essentialsworship

There was much to try and process and much that I am still left to think about having read Essentials in Worship Values by Dan Wilt. Loosely, in attempting to summarise, the e-book is prefaced with the idea of a worship artisan. The first half explores the values of worship leading that we have looked at in Essentials Green (intimacy and integrity, cultural relevance and accessibility, kingdom expectation, and spiritual formation) and the second half is filled with advice, guidance and exhortation for worship and worship leading.

The Worship Artisan

The term worship artisan is a coupling of the words “worship” (here specifically referring to worship of God) and “art”, and is succinctly articulated by Dan Wilt where he says,

“So, for our purposes, a worship artisan is then a worship leader who is wide in skill and passion, but is also deep in devotion, wisdom, character, pastoral affection, theological reflection and devotion to the task of furthering the worship of God on the earth in our day. Their heart is a nexus, a gathering or converging place, for the past, present and future. We want to be a great gift in our worship leadership to the generations now, but also to the generations to come.”[1]

Values in Worship

Dan Wilt clearly states the importance of having values in worship in a community, so that we do not “waver with every new fad that blows by.” [2] Sticking to these values enables a community to reach its objective. Values are defined as “those ideas by which we ultimately want to live, and need to keep ever before us lest we forget them in the midst of the challenges of daily life.”[3]

Dan then mentions some specific categories to consider in worship values for the local community, namely, intimacy and integrity, accessibility and cultural relevance, kingdom expectation, and spiritual formation.[4]

Included in this discussion on spiritual values was the reminder that worship “encompasses all of our lives offered to Jesus in complete and utter surrender”[5] rather than just being the songs we sing on a Sunday morning. There was however, a validation of song as a vehicle for worship,

“Yet we can get ten people, or a hundred people, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand – whatever number we choose – and we can all get together and sing a song. That song reflects what is going on in our hearts and our minds, together. There is truth that we’re affirming, but there’s also affection that we’re expressing. That’s why I think that singing as an expression of worship has stood the test of time.”[6]

Worship Value: Intimacy and Integrity

Intimacy: The idea that God has disclosed Himself to us and invites us into intimate relationship with Him. To enter into intimacy with God we also need to make ourselves vulnerable, turn towards Him in a giving and self-disclosing manner.

Integrity: Is our worship all about us or all about God? Is the life we live on the stage-in front of others, reflective of the life we live when no one else in watching?

Worship Value: Accessibility & Cultural relevance

Accessibility: Enabling people to enter worship of God, “making entry easy for everyone”[7], making decisions that will facilitate that-in song and music choice.

Cultural relevance: there is a tension between setting culture and following it so as to be relevant to people seeking to worship. Deliberately not following cultural trends and setting own culture, and following culture in terms of music and sound can both be advancing God’s kingdom (and when taken to extremes both can be detrimental, unhelpful). “Each individual faith community must determine how the value of cultural relevance, or authentic bridge-building into the community, applies in the worship setting.”[8] This worship value is about giving every opportunity for people to enter into God’s presence in worship.

Worship Value: Kingdom Expectation

The term “kingdom” refers to the rule and reign of God on earth which is both now and not yet, God’s kingdom breaking into our present world.

It is important that we enter into worship with an expectation of an intimate experience with God, an expectation that we will see His kingdom break into our lives. In worship leading this means coming with the expectation that God will move, creating worship sets that allow every opportunity for this (creating “space”), praying for the congregation to experience the Living God as they enter into worship, praying for individuals, involvement in other ministries such as social justice that demonstrate an expectation of seeing God move.

Worship Value: The value of our own heart formation, Spiritual formation

Key ideas that stood out to me in this worship value are as follows:

Spiritual formation: Journey of the soul, keeping the inner, secret life larger, the focus, more important than the exterior life that the world sees.

Importance of self care: too many people involved in ministry burn themselves out for the sake of ministry-their exterior life becomes far greater than their interior life.

We need to be and do exactly what God made us to do-He created us all uniquely.

