Here are a couple thoughts on rediscovering the “rich heritage of old worship practices” as well as a link to some interesting articles on “The New Hymns Movement”
“Modern worship is witnessing a renaissance. Within the now decades-old phenomenon known as “contemporary worship,” a new generation of young people is discovering (perhaps for the first time) the rich heritage of the old worship practices and the ancient song of the Christian church. Diving into the deep waters of Christian hymnody, they are reopening a dusty vault filled with hymn texts long forgotten. As they pilfer the files, they are discovering songs that their hearts long to sing but contemporary worship rarely provides. And they are now bushwhacking an overgrown but once well-trodden path of church music…setting old hymns to new music. They are re-fitting ancient texts into the idioms and expressions of modern folk, pop, and rock music. They are singing these “new hymns” in college gatherings, urban and suburban church plants, student camps, and now even some mainstream established churches. They are producing albums which rival the sonic heights of the more popular worship leaders and artists.”
~ Zac Hicks
Want even more explanation/analysis?
Cardiphonia: Observations on the New Hymns Movement ( Part 1 | Part 2 )
This song has been encouraging to me this week, especially in light of the message this past Sunday from 1 Corinthians 15 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
“Absent From Flesh” is another great song reminding us that our future glory is secure and in fact something to look forward to with great anticipation.
Absent'From'Flesh
by Isaac Watts / Jamie Barnes
Verse 1
Absent from flesh, O blissful thought
What joy this moment brings
Freed from the blame my sin has brought,
From pain and death and its sting.
Verse 2
Absent from flesh, O Glorious day!
In one triumphant stroke
My reckoning paid, my charges dropped
and the bonds 'round my hands are broke.
CHORUS:
I go where God and glory shine,
To one eternal day
This failing body I now resign,
For the angels point my way.
For the angels point my way.
Verse 3
Absent from flesh! then rise, my soul,
Where feet nor wings could climb,
Beyond the sky, where planets roll,
And beyond all keep of time.
Acts 8 records a conversation with Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch.
Philip, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, encounters the Ethiopian reading Isaiah and asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
The Ethiopian man replies, “How can I unless someone guides me?”
Paul asks the following questions in Romans 10, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ.”
Again Paul writes, this time in Ephesians 4, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature man hood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, Jesus Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
God has given people with “word gifts” to the church to announce the gospel for the salvation of his people, to announce the gospel for the equipping of his people, and to announce the gospel for the sanctification of his people. John Calvin reminds us that it is not the Word of God that needs help in these ways, but the hearers and readers. He writes, “Although the Holy Scripture contains a perfect doctrine, to which one can add nothing, since in it our Lord has meant to display infinite treasures of his wisdom, yet a person who has not much practice in is has good reason for some guidance and direction, to know what he ought to look for in it, in order not to wander hither and thither, but to hold to a sure path, that he may always be pressing toward the end to which the Holy Spirit calls him.”
Here is the content of a spam comment on our site, “there some rly interesting content on here. I personally prefer bestfreepc.com tho, the offers are way better.” Obviously, spam comments are mechanically generated without regard to the content of the article on which they are commenting; nonetheless, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of a free pc being presented as a better offer than gospel of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 10.16, Paul writes, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”
If we are participants in the blood of Christ, the following passages inform our identity-
“…though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1.18, ESV).
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5.21, ESV).
Our blood is not shed for our sin, but Jesus’ blood, in which we participate, is.
If we are participants in the body of Christ, the following passages inform our identity-
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5.17, ESV).
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4.15, ESV).
We have not fulfilled the law and endured temptation in the flesh without sin, but Jesus’ did and gave his body, in which we participate, for us.
The Lord’s Supper is a gift for the church given through and instituted by Jesus Christ. The great mystery of this meal is that Christ is really present in this meal, so that when we feast by faith, we feast on Christ himself and are participants in his blood and body. The Lord’s Supper is a glorious time in the life of the church in which grace is really received and the people of God are truly strengthened as we feast on the body and blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
As we all know, Steve Jobs died on Tuesday. He has been rightly heralded as an innovative genius in the technology sphere. His beautifully-simple and highly-functional arrangements of various plastics, metals, and glasses have changed the way we think about technology, the way we buy and listen to music, what we expect from a computer, and what we think a “phone” is for. He was one of the greatest designers and salesmen we have ever known, and at the news of his death, we picked up our iPhones, iPads, and iPods to fill Facebook and Twitter with clever epitaphs such as -
“iSad”
“iRIP”
“iGrieve”
“Ten years ago we had Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, and Steve Jobs. Now we have no jobs, no cash, and no hope.”
“Three apples changed the world, Adam’s, Newton’s, and Steve’s.”
It simply cannot be denied that Steve Jobs made a tremendous contribution to technology and therefore had a tremendous impact on our increasingly technology-driven lives. John Dyer wrote an interesting and helpful theological reflection on Steve Jobs; you can read it here.
Someone else died on Tuesday (to be fair, somewhere upwards of 150,000 people died on Tuesday). Another man whose life and work had a profound impact on our social landscape, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Rev. Shuttlesworth was a preacher in Alabama before, during, and after the civil rights movement. Though he could have, he never resigned his pulpit to be a fulltime civil-rights activist; however, he never backed down from such fights either. Rev. Shuttlesworth understood that living life in light of the gospel had certain, hard implications. He also understood that the imago Dei had certain, hard implications.
While we don’t carry the contributions of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth around with us in our pockets and purses, it simply cannot be denied that Rev. Shuttlesworth made a tremendous sacrifice in order to fight for the humanity and dignity of all people and therefore had a tremendous impact on our increasingly multi-cultural lives. Bishop Will Willimon wrote a short article on Rev. Shuttlesworth that you can read here, and The New York Times carried a biographical article that you can read here.
