Thuốc Đặc Trị Đông Y Gia Truyền

05/05/2021

Quan tâm đến sản phẩm để lại SĐT nhân viên tư vấn chốt đơn hàng

04/23/2018

My sin
Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought

My sin
Not in part, but the whole

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more

It is well
It is well with my soul

What a wonderful old hymn, and how wonderfully it strikes to the heart of the matter and reveals our freedom.

It does not hide the issue of sin but still reveals what was done for us to release us from its hold.

Though I really appreciate so much of what is written these days; though I enjoy writing a lot of worship song ideas myself, I find some of these old hymns very striking and worthy of remembering and singing.

03/26/2017

“Leading” Worship
Thoughts by Jim Drew

I am discovering that none of us can truly “Lead” worship. Bear with me for a bit, for those so used to the language of the “church.” I have some working thoughts on this.

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Make Me!

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First, let’s remember that childhood thought or challenge, the moment when a friend, (or enemy), would taunt us to do things we didn’t want to do. A typical response was “Make Me!” It could be as simple as one of the guys or gals telling another to do this or move over there or to stop bullying or, well, whatever, and usually with a bit of irritated attitude we might respond with “Make Me!”
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For the longest time now I have come to realize that we have some very real and natural worshipers in our congregations, but we also have passive ones who may calmly be saying inside, “Make me,” and perhaps a few who even are doing that with all the attitude of a childhood confrontation. I suspect the latter is rare, and yet it is bound to show up once in a while. After all, if you have folks coming to services for nothing more than duty or expectancy by family or whatever, they are not there to worship. They are there against their “will.” It is a shame, but it is part of the scene.
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Let’s not deal with those last folks at the moment because in reality that is a whole different need. They need a different approach all together, but the folks in the middle, the ones who may not even know they are saying “make me,” for those folks, how do we help them past that attitude?

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“Leading”

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I was thinking about this and it dawned on me how much we use the words “leading” and “leader” in the church, and yet it is not really our responsibility to lead, at least not in the way we tend to think. Sound weird to you?
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I know that for myself, when I am leading a team of musicians for the purpose of allowing an atmosphere for worship, in reality I am following first and foremost. I am giving an offering of hope and faith to my God, listening to Him, trusting Him for conversation through the moments created within the music. It is not about the music. It is not about me. It is about God, about the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is about what He wants to communicate to us, within a worshipping time that is focused on Him.
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As I look at this and pay attention to my own approach it is with a wondering heart how much I realize we have abused the word “Leader” and how little I am expected to actually “Lead” the worship times. I can lead the team but I cannot lead the worship.

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Who is the leader?

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Well, as always, the leader should be Jesus. We follow Jesus, accepting love from the Father and taught, prompted, comforted, filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. But, in all this let’s concentrate on the following of Jesus for the moment. Why would we let Him lead us in worship? Is He leading us to worship Him in some funky way? Or – is the whole idea of “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” coming into focus in a way unexpected?
Does our walking with Jesus allow a truer worship than we could ever understand any other way?
Shall we let him lead us into a deeper worship with more meaning than we could ever have hoped for?
How can this happen?
Too many questions?
What is Worship?
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So, how about if I ask a fundamental question to all this thinking anyway. What is worship, I mean really? What is it for? What does it do for us, and more importantly, what does it do for God?
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I have yet another theory, which of course I lay before the Father to help me sort out. In the end I am thinking/learning that it not about Him or us separately, but about both/all of us, God and Children, Creator and Creation.
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First – is it about us? What does worship do for us? What does it accomplish? I do believe changes happen in our lives when we engage in genuine worship, but I am realizing it is not because it is some kind of reward for worshipping God. It is not like putting a coin in a slot, pressing a button or pulling a lever and out comes some cool thing from God for us to enjoy.
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Second – is it about God? That may sound even odder to ask but in reality, what does God get from worship? Does He get energized, empowered somehow? There was an old Star Trek episode in the original series that came up with this scenario, a false god actually, a being that needed worship because somehow it received energy from that worship. I’m not sure if it was the idea of “feeding off a life force” or something like that, but it turned out to be just an alien that was feeding off of it. I think they replicated the idea in one of the movies as well.
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Does our God need that? I don’t think that is it at all. Certainly He deserves our praise, owing to the simple fact that He is our creator, the being of Eternity, beyond time and matter of what we think. I’m gonna truly love seeing what that is all about. It is so hard to imagine in our finite world of time and space and all. Still, if He does not “need” our worship, yet deserves it, if he does not feed off our worship, yet asks for it, what does it accomplish in our relationship?

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Relationship?

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I think that is the key word. I think worship, the bending of our hearts to God, listening, receiving, and the reciprocal-ness of giving between the Creator and the created allows for a much deeper relationship than can happen in any other way. I think that true worship is part of God’s design to allow us deep into His thoughts and understanding of His nature, His ways, His purposes, His love for us, His strength, his empowerment through the Holy Spirit, and back to our beginning thought, into His leadership through the following of the Son, Jesus.
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When the disciples followed Jesus a natural love occurred. They had fellowship with the song of man, who was also the God of all creation. God chose to have this relationship with them, and if we believe scriptures and history, with us. Jesus led them, taught them, gave them hope and understanding and purpose, fed them, encouraged them to go beyond their limits. Jesus was their leader and He brought them out of the limited knowledge they had through the religious activities of the day.
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Jesus leads us into worship of the Father as well. He is God, yet He encourages us to worship, to look to the Father, to walk in the Spirit, all a part of who He was and is, and yet something we needed so desperately.

