10-29

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Corporate Worship Values at BBC

1. 10 Values
1. God Centeredness
2. Cross Centered
3. Expecting the powerful presence of God
1. Have spontaneous times of prayer and praise. It is more irresponsible to leave time unplanned. Ready to pray, preach, sing or die at a moments notice.
4. Bible based and Bible saturated
5. Stimulate both the Head and the Heart
1. combining these is the best way to go. Developing a passion.
6. Demonstrate both Earnestness and Intensity (“Sorrowful, yet ever rejoicing”)
1. God is good, and life is hard.
2. Maintain intensity: there is a weight to it all.
7. Use Authentic Communication
1. Not a stage presence voice, he never talks like that till he gets on stage... all of that kinda stuff.
2. We’re not perfect, we’re imperfect like everyone else and they want to contribute to being authentic.
8. Maintaining both the Manifestation of God and the common good
1. Transcendence and Immanence: congregation meeting God and coming together in our worship. Is there a place for one-another communication? or is it supposed to be vertical? Combination of both.
9. Un-distracting excellence
1. We want to do well. Worship in heart, soul and mind. If it is soo good, then it can be distracting in its excellence. We can also have poor quality that is distracting.
2. What is desired in un-distracting excellence.
3. Younger leaders: maturity, spiritual maturity, leadership call. Higher quality of worship for larger churches, smaller church you can have younger worship leaders to build them up.
10. Mingling historic and contemporary expressions of faith.
1. Don’t do the contemporary and then the traditional services. Both hold high value.
2. Corporate Worship- the Process
1. Planning thematic Worship
1. Of the three common models used in Western cultures today - liturgical, thematic and experiential we have chosen to work with the thematic model.
1. Liturgical: most main-line denominations: need a hymn here: put a hymn, need a prayer here... and so on.
2. Thematic: everything flows out of that theme for that day. New each week cuz the theme changes.
1. Evangelical Conservative denominations will go this route. Baptist, EV free churches and such. Can be series, seasonal...
3. Experiential: charismatic tradition.
1. allow Spirit to guide us. Not prescribed.
2. Sermon Text
3. Biblical Model Is. 6 and Psalm 95.
4. Historical Model:
1. Gathering, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Word, Response, and benediction.
2. Each piece has a function and it leads us to God each week.
3. Reformation is when this started to be in place. The difference was in the emphasis on either the table or the Word.
5. HANDOUT
3. The Process
1. Planning Thematic Worship
2. Worship Center
1. Song list... what songs do we sing at this church.
2. Want to understand people’s songs. What do they know?
3. How do they pray? How do they communicate?
4. scary would be talking to people who you know nothing about.
3. Contextualizing with old and new expressions of musical worship
4. Rhythm and flow of worship: Dialogical-Declare and Respond
5. Worship planning leadership
6. Worship Resources
1. music and prayers, what do i have to work with???
2. Recruit and assemble a worship team
1. Teach the team about worship
2. disciple them spiritually and musically
3. Songs
1. vehicles of theology
2. culturally appropriate
3. from both the local church and the greater Church body.
1. Should have more song writers. Who is it that
4. Worship isn’t an educational time... you can’t just take people to a place they’ve never been before. Don’t be cutting edge novel.

10-22 Theology of Worship

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Theology of Worship

Goal of Worship: Engaging God

Rom 11:36 “For from him, and through him and to him are all things.”

1. Engaging with God:
1. God is center and focus of worship
2. See God
1. Why? Ps. 119:18, Eph 1:18, we will be changed.
2. our response is to declare his worth and his character.
3. Recount his mighty works
4. Praise his faithfulness.
1. Do so in songs, creeds, scripture declaration
3. Pray to God
4. Hear from God
1. Reading God’s Word
2. Expository preaching from God’s Word
3. Response to His Word
1. Prayer and reflection
2. Engaging with God as the Body of Christ
1. Worship service is corporate
2. Corporate Worship only happens if people are truly involved in the service.
3. Key passage is Heb 10. “let us draw near to God”
4. Let us... Let us...
5. Emergent Church Paradigm: coming into a corporate gathering in a very private way? Lights dimmed and such... is that helpful and consistent with Heb. 10?
1. come and listen to a passage and don’t come back to a unified view, then lacks some amount of worship.
2. movie theater... have some amount of connection...
3. where is togetherness in a big service context...
4. Should we force it into the corporate service?
5. Do meet and greet times really do it for us?
6. They don’t but they do hold value for general greeting and helpful for forming fellowship.
7. once done, people ask for prayer and were prayed for by people in the service.
3. Engaging with God as the Body of Christ Through Culture
1. transcultural, countercultural, cross-cultural, and contextual...
2. Answering questions like... is this culturally appropriate?
3. Transcultural:
1. The same substance for all Christians everywhere beyond culture.
1. The Word is central, not man’s wisdom.
1. under authority, at the invitation of the Word, with guidance from the Word.
2. The Holy Spirit: gives understanding and works in our hearts.
1. makes our worship sincere 1 John 4
2. worship in truth
3. the Congregation: participation of congregation makes it corporate.
1. must be truly involved, body gathers, commanded to minister to one another Eph 5:19
4. Christ centered: Heb 4:14, 5:6, 6:20, 7:17, 10:21
1. we draw near through him, he is the God mediator.
2. heb 2:12
4. Countercultural
1. Gospel comes to transform every culture.
2. This is inherent in the gospel itself, it changes things, it cuts off sin and this brings great change on a basic level.
3. culture must be valued and judged on the Word.
4. culture is not above the gospel.
1. we try to appear all is well all the time, no embrace depravity
5. Cross-cultural
1. Christ transcends time and space, express praise to God with texts with Christians from all over and throughout history.
2. Singing same songs, declare them as our own.
3. sharing between cultures.
6. Contextual
1. reflects local parts of culture.
2. be intergenerational by necessity.
3. Develop a particular heart language that will allow a worship service to worship well.
4. We act like some heart languages are really lesser than our own, the Gospel is able to make all sorts of people to come together.

