Thinking in Thirds

1There are few responsibilities that a worship leader should take more seriously than choosing songs for his or her congregation to sing. In the words of the theologian Gordon Fee, “show me a church’s songs and I’ll show you their theology”. With centuries of older songs, and an ever-increasing library of new songs from which we can choose, how is a worship leader supposed to prioritize what to put on their congregations’ lips?

I have found it helpful to think in thirds. Visualize each of these thirds as a slice of one whole pie. The size of each slice will change depending on your own context, culture, and even particular service and/or venue. But a healthy repertoire, with the goal of shaping your congregation’s sung theology in a balanced way, will typically draw from these three thirds.

The ancient
Every church should have a list of at least (!) 20-30 ancient hymns that their church can sing. Why? Because we don’t want to fall into what C.S. Lewis describes as “chronological snobbery”, a trap which ensnares far too many worship leaders, causing us to think that newer is better, and older is worse. We have centuries of well-written and robustly-scriptural hymns that we would be fools to ignore. Do them as written, do them with a rock band, do them with new choruses, or do them with organ and timpani. But do them.

The proven
It’s been about 50 years since the worship renewal movement hit, thus spawning hundreds of thousands of new songs. It’s been long enough now for us to know which ones are worth keeping and which ones are not. It wouldn’t be a good idea to be “stuck” in the 80s or 90s, but it would be an equally bad idea to pretend they didn’t happen either. Sure, most of them have lost their new-car smell by now, and might make the chronologically-snobbish among us tempted to turn up our noses, but some of them deserve an occasional place in our repertoires, if for no other reason than to simply honor those people in our congregations for whom those songs are actually quite helpful.

The modern
So we have the ancient hymns, the proven and tested songs of previous decades, and the new songs being written by the Church today. By focusing first on the biblical faithfulness of the lyrics, second on the congregational accessibility of the music, and third on the particular and pastoral usefulness in your own context, you can filter out a substantial amount of new music. Then, you add to your church’s repertoire new and fresh songs that help your congregation (in the words of John Piper) “see and savor Jesus Christ”. Some of these songs will last for decades, and join the slice of the pie I call “the proven”. Who knows, maybe in 100 years they’ll be classified as “the ancient” by your grandkids. Or maybe they’ll fall away in a few years’ time. And that’s OK.

The goal for all worship leaders should be to maintain a repertoire of songs that serves the congregation whom God has called them to serve. In my setting at Truro Anglican Church in Fairfax, Virginia, that means I keep these three slices pretty even with one another (with the second slice, “the recent”, being the smallest, and the two other slices “the ancient” and “the modern” being bigger).

None of our respective “pies” will look exactly the same.

But, as worship leaders, if we’re thinking discerningly, and choosing songs wisely, then hopefully the songs that we’re choosing will help our congregations have a sung theology that has sufficient enough roots that it’s also able to branch out.

How God Uses Criticism and Encouragement For Your Good (And His Glory Too)

1Several years ago, in the middle of a Sunday morning service (actually in the middle of a song I was leading), I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. When the song finished, I was taken aback by an angry text message, written by someone who happened to be in the service at that time, and was clearly not happy with the music. This person also somehow happened to have my phone number, and felt compelled to share their displeasure with me. To say that this caught me off guard would be an understatement.

After the service, I was walking down to my office, when someone stopped me to offer effusive, specific, and heartfelt thanks for the music that morning. This was more than a “thanks for the music this morning” word of appreciation. This was genuine (and meaningful!) encouragement from someone who had been deeply affected by the music and wanted to thank the person who had planned and led it. To say that this was good timing by this individual would be another huge understatement.

Unfortunately, the person who had sent the angry text message didn’t let their displeasure end there. The following week brought a meeting with this person, complete with personal attacks, and piercing words. I’m grateful for the friendship of Godly men and counselors who helped me process that meeting afterwards, so I could look at it objectively and with mercy in my heart toward the person who was so unhappy.

I’m also grateful that God, in his providence and because of what he knew was about to hit me in those meetings, had put an encourager in my path on my way to my office after the now-infamous service. The encourager had absolutely no way of knowing what had come through on my phone just 30-minutes earlier. And they had no way of knowing what was going to come later in the week. They didn’t know how strategically God was using them to preempt what could have been a more devastating experience of destructive criticism.

