Worship Service Music

Let’s talk about a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot this week--the music part of church services. I won’t call it “worship” in church, because worship is not synonymous with music. Worship is so much more than music.

What do we (whether a worship leader or a congregation member) want from the music during church? If you want to put on or watch a performance, then don’t read further. These comments are not for you.

If you’re looking for a communal experience of building one another up as you worship, then I have some thoughts for those leading the music.

First, do not introduce more than one new song each week.  And when you introduce a new song, sing it three weeks in a row. People cannot participate when they do not know the song. This is something Kennon Bickhart was great at!

Second, not every song on the radio is singable by a group of people. Many churches have done away with the “special music” part of the service, where a soloist would present a song. Because of that, maybe we’re trying to turn every song into a congregational song?  I don’t know, but that just doesn’t work.

I have been in more than one church where the congregation has been scolded about not singing along, when the songs were either unknown or too difficult to sing.

Third, if the purpose of the music is to worship God and to build one another up, the people need to be able to hear each other singing. If the music is too loud for that, it needs to be turned down. Michael Hendricks wrote in The Other Half of Church, “When we sing to each other, the words, the melody, the sound from musical instruments, and the expressions on our faces as we all sing enter our back-right hemisphere and travel forward. The right side is nonverbal, so the words flow to the front without being fully processed, but the other input is full of material that creates right-brain imagery. Facial expressions, melody, and the relational tone of our community as we all sing stimulate our right brains to build joy, relational attunement, character, and identity.” None of this will happen if we can’t hear and see each other sing… if we’re not singing at all because the songs are unknown or too musically difficult to follow.

The theology of the songs we’re singing is another point that could be made here, but it’s a topic in and of itself.

The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation

The elders at our church are reading this book together, and two of them are in our supper club.  One family graciously bought books for everyone to have, and we started reading it together two or three times a week after dinner.  We're only in chapter 2 and we are getting so much out of it!

The basic premise is that character formation happens in the right brain, yet almost everything we do to promote spiritual growth in our churches is a left-brained activity. Michael Hendricks, the author, was the Spiritual Formation Pastor at his church. He wrote, "Most leaders, like me, have never developed their own maturity skills. Churches are filled with leaders who are gifted at theology, preaching, and vision-casting, but may not have relational and emotional skills." (p. 42) This hit us all between the eyes because it so perfectly describes the church we recently left more than any other toxic churches we've belonged to in the past.

Hendricks talked about Dallas Willard and his book The Great Omission, which I have actually read.  "Dallas Willard wrote that pastors often focus on less important tasks and push aside the most important job of discipleship. This is a natural result of left-brained Christianity, which gravitates toward strategies that are measurable--number of dollars, number of people, number of campuses, number of small groups. The slow, messy work of character formation, which is hard to measure, is displaced by quantifiable goals." (p. 42)

Our previous pastor spent hours and hours with the elders working out a specific, detailed church discipline policy, so that there was no need to do the "slow, messy work".

We can't wait to read more of this book!

A Church Called Tov - Chapter 12: "Tov Churches Nurture Christlikeness", Part 2

The authors wind up their message in this wonderful book by defining pastor, church, and success. Their final words are prescriptive.

First, what is a pastor? The authors begin with a long quote from Eugene Peterson, which is fabulous but too long to post here. Get the book and read it. Peterson asserts that the crisis of pastors and congregations becoming disillusioned with each other has become epidemic. He wonders if a "cultural assumption that all leaders are people who 'get things done' and 'make things happen' is at the root of this crisis. (p. 211) McKnight and Barringer pick up on this and assert that a tov culture requires a church to "operate according to God's design, not the latest leadership model." (p. 211)  Furthermore, God's design to a pastor is stated as follows: "A pastor is someone called to nurture Christoformity in himself or herself and in others." (p. 211)

"It is a sad fact that many pastors (and therefore many congregants) think the primary purpose of Sunday mornings is to preach (or listen to) a sermon. Preaching is part of the purpose, but when it becomes the central or all-encompassing purpose, Sunday mornings become little more than 'come hear me preach.' A 'come hear me preach' culture is not tov." (p. 212-213)  Barringer admits that she's been guilty of this obsession with preaching, and so have I.  I read not long ago an article in Premier Christianity magazine by Skye Jethani called "The Case Against Sermon-Centric Sundays" which really changed my thinking. Excellent preaching can be found anywhere today, thanks to technology.  Gathering together on Sunday should be based around community, sharing the Lord's Supper, etc. Those things cannot be replaced online. 

