Hymns, Worship, and the Church

    I once opened a hymnal title page to find the most interesting charge. “After a Bible, the hymnal should be the most important book in the Christian’s life.” Yet, the church no longer touches them. The youngest and newest of Christians don’t even know what they are. Printed music in the church is a thing of the past.

    The modern evangelical church has majorly given up on music literacy. I’m not advocating for church worship to only use hymns. I’m not even advocating for current worship songs to be sung in the style of hymns. I’m simply advocating for the church to know what they sing and why they sing it.

Too often, the bulletin (or the order of worship in a bulletin) is the first thing to go in our transition from the previous generation to the church today. Even if a church still has hymnals or song books, lyrics are presented on the screen and the congregation is not directed to turn to a written copy of the worship song. The song simply begins without letting the congregation know what they are about to sing. If a song speaks to them, they can’t turn to the bulletin to know what it is called. They can’t look down at the music they’re holding, because they’re not holding any.

I believe that providing the title of the song for the congregation allows the Holy Spirit to do so much more work than when the worship team runs through a seamless, unnamed set. In my life, there have been many worship songs I wanted to keep singing or listening to after the service ended, but I couldn’t remember enough of the lyrics and didn’t know the title to look them up later. I was called to carry those songs with me throughout my week, but I couldn’t, simply because it was determined for me that I did not need the title or the music in my hands.

This is not unlike when Scripture was read over congregations but they didn’t have personal copies of it, when the clergy alone held the text. 

When someone is given the title of a song, they can look up the lyrics later, they know what songs God is using in their life, they can listen to recordings of them. They can look up the lyrics and reflect on them, they can discover what Scripture the song is based on. 

In addition to knowing the title of songs, this ownership and engagement would only increase if the church could read music. If they weren’t reliant on a leader alone to teach them the melody, but were able to follow along with the melody and see and know what they are to do. I am advocating for worship leaders to give the same charge that a pastor would give before starting his sermon. “Turn with me in the text, open your Bible, see what it says, follow along with me.” With music, the lyrics on the screen are not always enough. Though it’s not necessary for every single congregant to follow along with sheet music for every single worship song, imagine how powerful it would be if the church were called to engage with worship in the same way they are called to engage with the Holy Scriptures, with the truth of Scripture set to melody.

Even though we are invited to sing, the church’s worship today calls back to a time when singing was only for the clergy. Too often people stand there, not really singing. It’s because they haven’t been taught how to. They don’t feel capable or comfortable of lifting their voice in song to their Savior because they can’t match pitch, because they don’t know if they’re supposed to go higher or lower, because the song is set in a difficult key and they don’t know how to sing harmony, because they’re ashamed of their voice.

Imagine if families had a book of hymns and worship songs at home with them that they could study together and learn to sing parts together. If the husband is the pastor of his family, then that most certainly includes creating a plan for worship. Imagine if, just as the we carry Scripture beyond the walls of the service, we also carried the charge to know and study Scripture through song. To reclaim the music literacy that we have willingly handed off to the secular world. Imagine if the congregation could read music and carry a tenacity, a desire, to be shaped by the lyrics. Imagine if, at worship nights, the church chose one or two songs to separate into parts and helped each other learn how to use their voices, the instruments entrusted to us.

We have a responsibility as the church to sing and know theologically rich songs. To let God’s Spirit work in our hearts through the gift of music and worship. To know how to read music and to worship with beauty and skill. God has called us to use our hearts and minds to wonder at His gift of music. May we be obedient to that call.

The Suffering of Christ

    Have you ever owned something that brought you grief? Maybe it was a shirt that looked cute, but was always getting stained or wrinkled. Maybe it was a coffeemaker that made the best lattes, but was always breaking down and needed constant attention. Maybe you owned a pair of shoes you absolutely loved, but everyone around you made negative comments about them and they hurt your feet just a bit.

    In each of those situations, you’d probably be asking yourself if the struggle was worth it. If the good of owning those items was worth the stress or insecurity or mental load that came along with them. You may begin to wear the shirt and shoes less and less, maybe look for a coffeemaker that would actually work. Ultimately, you may even give those items away.

