Excerpted from Worshipping God (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004).
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. —Psalm 29:2, KJV
Worship that is pleasing to God has several characteristics, the first of which is insight: the awareness of God that precipitates and inspires the worship. Next there is integrity: the ability of the worshiper to come before God in truth, with his whole being and nothing held back. Then there is indebtedness: the sense of our debt to God. Fourth, there is a sense of inadequacy: our inability to express the depth of our feelings toward God. Charles Wesley could only say:
O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise. —Charles Wesley, "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," public domain
This quality of worship is possible only through the Holy Spirit. You cannot worship beyond the level of your insight. And you get that insight by the Holy Spirit. A feeling of indebtedness is proof that you realize that your insight is from God. A sense of inadequacy will also determine the quantity, or length of time, of your worship. You feel you must keep on trying to express your love and need of God. And this will continue throughout eternity. For we will always be unable to express our debt to God because we are in heaven and not hell.
True worship exposes our imperfection. It matters to God that we should see how imperfect we are. One of the most painful, as well as, usually, one of the last things we discover about ourselves is that we are self-righteous.
Our greatest joy and pleasure is to be found in God alone. So much of what is pleasurable in this life has to be shared with somebody else in order to be fully enjoyed. Even if we had tea with the queen, much of the joy would be in sharing what we had experienced. But the joy of being in the presence of God alone is the greatest joy there is, and it does not need to be shared.
Excerpted from Worshipping God (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004).
Fall 2009 Teaching
You Move Me The Importance of Movement in Worship by John Paul Jackson Several years ago, I was a very faithful, very devout church choir member. I made absolute certain that I never did anything wrong because I wanted to be spiritual. It was my goal in life not to mess up, not to do anything that would obscure my spiritual appearance. But then, one Sunday, I found myself tapping my toe inside my shoe. Egad! In that moment, I was so thankful it was in my shoe and no one could see it. I just knew that if I had dared tap my foot, my fingers or anything else, every other choir member would have looked at me, sniffed and barred me from singing with them. Some churches have choirs with great movement, but I never saw one of those until I was 30 years old — we were frozen worshippers! The Importance of Movement in Worship You see, worship encompasses all styles of communication: vocal expressions, physical expressions, bodily expressions. It is the movement of everything within us. It is our personal expression to God, because each of us has a different button that drives us. This motion has been in us since we were in our mother’s womb. She knew when we were in distress because of our movement. She knew when we were stretching. She knew when we were excited. She could tell when we were happy; she could tell when we were not. She knew when there was trouble. She knew when there was health. Our movements told her. So saying, from the very beginning, before we could even talk, this desire was put within us: “I will move to communicate.” We learned to communicate through movement first; even as adults, we communicate through movement. We raise our eyebrows when we are surprised. Our jaw protrudes just a little when we are upset. Our arms cross when we are closed to another person or opinion, and we lean forward when we are interested in what we are hearing. Freedom in Movement Freedom is found in movement. Movement connects us to our bodies and our emotions, and so, when we worship, our bodies begin to resonate with God’s purpose within us. The outgrowth of that resonation, inspired by movement, is that we are able to connect with Christ at levels that nothing — nothing — else can fulfill. And so, this month, as we slowly move out of winter and into spring, may the same happen to our hearts. May we be moved out of winter and into spring! And may we find ourselves moving and having our being in the only One worthy of our souls. Be free, at last.
Used with permission fromJohn Paul Jackson
Summer 2009 Teaching
Praising God By Jim DeLong
God created us to know him, to love him and to serve him. One of the ways we do that is through praise. God wants our praise. His desire is that we seek him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. Eph. 1:5-6. In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ. Eph. 1:11-12. He so desires our praise that He is willing to accept it in any form: By speaking praise;
Through him (then) let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Heb. 13:15.
By clapping and shouting;
All you peoples, clap your hands; shout to God with joyful cries. Psalms 47:2.
With dancing and playing instruments; Give praise with tambourines and dance, praise him with flutes and strings. Psalms 150:4. And singing praise songs; Sing hymns to the LORD enthroned on Zion; proclaim God's deeds among the nations! Psalms 9:12. To each other and to ourselves; But be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another (in) psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts. Eph. 5:18-19. And crying out to God;
Let the faithful rejoice in their glory, cry out for joy at their banquet, with the praise of God in their mouths. Psalms 149:5-6
Making a joyful noise;
Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth; break into song; sing praise. Psalm 98:4
By lifting our hands;
Lift up your hands toward the sanctuary, and bless the LORD. Psalm 134:2
Or bowing down; Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us.Psalm 95:6. By being loud;
The whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. Luke 19:37
Sing to God a new song; skillfully play with joyful chant. Psalm 33:3.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation. Psalm 95:1.
Or by being still; Tremble and do not sin; upon your beds ponder in silence. Offer fitting sacrifice and trust in the LORD. Psalm 4:5-6
Be still and confess that I am God! Psalm 46:11.
As worship leaders, we have to make sure we don’t try to impose our form of worship on others as the only valid form of praise. Some meet God in the silence of the wind and some meet God in a thunderstorm. I have a friend who gets so lost in worship, he fades off into the Spirit and the rest of the group just keeps singing until he comes back. Another worship leader I know is sometimes overcome with weeping as she sings. How powerful that is! As leaders we cannot forget the people in the back row. As they pray silently, absorbed in their silence God can and will reach back there and find them. Why do I know this? Because He did it for me. Jim DeLong is a worship leader, writer and speaker living on the southern Oregon Coast. He and his wife Ann are members of the Created to Worship Ministry Team.
Spring 2009 Teaching
PRAISE and WORSHIP
by LeRoy Tomes
People have asked me several times over the years, “how can we teach our praise & prayer group’s music ministry, or the music ministry in our church, to do what you and the Created to Worship team are doing?” It isn’t easy to learn or to teach, because we as people playing instruments or singing find it hard not to perform.We are so focused on perfection or where to start the song, what the introduction will be, and the other logistics of the song that we forget that true praise and worship is just that, worship. You can’t properly worship our Lord, yet alone lead others into worship, if our main focus is not on Him. One of the the most important things we can do as a Praise and Worship Team is: Mean what you sing and sing what you mean. We want to make those at the praise and prayer group or in the congregation experience the Holy Spirit, to feel His presence and touch. The biggest hindrance to a parishioner or to visitors in our church is not that they encounter something they don't immediately understand, or that they feel uncomfortable with like clapping, raising of hands or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it’s encountering something that is not genuine. I once read that Mahatma Ghandi, after several years of studying in London, said he would have become a Christian if he had ever met one. Whatever version of Christianity he saw, he didn't see the real thing. Another study concluded that 55% of all communication is nonverbal. The parishioner or the visitor who comes to our prayer group or church is not just listening to what we sing or say. Consciously or unconsciously, they are observing how we sing, how we move, how connected we really are with Jesus. They are looking for emotional and intellectual honesty, depth of conviction, and heartfelt compassion. The songs we pick out to sing and how we worship when we sing or more importantly pray them reflects these things more than we know. True praise and worship songs are prayers and should be sung that way. The discipline for worship leaders, praise and worship teams to learn is tomean what you sing and sing what you mean (give the prayer and the Lord your ALL). This will affect not only what you sing, but how you sing it.Worship leaders need to constantly remind themselves to try to choose songs that are appropriate to the group's experience level, and that there's no place for performance or for meaningless expression in true Praise and Worship.There are a lot of great Christian songs on the top charts, but most are more performance driven and don't make good praise and worship songs that will touch those in the congregation. Also, we want to encourage those in the congregation to sing (praise and worship) with us. Many of the CCLI and OCP songs are too complex and difficult. We and those in the congregation are so focused on trying to sing the song; we get frustrated and lose our focus on the Holy Spirit due to the complexity of the piece. We need to learn the songs so well that they are literally part of us. Then when we sing or lead, the songs will effortlessly spring out of our hearts as prayers touching those present, so the Holy Spirit will be able to tear at their hearts. Also, brief introductions to songs and explanations along the way will help the people know that you want them to join in and worship (sing) with you. You are like a cheerleader for the Lord, encouraging those in the congregation to sing out and when to sing out. What can you do to help your music ministers understand and grow spiritually to be able to understand this? Pray for them that the Holy Spirit will open their minds and hearts.I feel the best way is to have them attend a Life in the Spirit or Holy Spirit Seminar, Growth in the Spirit Seminars, and attend Praise and Worship Retreats and Workshops. Encourage them to attend a Praise and Prayer group and to become a member of the prayer group’s music ministry. I hope this teaching will help you understand how the songs our Created to Worship group does, and how we sing them, makes us very different than most Catholic music groups. We need to pray before we pick out our music. We need to pray before we sing the songs; we need to pray when we are singing the songs.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
LeRoy Tomes is Worship Leader and President of the Board of Directors ofCreated to Worship
Winter 2009 Teaching
Praise and Worship by Jackie Morgan Praise and Worship is a means of adoring God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble oneself, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and holy is His name. True praise and worship should takeyou from singing to being anointed by the grace of the Holy Spirit in a way that fills you with his peace, his love -and his joy. I belong to the NSC (National Service Committee) Council and several years ago we met before a conference and there was a rather aggressiveagenda we had to get through that evening. We began with singing and praising God and thinking that it wouldlast about 20 minutes or so. Twenty minutes came and went and nobody noticed. We had gone from singing and praising to praising and worshiping. An anointing came over that room that I cannot describe. Everyone was healed in some way. The hand of God touched everyone there. Seventy-five minutes later we adjourned the meeting and never got to the agenda. When we truly worship God through praise, something happens. Time stands still and the gifts of the Spirit become operative.Certainly leading music is a gift that God gives to his people. But it needs to be nurtured and developed to be really effective. There are many different ways to bring singing and praising into an anointed time, a time of worship, a time of healing and prophecy. Jackie Morgan, a member of the NSC Council, lives in Corbett, Oregon. She is also on the Western Oregon Catholic Charismatic Renewal Team with Fr. Peter Smith, the Liaison to the Archbishop of Portland.
Thank You for your prayers and financial support of Created to Worship Ministries!