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

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Essentials In Worship Values

Public Course active 2 weeks, 4 days ago

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 3 Discussion (88 posts)

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Polly Lohrmann said 1 year, 4 months ago:

Kingdom expectation is of high value at the church I serve at. It is presented during the worship songs and in our Pastor’s continual teaching of it. The songs we sing continually emphasize our expectation in knowing that God will provide, deliver and heal us. One of the songs that I thought of when I read the articles and watched the videos was “Waiting Here For You” by Christy Nockels. “…We come with expectation, waiting here for you…waiting here for you, with our hands lifted high in praise, and it’s You we adore, singing Alleluia.” Along with songs like this, our Pastor reminds the congregation each week that God is faithful to provide and will fulfill our every need.

In my life, I try to reflect these values and trust in the Lord for everything. I recently saw a quote that reminded me to pray about all things: “Have you prayed about it as much as you have talked about it?” In giving the Lord full control over our lives, our worship will continually be full in expectation of His promises.

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Dan Wilt said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Hi guys. Here is my video reflection on our work so far in Essentials In Worship Values. – http://screencast.com/t/zbbCDhQQmM

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Gifty said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@Dpierce..wow l just listened to Audrey’s song! Beautiful song.
l believe we make the mistake of trying to show God how to move in our gathered worship forgetting sometimes that He is Sovereign, and as our Father,He comes to meet each need His way.

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Gifty said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@Joseph isn’t it amazing how your expectations for being inspired and challenged, while taking this course are being met? Well that is the power of expectation for you. l am so glad you said you will be teaching about this value.God is faithfull and be ready to experience the power of His presence in an awesome way. l will be praying with you too.

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Gifty said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@Jason Ray…What you said about Kingdom expectation being the motivation for you to sing and let me add lead God’s people is so true.As servants we obediently heed his command and He always shows up to perfect His work.

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Dawn Pierce said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@jrnall – I think it is true what you said about sometimes we have to sing it before we believe it and put it into practice. I once heard Jennie Lee Riddle say that we want to write (or in our case, lead) songs that put truth on the lips of the Bride of Christ.

Our worship team struggles with creating space, too. It often feels like we go from one song to the next without allowing any time to meditate or reflect on what we just sang.

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Dawn Pierce said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@akos – Your line about wishing there was a trap door on the stage made me laugh! I have been there, for sure! What you wrote at the end of your post reminded me of Audrey Assad’s song, “Winter Snow”. Have you heard it? Beautiful lyrics!!

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Dawn Pierce said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@jackel230 – This week’s study moved me to prayer, too. I always pray for God’s guidance on what we sing or communicate, but forget to pray for those who will be there. That they will come with heart prepared to meet with God. It was very convicting for me.

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Jason Ray Nall said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@jackel230 I am with you when it comes to prayer for the worship gathering. I was challenged by Dan’s teaching on that as well. If we live expectantly then we should pray humbly a lot.

About knowing verses expecting, I think they are closely related. Believing that it can happen is the first step. Acting on that belief is expecting it. I have been challenged to act on it in my planning and in my encouragement for the players on the team.

Expectation can be the reason we practice.

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Jason Ray Nall said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Hey guys, just gotta say that my favorite song (and the one that has been in my head all this week) for this topic is “Hosanna” by Paul Balouche. Here are the lyrics…Hosanna (Praise Is Rising)

Verse 1
Praise is rising | Eyes are turning to You | We turn to You
Hope is stirring | Hearts are yearning for You | We long for You

Pre-Chorus
‘Cause when we see You | We find strength to face the day
In Your presence | All our fears are washed away | Washed away

Chorus
Hosanna hosanna | You are the God who saves us | Worthy of all our praises
Hosanna hosanna | Come have Your way among us | We welcome You here Lord Jesus

Verse 2
Hear the sound of | Hearts returning to You | We turn to You
In Your Kingdom | Broken lives are made new | You make us new

CCLI Song No. 4662491
© 2005, 2006 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music | Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) | (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
Brenton Brown | Paul Baloche

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Jason Ray Nall said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@dpierce Knowing that he is faithful to show up is sometimes the only reason I have to get up and go to work on Mondays. I don’t know about you but sometimes as good as Sunday’s time together went, it is hard to get up and do it again. Then I realize that I can’t hit a home-run each week, but if God is there then I’m all in.

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Jason Ray Nall said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@akos Thank you for bringing up “on earth as it is in heaven” – that really does represent and attitude of expectancy. If we lived with that prayer for awhile we would be ready to respond to the event of the Kingdom in worship. By this I mean our private worship response to God. Great words Gifty.

Theme planning has greatly encouraged me as well. I find more motivation from that then learning a new song. It even helps me manage the old songs, because if they fit in the theme then I will use them to communicate it.

Theme is also the only way to bring the church family on a journey together.

