Musings On Worship Part 4: Anointed Worship

Musings On Worship Part 4: Anointed Worship

To read all the posts in this series (musings on worship), please click on the links below;

1. Has "Modern Worship"  Become Corrupt?

2. Musings On Worship Part 1: What Is It All About?

3. Musings On Worship Part 2: Resilience

4. Musings On Worship Part 3: Worship and Excellence

Well, let's go on...

Definition and examples
1. With regard to service to God, GotQuestions.org (a question and answer site on Christian apologetics) defines anointing as a ceremonial Old Testament physical act involving the smearing, rubbing, or pouring of sacred oil on someone’s head (or on an object) as an outward symbol that God had chosen and set apart the person (or object) for a specific holy purpose. We can see King David as an example of this (1 Samuel 16:13).

2. Jesus as the Messiah, is as well anointed with the Holy Spirit who comes upon Him in form of a dove during John's baptism (Mark 1:10). His name "Messiah" actually means "The Anointed One" implying the One ordained by God to do the work of saving mankind from their sins and destruction. Jesus as well says this of Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19). Please note that not at any time in Jesus' ministry is "sacred" oil poured on His head to appoint Him as God's chosen servant, but He is appointed anyway.

3. In Acts 2:1-4, by the coming and baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Early Church in one way, is as well anointed on the Day of Pentecost to do the works of service that would later be revealed in the entire book. In such a way, we deduce that every Christian receiving baptism by the Holy Spirit is anointed for works of service and is therefore "an anointed one" in their capacity and the grace given them within the Kingdom. This can happen whether physical "sacred" oil is poured out on one's head or not. God's appointment is spiritual, but men in their schemes, think physical oil counts for something. It doesn't.

Premise:
We can therefore describe anointing as a special grace given to each individual by the Holy Spirit to accomplish a specific task proportional to their yielding to the promptings of the same Spirit for God's glory and the Church's edification. Any singer, musician or worshiper under the influence of the Holy Spirit is anointed, thus the gift (the act of worship) and the one offering it (the worshiper) are both anointed.

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In Christian service, the anointing serves - but is not limited to - three objectives;

1. Bringing liberation through God's manifestation of power and wisdom through one's gift.
2. Revealing God's glory in a given situation.
3. Bringing God's people back to rememberance that He is still at work amongst them (an intense revelation of God's Shekinah glory).

Verdict
We now realize we have all been commissioned in our different capacities to serve God under the enablement of the Holy Spirit wherever we are.

As worshipers, and for our worship to be from God and for God, we need to consider three things:

1. The Holy Spirit
(a) He influences the flow and active working of Truth (the Word of God) during ministration.
(b) He directs the flow and use of power in a ministration so that the music or act of worship goes beyond just being a dry and meaningless performance.
(c) He brings perspective to both the worshiper and the one being led so that they both understand which language He wants them to speak and hear during ministration.

2. A Good Rehearsal
(a) In most cases - unless the Holy Spirit redefines the terms of engagement - a prepared work of art is way more effective than a spontaneous one. Most charismatic musicians think that preparation is for ministers not filled with the Holy Spirit, but after serving for a while, I've realized that Spirit-led rehearsals lead to Spirit-filled ministrations.
(b) Although the Holy Spirit as well works in spontaneity, He has proven Himself over time as a Spirit of order and good planning.
(c) If, by the Holy Spirit, servants in the Old Temple served under preparation, how much more for us sharing in the new order of worship?
(d) Preparedness both in prayer and music ensures that there is excellence, and that all skill and precision are used for God's glory.
(e) Preparedness means bringing God sacrifices that deserve His name and not disorderly crippled ones.
(f) A good rehearsal ensures that the music agrees. It ensures that the singer and those behind the music are all on the same page to produce something in unison to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

3. Clarity
(a) When the Holy Spirit is present, both the worshiper and the one being led find clarity. In His wisdom, the Holy Spirit reveals to the worshiper the meaning and importance of their service, the timeframe within which the work of art is to be performed, the audience being led and the laws governing their ministration.
(b) A clear mind respects order and authority
(c) A clear mind has self control so that the one serving isn't reduced to a selfish egotist.
(d) Clarity of purpose and mind brings in the balance between the working of the Holy Spirit and sensitivity to the occasion at hand so that there is no confusion.

