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Liturgical Lessons from the Decalogue: The Priority of Prologue
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." (Exodus 20:2 NASB)
The Decalogue is a relational covenant between God and God's people, rooted in what God has done to make that relationship possible. God has delivered us all from slavery -- literally, metaphorically, or both. In Exodus 20, the Decalogue's prohibitions and directives are all framed as responses to the all-important prologue acknowledging our deliverance by God. But in practice, this prologue is rarely emphasized. And as a result, the subsequent relational covenant of freedom becomes yet another burden, a doctrine of self-improvement that merely replaces one yoke with another. The spiritual slavery of this moralism is nowhere more insidiously prevalent than in Christian worship. And unlike its more rigid cousin, legalism, moralism appeals to liberals, conservatives and everyone in between. Read More
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Private Praise
Many times the largest extent of our praise is only what we offer God in public. Most of us don't spend enough private time with God meditating on His works and His Word. Private time in praise to God is essential for proper spiritual nourishment. David tells us in Psalm 34:8, "O, taste and see that the Lord is good." Our pure praise is like a delicious meal that nourishes our souls. So what happens when we don't spend enough private time with God? Let's think of it like this. We all love to eat, right? Well, some of us more than others. However whether you are a food fanatic or have an ordinary appetite, eating is vital to our mental and physical growth. In order to be healthy we must eat daily. If we don't follow these dietary guidelines, our bodies will become diseased. What would happen if you were only allowed to eat one meal per week? I believe that if you only ate once per week, when meal time came around, you would be starving. When you arrive at your weekly potluck and the food is served, it is unlikely that you would be cheerful, greet others, and spend time talking with people about their personal needs. You probably won't have a desire to socialize because you are starving. Your sole purpose would be to first feed yourself! I imagine you would squeeze through the crowd, fill your plate to overflowing, then sit contented and inactive with your belly full.
Sadly, many of us act the same way with our one-day-per-week praise.
Read More Editor's note: This article is an excerpt from an upcoming book titled, Deeper Praise: Music, Majesty or Mayhem. |
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Establishing a Worship & Music Ministry in Your Local Church (Part I)
Weekly corporate worship is an essential activity for a vital relationship with God. It teaches us about His power and also helps us tune out the things in our lives that distract us from Him. Ultimately, it inspires us for our mission of seeking justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.
Investing time and resources in the planning and implementation of such an important part of the Christian experience is essential in every church and Christian community. The following summaries from a recent presentation for the Andrews University Music and Worship Conference address some of the fundamental questions that need to be considered when starting a Worship & Music Ministry at any church. What is Worship? Worship is not simply music, or musical performance. Rather, it is the comprehensive crafting and implementation of a church experience, as well as the facilitation of participating personnel and groups. This means that all of the events of a Sabbath morning should be considered as part of the worship experience. Effective worship will begin in the parking lot and linger with the individual participants throughout their week.
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Audio-Visual Ministry in Worship
 | | Eddie Cornejo |
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Worship is one of the Core Qualities of the pastor. Worship is defined in Core Qualities as "facilitating an enriching corporate worship experience that brings people into the presence of God." There are eighteen worship seminars at the CALLED Convention.
To find out what is offered open the CALLED app or go to this link:
https://event.crowdcompass.com/called/multi-level-list/ScheduleByTopic/2
You may have to type in the password 'pastor' to open that page. |
Adventist Worship Music (AWM) is a new initiative for digital print music by Adventist composers and arrangers. It will launch this Summer, 2015.
Watch for our booth at the upcoming CALLED NAD Pastoral Family Convention in Austin and the General Conference Session in San Antonio.
Adventist Worship Music (AWM) is a publisher and distributor that seeks to resource Adventist churches with new worship music and further the contribution of Adventist worship music to the broader Christian worship community. We value music that reflects the diversity of the global church, the rich heritage of Christian congregational song, and new expressions of worship. We strive to commission, curate and promote Christ-centered music of artistic and theological integrity that builds up the Body of Christ, is in harmony with Adventist doctrine, and enriches the life of the world.
All music will distributed through AdventSource.
For more information or to make submissions, please write to [email protected].
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| "Worship should be an act of seeing and judgment. Revelation 14 and 15 invite us - in the context of worship - to see and judge the world from God's wider perspective. Worship that embraces judgment is a sight-altering activity that can serve as a corrective to viewing life through the limited and potentially distorted lenses of culture. We have an opportunity to use the transport of worship to provide some much-needed critical distance on 'the way things are' and to spark worshipers' theological imagination about 'the way things really are' when seen with God's final verdict in mind."
Steve Yeagley, Gravity and the Weightlessness of Worship: Worship, Media, and Apocalyptic in Conversation
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