Four degrees of love (Bernard of Clairvaux): love of self for self’s sake, love of God for self’s sake, love of God for God’s sake, love of self for God’s sake. The last, love of self for God’s sake, cultivating our hearts and stepping into what God created us to do, is glorifying to God and an act of worship- “The glory of God is a human being; fully alive.”[9]

Ignatius of Loyola: the soul is constantly moving between consolation (“with peace”) and desolation (“without peace”), consolation where we are alive to God and His presence, desolation where we are essentially living for self and are without hope or awareness of God’s love and presence in our lives. These two states are opposites.

Dan Wilt suggests that, as a worship value, looking after our own spiritual formation is as important as any other worship value.

One helpful way in which Dan summarized or explained these values follows:

“If we value Intimacy and Integrity, then worship leadership is about an Encounter. If we value Accessibility and Cultural Relevance, then worship leadership is about Bridge Building. If we value Kingdom Expectation, then worship leadership is about New Creation in the now. If we value our own Spiritual Formation, then worship leadership is a Life Overflow.”[10]

Guidance and Exhortation in Worship and Worship Leading

There is much of Essentials in Worship Values that I have not summarized and I have reached my word limit. As I read the second half of this e-book I viewed it as a collection of articles to exhort and guide the worship artisan, and which contained practical advice regarding the worship values already discussed. There was so much discussed, I thought I would briefly mention those ideas that stood out to me.

The idea of a mentor. Here Dan talks the importance of mentoring and being involved in this process (you are mentoring while you yourself are being mentored). Practical and straightforward ideas are given to guide us in this process and suggest what is required of us. For example, spending time with the person you are mentoring, and giving gifts to them.[11]

Constantly, throughout the e-book and in the addendum articles, there was an exhortation to the worship leader (though not necessarily specifically stated) to die to self, to cultivate that inner garden, and that all we are doing is for God and is not about us-it is never about performance or us being on the stage, but about entering that intimate place with God and bringing glory to Him. I find it harder to reference this and feel that this idea permeates much of the book.

There was a wealth of other practical advice in the addendum articles that included topics such as song choice, playing instruments skillfully, the qualities of great worship leaders and the many different skills this requires (rather than just being able to play an instrument well), and being well prepared in order to be able to be spontaneous.

The word limit has definitely been exceeded so I will stop here, though am aware that there are probably other themes and topics I could have included from this e-book given more space to do so!

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[1] Essentials in Worship Values by Dan Wilt.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p37

[2] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p18.

[3] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p18.

[4] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p18.

[5] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p18.

[6] Brian Doerksen, Personal Interview with Dan Wilt, Winter 2000. Taken from Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p19.

[7] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p27

[8] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values.  @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p30

[9] Iranaeus of Lyons, taken from Essentials in Worship Values by Dan Wilt. @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p39

[10] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p43.

[11] Dan Wilt, Reaching Before, Reaching Behind: The Fine Art Of Mentoring A Worship Leader. Taken from Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Values @2010 Wild Pear Creative, p72

In viewing this week’s media on spiritual formation I identified with much of what was said. As mentioned in this weeks discussion forum I noted that being busy is a real struggle and seems to oppose the idea of spiritual formation-the exterior life becomes so busy that it threatens to completely overwhelm the interior life, something Matt Redman alluded to.1

It also struck me that much of our society is conducted in a manner that is completely at odds with the ideas of spiritual formation. For example, Dan Wilt likened it to a spiritual journey over the course of a lifetime. 2 So much of our current society is about instant satisfaction.

We are so often reminded in the world, of what we can get or have, whereas those on a journey of spiritual formation, the peregrins, are known as givers, not takers. 2

It is clear that we do not follow the “ways of the world”, though I think sometimes certain ideas can creep in, for example, wanting instant answer to prayer in a way that we expect, and perhaps not always being prepared to persevere  when our prayer appears to go unanswered.

