One of my first commitments after finishing my first book, Worship Matters, was never to write another book.
As most authors I’ve spoken to will acknowledge, writing is anything but fun. It takes long hours, a commitment over a lengthy period of time, patience, and a lot of looking at what you’ve just written and saying to yourself, “I wouldn’t even read this.”
But God has a way of changing desires…
About six weeks ago I was talking to Justin Taylor, who works for my publisher, Crossway. Justin has been a most supportive friend, and told me that my first book has been doing well. So…he wondered if I might be interested in writing another.
Miracle of miracles, I’ve actually been warming up to that idea. Worship Matters was aimed at those who participate in leading corporate worship. Why not write a much shorter book that spoke directly to the Christians who walk in to be led every Sunday morning? Perhaps a book that would help them think more biblically about their responsibility as a worshiper of God, regardless of how they were being led. A book that leaders could give to members of their congregation.
Justin then informed me that I was describing the book Crossway thought I was going to write the first time. Oh well.
Two similar books are Louie Giglio’s The Air I Breathe and Vaughan Roberts True Worship. But Louie’s speaks about worship more broadly and Vaughan addresses topics I wouldn’t cover and leaves out some I would.
So, I’m writing another book. I’ve already spoken to Thomas Womack, my editor, who will be helping me formulate the chapters and structure. I thoroughly enjoyed benefiting from his skill, discernment, and graciousness when we were working on Worship Matters.
Here’s where you come in. I’d love to get your help early on in the process.
I want this book to answer specific questions that people might be asking or need to ask. I’m already thinking of chapters like Why Do We Sing?, What Do We Do With Our Bodies?, and What If I Don’t Like My Worship Leader?
What questions do you think I should try to answer?
I know you somewhat address this in the youtube clips, but I would like someone to address men who don’t sing, and stand with thier hands in their pockets. I imagine you would handle that better than I would – wink…
What If I Don’t Like My Worship Leader?
I don’t think any of our people are asking that!
(suddenly we’re all feeling vunerable)
I think it would be great to cover what is the owrship leader there to do for me and what are they NOT there to do for me.
I think that cuts to the root of a lot of other issues.
Also what role does my favourite music have to do with my worship…
What about the division between those who want to hold onto the good theology of the old hymns, and those who think anything written before 1960 should be discarded in favor of choruses. Some modern stuff is great, but a lot of it is simply vapid, repetitive and human-centered. How do we marry good theology to modern music?
Why are the drums and electric guitars so loud?
Why can’t I hear the [insert instrument vocal part I like]?
Why can’t we do the songs the old way?
Why can’t we do the old songs?
Why do we have to stand up/sit down and sing?
Why does the screen have videos and pictures and not just the words while we’re singing?
I love it! I think you should include notes in the “bodies” section about not being embarrassed about worshiping joyfully.
I always have felt weird holding up my arms, having been trained to sit or stand, do not clap, etc.
Maybe a chapter on “Untraining your taught inhibitions”?
What do we do if our worship leader tries to mimic Bob Kauflin? Church discipline? :) Look forward to reading it!
How about “What if I find the music distracting?” or “How as a musician in the congregation do I balance worshipping and watching the musician who plays the instrument I do?” or “How do I make the most of music solos?”
I’m looking forward to this book!
Was Justin asking himself “What about Bob?” :-P
Hey Bob,
This sounds like an excellent book (assuming you don’t drop the ball! :)
I would love for you to address how private/personal worship affects how times of corporate worship. I’ve seen, many times, that a lack of personal worship throughout the week (prayer, bible intake, praise) negatively affects the time of corporate worship…and tends to turn the church gathering into a time of “personal worship”…
Enter preferences and opinions. Battles and quarrels. If personal/private worship was happening regularly, people would lay aside preference for the good of the whole…etc.
thanks for serving us so well with the work you put into writing! I praise God for this gift he’s given you!
mp
As a worship leader, I know plenty of people that don’t care to sing. How about a question like:
How can I worship without singing?
or
Do I have to sing in order to worship?
P.S. I’m very excited for your new book Bob! ‘Worship Matters’ has been such an encouraging and enriching book for me. I praise God for it!
“What if I don’t like the worship music?”
See you in a month at my Starbucks at T4G.
Excellent news!
Here are a couple…
– How should I prepare for corporate worship?
– What if the music is not my “style”?
Looking forward to the fruit of this effort!
How can we prepare to worship?
