I’m in the Mumbai domestic airport right now, waiting for the flight to take us to our first place of ministry, Love-N-Care Ministries. We arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) last night, and got about 5 hours sleep, and are heading for Visakhaputnam today. On the flight, we sat next to Aruna, an Indian woman who has been living in Orlando for around 20 years. She was very gracious and engaging in conversation. She asked us numerous questions about what we were doing and why, and we were able to share the Gospel with her, and encourage her to consider that apart from Jesus there is no way we can ever be good enough to enter God’s presence. We’ll be sending …
India Update #1
Well, I’m here in the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris using one of the computers in the airport. I’m not sure whether I can get my satellite modem working or not, but it doesn’t matter at this point, does it? My friend Larry and I have completed the first leg of our trip. We leave in about three hours for Mumbai (formerly Bombay). That will be another 8 hours. Then tomorrow we’ll take one more plane over to our first destination, Visakhapatnam. There I’ll spend three days working with pastors and worship leaders on principles of God-honoring worship. Being in a country where English isn’t the primary language reminds me again that this world …
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Heading for India
Tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll be flying out of Dulles International Airport with my good friend Larry Malament, headed for India for 12 days. Larry sersves as a pastor at the Sovereign Grace church in Charlotte, North Carolina and is definitely the guy you want to go to India with. This will be his 12th visit. As I mentioned in a post last week, I’ll have the opportunity to train pastors and worship leaders in two separate three day conferences. The first will be with Love-N-Care Ministries in Vishakhaptanam on the east coast of India, and the second will be hosted by Logos Wholistic Ministries in Ahmedebad, on the west coast. These are ministries …
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How Do You Receive Encouragement?
Mike left this comment/question on a recent post: Why are compliments so difficult?…Yesterday after our morning service a lady stopped to tell me “how great I am” and what she loved about the way I lead the worship service, which was that I projected “a sincere love for God in what I do.” While certainly I hopefully project a sincere and true love for God in what I do, how do you receive a compliment such as this?… How do you deflect praise and still be cordial? I imagine that anyone reading this post can identify with Mike’s question. Why are compliments so difficult? Most of us, unless we’re blatantly arrogant, feel embarrassed …
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What Does a Worship Leader Do? In Closing…
I was going to entitle this post “Final Thoughts,” but that’s probably not going to happen. One of the reasons I started this blog was to explore this role in an ongoing way. But this does mark the end of the series on the role of the corporate worship leader. Really. If you’re a musician who is responsible to lead others in praising God, I pray you’ve been served by this series. I’m grateful for those of you who have taken the time to post an encouraging comment, expand upon my thoughts, or ask questions. We need to continually ask ourselves if what we’re doing is lining up with Scripture. On most Wednesday mornings I have the joy …
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What Does a Worship Leader Do? Pt. 16
One more time, this is the definition for a congregational worship leader I’ve proposed: An effective corporate worship leader, aided and led by the Holy Spirit, skillfully combines biblical truth with music to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, thereby motivating the gathered church to join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God and seeking to live all of life for the glory of God. Today, I’m going to share a few thoughts on that last line. Worship doesn’t begin when the singing starts, nor end when the music stops. We don’t “do worship” in a meeting, nor compartmentalize …
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What Does a Worship Leader Do? Pt. 15
If you’re just joining us, I’m currently describing what I think is the biblical role of someone who leads the church in congregational worship. We’ve covered this in the first 14 posts: An effective corporate worship leader, aided and led by the Holy Spirit, skillfully combines biblical truth with music to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, thereby motivating the gathered church… Today, I’m going to unpack the next phrase: To join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God. As I mentioned last week, an effective corporate worship leader invites others to join him in what he is already …
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Monday Devotions – Preaching the Gospel to Myself
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Col. 1:21-23) Do you find your life is often an emotional roller coaster? Is your perspective dependent on the trials or blessings your’e currently experiencing? That’s not God’s intention. He wants us to remain "stable and steadfast, …
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A Few Personal Updates
Item #1. I had lunch with my friend Ron Man today. A few years ago, I contacted Ron after reading some articles he’d written on worship. I was encouraged by his love for the Gospel, God’s glory, and the church. Since then, we’ve chatted by e-mail, exchanged resources, and shared fellowship over a few meals. I’ve found out he spends quite a bit of time in Europe, training pastors and seminarians in the theology of worship. He also has a website with many helpful articles that he’s written, and a monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to. I’ll be adding his site, Worship Resources to my Recommended Websites. Item #2. For a number of years …
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What About the Regulative Principle?
Richard wrote in to ask, “How do you understand the regulative principle of Worship, and do you agree with and practice it at your church?” Some of you right now are thinking, “What in the world IS the regulative principle?” The regulative principle is one of a number of ways used to describe how God’s Word governs our corporate worship. It is sometimes simplified to “Only what God has commanded in Scripture is acceptable in public worship.” It distinguishes between “elements” of public worship, which don’t change, and “circumstances,” which do. In contrast, the normative principle states that, “Whatever Scripture …
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What Does a Worship Leader Do? Pt. 14
Yesterday I talked about the issue of motivating the church to worship God. Judging from the comments yesterday, I’d guess that this is an issue for more than a few leaders. Kevin asked, “If you’re leading worship and the people don’t seem motivated to respond in worship, is that your fault?” The simple answer is no. It is every individual’s privilege and responsibility to give glory to God regardless of what they’re going through or who is leading them. But leaders can do things to hinder people praising God or refrain from doing things that could encourage them. But first, we want to be careful how we define a “successful” …
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What Does a Worship Leader Do? Pt. 13
A few weeks back, I proposed this definition for a corporate worship leader: An effective corporate worship leader, aided and led by the Holy Spirit, skillfully combines biblical truth with music to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, thereby motivating the gathered church to join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God and seeking to live all of life for the glory of God. Today I’d like to talk about “motivating the gathered church.” Ideally, as I stand in front of the church to lead them in singing God’s praise, every person is ready to sing with all their might – minds focused, hearts …
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What Does a Worship Leader Do? Pt. 12
I’m at the part of my proposed definition for worship leaders which says their task is to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Certainly there are many aspects of God’s worth and works that we can and should dwell on as we sing His praise. He’s our Creator, our Deliverer, our Father, our Guide, our Shepherd, and Shield. But this side of the cross, we find the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) and his substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. This is what Paul considered of first importance (1 Cor. 15:1-4), what Peter encouraged us to remember (2 Pet. 1:9), and what is to richly fill our singing …
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Monday Devotions – Do I Love God?
One of my historical heros is the hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748). Two years ago, my oldest daughter, Megan, surprised me with a 1798 copy of a book Watts had written on the priority of loving God from the heart. Like most Puritans, Watts never lacked for words when it came to titles. He called his treatise “Discourses on the Love of God And It’s Influences On All The Passions: With A Discovery of The Right Use and Abuse of Them in Matters of Religion. Also, A Devout Meditation Annexed To Each Discourse.” I read through the book in a few days, and was encouraged by the pastoral, biblical, and clear way he promoted the use of emotion …
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Easter Service – Songs for the Resurrection
JP wrote in to ask, “I enjoyed your blog on ‘What Christmas Songs Do You Use?’ With April fast approaching, could you please post a similar list for Easter?” I polled some of the other guys who serve in some of the Sovereign Grace churches, and this is a tentative list. I’ve left off some of the more obvious ones like “Christ the Lord is Ris’n Today.” I’ve included songs that focus exclusively on the resurrection, as well as those that reference it at some point. Crown Him with Many Crowns Including the verse: Crown Him the Lord of life who triumphed o’er the grave And rose victorious in the strife for those He came to …