 

What is God up to when he allows us to be criticized – and sometimes criticized harshly?

He’s pointing us to his Son, who was  “…despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3 ESV). Because of this, God is actually making criticism lose its power, and maybe even its sting. We have nothing to complain about, and we have nothing to fear. Jesus knows what criticism feels like, and he literally didn’t deserve a single bit of it. So whether or we feel like we deserve the criticism we inevitably receive, God uses it to humble us and point us yet again to Jesus.

What is God up to when he sends encouragement our way?

Again, he’s pointing us to his Son, who was, and is, infinitely worthy of nothing else besides “…blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might”. (Revelation 7:12 ESV). Because of this, when we’re encouraged, we can receive it as a gift from God himself, and return and deflect the praise to him. God uses encouragement for a number of reasons in our lives, but ultimately and most importantly, it’s an opportunity for us to “turn (it) back to praise” Jesus, who is literally the only one who deserves it.

So, worship leaders, as you do what God’s called you to do, and receive the eventual and dreaded criticism (maybe even a text in the middle of a song!), and the eventual and appreciated encouragement, you can look to Jesus in either case, and find your identity and purpose in him.

 

A Conversation About Worship

This morning I had the joy of spending an hour talking and answering questions about worship leading/philosophy/songs/service planning, and many other things on the “Mid-Morning” program on WBCL, a Christian radio station based in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Lynne Ford had read my article “Responding to the Increasingly Short Shelf-Life of Worship Songs” and asked me to share some of my thoughts on the current landscape of worship music, and how worship leaders and people in the pews might approach worship from a biblical standpoint.

We covered a whole lot of ground, and you might enjoy listening in.

Kyrie Eleison

I wanted to share a simple song I wrote for the season of Lent (or anytime, really) that serves as a song of confession and prayer to God. The chord chart, lead sheet, and video are at the bottom of this post.

The chorus (with the women singing the echo) is:

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)
Christe Eleison (Christ have mercy)
Kyrie Eleison
Lord have mercy

And the verses, loosely based off of some of the verses from Psalm 51 are:

Have mercy on me
For I am a sinner
In need of a Savior
Have mercy on me, O God
According to Your steadfast love

Cleanse me from my sin
For I know my failures
And my sinful nature
Cleanse me from my sin, O God
And I will sing your endless praise

Jamie Brown. (c) 2016 Worthily Magnify Music. All rights reserved.

Here’s the chord chart.

Here’s the lead sheet.

And here’s the video:

 

Becoming Like What We Behold

FullSizeRender 5My daughters are starting to pick up more and more of my mannerisms.

This is terrifying.

Last week, my oldest (Megan) accidentally spilled an entire glass of water all over one of her sister’s dinner plates. I was in the living room, but could hear the tell-tale sound of a drink spilling everywhere. And from the kitchen, coming out of Emma’s mouth (the one whose dinner had just been ruined), I hear *my* voice exclaiming:

“Seriously, Megan?!?! Seriously?!?!”

That’s totally me. That’s what I say. “Seriously?” is (apparently) one of my favorite retorts.

We become like what we behold. 

When Catherine was pregnant with our youngest daughter, she reached the point in pregnancy when it was not so easy to stand up, or bend over, or pick things up, or really do much of anything without a good deal of effort. And so, like many very-pregnant women, she would let out a groan.

And we began to notice our little girls, then four and two-years-old, mimicking their mother’s groans. It was hilarious. And terrifying.

We pick up the mannerisms of people we study and admire. Children are constantly watching, listening, and beholding their parents, and so it’s natural that they begin to become like what (or whom) they’re beholding.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that:

…we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The Spirit opens our blinded eyes to see the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). He lifts the veil off our hearts, so that we can behold “the glory of Lord”. But why? So we can be transformed into his image.

Behold yourself? Become more like yourself. Behold the world? Become more like the word. Behold Jesus? Become more like Jesus.

When we behold Jesus, we’ll pick up more and more of his mannerisms.

Worship leaders: never tire or move beyond helping your congregation behold the glory of Jesus Christ, through the freedom-giving power of the Spirit. Jesus is not one of many things we should pointing to through our songs. He is the main thing. He is the central theme. And he is the image of God.

We become like what we behold. Behold Jesus!