That is how the anointing works.

Quote: The Holy Spirit and lack of excellence don't dine on the same table.

Morris 2.0

Musings On Worship Part 3: Worship and Excellence

Prologue
It is so hard to worship beyond the music when you're used to performance. Worship is more about total surrender than it is about perfection; because after total surrender comes perfection, God's perfection, and not an individual's. God's way of wanting us perfect is almost always very different from ours. 

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Sometimes I gaze at the team I have been leading worship with every Sunday for the past so many years and I just smile.

I smile because I understand our imperfections: they are too many...

We are not that musical: any musician would give us a 4 out of 10 if they were to look at how "musical" we all are.

We are not so refined vocally. Yes we try, but we ain't "there" yet: we almost always blunder with our vocals, we stutter, we struggle with breath control, we "ahem" between gasping and singing. Our voices stabilize today and miss the mark sometime later, we are threatened by high notes, there are less ornamentations in there, we smile less. Yes we try, but we are always failing. We miss tempos, flip keys, skip lines... 

We have had great times when we feel "we nailed it today", but we judge ourselves so low mostly. We have every reason in the "singing book" to conclude that we are imperfect. 

Our imperfections are too many.

So if I were to judge us as a worship team according to our imperfections, I would say that for the past many years we've been leading people in singing as a form of worship, we have failed at least seven times out of ten. That's imperfect, right?

But, again, I've been asking God if we are doing well, and He smiles. Every time. He says that He's looking deep within. He searches deeper and knows our hearts, and at most, our hearts (at least most of us) are in the right place. And that's a good thing.

Psalms 139:1-4 (ESV) O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

If the Lord understands that we are imperfect and that we try to improve in areas we aren't so good at, He says it's okay. We don't need to worry about being "all-round perfect". Not so much. 

You see, according to this article (10 Tests of a Good Worship Leader) even as imperfect as we are, if as a worship team we manage to...

1. Make the congregation to effectively sing along,
2. Inspire the congregation to worship God with us,
3. Help the congregation grow in their worship of God,
4. Adequately prepare the worship band,
5. Ensure that the worship band is growing and improving,
6. Continuously worship as a band (stay deeply instilled in the Lord during singing),
7. Train up new worship leaders,
8. Inspire the pastoral staff to worship with us,
9. Manage to spend regular time with God in Bible reading and prayer (even with the busyness that is accumulating),
10. Worship God both in private and on stage,

We're doing well. We should keep going.

And I'm encouraging you too: if your hearts are in the right place and that your chase after God is sincere, God will use the imperfect you's to do His will in your congregation. 

You may not be perfect in your musicianship but that should not be an excuse for not pursuing excellence in the things above (most of which are spiritual).

Now, I'm not saying that performance is a bad thing but that dipping your heart into Jesus' blood and soaking your soul in the Holy Spirit as you minister are far greater ways to seek excellence than struggling to become a better vocalist or instrumentalist. Once your spirituality and worship has been perfected, I assure you that everything else will fall into place.

When we totally surrender to God, our voices and artistry may lack polishing but our hearts will be strumming the kind of music He desires: music done from the heart to the King of kings and Lord of lords. This kind of music - done by weak vessels to an Almighty God - is what He wants. 

We may remain imperfect in our own eyes and to others but in His eyes, we will be just as perfect as He wants us to be. 

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Epilogue
Seek excellence in worship, especially the undivided devotion of your heart, body, mind and soul to God. This is better than any other kind of excellence you can ever desire. 

Note: Read Parts One and Two in this series of blogs here: Musings On Worship Pt. 1: What Is It All About? and here: Musings On Worship Part 2: Resilience. 

God bless. 

Bonface Morris.

Musings On Worship Part 2: Resilience

Musings On Worship Part 2: Resilience

Catch-up on my endless musings on worship by reading the first post in this series here.

