Comments on: The Art of Worship Part 2 http://wonvoice.com.au/uncategorised/the-art-of-worship-part-2 Blog your life away on music, controversy, theology, food, the arts, coffee, etc Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:20:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6-beta1 By: Mikey Fan http://wonvoice.com.au/uncategorised/the-art-of-worship-part-2#comment-162 Mikey Fan Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:43:28 +0000 http://wonvoice.com.au/links/the-art-of-worship-part-2#comment-162 Yeah, I have to agree with you Sweetums. To me worship is about making a choice to freely sacrifice something of yourself. If I am disengaged and it costs me nothing to give God my offering of worship, then I don't know if it is acceptable. I'm not suggesting that worship is only valid when we are at hurting or not enjoying it, but I am saying (as Sweetums pointed out) as far as standards go, it should not remain stagnant. It should be new every day, and usually a new thing requires effort in order for it to be produced. God wants us to pursue Him relentlessly in life and in worship, like the parable of the woman and the lost coin. And besides, it always benefits us when we give something to God! As far as being contemporary and relevant, I think this has less to do with validity and more to do with the "style" issue that we discussed in Part 1. Worship teams do need to provide platforms that their particular church or community can relate to in order to engage in corporate worship, whether that is contemporary or not. Criticising worship because of it's style or genre is not necessary, unless it goes against Scripture somehow. It think contemporary styles have a lot more to do with relevance concerning outreach than validity of worship within church walls. And we should also remember not to put all the emphasis on our half an hour a week worship at church anyway! It is a small percentage of a life lived in worship. But I'm not about to open up that can... ;) Yeah, I have to agree with you Sweetums. To me worship is about making a choice to freely sacrifice something of yourself. If I am disengaged and it costs me nothing to give God my offering of worship, then I don’t know if it is acceptable. I’m not suggesting that worship is only valid when we are at hurting or not enjoying it, but I am saying (as Sweetums pointed out) as far as standards go, it should not remain stagnant. It should be new every day, and usually a new thing requires effort in order for it to be produced. God wants us to pursue Him relentlessly in life and in worship, like the parable of the woman and the lost coin. And besides, it always benefits us when we give something to God!

As far as being contemporary and relevant, I think this has less to do with validity and more to do with the “style” issue that we discussed in Part 1. Worship teams do need to provide platforms that their particular church or community can relate to in order to engage in corporate worship, whether that is contemporary or not. Criticising worship because of it’s style or genre is not necessary, unless it goes against Scripture somehow. It think contemporary styles have a lot more to do with relevance concerning outreach than validity of worship within church walls.

And we should also remember not to put all the emphasis on our half an hour a week worship at church anyway! It is a small percentage of a life lived in worship. But I’m not about to open up that can… ;)

]]> By: Sweetums http://wonvoice.com.au/uncategorised/the-art-of-worship-part-2#comment-161 Sweetums Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:29:23 +0000 http://wonvoice.com.au/links/the-art-of-worship-part-2#comment-161 Of course anyone could argue that if the heart is in it then worship is going to be good. But is that enough? I don't want to go to a church service where near enough is good enough beacause "God will show up anyway." Yes he will but is that the point? Or is it about how you approach it. Giving it your all and then seeing what the outcome is. You have to go to bed the night of leading worship leaving it all at the altar. I like that I am exhausted at the end of leading worship cos it shows that I have given every last part of me over to the experience. The bar should not be set high, it should not even be set. It's about the level you have put into it and the willingness to extend yourself. If giving your all means you only have a tone deaf leader and one out of tune guitar, then so be it, but don't settle, ever. If you have a great worship team of 20 that play really well but they're only giving 20% of themselves then don't settle, ever. We should be growing every day in our worship and trying at least to give God our best for today but improve that tomorrow. Of course anyone could argue that if the heart is in it then worship is going to be good. But is that enough? I don’t want to go to a church service where near enough is good enough beacause “God will show up anyway.” Yes he will but is that the point? Or is it about how you approach it. Giving it your all and then seeing what the outcome is. You have to go to bed the night of leading worship leaving it all at the altar. I like that I am exhausted at the end of leading worship cos it shows that I have given every last part of me over to the experience.

The bar should not be set high, it should not even be set. It’s about the level you have put into it and the willingness to extend yourself. If giving your all means you only have a tone deaf leader and one out of tune guitar, then so be it, but don’t settle, ever. If you have a great worship team of 20 that play really well but they’re only giving 20% of themselves then don’t settle, ever. We should be growing every day in our worship and trying at least to give God our best for today but improve that tomorrow.

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