10-8-09

Thursday, October 8, 2009 Theology of Worship

1. Worship and Scripture
1. Worship is about God
2. Scriptures are where he has revealed to us His nature and ways
3. Worship is likewise for God
4. Scriptures are where He tells us what hHe expects of us creatures.
5. The Bible is to be our guide in every area of life - including the crucial area of worship
1. I like what i like
2. This is our tradition
3. Our family does it this way...
4. But... People Change.
5. Times change: probably have 2-3 careers in your lifetime...
6. Culture change: postmodern isn’t new any more.
6. Only in Scripture can we hope to find an unchanging standard for our worship: we don’t all think the same.
2. Problem
1. There is a “stunning indifference” by the New Testament writers to issues of form and practice of corporate worship --- John Piper
2. What does it mean to teach and talk about this “stunning indifference” wrt worship for the Church today?
3. Questions
1. What is it in the Bible that is supposed to govern and determine our worship?
1. Our worship services still need to look like something -- so how are we to make choices?
2. Is it a case of “anything goes?”
4. The Illustration
1. A model based on a suspension bridge.
1. Built to flex
2. Weight is supported by the towers and the suspension cable
1. Towers are sunk deep int he earth for stability
2. Suspension cable is flexible while sharing a large portion of the weight.
3. Towers::: Firmly rooted in biblical foundations
4. Cable Span::: flexible, like the NT to allow individual congregations to have some flexibility.
2. The First Tower:
1. Acts 2:42 and 47
2. Crucial activities for the people of God when they come together?
1. the Word
2. Fellowship
3. The LOrd’s Supper
4. Prayer
5. Praise
3. Some see these verses not so much as a description but as a prescription for Church worship. Are these factors a part of our worship? These are a good base.
4. Should all of these be part of each service??? Breaking of Bread? Fellowship?
1. These are, at Bethlehem, decided by “wisdom calls” by elders.
5. Further, corporate gatherings int eh New Testament were not called “worship services.” Seems that these five elements are found throughout history.
3. The Span
1. The span, with its built-in elasticity and flexibility while staying in the Biblical restraints.
2. Flexibility and Freedom: Worldwide and historical applications of this principle have been demonstrated in an enormous variety of worship expressions.
3. Requirements for a local church to successfully construct their worship:
1. Leadership
1. Pastor and the elders/deacons/boards must study worship in the Bible, as well as studying their people, and seek prayerful conclusions.
2. Don’t let music committees make the decisions. This is a pastoral role. Must operate from a Biblical and God-centered view of worship.
3. Corporate worship is the end goal.
2. Communication
1. The careful solicitation of points of view from members of the congregation, while not the last word on worship decisions which must be marked by the leadership, is an important step in leading the people as shepherds.
3. Teaching
1. Gotta be there and it has gotta be everywhere.
2. The pastors and other leaders must promote a biblical understanding or worship in the public teaching ministry of the Church.
4. Principle-based decisions
1. Give grace to others with different applications.
2. Stay true to the church
5. Semper reformanda
1. Always reforming, constantly put things under scrutiny.
4. The Second Tower
1. Theocentric: God centered is primary Rev. 19:10
2. Dialogical: Dialogue between God and his people. Rhythm of revelation and response.
3. Word Saturated
1. The Word must be central in our worship.
2. “praise Him according to His excellent greatness” Psalm 105:2, Psalm 56:4, 138:2.
3. Expository exaltation.
4. Participatory:
1. Worship is the responsibility of all.
2. “So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture will give thanks to You forever.” Psalm 79:13, Romans 15:5-6
5. Christ Centered
1. Empowered by the Spirit
6. Whole life worship
7. Heart worship:
8. Edifying worship
9. Trans-generational worship
1. Psalm 148: 12-13
10. Taught Worship
1. 1 Thess 4:1
5. In the Old Testament “Come and See” worship was very prescribed.
6. In the New Testament it is a “Go and Tell” worship, spread it out.