Long time no blog...
Alright, obviously I am not getting to the worship/music thingy. Perhaps some other time. So, I will keep on blogging now, instead of putting it off because I haven't done anything pertaining to my previous post.
Not too much to say right now. I am enjoying winter quarter, but can't wait for break. I wish I had something thought provoking to bring to the table, but I don't right now.
Oh, I saw Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God"....it was beautiful
Well...Joel Guto said that it was time for a new blog...so, I guess that means I have to write one. I'll be keeping it short and sweet. Take this as an introduction to the next few blogs I write.
I was challenged today by another worship pastor to write out my Theology/Philosophy of Worship. That way, I will have forced myself to think through these things in a coherent-ish manner and also I will have it written down and ready to present at any given time. This is especially important to do, I believe, because of the increasing amount of "Worship Wars" we have in churches...particularly mine right now. I need to have my thoughts all in order and a way to express them in order to communicate with the leaders of the church and with the members as well. Thinking through all of this and writing it down will help me articulate why I do things the way I do and will prepare me to give answers when asked questions concerning this, that, or the other.
Anyways, over the next lil' while, I am going to be writing all this up. I'll bring it here to the blog and y'all can comment, critique, and help my doing this.
We don't talk about spiritual warfare in the church anymore. Why not? If I look back in my personal church past, spiritual warfare has never been a hot topic. Sometimes it has even been viewed as more of a "charismatic" topic...Baptists and the like have always tended to shy away from the more "mystical" side of God and religion I suppose.
Anyways, I have been pondering this thing called spiritual warfare, and I wonder, how often are we affected by it? Probably a lot more often than we think. Paul tells us, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens." (Eph. 6:12 NET). It is easy to believe that our fight is the one right in front of us, the one screaming at us in the face, but according to Paul, it is a spiritual battle against spiritual forces. And if it is a battle we are to be fighting, we can be sure that the enemy is fighting back. How often to we put thought to that though? Do we make sure to readily prepare ourselves for a spiritual battle day after day? Most of the time...no. Why don't we? Paul has warned us about it, we can see the effects of it in the world if we pay attention.
Unfortunately, the church has not done a good job in shedding light on this battle. We are more concerned with who we're going to elect, or how many more bombs we are going to set off in the Middle East, or even the current church gossip. Not that these things don't have their place to be considered (well...maybe except the gossip) but we need to realize that these are either symptoms of the larger problem...or problems that we put in place of the larger problem in order to ignore it.
Take, for example, my last blog entry. The situation in its entirety has been on my mind nonstop since it first really started to come up. How much of the problem is the result of spiritual warfare? Probably all of it. How about this, though, since we need to consider ourselves...Am I allowing myself to give into the enemy, become a victim of a spiritual battle because I have been focusing on the earthly one, and lose my focus on what is important? Do I blow things out of proportion? Am I allowing myself to be overly pessimistic? It's all very probable. And that is why it is so important that we prepare ourselves and let God transform us by the renewing of our minds. Straight after that verse in Ephesians, Paul urges us to put on the full armor of God so that we may stand our ground and resist the evil one.
It is unfortunate that we do not talk about this more in our churches...it is unfortunate that we are not helping our brothers and sisters put on the armor of God. We count so many other things more important than the battle that is going on over our heads.
Is it a problem if I am beginning to drop more and more "F bombs" under my breath at church? Probably so...
I've been leading worship at my church for almost two years now, and I have really enjoyed the most of it. I love music and I can't imagine doing anything outside of the church (aside from teaching Theology...same boat). The people are nice and the band is great to work with. To top it off, I love my pastor. He is an amazing man who is not afraid to work towards the vision that God has given him.
So, what's the problem? My church is a dying church...a small, dying church. It's not a secret...we've known for quite awhile. Actually, the whole reason we have Andy as our pastor now is because the congregation wanted a complete restart, that is, a fresh beginning. Good idea, right? Let's start from scratch and try to do this effectively. The concept is good...the practicality...not so much. If you have been in a small church, you know what I am talking about....and I am talking REAL small. 35 people on our best days.
In a small church, especially one where most of the people have been there for a very long time or even helped start the church, it is hard to get anything done. Everyone thinks that he should call the shots in one or more decisions. That said, the church and the Elders were agreed that Andy should go where God directs and do what God leads him to do. For the first while it was ok...mostly because we didn't do much out of the ordinary. But it seems to me now, as Andy and myself are doing what needs to be done, we meet nothing but opposition from the majority of the congregation, including the Elders. Furthermore, people just feel like they can do whatever they want with the church building without first consulting the pastor!!! It aggrivates me.
For example, Andy and I worked to change the look of the foyer and sanctuary a little bit. We did this because the church all agreed that if it does have a future, it is in a younger generation. So, Andy and I (along with a few of the other college age peeps..well...really just Laura, Andy, and myself) took down some old, cheesy paintings...took down a terribly placed boy scout plaque...painted some walls...put up some artistic photos and called it good. The idea was to create an enviroment that was...well...a bit more inviting...since the old enviroment was...old. Also, we were getting prepared for a new service that is more geared for college age and young marrieds and such. So, what happens this Sunday? One of the photos is put away...the boy scout plaque in its place...also, some ladies in the church just decided to nail up some painting of Budapest in the sanctuary(some missionaries sent it). I look at the pastor and I'm just like..."really?" He had no idea that they were going to do any of that.
Now, this is just one example that partially shows the attitude of the church. They hired Andy, told him to go at it...they wanted the church to grow and flourish, yet when it comes down to it, they want to do the same thing that they have been doing for the past several years! This is where my title fits in. If you don't understand it, it's because you don't play World of Warcraft. In WoW, there are things called battlegrounds (bg's). One of these bg's is called Warsong Gulch (WSG). Now, in a bg, the Horde and the Alliance battle against each other until one team completes the goal(s) and ends the battle. In WSG, a team must capture the other team's flag 3 times. How is my church like the Horde at WSG? Simple, the Horde always loses because the players don't come together as a team...they have no strategy...they don't listen to the Battleground Leader. They just do what they always do because it's easy or they think it's right. Basically, whenever you play a round as the Horde at WSG, you realize that everybody keeps doing the same thing expecting a different result. Thus...my church. People who don't follow the leader that they appointed and keep doing things their way expecting different results even though it hasn't worked the past many years.
It's just been more difficult recently, and I needed to rant. Most recently, people have said that they want us to sing hymns. Truth is, we do sing hymns...I have 10-12 hymns that I put in sets pretty regularly...I spice them up a bit, make them more interesting musically, but they are hymns, nevertheless. So, I am being pressured to add more, which isn't exactly the easiest thing to do when I don't have office hours and go to school and will have to go through the hymns and change some of the progessions and/or melodies. Thus, the Elders say we need to do more traditional style music. Forgive me if I am mislead, but the church agreed that we needed to be more contemporary and willing to reach out to the younger generation about a year ago. Furthermore, I guess I just didn't realize how many people we had at the church who are musicians or worship leaders. What really aggravates me, though, is that this all seems to have come up because of an older couple who has been visiting our church because they left their last church and doesn't like the way we do music. Why....why....why why why why do we care what they think? They are not even members...more so, they are not the target group....and finally, I am more interested in what non-believers think than Christians who are just church-transferees!
Alas, I digress...I thank anyone who has read this far and put up with me...I just needed to let out some steam. Please pray for the church and that God will lead us where He desires us to go. Please pray for me that I will be receptive to what God has to say and not just assume I know what it is, lol.
Hey all, this is my new blog. Haven't finished the formatting and all for it yet, but yah...all in good time. Come back and take a moment to read once I post an actual blog!
