Categotry Archives: worship

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My Changing Views on Worship

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Categories: changing mindsets, creativity, Meanderings (look it up), music, worship

So lately I’ve had worship on my mind, and have been observing a shift in my thinking about worship in the past couple of years. Seems I did some of this before, in a blog series called Re-Thinking Worship. But I’d like to revisit this from a different angle, less from just tossing around ideas, and more about how those ideas are reshaping my whole approach and belief system about it–sort of comparing how I used to see it, and how I see it now.

This is a preview of My Changing Views on Worship. Read the full post (1375 words, 1 image, estimated 5:30 mins reading time)

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Worship: the Sound of the Broken

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), worship

Ben at live.awake posted something about worship last week that really spoke to my soul. (I’ve been waiting to write about this while Ben took care of some technical difficulties, but the link appears to be good now.)

In his post, Ben describes a recent worship service he attended where everything about the worship time seemed “normal” and “right.” And then something happened…let me give you an excerpt:

“The set ended, the lights went out…a large group of men came up on the stage. It was a choir made up of about 15 or so men from a local Teen Challenge camp…This choir was primarily made up of men who are former drug addicts.

This is a preview of Worship: the Sound of the Broken. Read the full post (717 words, 1 image, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

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Update on our Re-Thinking of Worship…

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Categories: changing mindsets, worship

A few weeks back, I began publishing a series of posts on “Re-Thinking Worship”, and talked about how my perspectives of worship were being expanded beyond the typical worship-leader sing-along format. (If you want to read the series–seven posts thus far–you can find them under the “worship” category in the right sidebar of my blog.)

This is a preview of Update on our Re-Thinking of Worship…. Read the full post (193 words, 1 image, estimated 46 secs reading time)

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God We Praise You In E-Flat

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Categories: fun, What the heck was THAT?, worship

Okay, time to tell tales on my good friend Aaroneous. (Don’t know why I was remembering this just now, but here we go…)

He and I were on a worship team together some time ago, and we were playing some new song for the first time in church. (Don’t ask me what song, I don’t remember now.) Not only were we having to concentrate on the song because it was new, but it was also in E-flat, a key we almost never played in. I was leading from the piano, and Aaroneous was behind me playing bass and doing BGVs (that’s “background vocals”, for you not-in-the-know, non-musical types). 🙂

This is a preview of God We Praise You In E-Flat. Read the full post (297 words, 2 images, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 7–Being Real)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, worship

I don’t know how long this series will go. I’ll keep posting on this topic periodically until I run out of things to say about it. 🙂 If you’re just joining us…links to the previous six parts are at the end of this post.

As a worship leader in institutional church settings, I admit I bought into the “show-must-go-on” mentality. In one sense, it was a coping mechanism, because if I let my teammates take the morning off because “I just don’t feel like worshiping today”, or “I had a really bad week, and I’d feel like a hypocrite if I got on the platform today”–I’d probably never have had a quorum. There sure were a lot of times when I didn’t feel like getting up on that platform.

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 7–Being Real). Read the full post (987 words, 1 image, estimated 3:57 mins reading time)

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 6–The Lost Art of Reflection)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, worship

And so we keep going…there’s just so much to say on the subject of worship. (Links to the previous posts are found at the end of this one.)

I have been a big fan of corporate worship. By corporate worship I do not mean worshiping corporations. 🙂 I mean the act of coming together as a people to worship God–as a people, in one accord. I still like that dynamic when it happens, and I think God does, too. Looking through the Bible, and through history, it seems like God has a tendency to manifest Himself when people come together with the common purpose of seeking Him. (Pentecost is just one example of many.)

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 6–The Lost Art of Reflection). Read the full post (932 words, 2 images, estimated 3:44 mins reading time)

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 5–These Songs We Sing)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, worship

Okay, continuing the thread on worship (read parts one, two, three, and four here)…

I’ve been pondering on this blog about why, as a worship leader, I have become bored with corporate worship as we currently practice it. It’s caused me to start deepening my understanding of worship beyond just the singing of songs, to focus more on the weightier matters of the heart, to consider that worship can involve all of life, and even to reimagine what other sorts of things we can do that could be called “worship.”

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 5–These Songs We Sing). Read the full post (981 words, 2 images, estimated 3:55 mins reading time)

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 4: Expansion, not Replacement)

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Categories: food for thought, Meanderings (look it up), worship

I’ve mentioned in the previous posts in this series that I’m in the process of re-shaping my whole paradigm of worship. J.R. Miller left a comment that highlights an important point here, and one that deserves clarifying. Here’s a quote from his comment:

“The emphasis I get then is, not that you are seeking tear down what others are doing or what many enjoy, but seeking to “worship” through music in new and diverse ways.”

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 4: Expansion, not Replacement). Read the full post (513 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 3: Our Response)

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Categories: changing mindsets, worship

So in pondering the things I’ve shared in the previous posts on this subject…our house church has launched a sort of experiment.

In coming to realize that there must be much more to worship than the corporate worship leader directing the congregation–that this is a method rather than a principle, and is therefore subject to change; and in realizing that this method is growing stale on us; and in realizing that worship is supposed to come from an overflow response to what God has done and is doing in our lives…we began to ask the question:

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 3: Our Response). Read the full post (456 words, 1 image, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 2: The Overflow)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, worship

Have you ever considered how true worship happens?

One of the most significant differences I see between Christ-following and other religions and belief systems of the world is in the area of worship. There’s a picture in Revelation 5 that illustrates this point.

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 2: The Overflow). Read the full post (871 words, 1 image, estimated 3:29 mins reading time)
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