Dan Wilt’s talk on ebb and flow, consolation and desolation, was also encouraging.3 It feels terrible to be in a place of desolation-and there are aspects of this that I can recognise in my life. However, there was the reminder that there will be an ebb and flow, but that our lives need to be on a general trajectory towards God.

This was encouraging as it is easy to become overwhelmed when going through periods of desolation and feel like a failure, rather than recognising this as part of the journey and realising that your life is still on a general trajectory towards God.

1. Matt Redman, Personal Time With God.

2. Dan Wilt, Week 4: Intro to Spiritual Formation.

3. Dan Wilt, Movements of the Soul.

For: The Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt

The importance of ministry to the poor in integrity and intimacy in worship was an interesting idea for me to consider. I am involved in ministry in this area, and it is a significant area of focus for our community, but I had not considered it as part of my worship ministry (other than that our whole lives are to be an act of worship to God-Romans 12:1)

I was a bit hesitant about this as in a previous community  I was a part of, I felt that social justice was made the most important priority at the expense of other things. However the passage quoted by Andy Park 1, that we need to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”2 convicted me that I need to consider this aspect of worship. This is what God requires of us!

In thinking about this I wondered, this is something we should do, but is it something we have to do to experience success in worship-true intimacy with God? I don’t think I can answer this because God’s mercy and grace far exceeds my understanding, but I do think if one’s community is not involved in some aspect of ministry to the poor it could be argued that there is a lack of integrity-Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”3. Essentially this is ministry to Jesus.

I suppose my struggle then, due to past experience, is to embrace this as an integral aspect of integrity in worship rather than lowering it to being a nice extra that we can add on…

1. Andy Park, The Most Important Thing.

2. Micah 6:8b

3. Matthew 25:40

“For: The Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt”

I have been challenged by Derek Morphew’s discussion on worship as a response to the coming of the Kingdom, in particular that in the scriptures, the response was generally one of joy and amazement.

In our worship, as mentioned in the week three discussion forum for Essentials Green, I think that our church worships well in intimacy with God, but I would love to see more of a joyful and amazed response at the presence of God in worship.

This has lead me to think about the songs we use in worship and whether they facilitate a joyful response to God or whether they are more reflective and personal. Having said this, in the examples in scripture that Derek Morphew mentioned (for example, Elizabeth’s song and the baby kicking in her womb, the angels), these responses appear to be spontaneous reactions to the presence of God rather than something that was facilitated.

So as I long to see greater joy in worship, I think I simply need to come with expectation that God will show up-and I know that He will as He is gracious and faithful (even if it’s not in the way we are expecting). I don’t think this desire for a truly joyful response to God is something that can be manufactured, either through a great worship team, or through the right kind of songs. I think it needs to be a spontaneous response to God’s presence. Come Holy Spirit!

For: The Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt

In Brian Doerksen’s video on accessibility, he talks about maturity bringing him to a place where he desires others to come into a place of intimacy [with God] in worship.

Previously there would be a desire to enter that place of intimacy no matter the cost, but with maturity comes a desire to make that more accessible for others too.

I found this interesting to consider as, being reasonably new to worship leading, I have been told by others, “You’re leading. Go to that place of intimacy, you need to make the decision and push in, whether people choose to follow you or not.”

I think this is true, but I had not thought as much about the choices I make in terms of worship being a factor in whether or not people follow-the choices I make will influence how accessible it is for others.

I have also heard it said that if people want to worship, then they will no matter what-whether there is one slightly off tune leader with a guitar or whether there is a talented leader with a professional band or even if there is no worship leader and a worship CD is played instead.

Having heard these things I had thought less about the choices I make effecting accessibility of worship and more about being courageous and making every effort to go to that place of intimacy with God regardless of whether anyone else follows.

Having come into worship leading simply out of a love of worshiping God, I am being challenged to think more deeply about leading, rather than just worship (though I still have huge amounts to learn about worship too!). So just into week 2 of Essentials Green I am learning much, and enjoying it!