How can we better handle worship styles that are not comfortable/familiar to us? (and still glorify God)
How do I take “myself” out of worship? (ego, wants, criticisms, etc)
What is worship? (more than music, right?)
Perhaps something aimed at humility, our place before God, submission, or something similar. Western culture, and especially American Western culture, seems to have a really hard time with this.
What if I don’t like the pastor? (or anyone – doesn’t just have to be the worship leader – a poor attitude towards one of the church leaders will impact worship)
What if I don’t feel like worshiping?
—
Sounds like this will be an interesting project. I look forward to reading more about it as it progresses.
1. “What if I don’t like the worship ‘style’ ? (ie. How can I still enter in to worship?)
2. “Is it ok for me to make song suggestions to our worship leader?”
I am so glad you are writing another book.
How about “what if I don’t like or know a song?”
How do the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all relate to our approach to worship? i.e. What defines distinctly Trinitarian worship?
How can I worship when the music is terrible? (ie, Care Group)
How do I prepare my heart for worship throughout the week ie. before I get to church? It’s so much easier to enter into worship when you listen to gospel centered lyrics during the week and practice daily Bible study, etc. Our culture often thinks about church on Saturday but often the thoughts linger more on what to wear, how to dress the kids, etc. than on our hearts.
What if I don’t know the song(s)?
How can I worship when the music isn’t what I like?
What should I do when the music is a distraction to worship?
I’ll try to think of some others… P.S. Liked your first book a lot. Kudos!
SOunds a great idea. How about…
What am I suppossed to do during ‘worship’?
How do I worship Mon-Sat?
What should I do when I don’t feel like singing?
How do I deal with “Jesus is my boyfriend” type songs as a man’s man?
How do I worship when I don’t agree with the lyrics? (Kinda like Ligon Duncan’s lecture on How to listen to a bad sermon.)
How do I prepare for worship?
How can I pray for my worship leader?
Why do many churches sing two verses of a song as a congregation and then spend 20 minutes with solo, a choir special, and a orchestra special? When do we get to sing?!!
Who decided to play music when we are having silent prayer?
First book was AWESOME!
Maybe a chapter on “Approaching Your Worship Leader” explaining to how to offer song request, constructive criticism, and maybe revealing what goes on in the worship leaders life(explaining why he/she can’t get to their song as quick as they’d like because we already have a stack of music request and “to do’s” already..be patient and understanding!!).
What does worship in the here and now teach us about worship in the there and then?
How are/what sanctifying graces (are) imparted to the believer during congregational singing?
During congregational singing, How do I balance gospel listening/singing for mutual encouragement (horizontel) and godward focus (vertical)?
How important is how much I like the music?
What if the style distracts or depresses me?
How do I maximize God’s glory in my worship?
How do I counteract common distractions during worship?
How do I lose my self-awareness and replace it with a God-awareness?
I often find when I’m singing that I’m so distracted by what I am doing / am not doing / could be doing / might do … that I’m not able to focus on worshipping God through what I am singing.
How do I sing songs that don’t match my mood or situation? For example, singing a song bursting with joy when my soul feels crushed, singing confidence in truth when I’m doubting or singing about suffering when my walk with God is on a sunlight-filled mountain-top.
Kind of bouncing off the first comment by Derek about people who just stand in the pews and don’t sing. A question could be specifically addressed to them and then one that could have more of an effect on everyone. For example, “What are you doing/thinking about when you aren’t singing during musical worship time?” Then a more general question that everyone has probably fallen into about “What should we do when we don’t feel like singing?”
A follow up question for question #1 could be, “Is the reasoning for us not singing because our hearts and minds are on other things, or are we standing there with our hearts and minds on Jesus, meditating on the truths that the lyrics are ‘hopefully’ providing?”
A follow up question for #2 could be “Well do we press on with singing/worshiping even though we don’t want to and our heart’s necessarily not all there, or do we silence and refresh ourselves of the Gospel truths along with why we can even sing praises in the first place (life, death, resurrection of Christ.)
Sorry for the lengthy comment, but hopefully the Spirit will use it to spark ideas in you or others who read this. Thanks for “Worship Matters.” Just wonderful.
Bob,
What about the possibility of creativity within the congregation to write original material (e.g., based on an upcoming sermon series) for the worship service? If this is a good idea, how would this concept be introduced/taught to the congregation? I think this would make the congregation more involved in the service. Another benefit would be weaning churches off of karaoke. Just an idea, thanks, steve.