A worship team is quite a dynamic space both as an opportunity for leadership and as a reality for family. It is a very diverse kind of a team.

Considering that each team has "high" moments when everything seems to be working and "low" moments when so many things seem not to be working, resilience is one of those things every team needs to keep moving forward.

Resilience is that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever. Rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes. (Psychology Today.)

Bouncing back from bad experiences or moments in worship or failures in team activities may be what will make the difference between a successful team and a failing one. It may also be what determines whether a team maintains momentum or loses it. This is because - someone has said somewhere - life is mostly not about how we fall but about how we recover.

Here are my few observations on how resilience affects a team:

1. Resilience and tolerance go hand in hand 
Teams need community for growth, because teams - in and of themselves - are community; and wherever there is a community, conflict will be present. A resilient team is able to culture an environment where resolving conflict between its members as a community or as part of a community is simple and fast. Learning tolerating each other as members of a team in our diverse capabilities means being able to easily bear with one another, judging each other less and praying for one another more. (...with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love - Ephesians 4:2.)

2. Resilience helps in balancing between celebration and mourning 
The apostle James writes, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise (James 5:13.) 
Practising resilience will help a team know how to celebrate its successes in moderation and pray over its mistakes more. This helps maintain a balance of emotions in the team.

3. Resilience helps keep team activities consistent
If people mourn too much after failure, they may end up forgetting doing what should be done for team growth. If the team keeps revisiting mistakes and failures without planning a way forward, ability to move forward and become better is limited. A resilient team understands that there is time for correcting mistakes and there should always be time to move on from the mistakes and keep track of its vision and goals. Goals can never be achieved if a team keeps revisiting its mistakes without meaningfully forging ahead.

4. A resilient team owns its mistakes 
One key advantage of resilience is self-evaluation and self-actualisation. A resilient team always says, "We know our mistakes, we can name them, but we are not giving up; we are moving on"
If a team is able to own its mistakes in its musicality, activities, social matters and spiritual aptness, it can remove from its eyes that cloud of gossip, false accusations and blaming one another and instead use that opportunity to move forward. It knows that one failure is not total failure but a chance to not repeat the same mistakes again. 

5. A resilient team depends more on the character and promises of God than on itself.
Psalms 121:1-2 says, "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."
The focus of a resilient team is looking unto God and what He says: looking to Him and looking ahead. Because vision and what a team focuses on are very critical to success, this team decides not to put its hope in strategy or experience or the skill of its members but on the Power of the Spirit of God. This helps it move further from the limited vision of man to seeing the big picture as God sees it.

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May the Lord help us build resilient teams for the glory of His Name.


Bonface Morris.

Musings On Worship Pt. 1: What Is It All About?

Worship: What is it all about?

There has been quite a number of discussions on worship at my church during our mid-week prayer meetings. In the spirit of humility, I would say that the ideas I have received from various people in our congregation have inspired this post and several others that will follow.

As the leader of a growing worship team, I am joining the conversation to give a few views on worship, praise and, probably, devotion.

In this first blog, I’ll address the things I think we do wrong to put our focus on when we worship and why I think we get it wrong. It may not the best approach to use as the first part of a discussion/talk on worship, but, anyway, who cares? (Oh, you care, right?) I’ll try my best to speak with the perspective of a lead singer where necessary and with the perspective of a normal Christian in some places.

Here are some of the things that we always seem to worry about but we shouldn’t:

1. We are worried that worship is about us.

Here is an example of how this issue eats us up:

Did I sing well? Were the people pleased? Did they sing along? Was my voice good? I think I need to be drinking more water before worship… And the left side of the congregation were just staring at me… Why were they not dancing or singing along? I think the other leader in our worship set led better than I did... I am letting this team down... I am a bad worship leader… My voice is not so good: it is shaky and bad and with a poor vocal range, and less ornamental… not just as smooth as so-and-so’s voice…

And it goes on and on.

The above concerns may be true and good (and they should be addressed because they affect the quality of music and the morale of the team), but they are not central to determining whether the objectives in every worship session have been met by the person leading worship. 