Barringer tells how their transition from Willow Creek to a church that follows the church calendar changed everything for them. They began to understand that the "purpose of church is not the preacher." The service builds toward taking and receiving the Lord's Supper with their church family rather than toward a sermon. Their pastor places the bread in their hands and calls each congregant by name. She concludes, "We've come to understand that 'church' is not an event, and it is not about the pastor's sermon. Church attendance is about joining a community of believers and being nurtured in the faith. Church is about soul work and confession of sin. Church is about relationships and community--which take time to build. Church is about knowing and being known, loving and being loved, serving and being served... We love our pastor because he is gentle and humble, he knows our names, and he is happy to see us, not because he's a good speaker." (p. 213-215)

Second, what is a church? The authors begin with what the church is not--a business.  It's not "producing a product, and it doesn't gauge success based on measurables." (p. 215) "Church as a people, not an organization, business, or enterprise, is the means by which other people are enfolded into God's family. Our purpose is redemptive and restorative, not for profit, position, or power." (p. 216) Finally, "the genius of the church is the expansion to include Gentiles, those who were formerly outside the covenant and strangers to the promises. The church is a multiethnic, multinational, multiracial--and thus multicultural--community of redeemed people under one King, Jesus." (p. 217)

So, let's redefine what it means for a church to be successful.  "Growing in Christlikeness stands in stark contrast to achievement culture measured by numbers, power, prestige, and money." (p. 217-218) In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul used Jesus' cross-bearing life to redefine true success. (p. 218) "The cross-bearing life...is a life surrendered to Jesus for the sake of others." (p. 219) This is the calling that a tov church will pursue. "Tov summons pastors--get a good grip on this--to pastor the people they have, not the people they don't have. Growth, in all its aspects, is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of the pastor, the leaders, or the church." (p. 219) "We help one another become more like Jesus through the exercise of spiritual gifts, as each person contributes to the whole and to one another." (p. 219) This is impossible to do when the pastor and elders rule with an iron fist or when everyone shows up to see the show on Sunday.

The final short section of this book is entitled "What Can We Do?" And that is the question, isn't it? The authors have adapted suggestions from Patrick Keifert and Wesley Granber-Michaelson, two experts on church change who have worked with congregations to transform their cultures for decades. (p. 222)

1. Express the mission of God for your church as tov, which is characterized perfectly in working together to become more like Jesus.
2. Open space for the creative work of God's Spirit to lead your church into tov,  and avoid programming, governing, and constraining this creative work of God's Spirit.
3. At all levels become available to the revealing discernment of the Holy Spirit for how tov can take root in your church.
4. Dwell in the Word.
5. Cooperate with other churches in the process of eradicating a toxic culture and forming your church into a church called tov.

Thank you to anyone who read along with me on this journey. Even if no one did, this process was cathartic for me. I am so grateful that Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer took the time to write this book, but I am so crushed that there was a huge need for it. Mostly, I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide me to become part of a tov culture wherever I gather with other believers to worship Him.

A Church Called Tov - Chapter 12: "Tov Churches Nurture Christlikeness", Part 1

In the final chapter, McKnight and Barringer contend that a new culture based on achievement and accomplishment rather than holiness and Christlikeness has taken root in the church. (p. 201) What exactly does that mean?

First, "achievement and accomplishment are two foundational pillars of a meritocracy, which refers to power (-cracy from the Greek kratos) based on merit--that is, based on value, worth, or what we deserve or earn." (p. 202) To explain the negative impact this has on the church, the authors turn again to David Brooks and his book The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life. Brooks explains that meritocracy has become so thoroughly ingrained in us that words have changed their meanings without us even noticing.  For example: " 'Character' is no longer a moral quality oriented around love, service, and care, but a set of workplace traits organized around grit, productivity, and self-discipline." "Community" becomes a "mass of talented individuals competing with one another."  Brooks contends that a meritocracy will swallow you whole if you don't have a different competing value system. (p. 202-203)

I am so tempted to just type the entire next paragraph because it strikes such a chord in my soul.  I've seen it happen time and time again.  I just didn't realize exactly what was happening.  "Churches today have been so greatly influenced by meritocracy," write the authors, "that they now define pastor with business-culture terms instead of biblical terms."  He's called a leader or entrepreneur or visionary which, according to the authors, means "they've already ceased to be pastors in any biblical sense...Moreover, 'pastor as leader' blurs the lines of headship in the church, and people begin to lose sight of the church's one true and only head, Jesus Christ." (p. 203)

McKnight says he noticed the following things when the church began to be influenced by the business world (p. 204):

1. Pastors become leaders, entrepreneurs, or visionaries--and wealthy ones at that, in some cases.
2. The pastor's preparation no longer required seminary, the foundation for most pastors for centuries.
3. The church was now referred to as an organization [organization] rather than an organism [living body of Christ].
4. The Bible became a source for finding leadership principles.
5. The church began producing a product, which naturally led to positioning, advertising, and promoting the product.
6. The church now needed a vision statement and a mission statement, both terms that came out of "best practices" in the business world.
7. Churches began to do customer satisfaction surveys.
8. The bottom line (another business term) was that the church now needed a bottom line, typically measured by butts in the pews, "giving units," or dollar contributed.

I have seen all of these things in churches we've belonged to in the past 25+ years. Some had all of them, wealthy pastors, branding, etc. Every single one had a mission statement.  I never thought about where that idea came from!  Interestingly, when Willow Creek Community Church began looking for a new senior pastor after the fallout from the Bill Hybel's scandal, the job description confirmed the above list of business-oriented qualifications. McKnight interpreted, "Jesus and the apostles need not apply. Of maybe we should rethink the pastor-as-CEO concept altogether." (p. 206)

Is there anyone of any reknown who is actually a pastor and not a CEO? McKnight mentions "the late Eugene Peterson, well-known translator of The Message and author of some of the finest books ever written for pastors [who] staunchly resisted the invasion of a business culture into the lifeblood of the church." (p. 207) 

McKnight made two words clouds, one out of the job description for Willow Creek's senior pastor and one out of verses in the Bible that talk about pastors. (p. 206-207) The difference could not be starker! McKnight writes, "Two pastors, one focused on leadership principles and the other focused on spiritual formation. Two cultures forming around two separate images. One will become tov (with all its attributes), and the other will become toxic (and it will not surprise anyone when people are treated abusively and with disrespect.)" (p. 208) And that is exactly what we found in our previous church.

McKnight, who is in his sixties, reminisces about his childhood, where no one "ever talked about surrendering their life to become a leader." (p. 208) In fact, he says, "Do you know how many times Jesus talked about people becoming leaders? Not once." (p. 209) Even Paul used the term leader only a handful of times. "It might be fair to say that what the church needs are not pastor-leaders but pastors who will shepherd under the Great Shepherd, Jesus." (p. 209) The only leadership pastors should be providing is "by leading toward spiritual formation." (p. 209)

This move to become a leader or influencer "connotes a self-centered emphasis on that person's role and identity" rather than on Christ. "Instead of focusing on 'leadership development,' we should be focusing on Christ and Christ alone as our model, and Christlikeness as the core identity of every Christian--yes, including Christian pastors. The role of the pastor, then, is to mentor people into Christlikeness." (p. 210) I assert that you cannot do that once a week from a stage.  You must get involved in people's lives!

This is already a long post, so I think I'll finish this final chapter in another post. Stay tuned!