At Christ Church Conway, we believe that our worship is much more than the songs we sing, but in fact, we were created to worship in every aspect of our lives. With that said, we do sing new songs, hymns, and psalms every week as part of our weekly services. Many of these songs are hymns with the traditional tunes, many are ancient hymn text set to new tunes, some written by us some from Indelible Grace, Red Mountain Music, and others. The song list below is a good sampling of the style of music and many of the songs we sing every week. We believe that through these songs and hymns a rich theology is presented that can help us understand the faithfulness, grace, and mercy of our God as they aid us in our Worship.
Call To Worship God is the sovereign over all creation and is worthy of all glory, praise, and reverence. We gather to worship him because he has called his people to worship him as the true and living God.
Psalm 134
1 Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
2 Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord!
Song : I Boast No More Words Isaac Watts Music Sandra McCracken
1. No more, my God, I boast no more
Of all the duties I have done;
I quit the hopes I held before,
To trust the merits of Thy Son
2. Now, for the loss I bear His name,
What was my gain I count my loss;
My former pride I call my shame,
And nail my glory to His cross.
Chorus: No more my God,
No more my God,
No more my God,
I boast no more.
3.Yes, and I must and will esteem
All things but loss for Jesus’ sake;
O may my soul be found in Him,
And of His righteousness partake!
4. The best obedience of my hands
Dares not appear before Thy throne;
But faith can answer Thy demands,
By pleading what my Lord has done.
Song: Christ or Else I Die
Words – William Hammond, 1719-1783
Music – Drew Holcomb, 2004
Gracious Lord, incline thy ear;
My requests vouchsafe to hear;
Hear my never-ceasing cry;
Give me Christ, or else I die.
Wealth and honor I disdain,
Earthly comforts, Lord are vain;
These can never satisfy:
Give me Christ, or else I die.
All unholy and unclean,
I am nothing else but sin;
On thy mercy I rely;
Give me Christ, or else I die.
Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 7 “You Are Not Your Own”
Explanation of the Order of Worship
The regular pattern of the worship service at Christ Church Conway is organized in four cycles: Praise, Acknowledgement of Human Condition, Means of Grace, and Response. The goal of this structure is that God may be glorified as we proclaim who he is (Praise), confess our need for him (Acknowledgment of Human Condition), hear what Christ has done for his people and receive God’s grace (Means of Grace), and respond in praise (Response).
Throughout history, the people of God have sung of the glory of God. The book of Psalms is a collection of some of the songs God’s people have sung. We continue now in the biblical tradition of singing praises to our God.
Hymn of Praise : To God Be The Glory Fanny J. Crosby | William Howard Doane
To God be the glory, great things He has done;
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.
Refrain:
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He has done.
Creator, giver of all things:
All I have is Yours.
Accept my humble offering:
All I have is Yours.
When I was chained to greed and pride,
Tight-fisted, destined just to die,
You paid my debt and bought my life –
All I have is Yours.
All I have. All I have. All I have is yours.
This offering is a means of grace.
All I have is Yours.
You show me this to grow my faith:
All I have is Yours.
The more I give, the less I need.
I learn that You’ll provide for me.
’twas blind to this but now I see –
All I have is Yours.
The Bible teaches us to confess our sin to one another. Here, having heard the Law, scriptural warning, and way of salvation, we corporately confess our sins and our need for the mercy of the Father, which comes only through Jesus Christ.
Prayer of Confession
Congregation: Most gracious Father, your Word makes clear that you created us for your glory, that you have called your people out of the darkness of world to be dwell in your light, that we have been bought with a price and are not our own. Yet Father, we stand against you, seeking our own glory, finding hope, satisfaction, and security in the darkness of this world rather than in the light of your Son, Jesus Christ, and submitting ourselves again to the yoke of slavery calling it freedom. Father, remember us according to your everlasting covenant and your steadfast love and mercy. For the sake of your Son, forgive us our sins. By your Spirit, strengthen us to walk in the freedom of holiness. Amen.
Romans 6.23 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hymn of Response :Pass Me Not words: Fanny Crosby music: Lance Johnston & Treva Blomquist
Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
Let me at thy throne of mercy
find a sweet relief,
kneeling there in deep contrition;
help my unbelief.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the church world (and perhaps especially among the reformed), the quickest way to remove grace from a conversation is to start talking about corporate worship – what we should and shouldn’t do, what styles are godly and ungodly, who the worship service is for, etc., etc., etc. Here are three blog posts (1, 2, 3) dealing with various aspects of the conversation – as you can see, grace is not always what comes to mind.
Corporate worship is something that we need to be be thinking and talking about, and it is not just the preachers and musicians that need to be talking about it. Corporate worship is necessarily something that we should all be involved in, therefore we all need to be thinking and talking about it. I would add, there is a specific aspect that we need to be thinking and talking about and that is the why aspect. Why do we come together and worship? Why do we do what we do? I am not saying this is the most fundamental question in the conversation necessarily, but I do think it is a very important one. How we answer this question directly impacts most of the other conversations and attitudes we have regarding corporate worship.
So, my challenge to you is to think biblically about why we worship? I say think biblically, to keep us all from taking our own personal reasons for why we worship and making them absolute. It may be that we come to the gathering for some sub-biblical reason. It may be that we need to be challenged in our attitudes and motivations toward worship. Perhaps a good place to begin our thinking on this would be the Psalms of Ascent, Psalms 120-134. These were the songs that the Hebrew people sang as they made their way to the temple to worship their God. Spend some time reading and meditating on these wonderful Psalms and be encouraged that we have a God worthy of our worship.
