I have been doing a lot of thinking about worship lately. I never really gave much thought to whether or not we should consider having an instrumental service until a few years ago. I began visiting the Christian church and instrumental churches of Christ with my friend Lisa, who travels and speaks to women in both churches. One of the most meaningful worship services I have ever participated in was in a small church of Christ in Pennsylvania. It took place during a women’s retreat, and, since the church never existed without musical instruments, and since praise and worship styles were part of their natural worship, no one questioned the presence of instruments, the raising of the hands or any other expression of worship during the singing. I found myself participating in worship with abandon, completely focused on God and not wondering how I was coming across to these women, who I had only met hours before. It was a fruitful weekend, with several baptisms (scriptural ones), and one woman who was baptized studied the Bible with me prior to her baptism! That retreat took place the week after I returned from my father’s funeral, and it was a definite changing point in my spiritual walk.
We traditionally use these scriptures to address the issue of music in the church:
1. Ephesians 5:19 (Whole Chapter)
addressing one another in [Acts 16:25; 1 Cor 14:26; Col 3:16; James 5:13] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
2. Colossians 3:16 (Whole Chapter)
Let [John 15:3 ] the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, [ Eph 5:19 ] singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, [Colossians 4:6] with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
The argument against having a praise team was that the praise team is entertainment, and we should not be having entertainment in worship. Well, I can personally say that my voice is not and never has been entertainment quality. I sing on the praise team, because I love to sing, and do so joyfully, I can read music, so I can help support the sopranos when we have a new song, and I can sing on key. I do not have a solo quality voice, even though I would love to be able to sing a solo and may do so someday. But I do believe God has given me a gift for singing. Many times I have been in congregational worship, and either the song leader missed the melody, or the people around me didn’t know the melody. I just sing out….not to show off, but to help. And I love to do this. I guess someone could call that leading. I call it serving…..and singing to one another! Now the two Valeries, Andi, Jennie and Jody all have quality solo voices. I love hearing them sing, and my soul praises God, not them, when I hear their voices. I never have had any sense that any of these beautiful women ever wanted attention for themselves…..they gave the glory to God. If it bothers anyone to hear them sing, then I say, maybe your focus is on the fact that they are singing, not what they are singing or to whom they are singing. My soul has never failed to be lifted when I have heard any of these women sing.
I also know that my husband spent his life worshipping God with his music…..not at church, but every time I have heard him play “the Old Rugged Cross” or “Abide with Me” on his viola….I marvel at the work God has done in his life. When Bruce preaches a great sermon that makes me want to change something in my life…..and is still able to get me to take the focus off of myself and onto God, I am thankful for the gift God has given him.
I have grown up seeing a lot of things in our fellowship…..and never have I been distracted by singing….not even really poor singing. But I have been distracted by unkindness, gossip, rudeness, exclusion and judgemental sneering even during worship. It has caused me to believe that the only thing a person needs to do is do ANYTHING to get a LOT of criticism. We say we have no creeds but the Bible, but the Bible does not forbid the use of musical instruments, the raising of the hands in worship or singing to one another, as in a praise team. I have heard preachers and their families criticized so cruelly that I wondered why any man would want to be a minister. In almost every church the elders have been criticized and blamed for the problems of the body. I can’t help think that if we were busy concerning ourselves with the mission that Jesus gave the church—that of seeking and saving the lost—we wouldn’t have time to point fingers and spread vicious rumors about our leadership. Jesus didn’t spend one second in John 17 praying that we would all be right on every little detail….he prayed that we would be ONE…with Him…with God…and that we would love one another so that the world would know we are HIS disciples…not members of the church of Christ. I have seen Christians fighting over bus verses Bible class ministries, over inner city kids who got excited and loud after a baptism, over whether or not the leadership were truly committed….in a fellowship that grew from 250 members to over 1000 in several years….and the very people who were converted as a result of their leadership were the ones accusing. That church split and many precious souls became disillusioned and left fellowship. We left there as soon as we saw what was about to happen, because we didn’t want our children scarred by the increasingly public ugliness that hurt many people. I think it is time that we owned our public sin….as the church of Christ. It isn’t the sin of compromising scriptures to praise God by raising our hands, it isn’t the sin of either wanting or not wanting musical instruments. It is the sin of not loving one another deeply from the heart. There is a lost world out there that cannot tell us from any ordinary person on the street, because we are not loving one another in such a way that the world knows that we are the body of Christ. When our camps are used to criticize groups of Christians, when our teens hear whispering about one another or experience condescending conversation toward their parents, when our fellowship is tense and there are sneers on the faces of those among us, we cannot be pleasing God with our worship, with or without musical instruments, hands raised or not, voices mic’d or not. Most likely we sound like clanging cymbals to God. I LOVE the church of Christ. I was drawn to Christ because of the home I found there and people loving one another. I do not want God to have to raise up another people…perhaps from the stones on the ground…to go out and proclaim His word to a lost and dying world, because we are busy squabbling about what goes on within the walls of our beautiful buildings.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Blogging Again.....
I can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve blogged! I won’t even try to catch up, but if you have Facebook, and you’re my friend, you probably already know what ‘s been going on with us.
I will catch you up on my weight loss journey, since that is what I last wrote about. I have lost just over 20 lbs. since Jan. 1st, and I give thanks for that success to God, Weight Watchers and my other support systems, like the Biggest Loser club, and my husband and children. Now if I can only do that about 5 more times!
I guess I will catch you up on the news about Nathan. He is recovering from a very serious traumatic brain injury. It happened over 3 weeks ago, when he had gone over to walk his girl friend’s family’s 3 Jack Russel terriers at lunch time, while they were at work. He accidentally dropped his keys with the leashes and locked himself out of their house. He called my cell, but his cell died before he could speak, so he got on Katie’s skateboard, (a longboard that goes highway speeds), and he was coming home to get his spare key, when he found himself going down a steep hill at too high of speed, and before he could slow down, he fell backwards and smashed the back of his head into the pavement. The impact knocked him out, and when he came to and realized he was bleeding from the head, he made his way up the hill to the road and a couple picked him up and brought him home, calling 911. Nathan knocked on the door, the ambulance came and Don got home at the same time. Don took Conner from me, and I rode in the ambulance with Nathan to Fairfax Hospital, where he was in the trauma ICU for a few days….and then in the neuro ward off and on for two weeks. He is home now recovering, coming off of pain medicine and still in a lot of pain. He’s dealing with it, though. He’s off of everything except one med. He has a skull fracture, an arterial epidural hematoma, a subdural hematoma, contusions on the frontal lobe and a percussive brain injury. He will be recovering for several months, but is so lucky to be alive.,,,not lucky, really…blessed.
Don and I are so thankful not to have lost our son. We also are thankful he has so many people who love him. His brothers were there for him, and his girlfriend, Katie, has been a huge support for him. Don and I are praying that God will keep working in Nathan’s life, and in all of our boys’ lives.
April is our big birthday month in our family. We celebrated Don C.’s birthday last week, we will celebrate Don’s this week and Steve’s next. It is fitting that after all of that celebrating, May is when Mother’s Day happens!
I will catch you up on my weight loss journey, since that is what I last wrote about. I have lost just over 20 lbs. since Jan. 1st, and I give thanks for that success to God, Weight Watchers and my other support systems, like the Biggest Loser club, and my husband and children. Now if I can only do that about 5 more times!
I guess I will catch you up on the news about Nathan. He is recovering from a very serious traumatic brain injury. It happened over 3 weeks ago, when he had gone over to walk his girl friend’s family’s 3 Jack Russel terriers at lunch time, while they were at work. He accidentally dropped his keys with the leashes and locked himself out of their house. He called my cell, but his cell died before he could speak, so he got on Katie’s skateboard, (a longboard that goes highway speeds), and he was coming home to get his spare key, when he found himself going down a steep hill at too high of speed, and before he could slow down, he fell backwards and smashed the back of his head into the pavement. The impact knocked him out, and when he came to and realized he was bleeding from the head, he made his way up the hill to the road and a couple picked him up and brought him home, calling 911. Nathan knocked on the door, the ambulance came and Don got home at the same time. Don took Conner from me, and I rode in the ambulance with Nathan to Fairfax Hospital, where he was in the trauma ICU for a few days….and then in the neuro ward off and on for two weeks. He is home now recovering, coming off of pain medicine and still in a lot of pain. He’s dealing with it, though. He’s off of everything except one med. He has a skull fracture, an arterial epidural hematoma, a subdural hematoma, contusions on the frontal lobe and a percussive brain injury. He will be recovering for several months, but is so lucky to be alive.,,,not lucky, really…blessed.
Don and I are so thankful not to have lost our son. We also are thankful he has so many people who love him. His brothers were there for him, and his girlfriend, Katie, has been a huge support for him. Don and I are praying that God will keep working in Nathan’s life, and in all of our boys’ lives.
April is our big birthday month in our family. We celebrated Don C.’s birthday last week, we will celebrate Don’s this week and Steve’s next. It is fitting that after all of that celebrating, May is when Mother’s Day happens!
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