kind of worship we should bring before him. He tells us that he does not hear our songs and prayers if we ignore the poor and live our lives irresponsibly. I am frustrated by the ignorance of many people (including myself) who claim to be followers of Jesus but yet who continue to live in ways that simply do not take God seriously.
A brief reminder of Isaiah 58

3 'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

I have eves-dropped on 2 conversations in the past week where people have said "I was having coffee in Starbucks with a friend". Why is 'Starbucks' relevant ? Because we want people to know that we are in the "right" places with the "right" people.

I went to see 'Black Gold' this weekend and attended a discussion with the co-director Nick Francis, a representative from 'Oxfam Ireland' and a representative from 'Fair Trade Ireland'. The QFT's description is as follows: "Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping centres and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over 80 billion Dollars, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price".

I am moved to action after seeing this film. Although buying fairly traded food is one of the ways we try to live out this call, I feel that it is time to increase my committment to worshipping God through my attention to the poor and those who are being exploited. Strangely enough (with a hint of sarcasm) Nestle, Kraft, Sara Lee, Proctor & Gamble and Starbucks, the 5 largest companies making coffee 'products', refused to take part in the making of the film. However, in recent months after the film's release some have met with the directors for discussions but would not answer one simple question: "How much do you pay for your coffee?" Easy question, simple answer .... you would think!

It is time to "wake the sleeping giant". Can we be converted to Jesus? Can the church be converted to the God of the oppressed? What if the church was converted to causes larger than it's own preservation?

Music & Emotion

Major keys + fast tempo = Happiness
Minor keys + slow tempo = Sadness
Dissonance = Fear

Music has an incredible influence and manipulation over our emotions and hormones. Music can lower levels of cortisol in the body (arousal and stress), and raise levels of melatonin (induces sleep). This explains why music has the ability to relax, calm, and give peace. It also can cause the release of endorphins and can therefore help relieve pain. Our musical expression of worship therefore has incredible power over people.

I have been considering this for a number of weeks and have managed to get my hands on some Doctorate Theses in order to try and deepen my understanding of music and it's effect on our emotions. I feel that this is important in the light of what we do as worship leaders and probably more so to extend my knowledge as a teacher of music. There are times in my life when I find it difficult to worship either by listening to music or by singing my own worship to God. Music has this overwhelming ability to bring pain to the forefront of our minds again, even when we have managed to bury it for years. I don't know whether that is the work of God's timing or simply the nature of the song I have chosen to sing.

I have been in many discussions regarding the effect of worship music on our emotions and how we need to be careful that we aren't manipulating people. I have to say that I don't have much time to entertain this conversation because it is already apparent that any type of music will do this and that might just have been part of God's design. I suppose this is an issue of the heart too. I love to see people weep or laugh in times of worship. I love the ability that our musical worship has of taking people on an emotional journey.

Creation & Worship

Have you heard of AONB's (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty)? This designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the landscape. If you come from Northern Ireland you will probably know that the Causway Coast is one such area and I may have seen it at it's finest moment on Saturday past. If you have never taken the drive from the White Rocks round to Ballintoy then you may not have experienced the fullness that life in communion with God has to offer. I took a friend who was visiting from England and to be honest I think I was more excited than her and I have lived in this area for 25 years. Our main stop was at Ballintoy Harbour where I had to sit and admire the scenery for a few hours.

I walked alongside the harbour in amazement at the colour of the water at it's varying depths, 3 boats; blue, red and black all trimmed with white, resting silently. It was incredible. The sun was beating down, the sky was clear blue, the rocks were varying shades of grey and white and the whole picture was trimmed with beautiful green grass. I am completely in awe of the Creator.

The colours took my breath away and so I sat overwhelmed with worship and love for the God who I believe created this. I experienced peace, rest and space, with a soundtrack of gentle moving water. All designed by Him. Absolutely perfect in it's rugged beauty that has been crafted for hundreds of years. It all fits into place. I am part of this creation. In those moments where nature gently whispered all about beauty into my soul, God had my full attention.

Refection CFC - 10th June 2007

We were playing at CFC yesterday for our monthly slot. Three services leaves you pretty exhausted at the best of times but the added heat made it all the more difficult to get up this morning. Our morning set included: Arise, Rescuer, Victorious, The Troubles are O'er, Here I am to worship. I thought the set worked quite well but I am not sure how 'Victorious' was received so if you were there and you have any thoughts please let me know. It gets an applause at the end which suggests that people are engaged but I'm not sure at what level. It might just be the type of congregation as my thinking at the minute is that this will work well at a youth event - Summer Madness will be good testing ground.

It is fantastic to have the opportunity to play the songs and get a sense of what works and what doesn't. We are finding that CFC as a church has really grasped 'Rescuer' and God is continually speaking through this song. We hope this is only the beginnings of where this song will go. We took the opportunity to air another new song yesterday called 'The Troubles are O'er'. This song was inspired by a sense of the importance to write songs that express what is going on at a local level; rather than writing songs with the intention of reaching the nations, but putting words to what has happened on this island in recent months politically and spiritually. I find this a very emotive song, firstly because I think it is great and secondly because I have never heard a worship song of this nature before and particularly one that talks about our situation and what God has done to bring us through the Troubles. I hope you like it too.