What about a pet that constantly bit you, or was well on their way to destroying everything in your house? If an animal was always fighting against you and wanted to get away from you, would you work to keep that pet around, or would you consider finding a different home for them?

If we have the option of removing ourselves from the trial, if we have the option of disconnecting ourselves from the stressor, we often do. It’s counterintuitive to suffer intentionally. We don’t fight to keep what makes us cry or struggle to breathe.

Yet Christ did. For a world that was ungrateful, for a world that rejected Him, He endured abuse, death, and Hell. He fought hard and willingly suffered, so that we might not be separated from Him. To keep us, His creation, in His life, He was beaten and tortured and endured separation from the Father. This was in the midst of our rejection.

Many things that cause us an inconvenience or emotional weight can be discarded and forgotten. We can leave stressful jobs, we can remove ourselves from toxic relationships, and we can get rid of possessions that don’t bring us joy. 

Though His disciples denied knowing Him, though the Jewish people rallied for His crucifixion, though Judas betrayed Him, He suffered to keep them. He suffered that they might be His. For every person who will ever live that chooses to discount Him, dismiss Him, and mock Him, He willingly suffered that they might be His. Even those that do choose Him, the church caused Him grief as He bore the weight of our sins. 

Jesus loves us so much that He suffered just to keep us. Even though we sent Him to Hell with our sins, He has never once rejected us or set us aside, deciding it would be easier without us in His life.

May His choice to suffer for our sake give us the strength to believe in His everlasting love.

Showing Up: An Act of Obedience

Writing and composition are driven by motivation and discipline. The act of showing up daily, regardless of the outcome, is the only way forward. Taking time each day to just touch your work, to simply have the expectation of engaging with it, facilitates a greater progress than the longest of (isolated) writing blocks. 

If you take every other Sunday and carve out 6 hours to work on your writing, it's helpful, but only to an extent. The effort required to reenter that project, that space in your mind where the dream is being crafted, is pretty substantial after two weeks away. A mere 20 minutes per day, five to six days a week, is less time than that Sunday block, but has the potential to take you even further. 

The idea of compounding daily wins, of building off of yesterday's progress and creating a rich bank to draw from, helps push us towards this idea of daily practice. When you show up on Wednesday, Monday and Tuesday's ideas and progress are fresh in your mind and you can hit the ground running. No answering of, "What was I doing?" or "Where was I at?" You just know.

An idea from Atomic Habits by James Clear is to make a daily practice easy and consistent. Don't set out for hitting three 60 minute workouts every single week. Simply build the practice of showing up three times a week and lacing your shoes. You can work out if you want to, but you don't have to. You're welcome to go home after showing up and thinking about exercise. The intent is to build habits step by step, and to master each part of a routine in isolation. After several weeks of showing up at the gym consistently, add 10 minutes of exercise each time you go. It will be easy to follow through and exercise regularly for that short amount of time because you've mastered the art of showing up. The progress that's made in those 10 minutes is irrelevant.You're still building and maintaining a habit each time you enter that space and time.

If you have a calling to create, to dream, to wonder, are we not to be obedient with that call? God doesn't walk away from us and simply finish refining us right as Christ is returning. He continues to work on us and through us as time goes on: "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns," (Phil. 1:6). We are called to continue. I don't believe that carving out isolated moments is wholeheartedly pursuing continuance, does not demonstrate good stewardship of the ideas He has entrusted to you.

I am the first to wrestle with lack of diligence, of not finishing tasks and projects and dreams. I am the first to blurt out a new idea, before even asking God if it's what He wants, before I finish the three open projects in front of me. God's leading is dynamic; it meets us where we are. If He has said yes to something, it may not be a yes forever. Likewise, a closed door may open later. I don't want to run ahead of the Lord and will stop these projects when faced with a closed door. But until then, I am convicted of the need to continue, above all else. To show up regularly and frequently, so that God can close the door. The doors of my hopes and dreams have been closed because of my lack of effort; I have not even given God the dignity of being able to close or open the door. I have willingly closed the door with my failure to show up. Progress in a piano arrangement or a novel cannot be made if my efforts are half-hearted and inconsistent, compromised by the busyness and distraction of my life.

So, until I receive hard nos from God and humans, until God tells me that this pace is unsustainable, or until the structure of my life leads me towards other good, serving projects, I am committing to showing up daily towards the Kingdom work that God has started in me. It doesn't matter whether I write five pages or simply read the work I've already done and plead with God for clarity and confidence, this will be protected time where I commit to being present. Regardless of what is accomplished, it is an extension of my time with God. I will have grace for myself and be joyful no matter what is written; I will celebrate time and discipline for the gifts that they are.  If God's grace sustains me beyond the goals I have set, that is all praise to Him. In the meantime, I am starting with easily achievable goals and asking for His help in showing up, and as always, I will

[Pray for plot]

I am prayerfully accountable and committed to:

Five 60 minute blocks of novel work every week

One blog post per week

When I have mastered two full calendar weeks of these goals and dreams, I'll check back in on this topic to share my progress and adjust my list of standards/goals. How glorious it is that we get to parter with God in continuing; we get to partner with Him in telling the good news and loving others unceasingly.

The Gift of Purpose

May this blog be a declaration of purpose, an affirmation of calling, a commitment device to grow as a writer, as a space to share what God is teaching me. Thanks for being here.

    

 Purpose. Something that the enemy can no longer steal or muddy up. Purpose is the determination, the choice to believe that you have a unique and divine reason for living, a calling that shapes the parameters of your time and space.

    Purpose used to be so easy to define, back when I was teaching school and caring for my mom. I knew without a doubt how I was to engage, what I was to spend my time on. The tasks and purpose were defined by the season. Driving to chemo or grading papers were things I had to do, no matter what. These tasks and their related tasks filled so much of my time and it wasn't possible to not do them, they were as core as breathing or sleeping. For the first time in a while, I am calling the shots. If I don't get enough writing or piano or exercising done, the only person I disappoint is me. There's no commitment device pressing me to the finish line. 

    In this season, the tasks that are automatic and compulsory like grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry do not create enough skeleton upon which to attach the life-giving flesh of autonomy and agency, fulfillment. Without that skeleton of imperative tasks that serve others, the flesh of human desire, of pursuing things for me, has floundered. These God-sized dreams and goals of publishing a book, of hitting 1,000 hours of piano practice, of being healthier, of growing the YouTube channel, have felt impossible, aimless, and selfish.

    Since the reason I do my work has changed from helping others to sitting with myself and, at the onset, just restoring myself, confidence, satisfaction, and joy have suffered. While the heart of my YouTube ministry, and vision with my novel, is to remind people of God's love for them, it's awhile before work is shared or there's evidence of impact. The enemy has done everything in his power to make me believe that I'm not capable of resisting distraction, that I'm not capable of following through and finishing what I start. That I'm selfish, that my days don't have purpose, that I'm not working, that I'm unfulfilled.

    But the battle I'm in is not with myself. The battle I'm in is with the world, with the evil one, and he will not win! I am equipped. I am called. I am capable. I am seen. I will pursue the things of God, spiritual, mental, and physical health, with tenacity that will make the darkness flee.

    I have God's help and love, and I will continue to ask for His guidance. I will cultivate the dreams, skills, and desires God has planted in me, confident that my time will accomplish some good for His kingdom and bring me closer to Him.

A statement of faith and a foundation for which this writing can stand:

Now and forevermore may the glory be

only and ever God's.

May we praise Him for the trials,

for they cause us to look up at Him.

May we rejoice in His goodness,

in the gift of His love.

May we repent and claim His help

in times when sin befalls us.

May we thank Him for the gift of purpose in this life,

that we are called to partner with Him 

in the bringing of His kingdom here on Earth.

a working, prayerful draft for the heart of this blog