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Joseph H Toft II said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@dpierce – God is faithful. If we seek Him, we will find Him. Its a great blessing for us as worship leaders to see people find God in our worship services. God is good.

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Joseph H Toft II said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@akos – I’m diggin these classes, because they have been bringing up my weakness’s in worship leading. Teaching is one of my area’s that I need to improve on, but I look forward to growing in my teaching ability.

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Joseph H Toft II said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@jrnall – This expectation thing is something I could do better at. For me, its just one of those things that I know can happen but I don’t expect it to happen. If that makes any sense at all.

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Jason Ray Nall said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Kingdom Expectation is not a high value at our church, but I think it is growing. Certain songs that have become “our” songs have lyrics that proclaim this value. We are still far from it because as we say in the readings sometimes our lives are not in tune with our songs. But just like tuning any instrument, there is a lot of dissonance right before its tuned.

Sometimes we have to sing it first before we belief it and then finally practice it. Coming to our worship gathering with the expectation that God is going to move is something that has to start with the team. When I read these articles i can’t help but think of them and how I can instill this value in them.

For me Kingdom Expectation is sometime the only motivation I have to sing. I could not live with simply being a song leader in a band, there has to be more. As cool as the music might get – it will not be enough to motivate me.

I need to become more skillful at creating the space for the church to hear what God may be saying. In our tradition they are use to song leaders and music directors, so when there is silence I feel the pressure to move on to the next intro. I need to find a way to resist and instead encourage yielding to God with a Holy expectation.

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Gifty said 1 year, 5 months ago:

What is helping our faith community embody this value of kingdom expectation is our Pastor’s continual teaching of it. The importance of this expectation is emphasised every time we meet. We are encouraged to come before God expecting him to heal, deliver and to empower us for the work of the Kingdom. After singing our Praise and Worship songs,we usually pause for God to do his work in our midst. In addition to this, we have our monthly prayer times where we come before God with various petitions, knowing that He is faithful to meet every need.
Even though, l was taught about this value, l must say that, whenever l had the opportunity to lead worship and l “saw” nothing, l always wished for that “platform that has a trap door to magically swallow me up” and take me somewhere. But l thank God for understanding, and trust in him that He comes not only in the fire and the wind but also with his still small voice, he does his work in the hearts of his children.

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Dawn Pierce said 1 year, 5 months ago:

This week’s reading and videos were another great reminder of why we do what we do as worship leaders. Dan defined the value of Kingdom Expectation as the worshipper being invited by God to expect Him to “show up”. This is the crux of what we do each and every time we stand before our congregations. We plan, rehearse, and play/sing to create a place for people to encounter God. We carry out our part knowing that God is faithful and will meet us where we are.

I would venture to say that the average person in our congregation does not attend a worship service with the mindset that they are going to commune with God. That seems so sad to say, but I really believe it is true. One of the things that the leadership has tried to emphasize to our people is that worship is the way you live your life. It is not just singing a few songs with fellow believers each week.

As a worship leader, I am called to model “hope in action”. I can’t just do it with my words. It is not enough for me to stand before them and say that God deserves to be worshipped with every fiber of our being. Gary Best said, “God is looking for worship that comes out of unity of life and voice.” When we give Him authority over all of our lives, then our worship will be full of expectation.

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Joseph H Toft II said 1 year, 5 months ago:

To be completely honest, this kingdom expectation idea is very foreign to our faith community as a whole. There are a few people with background history in this expectation, but I don’t believe our congregation would grasp this concept without the proper teaching.

Our background is Wesleyan denomination, but we are a non-denominational church. Our demographic is primarily country people. Kingdom expectation and spontaneous worship is just not in the history books. With that being said, we are relatively new in moving from the traditional liturgical worship setting to the contemporary spontaneous realm of worship.

I look forward to carving out space in our worship sets to set apart time on teaching kingdom expectation. This idea makes complete sense because of the question, “why would we worship a god that we never expect to show up?”

I have been found lacking in prayer for our worship gathering, as well as expectation. I find myself all too often “tightening up a finely oiled set of songs”, and never carving out space for the Holy Spirit. It’s hard, when the worship band is growing in musical ability, to be spontaneous. I need to be mindful to “welcome transformation, and not simply communicate information.”

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Dave Killebrew said 1 year, 7 months ago:

Our faith community understands the value of Kingdom Expectation, in one service I remember the Lord’s prayer and our pastor’s emphasis “on earth as it is in heaven”. We were reminded of the unity and community that our prayers may request and define.

There are times when we will be quiet and just allow the Spirit to move through our worship. I am pleased when our pastor or a member reminds us that we are in the HOLY presence of God. Our coming together as a body is pleasing to God and draws Him close to us.

As a leader, I am getting a better understanding of my role in facilitating the worship. The training has empowered me to plan music (sets) that has themes of Kingdom Expectation. Before worshiptraining.com, I was more focused on rotating songs and learning new songs rather that planing a theme of worship. This enriches our praise and worship.

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