Some of the objectives that should always be met in a worship session are;

(a)  To aspire to lead people in worship while under the guidance and the influence of the Holy Spirit.

What we mean by this is this: we should ensure that we are not, in the moment when we are holding that microphone and leading people before God, depending entirely on ourselves but on the strength, wisdom and power of God through the Holy Spirit. Yes, we have skills, but we should depend on the Holy Spirit to use those skills to bless His people and to glorify Himself through us.

(b)  To ensure that no one is left behind as we lead worship. I wrote about this in this post from 2013: Do Not Come Alone!

(c)  To ensure that God is central when we lead the congregation (or even ourselves) in worship: that the music, the sound(s), the voices and everything in the worship service is being done to glorify God; that we are decreasing as servants as He increases as our/the Master. 

Worship is not about how good we can sing/lead, or how well-known we are, or how our team flows and blends well. It is about God. The person leading worship, the worship team and the congregation are just subtitles to the whole story. They are pixels in the big picture. The big picture is God Himself.

Note: Lead yourself first into God, and everything else will simply fall into its rightful place.

2. We are worried and we therefore think that worship is about the congregation we are leading.

We always tend to think that people’s (or the congregation’s) satisfaction with the music we are making qualifies to be called “a great worship experience”. Let me remind us this: people think all sorts of things about all sorts of things all the time. Come on, they (I hear they are evangelicals) even think Donald Trump will make a great president.

The quality and flow of music are a good thing during worship because they ensure order and direction but that is not entirely what worship is all about. Worship in not only about having “an experience” but about holistically experiencing Christ. Those are two different things. The first one is superficial/shallow while the second one is deep and eternal.

It is better we sit around and sing one "boring" song that will enable us holistically experience Christ than sing strings of songs that are but noise to His ears.

Sometimes - and these times are many – I feel like telling some members of the congregation that they should not expect the worship leader to "read their lives" and “sing that song that exactly suits their situation” on a given Sunday. That can’t happen. It should not happen. Worship is not about them; worship is about God.

3. We are worried that our church’s locality and how modern it is in both the music style and the instruments used affect worship.

Musical instruments, whether good, modern, archaic or bad, don’t worship God. Being in a mega church somewhere in a big city does not guarantee us a place before the beautiful Throne of God whenever we lift our voices and hearts to Him in worship.

The prophet Isaiah once wrote and said,

​“For Sheol does not thank You; death does not praise You; those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your faithfulness.” (Isa 38:18, ESV),

He understood one thing about worship: lifeless things don’t know how to give worship to a living God. Heis God to the living, not to the dead. God may cause stones, hills, tress etc. to act in awe of Him and give Him praise yes, but not out of their own will. Only living beings can give praise out of their our will; and only man can give thanks and worship God in spirit and in truth. And that is the kind of worship God is looking for, isn't it?

Therefore, as worship leaders, we should stop complaining about poor sound quality, shoddy musical instruments, faulty microphones and dead keyboards because these things are not the ones worshipping God; no, we are the ones that worship Him. Instead, as we pray that we may have better musical instruments, we should put our focus on the One receiving worship and if that worship deserves Him.

I know of tiny instrument-less churches that experience Christ in their worship services more and better than what happens in most mega/big churches. The reason is simple: they are putting their focus where it should be when they come to worship: they are fixing their eyes on Jesus, and putting their hope in the One who sits upon the Throne in Heaven. That is what worship is all about!

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In this regard, we realize that we are mostly never worried that worship is about God. This should worry us. It should be our main concern whenever we gather to worship: that worship is not about us, but about God.

It is about us approaching His throne with awe and reverence and fear and trembling and honor and.... worship. It is about Him leading us through the whole process because we know not how to do it on our own. It is about our hearts meeting with His own heart in a union that is rare. It is the meeting place between Heaven and earth. It is about Him meeting His people when they gather to worship Him. It is about our voices rising up to His throne to give Him the honor that He deserves. Worship’s most central place is God Himself, because without Him, there can never be us and there can never be meaning in what we are giving to Him (what we would call worship) and there can never be hearts that acknowledge His Name.

