Compelling Love

1st John 4:10 says, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
If you lead worship often, you'll notice that some congregations have a hard time getting into the worship. We watch videos of Hillsong, Elevation, Vertical Church, and so many other bands and we see everyone in the crowd raising their hands and screaming to the music. So this begs the question, "What makes this congregation than mine?" We first say that they are a younger congregation, so we pursue connecting with the younger generation. Then we see the music and lights and visuals and try to mimic their every move. We are trying so hard to do everything we can to create an environment that is worth hundreds of thousands of views on youtube.
The desire to see a congregation worship is one to be had by each and every worship pastor (even though the intentions may not be the best, Paul says that for someone to do ministry apart from intentions is still gain for the Kingdom Philippians 1:16-18). So I think the question that needs to be asked is, "What can I do to help my congregation worship more?" I hope to dedicate a whole blog post to the power of prayer and its importance in church leadership, but for now I will say if this is truly the desire of the worship pastor, the best thing he can do is pray for their hearts to be compelled by the love of Christ.
A personal pet-peeve of mine is when people would come to Liberty University and tell us that they use their platform to share the Gospel, but we never hear anything apart from their story. Their story is not the Gospel but what the Gospel is doing in their lives. The Gospel is the relational and redemptive story of God creating us to abide in Him and to have communion with Him. When we fell away, He had a plan to bring us back into fellowship with Him, which is why He sent His Son to die on a cross for the forgiveness of sins. Now, we have complete access to the throne of God to have communion with Him with the hope of having perfect fellowship with Him when He comes to get us. Amen!
So now that we have defined the Gospel within a paragraph (as a world map defines the city of New York), we can say that God's love for us is pretty intense. By no means is His love for us greater than His love for His own glory, but the abounding love He shows us is incomparable. Our prayer for our congregation is for the love of God to become real to them and even more so to ourselves.
The Holy Spirit's convincing of the love of God in our hearts is like pulling back the string of a bow to let the arrow fly straight into the target. We can't expect an arrow to go very far if the string that it is attached to isn't pulled back. How can we expect a congregation to engage in worship with their whole hearts if they don't first know that God loves them and that His love for them is greater than anything else they know?
When I say that they understand the love of God, I am not talking about their salvation, for I know that many know that God loves them but my fear is that some don't really know how much. The love of God stretches from creation (birth) to the cross (salvation) to grace and strength (sanctification).
We just sang 10,000 Reasons this morning in church. This song means nothing if there is someone in the congregation that doesn't have a reason to glorify the Lord. The purpose of the song is to think of all the things that God has loved us, through forgiveness and grace and His slowness to wrath. This song can get so old after a while because we lose sight of the way that God has loved us and the things He has done for us.
Therefore, my theory is that if the love of God is truly contemplated in a congregation's heart, through the work of the Spirit, then it will be truly compelling. This is not to say that the heart of the worship pastor is to see people physically engaged but spiritually transformed by worship. It never gets old to say that I'd rather see one heart transformed then everyones' hands in the air.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky - The Love of God by Frederick M. Lehmman
Lets pray that our congregations would be compelled by the love of God - Forsake All

Gear Shmear

Psalm 51:15-17 says, "O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth my declare Your praise. For you do delight in sacrifice, otherwise, I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."
When it comes to modern day technology, I am the first person to look at it awe, especially when it comes to music, and even more so when it's all mine! I can't tell you how many people, who didn't care at all, I told about my new DD-7 from Boss. I got it to play at a gig in which I thought it was necessary (What a debatable term nowadays). Of course I didn't need it, but I had the resources and thought it would be helpful.
When the National Worship Leader magazine comes out, I love flipping through it to see what people are saying about worship and how we can do it genuinely. However, one of my favorite parts is going to the end where all the gear is and dreaming about how cool it would be to be able to have the money to buy all of it. Think about it, if your church was supported by twenty or so millionaires who gave so much money to your church that every window was actually a flatscreen that "podcasted" the pastor's messages from past weeks. If you had all the money the world in the world and were able to purchase all of the top of the line sound, visual, and music equipment, what would you gain?
I think this is a fair questions, even if there is no such thing as windows that act as flatscreens (or at least not that I know of!). There are so many musicians and churches that are doing their best to stay up to date with all of the technology, but for what purpose?
I believe that buying gear and staying relevant isn't bad at all, unless we forget about why we are worshiping. I saw an ad in the magazine I was talking about earlier and it was advertising a gear company with this slogan, "Those who take worship seriously are serious about the gear they use. At (Company Name Here), we believe GOD DESERVES ONLY OUR BEST."
Immediately every fleshly desire to judge and condemn came to my mind, and for that I repent. I think this is my thinking too often as well. Being eighteen with the attention span of five seconds, I know that unless I am culturally relevant with my gear, I cannot connect, but it's only because I have the desire to connect with people so that they can give God what He really wants.
Sure, God wants our excellence and by all means, we give Him everything we have. However, what does God say He really wants? Our broken spirits and broken and contrite hearts. Out of all the things we can give God, I believe that first and foremost should be our hearts crying out, "God, I have no where else to turn and I need You to revive me."
So sure, gear can help us get to the point of connection with our congregation so that this is the response.
My greatest fear is the worship pastor of a small church or church plant seeing this ad and becoming discouraged. No matter how big or small your church is, there needs to be a time that you can take your congregation into a time of worship without the lights, sound effects, clique (yes clique), and anything else besides the essentials. Sure, get on stage with a guitar or piano and microphone. But the words on the screen for the extra measure. But beyond this, do nothing beyond walking your congregation through the Biblical idea of worship. Let them know that worship can be done without everything else, and even more so, ninety-five percent of worship happens outside of the church.
Teach and instruct them how to worship without excess. - Forsake All

Longing For Biblical Worship

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."
My name is Robert "Rob" Wegner and I am a Worship Pastor in the making.
I am studying Worship and Music Arts at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA and I feel called to pastor in some capacity. God has given me so many valuable experiences that I have time to think through about worship and my philosophy behind it.
I may or may not write changeling things, but when I do, know that my heart is always for the church and it's probably because I am wrestling with the very things I know aren't right. My goal is not to bash the church but to help equip those who desire to be in leadership in the church when it comes to Worship Ministry. My heart is for those in youth groups serving in a musical role, because that is the perfect time to teach, but I do see that lacking in the church. So let revival start with me.
With that said, I think Biblical worship starts with the greatest commandment. Love God. This is why we were created and this is what we, the church, will be doing for the rest of everlasting. A pretty universally accepted definition of love is, "an intense feeling of deep affection." Worship can be defined as, "showing reverence and adoration to a deity." The difference in Christian worship and the worship going on in other religions is that we love Who we worship because He first loved us!
In John 14:15 Jesus says, "If you love me, you will obey My commandments." In 1st Samuel 15:22b Samuel tells Saul, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice."
If all this falls in place (and let me know if you have any views otherwise, please!) then the best way we can worship is by loving God through obedience. So worship leaders, young and old; the best way you can lead worship is by worshiping on and off the platform. That way, you don't have to change personalities to lead the people in your congregation in musical prayers, but when the people see you walk up the steps or come from behind the curtain to sing along with you, they know that you are a journey of sanctification and they have every desire to jump on board with you.
So walk with me, as I do my best to be real and personal on this journey to worship as we intended to do. - Forsake All