A Church Called Tov - Chapter 11: "Tov Churches Nurture Service"

The authors begin this chapter by comparing the celebrity pastor with the servant pastor. Those are accurate terms in my opinion. "The celebrity pastor finds a way to make it all about garnering praise for himself--his vision, his ministry, his success, his glory... people don't matter...the only narratives told are those that prop up the pastor's vision and success...For the servant pastor, everything is different. A culture of service turns everyone toward one another instead of toward themselves...People are first...truth is told, and doing what is right shapes the mission of the church. (p. 176)

McKnight and Barringer are not suggesting that pastors sacrifice themselves and their families for the sake of their churches. "Pastors and congregations, as a group and as individuals, must balance self-care and serving others in creating a church called tov." (p. 178) No matter which side a pastor/congregation leans toward, there are temptations to go too far in that direction.

Therefore, the authors next mention two temptations for service-oriented churches--serving to be seen or celebrated, and drawing attention to how sacrificial our service is. (p. 179) How can we avoid these pitfalls? "...only be creating a genuine service culture that permeates our lives and the life of the church--a culture in which ordinary actions of service are the norm, in and out of season, without the need for congratulations or acclaim." (p. 181)

"The concept of tov is rooted in the ordinary...A life in service to others is not heroic. Rather, it is ordinary people helping ordinary people who happen to be in their path as they travel through life."  No one lived this concept better than my father-in-law, Calvin Meahl. When he died suddenly in 2000, his visitation and funeral service were packed with people whose lives he had touched in years of working at an auto parts store in our small town as well as serving in his church there. His sons have picked up this mantle from him. But in many ways, the authors note, "ordinary has acquired the connotation of 'not good enough'." (p. 182) Everyone wants to be a celebrity, an Instagram influencer, etc.

The authors now address the other side of the scale, celebrity syndrome. They repeat their assertion that "celebrity culture has little to do with the size of the church...what matters is not the size of the church but the size of the pastor's ego." (p. 184) Their comment that "behind every celebrity pastor is an adoring congregation" (p. 184) really struck home with me. In our former church, there was a group of people who applauded after every sermon as if it was a performance.

Many times celebrity pastors don't serve others because they see themselves as superior. The elders and congregation often treat them that way, as well. The next step may be that they "assume they are exempt from ordinary rules and standards." (p. 186) "They yell and scream at others, and their bullying behaviors are ignored. When they are not ignored, they are excused." (p. 186) That last quote hits way too close to home for me.

"Celebrity pastors don't arise in service-oriented churches. They need the toxic soil of a celebrity-driven church culture." (p. 187) Amy Simpson wrote an article for Christianity Today which the authors quote here, "Among the factors behind the failures of James MacDonald, Mark Driscoll, and others is a habit of aggressively marginalizing critics and surrounding themselves with people who reinforced their sense of celebrity and cleared obstacles from their paths." (p. 187) The elders at our former church are chosen by the pastor. The last elder who would actually stand up to him rotated off the board four months before all hell broke loose.

Can you name the pastor of the church at Thessalonica? At Corinth? Berea? Ephesus? Galatia? (p. 188) No, because they weren't celebrities! "When a pastor and a church become celebrities, when visibility, fame, reputation, and branding get the upper hand, the church will not longer be people-first..." or have any of the other qualities of a tov church. "Such a culture becomes toxic and potentially abusive." (p. 189)

What can we do to break the celebrity syndrome? Get off the merry-go-round ourselves by internalizing three statements (p. 189):

1. There is no such thing as the most important pastor in a denomination, in an area, or in America.
2. There is no such thing as the most important church in a denomination, etc.
3. The terms "celebrity pastor" and "celebrity church" contradict the way of Jesus (and break his heart, by the way).