So, worship leader, the next time you are holding that microphone and are preparing to lead God’s people to Him, remember that IT IS ALL ABOUT GOD. Not about your voice, not about your abilities, not about your team, not about the congregation, but it is all about God.

  

Cc.     1. Matt Redman – Heart of Worship.

2. (1Corinthians 10:31, ESV) “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Bonface Morris.

Has "Modern Worship" Become Corrupt?

This article was used with permission from Kim Gentes (www.kimgentes.com)

Have We Lost The Heart of Modern Worship, Are Things as Pure as They Once Where? or Has "Modern Worship" Become Corrupt?

In the early days of praise and worship growing up in the church, it was popular for "defenders of the faith" (those who preferred the established style of music at the time) to attack the new style because they said it lacked substance, and pandered to the culture. Over the years, this criticism actually helped make modern worship songs become better theological representations of Christian teaching. The arguments about style eventually waned and died when clear-headed adults realized that musical style has almost no relevance in a theological instrument. "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord", at least that is what David said. What was David's point? Simply this- no matter the instrument, the sound, the form or even person, the call remains the same "praise the Lord". Simply review Psalms 148-150 and you begin to see that God is calling us to praise Him regardless of our place in life (Psalm 148:11,12), regardless of the art form (dance or music - Psalm 149:3), regardless of the instrument (Psalm 149:3-5), even regardless of whether you are a human, angelic being or just a part of creation (Psalm 148:1-12). So while the "worship wars" may have happened in our churches for the last 30 years, it became obvious that David probably had won the argument about format a good 3000 years before we started discussing it in the 20th century- Let everything that has breathe praise the Lord!
But no sooner had the "old" vs "new" fight subsided, than we began to hear rumblings about the "corruption" of modern worship. After 30 years of infancy, its growth into adolescence was met by some amount of disdain by a good group of its progenitors. The original "guard" that was around when praise and worship burst on the church was now becoming vocal about the ongoing change that continued to propel the stylistic growth of the music. But more than just that, there was a "we told you so" attitude developing that began to expound the idea that the community of practitioners was now becoming enamored with the commercialization of the musical genre that had grown up around the music. In other words you could hear this said in a thousand different ways from some people- "this modern worship isn't as pure and humble as the original stuff". Also there is the idea that "worship leaders are just trying to become artists with record deals".
You could tack on a hundred variations to those two previous statements, but most often they boil down to those ideas.
So, let's talk about it. Is "modern worship" corrupt?
I'll answer that with another question. Is Christianity corrupt?
I think the truth is that you have to say both no and yes. For the most part, honest followers of Jesus are not bent on corruption of their faith or others. Also within the community of honest followers of Jesus, there are those who are (to varying degrees) corrupted by painful, sad choices and poor character. And finally, there are those who are actually apostates- people who willfully seek false doctrines for their own selfish motivations. Christians- the community of those who declare themselves to be honest followers of Jesus- I believe are not largely corrupt. They are instead, redeemed, and indeed, being more redeemed as they apply their lives to His guidance and instruction. Yet, they are still humans living on earth and are subject to brokenness. So there will always (until He returns) be a schismed vision of the Body of Christ- one which portrays a Bride to which Christ will return. And yet still, one that is in need of His continuing and ongoing work of purification, renewal and mercy. We are redeemed, but in daily need of a tethered existence to His faithful mercy for our lives.
So if this is the place we find ourselves with our existence as a Christian community, what can we say about "modern worship"?
Personally, I don't think "modern worship" is any more tragically perverted than anything else in "Christiandom". And the same arguments that I applied above apply to those involved in worship ministry today. On the whole, I believe we have a worship community within Christiandom that is sincerely devoted to Christ and seeks Godly goals in their work within the community of bringing forth praise and worship.
Often times I hear people getting negative as though they are hoping for some "good old days" of worship. It seems people love to jump on the bandwagon of bashing worship these days because they perceive its gone so commercial. Is there a misconception and excess now that has grown up with the creation of an "industry"? Sure there is! But frankly, that has existed in Christian preaching and leadership for years. The same is true of CCM (contemporary Christian music), television personalities, and healing/deliverance ministries. Did we throw them out as wholly "abhorrent"? No! Instead, we learned to weed out the good from bad.
