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April 29, 2008
Mavuno Worsip Team
I was really impressed with this music. It shows some serious sophistication that is often absent in African Gospel Music. Mavuno is a church plant from Nairobi Chapel. (At NCF, we sing a Nairobi Chapel song, "Kwake Yesu Nasimama").
This clip shows a serious band that has absorbed the sounds and skill of contemporary American Gospel praise music like Fred Hammond, Kurt Carr, or Israel Houghton and injected their African identity into it. If I ever get to take a trip to Nairobi to experience Kenyan music and interact with Kenyan musicians I would love to visit this church and meet their players.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 11:55 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
April 26, 2008
Isaiah 29: What's the cure for phony worship?
Jesus quoted Isaiah 29:13 to the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8-9. He was rebuking them for missing the whole point of the law. As worship leaders (servants) called to prepare the music for the meeting together of God’s people, we are vulnerable to the temptation to honor God with our lips while our hearts remain far from him. It’s too easy to use our skill and experience to create a worshipy atmosphere and attitude while being completely void of a broken and contrite heart before the Lord. Read Isaiah 29 and meditate on what the prophet was trying to communicate with his warning to the city of David.
Isaiah 29:9-12
The Lord in His judgment blinds them and deafens them to the prophets.
Sometimes the word of God, the songs we sing, the preaching, the friendly encouragement of another follower of Christ will be meaningless and hollow. Our eyes will be shut to see God’s glory; our ears will be closed to listen to His voice. We usually get down on ourselves when we feel “dry” but maybe the Lord is taking us into that desert in order to bring back to the cross.
Isaiah 29:13
Their worship is a charade. It is a religious show. Their hearts are far from God.
This is the verse that Jesus quotes and it fits the Pharisees well. It also fits many of us well. This is an excellent verse for worship leaders to memorize.
Isaiah 29:14
So the Lord will mess up their perspective, He will screw up their misconceptions, He will blow their minds.
The Pharisees in the gospels are always getting thrown into a tizzy by Jesus’ words and actions. He really messes with their heads. Do you ever get completely confused by what God is doing around you? Do you ever get your brain messed up by the words or actions of Christ’s representatives with whom you come in contact?
Isaiah 29:15
Woe to people who come to church with their dirty little secrets hidden away who arrogantly think that God cannot see them.
We all have struggles with sin, and we often feel like sin is constantly beating us up. However, sometimes we get comfortable with our sin and we flirt with it, invite it, and eventually pursue it passionately. Watch out.
Isaiah 29:16
They act like they can tell God how it is, they can make God in their image, and they can twist the truth into justifying their evil deeds.
What happens when the clay tries to move the potter? It still gets smushed. Think of the Pharisees telling Jesus that his disciples didn’t wash their hands. Do we come to worship in the perspective of clay to be molded or as clay that wants to manipulate the potter?
Isaiah 29:17-21
The Lord brings His justice, righteousness, blessings, joy. He opens up the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. When he kick starts His glorious kingdom it will undo the judgment of 29:9-12.
Regardless of whether we want it or not, the Lord’s kingdom breaks loose and his glory opens up our eyes. Paul was on his way to kill some more heretics when Jesus blew his mind open and opened up his eyes. Praise God that there were a lot of ex-Pharisees in the early church. What a gracious, loving God to open our eyes even when we don’t expect it. He humbles us to open our eyes so that we can truly rejoice. It’s a promise.
Isaiah 29:22a
The Lord who redeemed Abraham- the one who called you, fixed you, blessed you freely by grace…
Says to the house of Jacob- the people who received the covenant despite their tricksy ways and conniving deceptions
Isaiah 29:22b-23
Your shame and fear will be healed when you
1) See, behold, get a grip on the Lord’s glory being revealed in the gospel of grace and then
2) Stand in awe of the God of Israel
No one likes the feeling of false worship. It makes you feel ashamed and fearful. I know when I am being a phony and it is scary. The cure for shame and fear is faith in the promises of God, the gospel.
Isaiah 29:24
All your jacked-up ideas of wisdom and coolness (vs 13, 15, 16) will be recalibrated and set right by processing again the gospel (God’s glory, man’s brokenness, God’s loving redemption as a gift.)
Conclusion:
Phony worship is a disease, but there is a cure:
• Start by opening up your eyes in order to own up to your sin and your clayish status. Are you dry? Ask the Lord to open your eyes.
• Remember the promises of God, The Potter, to redeem you and restore you in the gospel.
• Stand in awe of the God of Israel (if you really meditate on those first two statements then “standing in awe” comes very naturally.)
• As you are humbled, rejoice. As you are needy, rejoice. (vs.19)
Posted by Kirk Ward at 11:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 25, 2008
Compassionart
Pictured: Michael W. Smith, Paul Beloche, Martin Smith, and Israel Houghton
These guys along with a ton of other heavyweight songwriters are doing a project for Compassion International where they hung out for in Scotland writing songs and then recorded it in February at Abby Road Studios.
At the risk of sounding cynical, it's cool to be into poverty. It's cool to be into Jesus, and he was into poverty. Let justice roll down...
Posted by Kirk Ward at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 24, 2008
Paul Beloche responds to "Why won't my worship team practice?"
I dig Paul Beloche's training DVD's. This clip is from a website I just discovered that has tons of articles and clips and cool stuff. Watch this and then think about what is the motivation for excellence that Beloche is talking about? Is this gospel driven? Performance (guilt/fear/orphan) driven? Is Psalm 33 a legit scripture to cite as a justification for our music team to "take it up a notch"?
Posted by Kirk Ward at 11:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 23, 2008
Missional Worship
I had this talk from Doxologist streaming while I worked today. It got me thinking about how is our worship at New City Fellowship missional? How are we engaging with the culture around us instead of just being a Christian ghetto?
We might seem pretty out there to some people, but our worship is fundamentally made up of Christian traditional styles. Yes, traditional. Black tradition, African tradition, Praise and worship tradition, New City tradition, etc. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with Christian traditions, but how are we as disciples of Christ making our worship understandable by non-churched people?
Are we engaging with 18-30 year old males who are mostly absent from the American church in general? Is our worship music feminized and touchy-feely? Do gang members, video gamers, indie kids, goths, gays, facebookers, bloggers hear our music, do they hear our worship and not get blinded by cultural and religious idols that we have given more real estate in our worship service than The Gospel?
Am I over analyzing? It can at least drive us to prayer. Can we just pray about being contextually relevant with grace without compromising the gospel? Lord, when will our church explode with a wave of people who never darkened the door of a church before who suddenly receive the gospel with power?
Posted by Kirk Ward at 4:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 22, 2008
Week with my parents
My parents came up to hang out with us for almost a week. My favorite day was when I skipped work and we went to the Botanical Gardens. You might think that plants would be pretty boring, but it was probably the most beautiful weather in St Louis ever, my daughter is fascinated with everything (look, a rock!) and everyone was in excellent spirits.
I also enjoyed having my dad there for church. I wish I had streaming video or audio to share of the excellent worship time we had, but I'm not that geeked out yet.Also, I took some vows this weekend as my son was baptized. Pics would be nice at this point, but I would rather go home and hang with my family.
This week's upcoming highlights: trying to get Cakewalk Home Studio 2 to work, a trip to the rumetologist tomorrow, my 4 year anniversary on Thursday, Indian food at my buddy Joseph's fund raiser on Saturday, and worshiping at our South City location on Sunday. Does anyone in South City want to invite me and my family to lunch? Otherwise we are hitting the Bread Co.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 4:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 12, 2008
More on American Idol's "Shout..."
Laini asked some good questions in the comments to my last post about my rather emotional response to American Idol's use of "Shout To The Lord." Do I have a double standard? Probably.
I read a great blog this morning that expressed in much better ways than I could why it is so disturbing to me. The blog is "here's the post about American Idol.
Here's the heart of the problem in Kauflin's words:
when a Christian song receives national attention or reaches number 1 on the charts, it’s no clear sign one way or the other that the Gospel is advancing or the church is having more of an influence on our culture. It can just as easily be a sign that the church is being swallowed up by the culture because it’s indistinct from the world.