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Leading Worship?

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Yes, back to that. I may lead a team of musicians in the art of music. I may lead a group of people in a form of reading or something, but never can I lead actual worship. I cannot Make anyone worship either. The idea of “leading” worship brings with it a mild sense of making folks worship. Impossible. I believe if we let Jesus lead through the love of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit bringing that sense of our God’s true presence, that this is how real worship happens. I believe that when folks come in with the extreme “make me” attitude of worship, well, I think it is my duty to ignore that and not push the buttons they have challenged me to push.
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I believe for the average group of church attenders who may just come out of routine and have a genuine desire to know God but don’t get the “worship” idea, that even their unintended “make me” is to be left alone. Why challenge an idea if it is not even clear to them.
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In the end I lead music, or maybe even some kind of service, and it may be a good thing to lead, but I can never lead worship, and neither can anyone else, no one that is, except Jesus.

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Still Thinking…

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I may have left some holes in this thinking unintentionally, but reality is I am still pondering how it works together, how the pieces of the puzzle meld properly. Worship is a concept to us, pushed into a form and time and place, but in God’s eyes I find that it seems a deep part of the relationship we can have with Him.
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No, we are not charging His batteries, though sometimes the experience of focused time with Him seems to charge mine. No, He doesn’t “need” my worship, and yet He desires us to do this? There is more here than some blind obsession by a needy god. This is the real and living God and His purposes always seem higher and more and better. I believe He wants us to be in worship to build a real relationship. His love fills the room with His presence! His Hope fills the heart with His Truth! His Son fills the days with His Light! His Spirit fills the soul with His Wholeness!
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Now, go, follow Jesus, worship God and become close to Him in all ways!

12/09/2015

As I have spent more and more time learning about the whole spectrum of worship, from the corporate time in a sanctuary or sacred space to the streets and the act of loving and giving that our Lord sees as worship as well, as I have watched and learned I have found worship to be truly an art.

Taking it to a place we are all familiar with, a church platform, often musician led, it takes on a completely organic feel of give and take, first between the appointed leader and the Lord, then between said leader and the team of musicians, and finally between all of them and the congregation at hand.

There is this listening that takes place even while sharing. There is this need to stay "in tune" with how God is speaking to folks, what moments are connecting with them, and it is the job of the worship "leader" to pay attention and learn to give space, give opportunity for one on one with the Lord, even in the midst of this corporate setting.

There was a time when I led songs. I led them well, helping people sing along and enjoy time together. Now I am learning to allow an atmosphere of worship, to take us much further in and higher up than just a song can do. Yes, the song may be the pavement used to approach, but at some point we can all walk on the breath of God, no longer needing the song beneath us. It becomes a background, a nice landscape, a focusing access to the real stuff.

Yes, there is truly an art to this thing we tend to call worship, and it is always a masterpiece!

(The picture is courtesy of my time in Berlin with the Vineyard there.)

10/08/2015

I've had the pleasure of some time doing sessions for churches with Grant. You can look him up for the groups he is and has been involved with but this was a really interesting comment on a CS Lewis quote that I remember catching my attention again not too long ago. Check it out!

Grant was interviewed by legendary Nashville artist manager Mike Smith for his online artists management course. Enjoy these few excerpts from the full inter...

11/02/2013

Ahah

08/29/2013

Do we allow ourselves to become a canvas for a great work of art to be created in the hands of the One who breathes out creativity, or do we always try and do self portraits and make them turn out the way that we want them to look, even if they end up looking not at all like what others see?

08/23/2013

I sent out a bunch of invites to this page but I want to ask folks to look at what has been stated above before they join. Worship. a word that has become mostly synonymous with a time, a place, a team, a leader and a style of music is not fully what it is meant to be.

The Art of worship goes beyond the whole "Lifestyle of Worship" ideas as well as it is truly an art that comes from deep within every worshiper. There is a longing that has formed within me, something deep inside, where the soul seems to reside. The part of me where only the Holy Spirit is able to reach, but he also uses the art that He has placed within us to connect to us and to others.

I have played in bars and found that worship is possible there as well, not just in music, though that is a common and easy source for me (as a friend, Grant has pointed out so well). Another friend of mine in conversation once mentioned how it was sometimes, or maybe more often a free-er environment to worship God with all of our beings outside of a church.

Part of this is because the rules or expectations we have created have gone away. We drop the pretenses and just love God openly, in front of everyone, with our whole lives, sometimes with songs, even if they are not directed to God, sometimes in deed as we meet the needs of those we come in contact with, sometimes in purpose as we live out the lives our Father has gifted us to walk.

It is my desire that within this place I have called "The Art Of Worship", this forum or FB space, whatever, that we could encourage all of the art of living out loud, of worshiping in multiple ways with, as the Salvation Army motto goes "a heart to God and a hand to man." That is only one aspect but I think I have initiated the thoughts, Let's see what our Lord can inspire within us and without as we live out loud for Him!

Love you all!

Jim