To me, it comes down to each person, each church, each song and each worshiper. As we talk, look, listen and encounter them one at a time, we find a whole different story. When I look at each person and situation, and stop generalizing, and talk to individuals and churches (or investigate specific songs), I find something surprising. The devotion, the heart, the desire and the humility far outweigh the excess. And the devotional pulse of the local congregations is more, not less, participative in the gathered worship times than it has been in decades. Only 30 years ago the gathered church sang songs that almost NEVER spoke intimately with God, now its normative. Wow. That alone is a significant change.
Is it perfect? Is it the ultimate? By no means. Do we need more authenticity and more foundational return to cultivating Biblical consistency mixed with relevant language in our song vocabulary? Absolutely! Can we keep working on humbly following God in all this, without mixed agendas? No doubt.
Should we worry about our young leaders pursuing "music careers" because an industry has grown up around "worship" that has provided a few people with occupations? How sad if we fixate on that.
First, as far as an "industry", we don't have to worry there. The Christian (and worship) music "industry" is practically vaporised. Today, whether you have a real ministry from God in worship, or an imagined one from vanity, your chances of "making it" are about 0.000833%. Seriously. Because of the 120 million people who claim to be Christians in the US (and that is being very generous, since we know that many people don't actually go to church!), only a few hundred of those actually make their living as bonafide, full-time, Christian musicians and artists who work in the "music industry". The point is this- the industry is not just small, it is minuscule. Additionally, it is shrinking at an alarming rate in due no small part to the collapse of the commercial music model at the hands of the internet age. No one is making a living in music these days unless they are providing something real-- like the ability to actually perform live music, a gifting to truly minister in a local church, a heart to genuinely care for people. For all intents and purposes, selling "product" is dead. CDs don't sell, and only 1 in 20 downloads of music are legal. Illegal stealing of music (Christians included) has destroyed the music industry. What remains are simply people and God's gifts on them. If that is not a return to reality I don't know what is.
Should we teach young leaders to not fixate and seek a musical career of "glory" at the expense of a contrite devotional heart? Obviously we should teach them. But to judge "modern worship" as corrupt is as short sighted as the praise and worship naysayers 30 years ago because it lays on the heads of every Christian, musician and worshiper a judgement that really only applies to a very, very small minority of hurting people who are looking inappropriately to follow a misguided sense of ministry by relying on a worship industry to make them famous as they "serve God".
Is there a place for talented young musicians, writers and leaders? Yes there is! Because while there are a tiny number of "jobs" in the Christian music industry, there are literally tens of thousands of jobs for good musicians, leaders and songwriters. "Where?", you ask. We call them music ministers, worship leaders and choir directors. They are needed and employable in a place called the local church. Should their gifting and exceptional songwriting prove encouraging to their local church, other churches may benefit from it. Should other churches be built up by it and tell others, then eventually that gifting may open up invitation and opportunity for that person to minister in an ever widening scope of local churches. At some point that gifting will carry that person into an industry where they may, for a time, bless an entire nation through God's blessing on their lives in music. Do we look down on the ones who come and go through an "industry" because it suits our need to criticize? Or do we disdain them because it wasn't us? Are there some that have tainted motives? Do we have tainted motives? I think we all know that there will always be something of a mixture in anything we seek to do that is virtuous. But as we surrender to God, He is faithful and just to work on our hearts in it all.
And while we will do well to surrender our hearts to his cleansing, purifying work of the Holy Spirit, why don't we also trust that He will do His work in the hearts of those others we are concerned about, who happen to be the current artists, worship leaders and songwriters of "modern worship"?
Perhaps the challenge is all of ours then, to be open hearts instead of pointing fingers.

Used with permission from Kim Anthony Gentes, a worship leader, songwriter, recording artist and freelance writer (C)Copyright 2009 Kim Anthony Gentes, Website: www.kimgentes.com.

Sincerely,
Morris.