Here's his response to the problem:
First, we need to do everything we can to sing and promote songs in the church that clearly, biblically, passionately, and faithfully proclaim the one and only Savior...Second, we we need to live in such a way that it’s clear being a Christian is more than giving money to worthy causes and being emotionally moved as we sing songs of every genre together. We want to do all we can to ensure that those who walk into our meetings see clearly that we’re not a local version of American Idol.
His first point refers to the generic meaning of the song. What would it have been like if they had sung "In Christ Alone" or "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross" or even "You Are My King"? "Shout To The Lord" (and "Amazing Grace") are a little too vague to make a real statement about the gospel. They're not bad songs; they just can't be the only thing we sing.
The second point he makes hits a little closer to home. How much does our worship service look like American Idol? I don't mean smoke and lights and funky hair. I mean do our singers reflect the heart of worship (humility, fear of the Lord, reverent joy, broken and contrite heart, etc.)? I won't hide the fact that I am not a fan of American Idol (or most other reality shows) but I think that fans of the show would even agree that American Idol has as much to do with true worship as Babylon.
Kauflin also encourages everybody to pray that God will use this whole thing to bring people into the church, to open doors to the gospel, to bring true glory to the name of Jesus Christ, to bring more and more people to confess that Jesus (not just 'the Shepherd') is Lord. Ditto, Bob.
Read Bob's post, it's a lot better that mine.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 8:09 AM | TrackBack
April 11, 2008
This Song Is Offically Retired
I felt a little sick after watching this. Why in the world...who do they think...what is the...how in the name of all...I can't even...ugggg. Are there any "Idol" fans out there that can explain this to me?
Posted by Kirk Ward at 2:16 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
April 10, 2008
Fear
My pastor shared with the staff this week about spiritual warfare. He said the main thing at the heart of spiritual warfare is fear. In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned the first thing they felt was fear. Not the healthy "fear of the Lord" that scripture says is the source of wisdom, but the fear that represents the severe distance from God that sin creates. Think of Peter at the crucifixion, David after he had impregnated another man's wife, or the Israelites at the shore of the Jordan river refusing to enter the Promised Land because of the giants who lived there. They were filled with fear that drove them to reject God's promises and to take matters into their own hands.
My pastor drove home the point that Adam and Eve became afraid because in their sin they wanted to become like God. After they had sinned, they realized that they were not God. Can we ever take that responsibility? In a universe without God, we become the strongest and wisest being there is and that is terrifying! Fear means taking our eyes off of the loving faithful Father and Savior and instead, focusing on the wind and the waves of the storm.
My wife and I are watching "3:10 to Yuma". Because we don't have much time in the evenings, we are watching it in installments, so don't tell me how it ends. But the Christian Bale character is driven by fear of losing his ranch and his family (and his identity as a man) to take the risky job of helping to escort a dangerous murderer across the wilderness to the stand trial. In a poignant scene, he tells his wife that he is tired of waiting for God to help him, and so he's going to do this risky job to make $200 to get the ranch back into shape. It made me think that spiritual warfare was making him look at his circumstances and despair, driving him away from trusting God to fight his battles.
I was also watching Veggie Tales yesterday. It was the one about Esther. It's not an especially excellent rendition of the story, but they make an excellent point: you should never be afraid of doing the right thing. Esther faced the fear in her heart because she trusted that the battle belongs to the Lord (not to Esther). So I guess you could also look at the "3:10 to Yuma" character as bravely facing a dangerous assignment because he knew that seeing this criminal come to justice was the right thing to do. (Based on the scene I mentioned, I don't think that's the filmmakers' intent).
What fears do you have? How are they driving you away from God and into taking matters into your own hands?
Remember the unchangeable Promises of God in Romans 8, Isaiah 43, Psalm 23, Ephesians 1, Philippians 4, Revelation 22, ...
Posted by Kirk Ward at 10:06 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 6, 2008
google?
Is anyone else having problems with google? I can get gmail to work, but the reader and search engine are refusing to load? My sister in law is here and she can't get any google stuff to come up on her computer either. Is there a problem with our little wireless network or is anyone else having the same issues?
Posted by Kirk Ward at 7:56 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack