Dan Wilt Telling The Story Of “It Is Well” By Horatio Spafford

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Essentials In Worship Values

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Essentials In Worship Values is the study of foundational worship values and heart values. Worship is a world of communication, and our values are communicated in everything we do. What are the values that should guide us as we think about worship? You can take this course at any time on your own. Or you can join in with Scheduled groups. See the Courses tab for details.

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Part 1 Discussion (88 posts)

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WorshipTraining said 1 year, 6 months ago:

After you’ve done the assignments for Part 1 (they are posted to your right) please post a response to the following question:

In what ways does your faith community currently embody the values of 1) Intimacy and 2) Integrity in your worship expressions? How are these values reflected in your own life as a leader?

Please keep paragraphs to a maximum of 5 lines long and keep the entire post to a maximum of 250 words (about 20 lines of text). Keeping it short will allow more people to read your post and get some discussion going.

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Jenetha said 1 month, 3 weeks ago:

My faith community worships in a facility where time is a factor. We have to pack everything into a one-hour time slot on Sunday morning. I feel that because each part of the service is short, it is a hindrance to us and does not give us time to create the space for most worshippers to reveal themselves intimately before God.
I feel that our church could really grow in the value of intimacy. Our choir always prays together before rehearsal on Wednesday and after warm-up on Sunday. With God’s help I would like to see a stronger value of intimacy overall. I want to do my part to nurture this value.
Integrity is highly valued and embodied in our community. One can see and feel from our leaders that they are living and sharing with others the life they speak and sing about.
I love to worship and I have to hold myself back sometimes and remember that it is not about me. Intimacy is easy and often for me. I am on this Christian journey and by no means perfect, but by God’s grace, I strive to keep my life clean.
I can improve on the personal time I spend with Him, and I will. I bow before Him on Sunday mornings before I step foot into the church to lead, understanding that I can’t lead without Him. So, if I don’t fully worship there, I already have.

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Grant Wall said 3 months ago:

@jackel230 I agree with your thoughts on facebook. I have waffled back and forth through the years that I have been leading worship with whether or not it is even wise for me to have a facebook account. I do currently keep one, primarily for purpose of communication, since it is more prevalent now than e-mail (unbelievably!) However, it is just one example of ways that we can often be a compartmentalized society, seeing no disconnect between what we say we believe in one setting, and what we actually demonstrate in another.

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Grant Wall said 3 months ago:

@plohrmann I agree with your comments about the importance of an accountability partner. I have partnered with a few guys throughout the years as prayer partners, and have also experience great Bible study and prayer times with fellow staff members. Those relationships are very important in maintaining a life of both intimacy and integrity with God.

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Grant Wall said 3 months ago:

@ksibole Your comment about sitting at the piano alone and worshiping privately reminds me of comments I’ve heard Paul Baloche make in various worship leadership conference workshops about how he often goes into his home church sanctuary, turns on the PA system, and practices leading worship, with open Bible and guitar in hand. He says he will sing the Psalms, sing familiar worship songs, and just worship the Lord.

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Grant Wall said 3 months ago:

The most intimate times in our church’s life are probably the informal midweek prayer gatherings. Individuals are able to share words of praise, testimony or prayer needs with the congregation, underscored by soft instrumental music that then segues into a musical worship time.

Integrity in worship is expressed, I believe, as we corporately adopt mission-efforts, thus putting feet to the things we say we believe and the songs we sing. This is something our worship choir has recently begun to contemplate as well – we are looking for specific ways that we as a choir can physically minister the gospel in our community, thereby bringing a new authenticity and life to our musical worship leadership in the church.

In my own life, I simply strive to prioritize the private worship moments between me and God during the week, so that when I lead worship publicly, it is an outflow and extension of my daily worship habit. The words of Dan Wilt in the media article, “How to Lead Worship” resounded with me: “If your personal life is empty, and your interior life is smaller than your exterior life, your worship leadership will resonate a striving soul behind the songs.”

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Koleen said 3 months, 1 week ago:

The word of God and our consecration to God is held at a very high priority. We are encouraged to develop our own relationship with God and to mature. We are challenged to be effective Christians in our own worlds and in the church community. Our worship sets remind us who God is and who we are in God. The worship sets are emotionally healing and stimulate our praises to God.

As a leader, I have my own personal time with the Lord while studying his word and prayer. I also, sit at the piano alone and just worship as God ministers to my heart.

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Polly Lohrmann said 4 months, 3 weeks ago:

@dpierce, I always enjoy reading your posts. I liked what you said about intimacy and integrity in worship. I would agree that our congregations have not been taught to associate emotion and vulnerability in worship. As you said, to truly approach God, we must move out of our comfort zones.

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Polly Lohrmann said 4 months, 3 weeks ago:

@jrnall, The example of your congregation sounds exactly like the church that I grew up in! It is interesting to see how each generation intimately connects with God through different worship styles.

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Polly Lohrmann said 4 months, 3 weeks ago:

@jackel230, I definitely agree with what you wrote about Facebook. It is important to be careful not to post anything that would be a misrepresentation to the message that we are presenting through worship each week and in our daily life.

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Polly Lohrmann said 4 months, 3 weeks ago:

At the church I serve at, the leadership and staff strive to integrate intimacy and integrity in worship. In regards to integrity, it is important that those in leadership (staff and volunteers) live their lives as direct reflections of Jesus Christ. The worship staff that I have been in ministry with are all godly people who portray the same onstage message even when they are offstage. I have found that having an accountability partner helps to keep me on track in regards to integrity. Also being involved in a small group can provide another way to effectively share the importance and value of integrity in our worship expression.

Intimacy is also a highly regarded and valued worship expression in our community of believers. Intimacy requires members of the congregation to move outside of their comfort zones and patterns to approach God in pursuit of a close relationship. In my church, there are over 10,000 members, so developing an intimate relationship can be a challenge if the individual is overwhelmed or intimidated by the size of the church congregation.

In my life, I seek to embody these two worship values by the way I live. As stated in our worship theology classes, our lives are to be a transparent lens that reflects Jesus Christ and glorifies Him.

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Joseph H Toft II said 5 months, 2 weeks ago:

@jrnall – I was also stirred about this integrity topic. It is great to learn how these types of things tie in with our worship.

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Dawn Pierce said 5 months, 2 weeks ago:

@jrnall – The description of your congregation sounds very familiar! I really like how you said that intimacy in worship can be achieved for all generations when we connect His character with His call. Good stuff! May have to borrow some of that!!

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Jason Ray Nall said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

@akos – Gifty,
This week stirred up in me a desire to grow and teach our team as well and having the Senior Pastor support and help communicate these principles is great.

You are right that it is a daily habit and I would add position of the heart to live a lifestyle of worship.

JR

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Jason Ray Nall said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

@jackel230 – JOE!
Great to hear from you!
You thoughts about facebook are right on. My only concern is that we may become to careful on facebook and never have a place to just be ourselves. It is a tricky thing.

We work on a lot of hymns and would gladly help you out with some chord charts. What songs are you doing? I also recently found this album (getting it for christmas) which sounds great and would work well. (I just need to learn the accordion – haha).

Jadon Lavik “Roots Run Deep”
http://www.amazon.com/Roots-Run-Deep-Jadon-Lavik/dp/B0012RCMI8/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1322357908&sr=1-1

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Jason Ray Nall said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

@dpierce – Dawn,
Great to hear your voice again!
I feel your pain about singing about justice and then not acting justly, but be encouraged the singing usually comes first (at least I hope so). I have been challenged to maybe have our team lead the congregation is a helps project.

It is super encouraging to hear that you have a team that gets it. That is going to be a powerful tool in the transformation of your church’s heart. And by the way, I was born and raised Southern Baptist and now in American Baptist. I would like to hear more about the transition you are going through – send me a message.

JR

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Jason Ray Nall said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

@bulldog – Dave,
It is great to hear your heart for authenticity and accountability is the starting point for integrity. When you find the space with close friends to be your whole self then we can make steps towards holistic living.

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Jason Ray Nall said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

We are a four generation community that gather to sing and worship together. This brings a lot of rich history and challenge. Some of the older generation feel most comfortable singing songs about God and heaven whereas the younger generation long for more “vertical” songs that are more passionate.

We are slowing increasing the value of vulnerable and self-disclosing worship as we redefine worship as the life response to God’s love (Rom. 12.1 and Dan Wilt’s Essentials in Worship Theology). The great challenge and where God has called me is to finding the story that links songs about his character to his call for action and response for us today.

I have found that communicating the His character to His call helps draw us towards intimate worship.

In the discussion about integrity, I was very challenged and encouraged to grow in this area with our team. Living up to what we are singing about is no easy task (we can thank some of our song writers for that) but what a journey to be moving in that direction as a team.

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Dawn Pierce said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

@akos – You are blessed to be part of a congregation that is growing together in their intimacy and integrity in worship. As a new church you guys have the opportunity to set the standard for how worship will be carried out in your faith community for years to come. Being authentic and sharing how God is working in your lives with each other is awesome.

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Dawn Pierce said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

@jackel230 – What a great point you make about Facebook and social media as it relates to integrity. There have been a few instances where some of our people have aired their grievances on Facebook. As worship leaders/team members we have to be so careful. Satan would love nothing more than to tear down those who are visibly taking a stand for Christ.

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