Worship Tip: The challenge of Christmas Carols

Oh how I love Christmas carols. The air almost seems to sparkle when I hear those old strains of ringing, jingling, heart-melting, happy Christmas tunes. Joy and nostalgia intertwine thickly in my soul as the radio practically bursts open with cheer. Car rides, cleaning, and Christmas shopping are a lot more fun when heavily soundtracked  with Christmas crooners. Seriousy, I could listen to Chrsitmas music all year round. (Please don't hate on me for that - anything, but that). But what about in worship?After I've heard "Joy to the World" 437 times while Christmas shopping among the throngs of overworked and overstressed folks, is it still sacred when I sing it in the worship service? 

Well, that depends. 

It's no wonder that worship artists constantly seek new ways to sing our favorite songs, trying to preserve the original essence that made the song special while updating it just enough to keep the words fresh in our souls. It's an impossible task, it seems, to keep Silent Night true to tradition so that we don't lose what we love about it, while reframing it just enough that it touches are hearts all over again. Sometimes, we try too hard and what was intended to be a little originality becomes a congregational singing train wreck. So what do we do? How do we offer these beautiful carols, sung by generations of Jesus loving people, without getting stuck on the hump of nostalgia?

I'm not sure that the answer to these kinds of questions will ever change. Because it's less about song choice and stylistic nuance and more, much much more, about the status of our hearts. Of course, we'll do our best to be creative in our orchestration, functional in our implementation, and hopeful in our demonstration. Anything to help the congregation sing. We'll work long hours making Christmas Eve services as special as we can - because we love to celebrate the birth of our Savior and He deserves all of the specialness that we have to offer. But when it comes right down to it, no perfectly planned worship set, no carefully articulated lead ins, and not even the best Children's Christmas Pageant, no matter how adoring and adorable, can make us worship. Only God can call us to Himself, and only by knowing Him as He is, can we worship with any music, even at Christmas time. 

I hope you'll take this as a challenge - not merely the challenge of making meaningful music this Christmas season, but the challenge of spending time with our Emmanuel, our God With Us, so that each and every word we sing rings out in praise and worship of and response to Jesus, Our Savior, King. Keep the sacred in Silent Night, not by the newest, freshest arrangement, but by keeping in sync with the Savior.  Enjoying those precious memories of Christmases gone by is a gift all by itself to relish and savor. But if you truly want to make this a memorable Christmas, spend more of it with Jesus. Then you and your music will radiate with the joy of Christ during the Christmas season, and that's what makes Christmas music as good as it can ever get. 

Good News! It's Tuesday! Seek God for security.

Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NIV). It’s hard to feel secure in a world where so many bad things happen. It’s hard to feel secure when we don’t know what the future holds. And it’s hard to feel secure when we experience Post-Adrenaline Depression, or fatigue, or any other kind of sadness or grief. Even the most confident among us can feel pretty insecure at times, whether it’s on a small level (am I really prepared for this song?) or a grand scale (What if I lose my job?). Sometimes, insecurity just comes.


But here’s the thing – insecurity does NOT come from God. Neither does fear. However, God gives us the antidote to these things – Himself. This doesn’t mean that if we had more faith, everything would just be ok. If we were better Christians, we wouldn’t feel this way. If we just prayed more, or better, or harder, we wouldn’t experience Post-Adrenaline Depression or any other negative feeling. I don’t agree with this at all, and sometimes, Christian platitudes just get in the way, rather than helping us grow closer to God.

The Christian walk is not to see the world through rose-colored glasses, filled with pithy sayings and trite remarks. Rather, the Christian walk is spiritual warfare. It is a fight to the finish. It is hard work. It means we will face difficulty. It means we’re in the trenches of war each and every day, but Jesus Christ is right there with us. Fighting insecurity means that rather than beating ourselves up because we don’t have peace, we instead make a conscious decision to put our faith and trust in God in spite of our feelings.




Never feel badly because you have anxiety or fear – when we read the book of Psalms, we see how much the Psalmist experienced all sorts of emotions: fear, insecurity, despair, joy, and hope…. King David was known as a man after God's own heart, and yet, he still experienced fear, despair, insecurity, and sorrow. Psalm 55:17 (NIV) says, “Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.” King David isn’t saying he’s never afraid, but he cries out to God when he IS afraid because he knows that God will hear him. God loves it when we call on Him! And He loves it when we choose to put our trust and hope in Him even when we are afraid or insecure.

Next time Monday comes, and you feel afraid, or tired, or depressed, or insecure, don’t beat yourself. Instead, cry out to God! Make a conscious decision to put your trust in Him no matter what your feelings tell you. 

A Few Thoughts on Prayer from Dr. David Earley’s book, Personal Prayer: the Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders

If the Son of God, Jesus Christ, needed to spend time alone with God the Father in prayer, how much more do fallen humans like me need to pray? If Christ prayed in order to lead His disciples and to carry out His ministry, how much more important is it for spiritual leaders, pastors, Sunday School teachers, and worship leaders to pray? Nothing can be more important in the life of a spiritual leader than time in prayer. For example, Dr. Earley discusses Martin Luther’s daily prayer time, which was generally two hours per day for any typical week.  But during a particularly busy week, Luther claimed that he had so much to accomplish that he would start the day with three hours of prayer.[1] Luther’s example demonstrates the need for spiritual leaders to pray: Busy leaders need to pray because it may “be the best time-saving device you have.”[2] Earley, like Martin Luther, believes that spiritual leaders are too busy not to pray. That is a serious re-prioritization that we all need to consider. What would our lives look like if we prayed first and most, and did the rest later?

