WORSHIP VISION REFLECTION

Last Sunday evening I had the privilege of meeting with nearly 80 people in the chapel at FBCD.  Many of them were Christians before I was born.  The topic was music and Sunday Worship.  My desire to free the worship team from constraints, move the drums, and adjust the volume were the catalyst for the meeting.  I deeply appreciate the love, passion, and concern of all present.

The meeting resembled many previous worship discussions I have participated in.  Hymns, praise songs, tradition, volume, respect, dress, repetition, lighting, carnality, the degradation of musical quality, and the specter of worldly performance were all present.  The dramatic evolution of church music over the past 40 years was very evident.

After several decades of this conversation I am convinced it is unresolvable.  My dad hated loud music when I was 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, and 60.  We rarely liked the same volume or genre.  Music played by people who love Jesus is wonderfully diverse.  It is loud, soft, old, new, fast, and slow.  The Archbishop of Canterbury hated Handel’s Messiah.  A Mighty Fortress was written to the tune of a German bar song.  Baptist Pastors of the early 1800’s called the piano an ivory keyed devil sent from hell to seduce the church.  Even the organ was originally banned from the church.  Over the last 80 years the world has changed more than during any period of history.  This is both a blessing and a curse for those known as the Builder Generation.  Some changes are wonderful, others not so much.

Our vision for worship cannot revolve around subjective elements of personal taste or generational preference.  We must ask some very different, and difficult questions.  Do we want our children and grandchildren to keep leaving and going to other churches?  Is our worship style driven by the taste of the found, or the lost?  What did Jesus say about missing coins, lost sheep, serving, and seeking? 

George Barna was right when he said, "VISION DIVIDES BEFORE IT UNIFIES."  If FBCD decides their mandate from Christ is doing anything short of sin to win the lost then how people dress, what color paint goes on the walls, what songs we sing, and how the sanctuary evolves are settled issues.  We will paint, sing, dress, and set the volume for 2017.  We will create a safe place for the next generation of seeking souls to come and discover the eternal gospel of our glorious Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  I will continue to press you about INWARD, OUTWARD, FORWARD, AND BACKWARD.  Two of them will bring new life.  Two of them will kill you.

I am ready, willing, and able to work hard on volume, song selection, Biblical preaching, and building a growing group of worship leaders.  There is a place in worship for the hymns of the faith.  The great ones have a story, history, and theology worth knowing and singing.  But if your vision is INWARD AND BACKWARD it will be difficult to call a pastor with a passion for reaching the lost.  If young people conclude you are committed to yesterday, they will find a church moving joyfully forward toward tomorrow.  This may be right.  It might be wrong.  But it is an inescapable reality.  I understand it is not fair.  I realize what I am asking the mature saints to give up for the next generation.  But if we are truly in the family business then Jesus Christ calls us to join Him on His cross for the sake of the lost.  Releasing our personal needs for the sake of the lost opens a wide door for the harvest of souls, and amazing joy at FBCD!

In this together,

Paul