So we turn to Jesus, the anti-celebrity, the Servant of all servants. (p. 190-193) James and John didn't get it and asked to sit at his right hand. After putting them in their places, Jesus said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great amount you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. " (Mark 10:42-45) "Pastors, leaders, and churches are to be known for what their Lord and Savior is known for: sacrifice for the sake of others. Service. Servanthood." (p. 193) 

In the final section of this chapter, the author gives suggestions for developing a servant culture in our churches (p. 195-200). They are as follows:

• Leaders leading others to serve - Of course, developing a servant culture begins with leaders serving. "Every pastor, minister, and director should be serving others." (p. 195) This is exactly the problem in almost every non-denominational church we've been a part of for the past 25+ years. The pastors do NOT serve; they want to be served. They never even darken the doors of the children's area. They do not visit their members' homes or marry them or visit them in the hospital (or if they do, they do so grudgingly). One pastor demanded the elders hire an associate pastor because he was working 60 hours a week.  When they asked him to write down where he was spending his time, he could only come up with 40 hours a week and that included Sunday services. 
• Stop shining the spotlight - "Talking publicly about people in the church who are seeing should be prohibited. " (p. 197)
• Avoid benevolence and paternalism - Avoid the mindset of the "haves" doing nice things for the "have-nots" or the powerful helping the powerless.  (p. 197)
• Make service a spiritual discipline - "Power has a way of ruining people...[pastors] must work hard to find moments of equality with others...pastors, ministry leaders, prominent parishioners should turn service into a spiritual discipline."  Pastors aren't immune from the old saying "power corrupts". The authors continue, "Pastors must be accessible." Our previous church had an employee handbook in which employees were instructed that if they needed to speak to the pastor for longer than 3 minutes, they had to make an appointment.! "Pastors who are too busy to pastor the people in their church, who are too detached to be spoken to, who are too inaccessible to receive emails and text messages, are too big for their britches. What does it mean to be a pastor if one has no connection to the people?" (p. 198) We have churches full of lead teachers rather than pastors. You can find excellent teaching anywhere nowadays, but a local church should be where you find a pastor.
• Share the pulpit - This is a good way to de-elevate the pastor's status. (p. 199)
• Develop the discipline of losing arguments - "The goal is to create a culture within leadership that says, 'We matter more than I  matter." (p. 200) McKnight says a pastor should lose some of the arguments with his leadership team.  Ha! Our former pastor threatened to quit every time he didn't get his way.  And the elders let him get away with it!
• Lead with transparency - A pastor must be able to receive correction and admit error--as should we all.  (p. 200)

The next post will be the final post on this awesome book and will cover the final chapter entitled "Tov Churches Nurture Christlikeness."

A Church Called Tov - Chapter 10: "Tov Churches Nurture Justice"

The authors begin this chapter by telling the story of Rachael Denhollander, best known for being the first to accuse Larry Nassar of sexual abuse.  However, she also fought tirelessly to expose the sexual abuse and consequent coverup in the Sovereign Grace Churches network. Rachael got in trouble when her church invited C.J. Mahaney, the leader of the SGC, to preach at the church. She had already expressed her concerns with Mahaney to her elders because of the allegations against him of covering up sexual abuse in the network.  "She was then labeled 'divisive' by church leaders and was told by a...pastor, 'You cannot discuss SGC in any context where another member might hear that your position differs from the leadership's.' That is a classic example of placing loyalty before truth." (p. 161) The details of the SGC story are sickening. 

Bill Hybels and the leaders of Willow Creek and James McDonald and the leaders of Harvest Bible Chapel are just two examples of church leaders and congregations who valued loyalty above everything else. Why? And this is the question I've been contemplating since we left another non-denominational church six months ago. Why did the elders choose loyalty to the pastor and the "reputation" of the church over "honesty, integrity, justice, and righteousness"? "Toxic cultures breed misplaced and corrupted loyalty." (p. 166)

McKnight and Barringer dig into the question "what is justice?".  According to society, "the foundation of justice is a standard by which we measure what is just or right." (p. 166) As Christians, justice should be defined as "behavior that measures up to or conforms with what God has revealed to us in Christ and in Scripture." (p. 167) Something I've learned from many different sources over the past few years is that the Greek word translated righteousness, dikaiosune, can also be translated as justice. "Justice means to be empowered through the Spirit to do the right thing. and the "right thing" is what Jesus teaches...loving God and loving others." (p. 168)

So, how can we build a justice culture in our churches? The authors recommend the following steps.

• Know what justice looks like - doing what is right at the right time. (p. 169-170)
• Recognize injustice - look to James 2 for an example (p. 170-172)
• Recognize the fallout, and press on - "Sometimes this means admitting fault and confessing sin, and sometimes it means coming under attack and taking hits...Doing the right thing requires courage." (p. 172)
• Tell stories about doing the right thing - The story of Martin Niemoller is a good example. (p. 172-174)

In the next blog post, we'll move on to a culture that nurtures service.

A Church Called Tov - Chapter 9: "Tov Churches Nurture Truth"

Laura Barringer is a first-grade teacher, and she begins this chapter by listing some of the things her students have said to her about her and about their families.  As a former teacher, it cracked me up.  "Kids are natural truthtellers. We have much to learn from the truth-telling tendencies of young children." (p. 136)

Greg has always been adamant about truth-telling in his own personal life and with our kids.  He's quit and been fired from jobs because of his insistence on telling the truth.  The authors insist that "there is no room in a church called tov for lying, deceit, cover-ups, suppression, gaslighting, or spin. All those things are toxic." (p. 137) It's astonishing to me that this even needs to be said!

McKnight and Barringer suggest three ingredients to form a truth telling culture.

1. Knowing the Truth - It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit "that we can know and learn the truth." See John 15 and 16. (p. 139)
2. Doing the Truth - "Followers of Jesus are to be truth tellers. Likewise, a truth-telling culture emerges from people who live in the truth." (p. 140)
3. Surrendering to the Truth - Truth telling can be hard. It's risky. It can mean losing everything. "A truth-telling culture calls us to surrender to the truth--to be humble and vulnerable and willing to submit ourselves to the truth even when it's most difficult." (p. 141)

Only the truth can set us free. The authors write that "God's judgment is against those who 'suppress the truth' and create false narratives...What motivates false narratives is a zealous ambition to protect a brand, defend a reputation, or preserve the glory of an ambitious leader, a zealous church, and its board of leaders." (p. 142)

What should be done when a church and its leaders resist truth telling, when they refuse to listen, when they circle the wagons to protect themselves? The authors recommend that "it is biblical--and best--to go public." (p. 144) The Bible calls it prophetic action. "The prophets were not called to the negotiating table...They were called to the platform of public proclamation." (p. 145) We've seen what happens next. Bloggers, journalists, and authors dig up the details and write about the story. The Chicago Tribune broke the Willow Creek scandal. The Houston Chronicle wrote a four-part story about sexual abuse cover-ups in the Southern Baptist Convention. Journalist and blogger Julie Roys broke the Harvest Bible Chapel/James McDonald scandal. 

The Bible is our example of truth telling. "...people in the Bible are shown for who they are--warts and all." (p. 146) Atonement was very important to the ancient Israelites. They had an entire day set aside for it--Yom Kippur. "A commitment to confession, repentance, sacrifice, purification, and forgiveness were at the heart of Jewish culture." (p. 148) Confession is still necessary today. "To attempt to 'move on' past our sin without truth-telling confession is to cheapen God's grace." (p. 148) The authors quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book The Cost of Discipleship which I have not read but will now add to my list. LOL!

How can we put Yom Kippur into practice as Christians?  Well, it was "not a one-and-done event" (p. 152). The authors think "we need a regular Yom Kippur-like season in our churches to ensure that truth telling becomes foundational to our culture."  I think that's a good idea, as long as the leaders are as interested in confession and repentance as the congregation. Churches that observe the church calendar, already have a practice in place - Lent. McKnight insists that leaders who don't embrace times of introspection and confession "fail to see the depth of their problems, and therefore fail to repent and fail to reconcile with God." (p. 153) Included is a liturgical prayer that Willow Creek could have used to express confession and repentance in their situation. 

"Truth telling is not instinctive in toxic cultures where false narratives proliferate. It must be developed. In a church called tov, truth telling becomes a way of life, a way of constant exposure to our tov God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ."