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The Trellis and the Vine Quotes

I just reread The Trellis and the Vine after first reading it in college right after it came out. I was once again reminded why I enjoyed it so much the first time! There’s a lot of great things to take away from it, so here are the quotes that stuck out to me this time. My biggest takeaway: Start small, meet with 2 people and pray for the Lord to multiply the efforts.
“The basic work of any Christian ministry is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit, and to see people converted, changed and grow to maturity in the gospel.” (8)
“Trellis work…tends to take over from vine work. Perhaps it’s because trellis work is easier and less personally threatening. Vine work is personal and requires much prayer…trellis work also looks more impressive than vine work. It’s more visible and structural.” (9)
“To be a disciple is to be called to make new disciples….our goal is not to make church members or members of our institution, but genuine disciples of Jesus.” (14)
“We will be arguing that structures don’t grow ministry any more than trellises grow vines, and that most churches need to make a conscious shift-away from erecting and maintaining structures, and towards growing people who are disciple-making disciples of Christ.” (17)
“If we want our strategy to be people-focused, we should concentrate on training, which increases the number and effectiveness of gospel communicators.” (19)
“Instead of using our volunteers, we should consider how we can encourage them and help them grow in the knowledge and love of Christ, because service flows from Christian growth and not growth from service.” (20)
“If we just focus on gap filling, we’ll never move out of maintenance mode.” (20)
“If ministry in our churches is based on reacting to the problems people raise, many will receive no attention because they are more reserved in sharing their problems…If you take a problem approach to ministry, people with the most critical needs will dominate your programs, and these needs will wear you out and exhaust you, and reduce the effectiveness of your other ministries.” (22)
“Elders and congregational leaders should be active vine-growers themselves before we consider giving them responsibility for oversight.” (24)
“We must be exporters of trained people instead of hoarders of trained people.” (25)
“Heb. 3:12-13. This can only mean that God wants all Christians to be speaking to each other regularly, urging and encouraging each other to stick with Christ.” (46)
“Everyone should be pursuing the same goal, which is to edify the congregation in love.” (48)
“What we are really talking about is a Bible-reading movement.” (57)
“This is why unity is so important in the congregation, and why complaining, grumbling and discord is so totally out of place.” (65)
“Gospel partnership is the normal Christian life.” (66)
“Leaders, pastors and elders are responsible to teach, to warn, to rebuke, and to encourage. They are foreman and organizers, guardians and mobilizers, teachers and models. They provide the conditions under which the rest of the gospel partners can also get on with vine work-with prayerfully speaking God’s truth to others.” (67)
“In the New Testament, training is much more about Christian thinking and living than about particular skills or competencies. We see this in the pastor epistles, in the words that are translated as ‘training’ in our Bibles.” (70)
“The heart of training is not to impart a skill, but to impart sound doctrine.” (71)
“Training is inescapably relational.” (75)
“If a trainer is committed to a relational approach, training programs enhance rather than detract from the personal training.” (77)
“We want to see people grow in: Conviction – their knowledge of God and understanding of the Bible Character – the godly character and life that accords with sound doctrine Competancy – the ability to prayerfully speak God’s word to others in a variety of ways.” (78)
“The gospel by its very nature produces growth.” (82)
“We must be willing to lose people from our own congregation if that is better for the growth of the gospel” (83)
4 steps to growth: “At the outreachstage, people come into contact with the word of truth for the first time…Once people respond to the gospel message and put their faith in Christ, some sort of initial follow-up is needed to establish them in the faith and teach them the basics…Then follows the lifelong process of growth as a Christian disciple-growing in the knowledge of God and the godly character that flows from that knowledge…The fourth stage training is not a sequential one…to grow like Christ is to grow in love and a desire to serve and minister to others.” (84-5)
“There are three approaches or emphases that we wish to examine which we will call: the pastor as service-providing clergyman, the pastor as CEO, the pastor as trainer.” (94)
Clergyman: “Perhaps the most striking disadvantage of this way of hiking about ministry is that it feeds upon and encourages the culture of ‘consumerism’ that is already rife in our culture…in this sort of church culture, it becomes very easy for the congregation to think of church almost entirely in terms of ‘what I get out of it,’ and thus to slip easily into criticism and complaint when things aren’t to their liking.” (95)
CEO “One of the key strengths and advantages of the church growth approach has been its promotion of congregational involvement.” (97)
“Unless Christians are taught and trained to meet with each other, and to urge and spur one another on to love and good works, the small-group structure will not be effective for spiritual growth.” (100)
“One of the first steps in applying these challenges is to conduct an honest assessment of all your congregational programs, activities and structures, and assess them against the criteria of gospel growth. How many of them are still useful vehicles for outreach, follow-up, growth or training? Is there duplication? Are some structures or regular activities long past their use-by date?” (108)
“If we pour all our time into caring for those who need help, the stable Christians will stagnate and never be trained to minister to others…ministry becomes all about problems and counseling, and not about the gospel and growing in godliness.” (111)
“Churches don’t make disciples; disciples make disciples.” (117)
“A co-worker must be completely dependable in rightly handling the word of truth.” (119)
“We wait to long to recruit someone, and they make family or career decisions that close off ministry options.” (149)
“What are you more interested in: the growth of your particular congregation, or the growth of the kingdom of God?” (149)
“Christian ministry is really not very complicated.” (151)
“The word ‘disciple’ means, above all else, ‘learner’ or ‘pupil’…the essence of ‘vine work’ is the prayerful, Spirit-backed speaking of the message of the Bible by one person to another (or to more than one).” (153)
“This training is not simply the imparting of certain skills or techniques. It involves nurturing and teaching people in their understanding and knowledge (their convictions), in their godliness and way of life (their character), and in their abilities and practical experience of ministering to others (their competence).” (155)
“What stands in the way of Christ’s disciple-making vision in Christian congregations? In most cases, it’s not a lack of people to train, or non-Christians to reach out to , but stifling patterns and traditions of church life.” (156)
“Building some form of regular training and ‘ministry talk’ into the agenda of church council meetings is very useful.” (161)
The principle is: do a deep work in the lives of a few.” (161)
“The most important factor is how much we love the message of God, and how much we love the people all around us who need to hear it.” (170)
“Take someone with you.” (170)
“Is there a core group of people who understand the priorities of the church and can effectively train others in those priorities?” (173)
“If people in your congregation do not want to serve, then how effectively are they being taught and discipled? Do your people know that laying down their lives for others is an integral part of being Christian?” (175)
“The people in these communities no longer see themselves as consumers of spectators, but as servants wanting to see others grow.” (178)
“If small groups are not led and run well, they can easily become ineffective or even dangerous structures where people gather to share their ignorance, and where there is no genuine pastoral oversight. Without training, delegation of pastoral ministry and responsibility to a small-group structure is an abdication of pastoral stewardship.” (179)
“Some administrative of organizational chaos can be managed, but the chaos of sin or false teaching does real damage.” (183)
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by mikethestrand on September 12, 2019  •  Permalink
Posted in Blog, Book Review, Church, Relationships

Posted by mikethestrand on September 12, 2019

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2019/09/12/the-trellis-and-the-vine-quotes/

New Blog!

As I’ve been wanting to dig more specifically into worship related stuff, I’ve decided to split my blog into 2 separate ones, so I’ll continue using this one for general things I enjoy or am thinking about, and will be blogging about things related to worship ministry at: https://alwaysreformingworship.home.blog

Thanks for reading!

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by mikethestrand on April 4, 2019  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by mikethestrand on April 4, 2019

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2019/04/04/new-blog/

Mist and Fog

Howard Hendricks, quipped, “If there is a mist in the pulpit, there will be a fog in the pew.” As far as I know, this wasn’t a comment about flatulence from the pastor, but instead is referring to unclear teaching. If the pastor is uncertain about what he’s teaching, and thus unclear in his delivery of the message, the congregation will completely miss the point of message. But this applies not only to the sermon, but also to the music and liturgy of the day. So how can we be sure our services are clear and communicating what we want them to communicate? Here are 3 ways we can ensure we’re not creating a fog in the pews.

  • Be Clear

I had a professor in seminary who said of preaching there’s four rules: be clear, be clear, be clear, above all else be clear. Walk your congregation through what you’re doing and why. This allows you opportunities to teach the importance of regular habits and disciplines in the Christian life, and also gives you an opportunity to model how other believers can carry out some of their own practices at home. We get to demonstrate to our entire body how we pray, how we think about God, how we sing about God, how we taste God (through the celebration of communion), and how we worship God through our whole lives. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:1 ring true here “imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Is your example clear enough that people can imitate the right things?

  • Explain What You’re Doing

We celebrate communion differently at our different campuses, so we get to explain them a little differently each time, but each way gives us an opportunity to explain the importance of communion, why we practice communion, and a time to encourage everyone to examine themselves before taking of the body and blood of our Lord. Bob Kauflin encourages music leaders to think through their services and explain what needs to be explained. So do you need to explain why you’ve chosen a specific song that day? Or how one song ties into the next song you’re about to sing? Or how a specific passage of Scripture is illuminated through a refrain you’ve just song? Or maybe how multiple songs point us to the main theme of the sermon or passage of Scripture that has just been sung? All of these things are opportunities to demonstrate to the congregation what we’re doing and why.

  • Don’t Assume

I had very influential Sunday school teacher teach me the value of never assuming, because it will make an a– out of you and me! When we’re the ones planning our services it can often be easy for us to assume everyone will see what we’ve worked so hard to communicate! We’re also often very closely attached to what we’ve carefully curated so it can be difficult to see areas that may need some clear communication. I’ve found that it’s far better to OVER communicate than to UNDER communicate. This way we can know that people are making the correct connections and understandings of the various aspects of our service.

So how do you make sure there isn’t a fog in your pews during your service? Have you ever thought through more specific ways we can explain why we do what we do on a Sunday or is just the way it’s always been done?

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by mikethestrand on August 23, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Blog, Church, Music, Theology, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on August 23, 2018

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2018/08/23/mist-and-fog/

How Do You Discern a Call to Ministry?

There are a ton of Facebook groups that are related to various aspects of music ministry that have been really helpful for me. There’s lots of helpful links, discussions and discussion about helpful equipment and programs that have come out. One time, someone asked a question that sparked an interesting debate. The questioner asked: “I have recently been called into worship ministry. How long do I wait before I start asking people to call me a worship leader?” This lead to me thinking about my call to ministry, as well as the call to ministry of a number of my friends, and there are two aspects to a call to ministry that must be in place in order for the call to be true.

  • Being gifted in the area you think you’re being called.

Many times people think they have a gifting in an area, but the outworking of that leaves something to be desired. This seems to happen often in relation to music ministry. People think that because they’ve sung karaoke, or because they’re great aunt twice removed on their mother’s side once told them they have a good voice they are the world’s greatest singer. If you haven’t ever watched it, look on YouTube for some examples of the early episodes of the each season of American Idol. Sometimes people are very misled in their giftings!

Another piece of this is: are you working at and growing in the area of ministry to which you think you’re called? If you’re called to a particular ministry, then try to grow in it. Get involved in a church and find ways to serve and grow if you think you’re being led in that direction. Who knows, you may work your way into a job!

  • Being recognized by a local church and being commissioned by them.

This is even more important than the previous point. Unless a church calls and commissions you to serve them, you may be misled in your calling. I spent many hours in seminary classes with people who thought they were called to ministry, but didn’t exemplify many fruit of the Spirit, or a humble willingness to seek to learn. Al Mohler has said that unless a church would be willing to hire a person as a pastor they shouldn’t encourage them to attend seminary. This doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a job after seminary, but you should be trying to find ways to grow in your gifting even in seminary so that you can more faithfully discern how God has uniquely wired you to serve in his kingdom. This may also allow you to grow in some areas of weakness that will make you better suited for your first ministry call after school. The ultimate goal, however, is to be faithful wherever you are.

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by mikethestrand on July 2, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Blog, Church

Posted by mikethestrand on July 2, 2018

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2018/07/02/how-do-you-discern-a-call-to-ministry/

What Defines a Hymn?

Throughout church history there have been debates on what is acceptable and permissible to be sung at a church. I’ve read books that argue that we should only sing songs from the book of Psalms. I’ve got churches just down the road from where I live that play top 40 hits as a part of their Sunday morning worship. I’ve also got people in the church I currently serve who talk to me like the only thing we should sing on Sunday morning are hymns (generally meaning older songs). So that leads to the question: how do we define what a hymn is? Augustine, writing in the 4thCentury stated that a hymn is comprised of 3 things: “song, and praise, and that of God.” So it must be sung, it must be praise, and it must be to God. Let’s take a look at these 3, and then 3 more that didn’t make Augustine’s list.

  1. Sung

This one should go without saying, in order to be a hymn, it must be sung. It’s hard to have a hymn without singing! This obviously isn’t including instrumental music, which can also serve a role in a service, but for Augustine, a hymn must be sung.

  1. Praise

According to a quick Google search, to praise is to “express warm approval or admiration of.” In the case of a hymn, we are demonstrating admiration of God, which ties us in to the next point. My question with this, is what do you do when you are not exactly in admiration of God? I’m currently reading through Job and have been reminded how difficult life can be. I also see Psalms where they aren’t praising God, such as the imprecatory Psalms. So maybe this point isn’t as helpful in defining a hymn.

  1. To God

Finally, Augustine says a hymn must be to God. This will come up in one of my 3 points, but what about Paul’s command in Ephesians 5:19 where we’re called to address one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs? Or what about Psalms like 42 and 43, where the Psalmist speaks to his soul, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are in turmoil within me?” Apparently we can have songs that are addressed not just to God!

 

So 3 more things that I would add that Augustine didn’t include in his definition are:

  1. Scripture saturated.

A phrase that I like to use is “be steeped in God’s Word.” Just as tea is made by soaking leaves in water, so should our lives as Christians be steeped in God’s Word. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christdwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Songs are an amazing way to allow the Word of Christ to soak into our lives. This is why I create Spotify playlists, and give chord charts to anyone who asks, I want our songs to affect our lives.

  1. Addressing One Another AND God

Songs can be addressed to God, but part of the reason we sing is to “address one another.” (see above) But we’re also called to sing praises to God. This is a healthy tension that we walk when choosing the songs we sing, but we are called to do both.

  1. Don’t just sing hymns

Both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 talk about singing “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” Psalm 98:1 says “Sing to the Lord a new song.” I am so tired of the “contemporary versus hymns” debate and wish people would instead focus on the content of what we’re singing. There are some incredible hymns that are being written today, just as there were some terrible hymns written hundreds of years ago! (and bad songs being written today just as there are good hymns from hundreds of years ago) But the Bible doesn’t tell us what kinds of songs to sing, nor what instruments we’re supposed to use, nor what melodies we’re supposed to sing. So let’s sing a wide variety of Scripture saturated songs that allow us to teach and admonish one another, and encouraging each other all the more as we see the day of the Lord’s return drawing even closer!

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by mikethestrand on May 17, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, History, Theology, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on May 17, 2018

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2018/05/17/what-defines-a-hymn/

Re-Oriented to God

Why do we gather together every Sunday morning? Wouldn’t it be far nice to go play golf, sleep in, or go eat brunch with your family? I spent some time last week reading Resonant Witness, edited by Jeremy Begbie and Steven R. Guthrie, and was struck by the line, “In worship, we are re-oriented to God.” James K.A. Smith has done a great job with his cultural liturgy series on addressing how all humans are created as worshippers who are shaped and formed by our practices. The events we participate in, the rhythms that we practice in our lives, and even the way we approach our spending of money all shape our worldviews. This means it is vital for us to spend regular time worshipping together to re-orient ourselves to who God is, what he is like, and what he expects from us.

This also gets to the point and purpose of the gathered church. Many churches pick one side or the other saying it’s either for Christians, or it’s for the unchurched. Others will try to balance that out and say it’s both. But the real purpose for the gathered church is for God. With the focus and purpose being on God, we then have to articulate how we go about focusing on God, which gets to our liturgies. Another book I’m currently reading, Reformation Worship, states, “The mission of the church, Christ’s bride, is worship and witness.” Once again, it’s easy to focus on one or the other, it’s much more difficult to encourage a faithful pursuit of both areas. We are commanded to meet together (Hebrews 10:25), and to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19).

Our worship services, or liturgies, either help or hinder us from seeing God as he truly is (see ‘The Visible Gospel’ for one way for us to structure our services to better understand God). For many people, this is unfortunately the only time they set aside each week to “fix their eyes on Christ” (Hebrews 12:2), so it is vital for us to be faithful with our task as worship leaders to plan our liturgies in such a way that they help us marvel at God’s goodness and grace in our lives.

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by mikethestrand on May 9, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Theology, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on May 9, 2018

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2018/05/09/re-oriented-to-god/

Resources for Church Music Teams

One thing I’ve been asked through my years in ministry is what are some good resources for those who are feeling called to oversee or help out in a worship ministry? So here’s a list of the best resources I’ve found, I’ve ordered them in the order of significance I’ve found them to be:

–Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin. I’ll read and recommend pretty much everything he’s done! This book gives a great theological base while tying it to the practical elements of what a worship leader is called to do.
–True Worshippers by Bob Kauflin. This is a follow up to Worship Matters, and is aimed at the congregation. Helpful for a worship pastor to think through what he should expect of the congregation.
–The Worship Pastor by Zac Hicks. Each chapter is a different area the worship pastor at least needs to be aware of and thinking through on a regular basis. If you’re interested, the list is: The worship pastor as…. Church lover, corporate mystic, doxological philosopher, disciple maker, prayer leader, theological dietician, war general, watchful prophet, missionary, artist chaplain, caregiver, mortician, emotional shepherd, liturgical architect, curator, tour guide, failure.
–Christ Centered Worship by Bryan Chapell. Similarly to Rhythms of Grace (see below), Chapell takes it to the New Testament to present and how the various elements of church services through history have all attempted to be demonstrations of the gospel message.
–Doxology & Theology edited by Matt Boswell. A number of worship pastors across the country contributed to this one, but it addresses how doxology and theology are two sides of the same coin. If our theology (study and understanding of God and who He is) does not affect and allow our doxology (praise of God) to become deeper and richer then it’s useless.
–Rhythms of Grace by Mike Cosper. Cosper walks through the Bible and how the story of the Bible should shape our worship services.
–Worship By the Book edited by D.A. Carson. This is an older one, but gives 3 ideas about how to structure a worship service, from high church to low church.
–Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith. Smith is a philosopher at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, this is one of a three part series where he directs the cultural liturgies of our day and shows how those affect us, and also how we should be intentional with our worship liturgies because we are shaped and formed by that which we most love.
–The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. This one should be read by every worship pastor! It’s a classic that talks about the need for both emotions and intellect in our worship (loving God with our heart, mind, soul and strength)
–Gather God’s People by Brian Croft and Jason Adkins. I just read this one, it adheres pretty closely to the regulative principle (in a church service, we can only do that which is specifically described in Scripture), and I don’t agree with their idea of singing “Psalms,” (as in Ephesians 5:19, “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs), but they’ve got some great things to think about as far as what the Bible actually tells us about how we should corporately worship.
–Reformation Worship by Jonathan Gibson and Mark Earngey. I just started this one after getting a recommendation from Mark Dever at T4G. It’s already given me some great nuggets anythings to think through and about. They take a look at some various church liturgies from 1523-1586, with some comments and updated translations. So this includes liturgies from Calvin, Knox, Luther, Cranmer and many others. I realize it’s a hefty book, and very expensive, but from my just starting it, it looks like it will be a really helpful resource.
Online Resources:
-Bob Kauflin blogs at Worship Matters regularly.
–Doxology and Theology. This started as the book, it’s the worship branch of The Gospel Coalition. They also do a conference regularly.
–Worthily Magnify. This is by a worship pastor name Jamie Brown. He’s at an Anglican Church, and I don’t agree with everything he writes, but it’s some good stuff to think about.
–Worship Matters Video Intensive. I waited YEARS for him to do this! I’m currently taking my leaders at church through this, it’s Bob walking through his book in a video format, with discussion questions.
I’m always looking for new books or resources for us to use that are helpful for us to think biblically and theologically about how we craft our worship services, but this list will keep you busy for quite a few months, and give you many good ideas about how to better plan and structure our corporate worship services.
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by mikethestrand on May 1, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Blog, Book Review, Church, Theology, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on May 1, 2018

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2018/05/01/resources-for-church-music-teams/

The Visible Gospel

It seems that one of the trendy things for Christians today is to leave the church. For many, church is seen as the biggest problem with Christianity, a place full of hypocrites and those pursuing wealth. Yet individual Christianity is not an option. We are called to “not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some,” and are called to encourage each other on a daily basis. One of the primary reasons we are commanded to meet together is because we so often neglect or marginalize the gospel in our daily lives. I stumbled across a video today in which Jerry Bridges explains why you never outgrow the gospel. In the video, he states, “The gospel is for sinners, and if we do not acknowledge ourselves as sinners, then we tend not to put much value in the gospel.” Tim Keller has similarly said, “The gospel is not just the ABC of the Christian life but the A to Z of the Christian life.” So how do we remember the gospel on a regular basis? One way is through our church services, which are meant to be the gospel made visible.

In order to demonstrate the gospel, we first need to understand what the gospel is. 9Marks has a helpful definition that is broken down into 4 parts: God, man, Christ, response. God has created the world and everything in it, including man. Man sinned, separating himself from God and other men. The only way to be reconciled back to God is through Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sin. That sacrifice leads to a call for everyone to respond by repenting of sin and trusting in God to be saved. These 4 parts should affect the way we plan and structure our worship services, with thought given to how each of these parts can become a regular part of our worship. So what does that look like? Here are some ways I’ve tried to work this in to each of our services.

1.God

Each service begins with a call to worship, where we are reminded who God is. That he is completely separate from us, completely holy, and is thus worthy of our worship. I also try to begin our services singing about who God is, so last week we began by singing “All the Earth,” and this week we sang “Blessed Be Your Name.” These songs remind us who God is, that he has created everything in the world and orchestrates everything according to his perfect plan.

2.Man

This element seems to run contrary to the previous one (how can there be an emphasis on man when our focus needs to be on God?) But we need to remember that we are all sinners and apart from God’s grace are destined for an eternity in hell, separated from God. We need to remember that we have no hope apart from God’s work, which will be demonstrated in the next point. So to demonstrate our sin, we will sing something like “Lamb of God,” or this past week we read question number 16 from the New City Catechism: “What is sin? Sin is rejecting or ignoring God in the world he created, rebelling against him by living without reference to him, not being or doing what he requires in his law—resulting in our death and the disintegration of all creation.” This is also a great time to read a public confession of sin, or create a time of silence for people to confess their sins privately to God.

3. Christ

Then we see that we are not left without hope, because Christ has defeated sin and death and has thus reconciled us to himself through his death on the cross. Some of my personal favorite songs to use to remind us of this message are “O Praise the Name,” “At the Cross (Love Ran Red),” and “Man of Sorrows.” These songs do an incredible job of pointing to our need for a Savior and remind us to respond to God in awe and worship – with our whole lives.

4. Response

Finally, we are called to respond. This can be done through singing, Scripture reading, the sermon, or the benediction. I am not a big fan of alter calls, because they tend to be emotional manipulation, but there needs to be times for people to respond to the gospel message, which can be as easy as inviting people to talk with you after the service. A couple that we’ve ended with recently are “His Mercy Is More,” and “The Stand.” These call us to respond to who God is and what he has done in and through us – even in the past hour we’ve spent together, gathering around His Word! We also include a benediction, which is a Scripture reading encouraging us to allow the sermon to influence our lives. The Bible has many benedictions throughout it that can be helpful conclusions to our time together, such as Hebrews 12:1-2, Hebrews 13:20-21, Jude 24-25, and 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.

While these elements do not need to be a part of every service, and sometimes it’s more helpful to focus on just one part of the gospel to better allow it to permeate into our thinking, these should serve as the regular structure of our services to allow us to better steep in the goodness of God through the gospel message. It’s vital that we think through the elements of our services to allow our congregations to see the gospel throughout everything we do! As John Calvin said, “Without the gospel everything is useless and vain.”

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by mikethestrand on April 23, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on April 23, 2018

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2018/04/23/the-visible-gospel/

3 Ways to Fix Our Eyes on Christ

I had the privilege of spending last week in Louisville, Kentucky for the bi-annual Together for the Gospel conference. While the speakers and free books are great, it’s often even better to spend time with friends – old and new! One of my friends encouraged me to pick up writing at my blog again (thanks Kevin!) So here we go. I’m going to try to write a weekly blog on some things I’m think about in relation to worship – both gathered and scattered. One thing that stuck out to me was something one of the speakers said: Christians are leaky, like a sieve. We get the gospel poured into us, but it has a tendency to leak out very quickly. This is part of the reason it is so important for us to “not neglect meeting together.” (Hebrews 10:25) We gather to be reminded. But what are we reminding each other to do? One of those things that I pray every week before our services begin is that it reminds us to fix our eyes on Christ. (Hebrews 12:2) So here are 3 ways during our weekly worship that we can better fix our eyes on Christ:

  1. Read Scripture

One of the most impactful classes for me during my time in seminary was in the first class I ever had: Survey of Christian Doctrine. The professor stated that we as Evangelicals claim to be book-centered people. But if that’s true, why is Scripture not a greater part of our weekly worship? How many services have you been to where Scripture isn’t read until the preaching portion of the service? But not only does Scripture need to be read, but read WELL. The Bible is “living and active,” (Hebrews 4:12) and many people do a disservice to the reading of God’s Word by reading it in an un-engaging way.

One way I’ve tried to do a better job of implementing Scripture reading is by beginning all our services with Scripture – generally from a Psalm. This helps us to reorient our hearts and minds to what we’re about to do together: focus on Christ. By beginning our time with God’s Word we are reminded to ground everything we do in that Word, as Colossians 3:17 reminds us, “Let the word of Christdwell in you richly.”

  1. Get Our Eyes Off Ourselves

Another way we are encouraged to fix our eyes on Christ is by getting our eyes off ourselves. Obviously this is just the opposite of fixing our eyes on Christ (we can’t fix our eyes on 2 places, after all), but this is another area where we often need reminders. Philippians 2 encourages us to have the same mind among ourselves as Christ Jesus: humility. Every person on the planet is prone to naval gazing at the expense of gazing at Christ. So when we gather together to sing, read God’s Word, give our offerings, and encourage one another, we do so to help each other get our gaze off ourselves and onto Christ.

  1. Look Also to the Interests of Others

Finally, as Paul also reminds us Philippians 2, we need to remember to “count others move significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Each week when we gather, we’re coming with different life stories, expectations, proclivities to sin, and areas where we need encouragement. By fixing our eyes on Christ we can better serve each other and remember that our focus needs to be on those around us instead of ourselves. I love what Ephesians 5:19 says about our purpose for gathering: “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” We are called to address one another on Sunday mornings. This helps us look to those around us who are in need of encouragement and support to faithfully live out God’s commands for another week. This then helps us to get our focus off ourselves and reorients our lives to better reflect the realities of our changed lives.

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by mikethestrand on April 16, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by mikethestrand on April 16, 2018

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2018/04/16/3-ways-to-fix-our-eyes-on-christ/

What Makes a “Worship” Song?

One of the perennial issues I receive comments on is on the music we sing on a Sunday morning, and whether or not it’s actually “worshipful.” So what exactly makes a song a “worship” song? And is that the question we should be asking? A song is made up of a few different things: melody/notes, rhythm and words. Let’s look at each one of these.

  • Melody

The songs we sing on Sunday shouldn’t jump around too much, and should be easy for the entire congregation to sing. This means rap wouldn’t be good to use as a tool of worship with the congregation. This doesn’t mean that songs that have melodies that jump around a lot can’t be used as a tool to worship, but they shouldn’t be one of the songs we sing on a regular basis at church. And a melody doesn’t inherently make make a song worshipful or not. When Martin Luther was writing his hymns he wrote them to well known bar tunes so people could join in and sing with him. The focus for Martin Luther, and for us, is that the congregation sings together (Col. 3:16). Therefore, any melody can be used as song of worship, but a certain melody does not a worship song make.

  • Rhythm

As I was growing up, one of my favorite songs was Audio Adrenaline’s ‘The Houseplant Song.’ A line in there said, “If it’s syncopated rhythm then your soul is gonna rot!” (Coincidentally, this was one of the first songs I learned on guitar!) Once again, you can have a song that is used for congregational worship with all sorts of different rhythms, the key is making it a rhythm the congregation can sing. Are there too many words in too short amount of time? Are there too few words for the pace of the music? Is it in a weird time signature that’s hard to pick up (like 7/8 or 5/4)? As weird as it sounds, this is why I think it’s important to keep up with top 40 music, so we can learn what our congregation is listening to and what is shaping their ideas of music. Once again, a worship song can have a wide range of rhythms and still be a worship song.

  • Words

That leaves us with words. Words alone make Christianity unique. Jesus is the Word made flesh. God revealed and reveals himself to us through his Word, the Bible. A phrase that gets thrown around a lot that I despise is “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.” Supposedly St. Francis of Assissi said it. I don’t hate it because he never said that, but because the gospel by definition, requires words. The word we translate as gospel more literally means “good news.” How can you hear news unless someone tells it to you? (Rom. 10:14) So, the only thing that makes a song worshipful or not, is the words. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the WORD of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” The Word alone and the words alone of the song are what make them useful for worship. Are these songs teaching us truths we see in the Bible?

Most of the complaints I get about the songs we sing on a regular basis are because of the melody or the rhythm being something that someone doesn’t like. A more helpful question to ask is: does this song help me teach those around me the truths of Scripture? If it does and the melody is relatively easy, and the rhythm allows us to catch on quickly, let’s proclaim that truth together, but apart from the words we can’t tell if a song is worshipful or not. How can you ensure that the word of Christ is dwelling in you richly? By paying attention to the words you’re singing!

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by mikethestrand on December 12, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by mikethestrand on December 12, 2017

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2017/12/12/what-makes-a-worship-song/

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