WorshipHelps

Back in Nov., I got an insightful email from a congregant about a phrase we sang in a song during our weekend church services.  The song was "Give Us Clean Hands" by Charlie Hall.

See if you can find the phrase in question.  Here are the lyrics:

Give Us Clean Hands
Charlie Hall

Verse
We bow our hearts we bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idolsContinue reading...

During the season of Advent waiting is a central theme. The community of Jesus’ time was waiting for the promised messiah to come. They were waiting for someone to deliver them from an oppressive political structure. There was unnecessary violence, moral religious laws trumping acts of love and justice and a veiled connection between the politically powerful and the religiously powerful. We know that Jesus was crucified by both the religious majority of his time in cahoots with the political ruler Pontius Pilot. We see politics and religion today being used in ways that go against God’s plan for us and creation. John Mayer in his song “Waiting On the World To Change” expresses frustration about the current situation and hope for something better. He begins by saying:

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

***Continue reading...

I listened to a number of CCM artists recently for an article I was writing for The Hymn, and what surprised me was how often they quoted the words of well-known hymns. Jars of Clay, Kirk Franklin, Selah, DC Talk, Newsboys, all slip easily from pop vernacular into the heightened language taken directly from Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley or Fanny Crosby.

At first, I found it odd, even though I knew the work of some of them. Where does this come from? Isn't the idea of “contemporary” music to be, well, contemporary? Aren't contemporary artists supposed to be exploring a contemporary language of worship along with the contemporary musical idiom they are exploring?

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There's a cynical take on this. CCM artists are putting out hymn “product” In the same way that any commercial act will produce a Christmas album. Let's face it: Christmas piety sells. A Christian audience responds, at least in part, to the familiar cadences of traditional hymnody.Continue reading...

The season of Advent is the beginning of the church year. If you follow the lectionary readings for this season you will find that they are accounts of prophets proclaiming the coming of God’s kingdom and anticipation of the coming of the messiah. We re-live this anticipation through these texts, our music, and even the way creation enters more deeply into darkness until the passing of the winter solstice.

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History and Symbolism

The Advent wreath has its roots in northern European pre-Christian practices where people sought the return of the sun in the darkest time of the year (at the winter solstice) by lighting candles and fires. By the middle ages, Christians used fire and light to represent Christ's coming into the world. Using this same symbolism, the Advent wreath developed a few centuries ago in Germany. The advent wreath signifies waiting and hopeful expectation, looking forward to both Christ’s birth and to Christ’s coming again at the end of time. The circular shape of the wreath represents eternal life. The evergreens signify the faithfulness of God and the lighted candles reminder us of the light of Christ in the world.Continue reading...

On Thanksgiving Day many churches offer a very traditional worship service: Psalm 100, a litany of thanksgiving, “Come, You Thankful People, Come.” On a day when we look back with gratitude at God’s good gifts to us, it makes sense to make use of the work and wisdom of our forebears and to worship using that which is tried and true. Other congregations seek innovation: pilgrim puppets behind the pulpit, prayers of thanks colored (not written) in crayon on scraps of paper and dropped in the offering plate.

Our culture craves novelty, which may explain—but doesn’t necessarily commend—our thirst for it. A more laudable urge is to offer in our worship not a stale tradition, repeated out of habit, but something original: our creative expression, our prayers and words and music, our very selves. We want to offer something fresh and new. But must it be an either/or choice?  Many congregations are very successful in their efforts to examine the tried and true traditions (often more true than actually tried), identify the best in them, and then freshen them in ways sensitive to their contexts.  Here are a few ideas...

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Call to Worship
Psalm 100 is just the right Scripture to use as a call to worship on Thanksgiving Day. It’s familiar, and it summons God’s people both to worship and to give thanks. But the elevated diction of most psalm translations, and the formal quiet out of which calls to worship are often spoken, can diminish the psalm’s affective energy. To generate enthusiasm, some congregations bring out their best thespian/liturgist to lead the reading with strong voice and grand gesture. But the right song might work as well—if not better—to encourage rather than coerce the congregation into eager, participative praise. For example, teach and then sing the song “Come, All You People” (it can be found in the hymnal supplement Sing! A New Creation) at the very start of the service, and let the energy leak into the responsive reading of Psalm 100 as a call to worship. Let it leak by maintaining a soft percussive pulse, and maybe a low bass drone, throughout the speaking. Then reprise the song afterward, and the service will have begun with faithfulness and vigor.  (See the music here, hear it here.)Continue reading...

What should Christians do when we gather to worship?   Of course, there are all sorts of things we actually do: we stand, we sit, we sing, we raise our hands, we are silent, we eat and drink, we pray.  Then again, we do all these things when we attend a football game.  But in worship we do all these things (and many more) with worshipful purposes in mind: to confess, to praise, to hear the Word, etc.  But we don't do every possible option at every single service.  So what elements are so important that we should not do without them?