The Apostle Paul provides instructions for the church when he writes “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” [3] Paul means that prayer needs to be a priority and that Christians need to be spiritually alert, watchful for how prayer worked, and thankful for God’s blessings. Apostle Paul also knew how critical prayer was in the life of the believer.

Dr. Earley wrote about many great prayer ideas, but especially three that I will attempt to apply to my own life include: establishing a daily prayer time (23), institute a regular space for prayer (27), and praying for others (33). Dr. Early recommends establishing a daily prayer time because, “most of need to set a daily prayer time or times if we hope to build a dynamic prayer life.”[4] Dr. Early also recommends establishing a place for prayer: “I have found it very helpful to establish a set, solitary place for my daily prayer time.”[5] Lastly, Dr. Earley encourages Christians to pray for others: “One of the purest and most powerful ways for a leader to express and exercise such love is intercessory prayer.”[6] Intercessory prayer, according to Earley, is “coming to God on behalf of another.”[7] I can’t think of any greater gift to give.

I am forever grateful to the person who told me that she threw herself down on the altar to cry out to God to spare my infant son’s life. She prayed fervently –desperately – and hopefully for my child, who is now a bursting-with-energy, happy, healthy 7 year old.  I always believed in the power of prayer, but I never believed in it so much as when my son’s tiny life hung in the balance. I realized that when there is no other recourse, we believe most fully. So how do we carry that depth of belief and certainty in the power of prayer into our daily lives? I guess,  more than anything, it just takes practice.

Prayer works and we need to do it.

Bibliography

Earley, Dave. Personal Prayer: the Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, TN: Living Ink Books, 2008.

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[1] Dave Earley, Personal Prayer: the Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders (Chattanooga, TN: Living Ink Books, 2008),  5.

[2] Dave Earley, Personal Prayer: the Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders (Chattanooga, TN: Living Ink Books, 2008), 5,

[3] Col. 4:2, NIV.

[4] Dave Earley, Personal Prayer: the Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders (Chattanooga, TN: Living Ink Books, 2008), 24.

[5] Ibid., 28.

[6] Ibid., 33.

[7] Ibid., 34.

Prayer for the Weekend

Father in Heaven,

Your Word is truth. You always keep Your promises, every single one.

You are a shelter in the storm, a help in time of trouble, comfort in sorrow, and strength when we are weak. You heal our broken bodies and mend our broken hearts. You hear our cries of pain and our cries of praise. You listen to our voices when we call. You love us. You have made us Your own.

As Sunday comes close, we ask for You to give us a sense of Your Holy Presence, an expectation of Your nearness, a desire to know You more. Provide us peace in anxious preparation. Give us the words to say and sing.  Help us praise and preach with eloquence and excellence. Give us love for those who hear us. Grant us time to rest.

We ask that you will move in our hearts, our homes, our sanctuaries. Move in mighty and mysterious ways that can only come from You. Protect us in times of spiritual warfare; defend our families and guard our hearts.

Please pour out your Holy Spirit upon us all. Anoint us for this weekend’s worship. Let us praise You with our whole hearts so You can fill us up again.

In the powerful name of Jesus,

Amen

Are you bored at church?

Have you ever felt like you just didn't connect with God during a worship service? You showed up, ready to praise the Lord, but the service felt empty, dry, or just boring. Or maybe your mind was just everywhere but on God, with so many things running through your head - your to do list, your grocery list, stress at work, your children's sports schedules… oh wait, were we supposed to be praying just now?

Yes, I’ve had Sundays that felt just like that.  And I’m the worship leader.

There’s a couple of things to consider when worship feels dull…

First, our feelings don’t always tell the whole story. Jesus said, “For where 2 or 3 gather in my name, there I am with them” (Matthew 18:20). So whether we feel God’s presence among us or not, He is right there with us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He meets us where we are. So when we are scattered, bored, annoyed, sad, or lonely, God meets us there. It isn’t the worship leader’s job to lead us into the presence of God… simply coming together in the name of Jesus means we are in the presence of the Almighty God. It is our responsibility as worshippers – whether in leadership or not- to cultivate our awareness of His nearness. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. How would our outlook of a church service change if we came, expecting to find God in our midst? How would we change if we made an active choice to believe that God would be there with us no matter how we felt?

Secondly, we cannot worship well a God that we do not know. When I was in college studying music, I remember being rather bored when I had to listen to recitals given by students that I didn’t know. Since I knew nothing of their ability, their style, their education, their performance meant little to me. I felt like I was hearing the same old pieces of music over and over again. But when I listened to the senior recital given by my future husband, I was enraptured. I was invested in him personally, as his fiancé, and musically, in his performance – I had listened to him practice for hours on end, worked through difficult passages with him, discussed the composers of his pieces, and worked hard to accompany him for part of the recital. My investment in him as a person and in his work made his recital exciting and important to me.

The same is true with Jesus. If I am not very invested in Him, then spending time in a worship service probably won’t be that meaningful to me. But when I spend time with Him, daily wrestling with His Word, working hard to know Him better, sharing my life journey through prayer, seeking to accompany His work, then I am far more excited to spend time worshiping Him alongside of my church family.   

My question is this: how can I adjust my time so that I have a little more time to dig deeper spiritually? How can I spend my time more wisely so that I can invest it in Jesus? What would change if I closed my browser and opened my Bible? Would I be different if I spent some time on my smartphone studying a Bible app instead of Facebook? What will you do?

Need ideas to help your congregation worship? Here's 7.  

7 Ways to Teach Your Congregation to Worship