BACK TO THE FUTURE

This was the 10th and final message in the Heart of Worship message series. This was intended to give a look at how we plan to carry out the foundational principles laid during the series. It is much more about a philosophy of biblical application and heart attitude than it is a list of specific guarantees of how the worship services will look in the next few years. It was my desire to be clear on heart attitude and motivation, but leave a lot of flexibility and freedom for how God might lead us in the future.

BACK TO THE FUTURE
Vision for Worship at Grace

Please turn in your Bible to Romans 11.
Last week, we look at how the principles of worship in the Scriptures affect what we do in our worship services. We have spent a couple of months working our way through just some of what the Bible has to say about worship – how it applies to our lives and how it applies to corporate worship. This morning, we conclude our message series on worship by giving a vision for what our worship can be.

Because of our human nature, we tend to want things, including how things are at church, to be what we want – for our benefit and enjoyment. But, as we begin this last message of our Heart of Worship series this morning, we need to remember that Church corporate worship, including the musical part of worship, is all about one person and that person is not me and it’s not you – it’s all about God! Our highest priorities and desires in this area of worship has to be about God and not about pleasing people. This is what the Psalmist invited us to do.

Would you please stand with me? I can’t think of a better way to begin this message than to have us read together a Psalm, a part of Israel’s song book, inviting us to come to worship God with all we have because of who He is: When I point to your side (and the balcony side is included), please read in unison:

Psalm 100 – “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
[all together]: and his faithfulness to all generations.”

This is about coming to God to praise and worship Him!

We have used Romans 12 in our worship series already, but I want you to take a look at it in its greater context. Remembering that when the Apostle Paul wrote Romans, there were no chapter divisions, please note his words just before chapter 12. Please look with me in your Bibles at:

Romans 11:33-36 – “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Romans 12:1 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

This passage lays the foundation for the principles of worship vision that I want to share with you today:
· This is about God

This is all about Him. Our worship is about Him. It is for His glory. We cannot always figure Him out; or understand why He does what He chooses to do. But, we choose to trust Him and we choose to praise Him – in our worship services and in life. We showed this the first week of our Heart of Worship Series and it is appropriate to be reminded of its message today:

VIDEO: GIFT OF WORSHIP

And this leads us to the working definition we have had during our Heart of Worship message series. Say it with me if you know it:

“Worship is responding to God for who He is and what He has done by giving ourselves completely to Him.”

Let’s put it on the screen and say it one more time together:
“Worship is responding to God for who He is and what He has done by giving ourselves completely to Him.”

Its all about God; but as our working definition states and as Romans 12: 1 tells us:

· This is about life worship

But also, as we talk about the vision for worship, we must consider the vision for our church as a whole. Let me remind you of our purpose statement as a church:

Growing together in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are walking with God, pursuing relationships with His people, and reaching out to those who do not know Him.

All aspects of our purpose statement are connected to this issue of worship.

· This is about growing in grace

It is about spiritual growth. The worship we participate in here is to help you grow in your faith as you take your next steps in your relationship with God, other believers and those who do not yet know Him. This is about you not only learning how to appreciate God’s grace given to you, but also about you offering grace to others. This is about heart attitude. This is about God’s Word. And that is all reflected in this purpose statement.

I gave this message this strange title for a reason: BACK TO THE FUTURE. When it comes to church ministry and accomplishing God’s purposes, the past and the present are important. We must learn from the past, respect the past, and appreciate the past. We could spend hours talking about the rich heritage of Grace Baptist Church in her past. We could list and describe the wonderful ministries of each of its pastors. We could talk about the buildings, the numbers of people and the programs of the past.

But the past I am speaking of today is the biblical past. Because although our church history has a lot to do with where we are today, it is biblical truth that will be our guide to the future. As we move into the future here at Grace, including the important area of corporate worship, it is the Bible that we look to for principles that lead us. Although we want to be sensitive to our church history, we are much more concerned with what will please God in pursuing His purposes for us.

Please turn in your Bible to Psalm 150. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 547 or 559.

In our Core Values for our ministry, we include this statement:

AUTHENTIC WORSHIP
We believe it is crucial to sincerely exalt God in our personal lives and corporate gatherings. We believe worship happens twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, as we seek to honor God in our lives. Corporately, we desire to lift up the glory of God through our prayers, testimonies, giving, teaching and singing. To be real before God is our humble, heart’s desire.
[Psalm 100; John 4:21-24; Romans 12:1,2; Ephesians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:16,17]

So, this morning, I want to present principles from the Scriptures that give us a vision for where we are headed as a church, as it pertains to corporate worship. I realize in talking to a group of this size, that many of you have differing opinions, and even may have different visions for worship. Some of you will think what I have to say today is too much change: too wild, too progressive. Some of you, coming from a different perspective will think I am too vague and too conservative.

With all of that said, let me share with you statements of vision for our worship. Keep in mind that a vision does not state what is already present in every way, but the hope for the future. This is what I see in our future as it relates to our corporate worship:

1. We will worship with excellence

Colossians 3:17 – “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

“Whatever we do” includes our corporate worship service. Doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus means doing it with excellence. Is excellence important? Well, its not the most important thing, but based on the foundational beliefs we have already mentioned, it is crucial:

Stan Toler and Alan Nelson put it this way: “We need to strive for excellence and care about our church property, programming and publicity because God deserves our best. We, as the local church, are His local franchise within a community. We represent Him. The Bible says that all Christians are to act as ambassadors, as liaisons between God and others. When we do things that reflect a shabby mind-set, we are certainly not representing Him well, because God does things with excellence. Look at creation. After everything was created, He looked at it and said, It is good. When we offer mediocre music, have unfriendly ushers and ho-hum services, and then present ourselves as a reflection of God’s love and character, we insult Him.”

The vision is that when people experience our worship services, they will see a reflection of God’s excellence. The vision is that when people think about serving here at Grace, part of the reason they are drawn to serve is because they see that we are doing the best we can with what we have for the glory of God; and they want to be a part of that!

Understand something. Another reason for excellence here is because this morning worship service is the main entry point for people to Grace. Most new people to Grace come first to our morning worship service. This is where they first meet us, see what is important to us, and experience our values as it relates to our worship of God.

Therefore, we plan what is going to take place in our services. We practice. We try to keep things flexible and use variety. We know that the first impressions people have as they visit one of our worship services is going to make a huge impact on whether or not they will come back; and whether or not they want to be a part of what is going on here.

This also must affect our budget. If we are going to glorify God by reflecting excellence in our services, we will need to put our money where our mouth is. This is the service where our church meets all together. There is no other program or service we have that has more of our people meeting together. This service must receive our attention and must be the best thing that we offer here at Grace. That takes money – it takes prioritizing.

As we speak, we have over $20,000 worth of needs to make the sound the best it can be, to improve all of our equipment, in some cases replacing some, and in some cases, getting new, needed equipment all for the area of our worship service. Our budget for this next year reflects less than 2% dedicated to improving this service and helping us toward excellence. Now, there are many reasons for that. But, our budget does reflect what is important to us at this time. My dream would be that we would be closer to 10% that would dedicated to making this service as excellent and God glorifying as it can be. It will help us in assisting people in growing in their faith and in reaching new people who have not yet attended our service, but will in the future. Another part of our vision:

2. We will have blended worship

By blended worship, we mean that our worship service will reflect the past and the present, the conservative and the progressive, the old and the new, the soft and the loud, meditation and celebration.

In talking about this issue in his book : When God builds a Church, Bob Russell wrote: “The failure to understand these two sides of worship and their corresponding musical styles is at the heart of much controversy in churches today. If you come from a formal, liturgical background, you are used to an emphasis on the reverence and awe side of worship. When you enter a church, you expect quietness and an atmosphere of holiness. The leader quotes Psalm 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God,” and Hebrews 12:28,29 – “Let us…worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” So if you visit a congregation where people are talking and laughing loudly when you enter, where they clap after a special song and some even raise their hands during the singing, you think it’s inappropriate and irreverent.

But if you grew up in a more charismatic church, you’re accustomed to the emphasis on the joy of worship. The leader quotes Psalm 47:1 – “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy” and Psalm 5:11 – “But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.’ A charismatic who visits a church that’s more liturgical thinks, This church is dead! Jesus Christ is alive! Come on, you all, get with it!”

Two passages of Scripture illustrate the diversity. Consider the diversity here:

Psalm 150
“Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; Praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; Praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound; Praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; Praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; Praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”

In this passage, there are instruments that normally lend to more somber, reflective, softer music and instruments that are going to lead to celebratory, loud and raucous praise! Another passage we have looked at in the past remind us of some different types of songs and styles that can be used in worship:

Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Again, we will be guided by the truths of the Word of God; but in communicating those truths, we will do it in differing styles with a variety of music.

Some might think our worship is already blended because we normally sing a few hymns and a few praise songs. But, there is much more to being truly blended than that, and we will continue to go that direction. It will mean that we will have to sacrifice some of our own preferences. It will mean that we will have to open our arms to people who respond in worship differently than we do. In other words, it means we will need to be the Body of Christ and reflect God’s love!

When we took our all church survey this past year, here is what we found, representing the opinions of our congregation in the area of music and worship:

The music I want to worship to (corporately) is:
· All hymns – 8%
· All praise songs – 12%
· Not sure or no opinion– 20%
· Blended – 60%

I believe the atmosphere of worship should be:
· Loud and celebratory – 4%
· Quiet and somber – 9%
· Not sure or no opinion– 22%
· Some of Both (Blended)– 65%

There are great positives to consider: A blended service will mean that we will have younger and older people worshipping together and loving it. It will mean that we will have people from different Baptist backgrounds, Catholic backgrounds, Methodist backgrounds, Charismatic backgrounds and other backgrounds, all worshiping together (because we have all come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation!) It means we will have those who prefer the old and those who prefer the new – together in worship. It will mean that we will reflect the true nature of the Body of Christ, in its variety, diversity and unity!

Please turn back now to Psalm 19.

3. We will all participate in worship

We will encourage everyone to participate rather then spectate. We will emphasize participation over performance. We live in a spectator world.

A.W. Tozer said: “In the average church service the most real thing is the shadowy unreality of everything. The worshipper sits in a state of suspended mentation; a kind of dreamy numbness creeps upon him; he hears words but they do not register, he cannot relate them to anything on his own life-level.”

We don’t want people to come and just sit and just leave – no impact – no change – no real worship. You probably agree that we live in a spectator world. We are used to going somewhere, taking it all in as a consumer, and then leaving. But, it can’t be that way in our corporate worship.

As I have said in the past, you are not the audience and this is not the auditorium. This is the worship center, and when you come, you are expected to worship. We , up front, are not the performers and you are not the audience. We all are the worshipers, and God is the audience. It has always been this way.

That is why God wants to make sure our heart attitudes and motivations are right when we come to worship Him corporately:

Isaiah 29:13 – “And the Lord said: Because this people, draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.”

God is concerned with the heart attitude of all the worshippers who come, not just those who are speaking or singing. Our prayer for each of us as worshippers, every time we meet for corporate worship, should be:

Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

Robert Webber, in his book, Worship is a Verb, wrote: “To worship is to do something. Worship is interactive. You do not just listen passively – you engage actively…For many people, church is characterized mostly as an exercise in sitting and listening…worship…is catalyzing participation and expression.”

I agree. I think this is true. So, the question is: If you are not preaching or singing in the choir or on the worship team or doing special music, how can you be participating throughout the service? Let me give you several suggestions:

· Bring with you a humble, God honoring attitude and expectation
· Talk with one another (fellowship) before the service.
As you talk with each other, laugh with one another, cry with one another, you are honoring God, joyfully anticipating our corporate worship – you are participating in worship.
· Sing with all of your heart
Participate by singing the songs that are chosen whether they are your favorite or not.
· Serve during the service
Participate by using your God given abilities in worship: playing an instrument, singing in the choir or on the worship team, doing specials, being an usher, etc.
· Listen to the music sung and played by others, considering the truth of what is played and appreciating those who are communicating those truths.
· Respond with your voice and/or body in worship as led by the Holy Spirit. This might mean raising a hand, closing your eyes, saying Amen, etc.
· Give to God through the offering. This is an important part of participating in worship. It is your response to what God has done for you; and used by God to further His work through this local church.
· When someone is praying during the service, pray silently with them, agreeing with them.
· During the teaching of God’s Word, listen attentively, thinking about how God would want you to apply His Word to your everyday life.
The idea here is that you are always thinking about how to participate in what is going on, whether that is listening, considering something in your heart and mind, singing, praying, talking with others, or applying God’s Word. If you are participating with the right heart attitude, you are worshiping for God’s glory.
One of my applications to this is that I often ask you to answer me or take a quiz or read Scripture in our message time. The point is that you are the worshipper and we are doing it together.

Please turn to Matthew 28. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 864 or 881.
The next aspect of our corporate worship vision is this:

4. We will worship to make disciples in our community

I want to you think about this statement with me. First, let’s consider the biblical basis for it; and then let’s consider its ramifications for us today:

Matthew 28:19,20 – “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

These were the last words of Jesus before He ascended back to Heaven, after He had died and risen from the dead and met with His followers. This was the primary command He decided to leave us with. The things mentioned in these verses that we need to be doing, such as baptizing and teaching, are all descriptions of how to obey this one command: MAKE DISCIPLES.

We will worship to make disciples in our community by:
· Helping believers connect with Christ

So, when we think about the music we are going to use and the type of worship service we are going to have, we must keep this command in mind. This includes people who have been here for a long time and have been Christians for a long time. They know and appreciate worship that came from Bible days and the Reformation period and 30 years ago. We do keep in mind that we are responsible to make disciples of people who already know Christ; and we will consider their backgrounds and what best connects with them.

This is what normally is called tradition. People who have been in a church with tradition expect it to continue. This is sometimes a challenge when tradition, that can be a good thing, becomes traditionalism, which can be destructive.

Matt Redman, a worship leader and song writer said: “Tradition alone can become lifeless, existing to please itself, and leave no room for spontaneous love. When we meet to worship God, although structure is important, it must never be allowed to strangle life.”

Warren Wiersbe, in his book: Real Worship, said: “The problem really isn’t tradition, because tradition is simply the content of what one generation hands to another.The problem is traditionalism, which is the worship of traditions to such an extent that few people dare to examine them or try to change them. The familiar epigram comes to mind: ‘Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living’.”

And we are committed to appreciating tradition, even starting some ourselves; and yet running from an attitude of traditionalism – worshiping tradition.

We will worship to make disciples in our community by:

· Helping non-believers connect to Christ

This also includes people who are coming to church without knowing anything about how worship was done 10 years ago let alone 200 years ago. They know their culture but they don’t know Jesus. We are responsible to introduce them to Him. We are called by God to make disciples in Westlake, Ohio and its surrounding communities in 2007 and beyond. So, although we use whatever we can from the past, our primary focus is on using whatever God has given us today to reach today’s people in order to make disciples today.

This means we will use anything within the boundaries of God’s Word to make disciples through corporate worship. When it comes to singing, we will use choirs and solos and worship teams and whatever will make the connection with people today. We will use organs and guitars and violins and drums, if we have people to play these instruments and if they can be done in an honoring way – to communicate God’s truth today.

We are not necessarily going to change everything we do just so non-believers will like it; but we will keep in mind that non-believers do come to Grace and will come and will be watching us worship! Is it our purpose to worship in a way that they cannot understand at all because it comes from another century that we hold dear? We know that non-believers cannot truly worship because they do not have the Holy Spirit within them.

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Southern California said: “Although unbelievers cannot truly worship, they can watch believers worship. They can observe the joy that we feel. They can see how we value God’s Word and how we respond to it. They can hear how the Bible answers the problems and questions of life. They can notice how worship encourages, strengthens, and changes us. They can sense when God is supernaturally moving in a service, although they won’t be able to explain it. When unbelievers watch genuine worship, it becomes a powerful witness.”

We want people to experience our love and worship and be able to say what Paul wanted non-believers to say about the worship in those biblical churches:

I Corinthians 14:25 – “God is truly among you…”

We will worship to make disciples in our community by:

· Making disciples of Christ, not of particular people, churches or denominations.

So, just because some people would rather live and worship in a day gone by, we cannot let that stop us from using all God has given us today to reach people and worship Him. This means we will use sound systems, CD’s, background tapes, video, drama, congregational participation in a variety of ways; and anything else God has given us to be able to help make disciples in this generation in this community. It affects how we do announcements, how we do worship music and how we communicate the Word of God to today’s people. It affects how we dress.

Now, I know that there are just as many strong opinions about how we dress in church as there are about the kind of music we use. That may be for another sermon at another time. But, let me at least give this simple principle: Dress in a way that you feel comfortable with, but that will also not be distracting or discouraging to those who come to our church from the outside. That means we are not going to have a specific dress code.

In know of people who have made it their priority to teach women that if they ever wear pants, they are disobeying Scripture and dishonoring God; and any church that allows women to wear pants is dishonoring God. Really? People have even tried to make the Scriptures say that. Not long ago, I had someone quote Deuteronomy and tell me this. However, the Bible doesn’t tell us these details. It gives us principles to go by.

We expect you to dress in a way people dress in 2007 in our community – in an appropriate and modest way. That is going to look different depending on who you are. That’s ok! There is diversity and variety in dress as well!

This also means that we will do things that other people and groups have done, with whom we do not fully agree. For example, a couple weeks ago, we found out that the organ was used in the Catholic Church well before the Christian Church, and that the Reformers wanted nothing to do with it because others might think they were like the Catholics. We don’t have that fear today because of the organ; but we fear other things for the same reasons.

One reason people are concerned about raising your hands in worship has nothing to do with whether or not it will honor God. They are just concerned that people might think we’re charismatic. Who cares? This is about making disciples of Christ not Baptist disciples or charismatic or Presbyterian disciples. Right? Just because a Catholic wrote a song; or a Methodist wrote a drama; or an instrument is also used in a nightclub – all of these, used appropriately within the church can bring glory to Him. So, we have stained glass windows like many dead churches around the world. Does that mean we are dead and dishonoring to God? And we cannot worry that someone is going to call us names or say that we are worldly because we use something the world uses for their own purposes.

We will worship to make disciples in our community by:
· Engaging people with the truths of God

In seeking to engage people in discussion and considering the truths of God, we will use what we have to honor God, including the area of music.

Our music might be criticized – for being too worldly or being too churchy. Some might think its too progressive and some too conservative; and neither side can understand how the other side can see it that way! People might complain that some of the music we sing has a lot of repetition in it; but they fail to recognize that not only is repetition a great teaching tool (and we have learned from the Bible that part of the purpose of music is teaching); but also that the worship in the Scriptures, including the Psalms, used quite a bit of repetition.

Someone might call us worldly because we use videos, dramas and other teaching styles in order to communicate God’s unchanging truth to our changing times. We use a variety of resources to communicate with today’s people. Sometimes, the criticism is given: You’re just about entertainment. That was entertainment, not worship. Well, can you really judge that? I believe if Jesus lived here today, many people would accuse him of entertainment. Why? Because his main teaching method was simply telling stories – good stories, entertaining stories, challenging stories. He didn’t parse Hebrew verbs or walk them verse by verse through Leviticus. Now, I believe one of the best ways we can teach God’s Word is by teaching the books of the Bible. But, we use methods that engage. Our desire is to engage people with God’s truth, not entertain. But, some who are critical may still view it that way. That’s o.k.!

This brings us to the fun topic of separation. Without getting into detail, many take God’s command to be separate from the world’s philosophy to mean that we should not use anything the world uses for good. So, if you use a certain drama or video or instrument or song, you will be accused of being worldly. Let’s be very careful how we use that term. Let’s use it in its biblical context to describe a world view that opposes Christ rather than using “worldly” to describe something that can be used for good or evil.

Warren Wiersbe – Real Worship – “I was told that separation was the secret to a successful church. But then I saw ‘separated churches’ fight among themselves, split and splinter, and sometimes hurt the testimony of Christ in a community…Separation apart from worship can- and usually does – become a brittle piety that breeds arrogance, legalism, and an unbiblical isolation from both the world and the church.”

But I had someone tell me recently that separation was really the important thing. We will separate from the world’s philosophy, but we are not afraid to be accused of being worldly just because we are using what God has made available to reach people and to worship for His glory. We will not apologize for that!

We are not closed. We are flexible. We are concerned more about people than programs. It is our highest desire to glorify God and through worship encourage people to take their next steps toward Him.

Let’s stand together.
I would like us to close our worship series with the song we were introduced to in the first message of this series, and that we sang together last week. It is a song of commitment for each of us. Think about what you are singing. Believe it. And then, live it out.

HEART OF WORSHIP