The Bible offers many examples of the sorts of things worshippers do when they assemble:  the Old Testament records in great detail what Temple worship was supposed to look like, including the specifics of animal and agricultural sacrifices.  The gospel of Luke tells of reading from the scriptures as part of synogogue worship.  Acts 2 tells us that the early church devoted itself to the "apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."  So my question is this:  what are the non-negotiables of worship?  When God's people gather, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to renew the convenant of grace in Christ Jesus, what stuff do we do?  What actions do we perform that are non-negotiable?  If we gather to worship and never hear a sermon, is it worship?  If we don't break bread at the table, have we worshipped?  If we don't pray., or sing...  You get the idea.  What do you think?  Post your comments.

A Book of the Names of the Dead is a very meaningful ritual for All Saints Day. Find a large beautifully bound book with blank pages. Sentences of scripture related to saints and the resurrection might be written in the margins. Or, you can purchase this book from Liturgy Training Publications. A few weeks before All Saints Day, place the book in the church and invite people to write the names of loved ones they wish to remember. Read the names aloud during the distribution of communion at your All Saints Day service. This ritual reminds us that one aspect of the Lord's Supper is the communion with all the saints. When we eat and drink, we dine with our loved ones and all the saints who have gone before us. Instead of reading the names during communion distribution, you could included the names in the prayers or read them at the font in connection with baptismal remembrance.

Each year we come to the end of October and the planning calendar reminds us that “Daylight Savings Time ends”! But more importantly the calendar will also remind us that the last Sunday in October is “Reformation Sunday”. However, a closer look will reveal that October 31 is “Reformation Day” (not Halloween on the Church calendar) and November 1st is “All Saints’ Day”. What is a church to celebrate? This year “Reformation Sunday is October 29th” and the next Sunday is not All Saints but “Christian and Citizen” Sunday. Of course, in a perfect world, we would celebrate the Reformation on October 31st and All Saints on November 1st. However, it is not always easy to get people to come to church during the week (as we observe during Holy Week). I admit, Christmas is an exception, but then again even the culture has consumed this holiday!

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During the period of the church calendar between Trinity Sunday and Christ the King, All Saints is our only feast day. It is also the time of the year when the harvest is beginning in the northern hemisphere. During the harvest images of abundance and feasting begin to appear. This is also the time when we celebrate those who have completed their baptism (those who have died) and celebrate with joy the communion of saints with whom we raise our voices in song at the Lord’s Table each communion (…we raise our voices with the choirs of angels and the faithful of every time and place who forever sing to the glory of Your name... –Great Prayer of Thanksgiving). The feast of All Saints reminds us that our baptism is a life-long journey and that we are joined with those who have completed their baptism (died in the faith) in the mystery of the sacrament of communion. And this is a foretaste of that ultimate banquet feast to come! When the ultimate harvest is complete! Baptism and Eucharist are the primary symbols of this feast day. The symbols of water, wine and bread should be present and engaged each Sunday. However, on this day we celebrate how they join us as one community across time and space. We are reminded that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ. It is through baptism that we enter the church and only in death is our baptism complete. At the table we are joined with Christ, one another and the faithful of every time and place.

One of the key changes sought after by the Reformers was a reclaiming of sacramental practice that involved the gathered community of faith. Giving communion back to the people and making baptism an act done in public with the congregation were important pieces of the Reformation. In a time when our church is also reclaiming a more frequent sacramental practice, the celebration of Reformation Sunday as also a the Feast Day of All Saints may be a powerful way to celebrate and connect baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In Call to Worship, Year B, vol. 39.1, there are liturgical resources for each Sunday as well as feast days. There is two pages dedicated to All Saints’ Day (pp.198-199) that can be helpful in constructing an All Saints’/Reformation Sunday. Also the Book of Common Worship, p.385-391, is dedicated to this Feast Day of All Saints’. If you are not planning a special Feast Day celebration on November 1st then you may consider using this material to celebrate All Saints’ as well as Reformation Sunday this year.Continue reading...

A guest minister who came to preach at our church told me that, during the “children's time”, he planned to sing one of his own songs with the children. So, he brought his guitar and taught them a song whose chorus went something like this:

Bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs,
Bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs.

I forget what the song was about: it may have had something to do with Noah and the Ark, but the kids sang willingly enough, and trooped off to Sunday School. But it made me both wince and wonder.
I winced because the guest minister pitched the song far too low for their voices, choosing a comfortable key for the guitar (C major) that had them straining to sing an F below middle C.

Therefore, if you are a guitar player, start with the children's range before you choose the key, rather than the other way round. Typically children's lowest note is the G below middle C (the open third string on the guitar). Make sure the song uses that note very little; middle C is much better as a low note. For practical purposes, children's high note is somewhere between C an octave above (first string, 8th fret), and E a third above that. Of course, children can sing higher, but I am here writing about congregational singing, not practiced choral (or solo) singing.Continue reading...

For a fine article about 'contemporary' worship -- structure, style, planning, etc. -- that features some of the authors of this blog, click here.