Praying Over People As They Sing

Liturgical Art (folded cranes), Prayers for AIDS Victims, by Nancy ChinnObsessing Over Details is Part of Our Job

If you're a worship leader in the weekly grind like me (whether you're on staff, part of the team/ensemble of musicians, a choir member, or someone who leads spoken elements in a worship service), you know how regularly your mind flies from this to that during a worship service.  In fact, I've often taught young worship leaders just starting out that part of our sacrifice in being a "director" who pulls everything together is that we have the responsibility to attend to the sometimes crazy-making details of a worship service precisely so everyone else doesn't have to.  It's part of how we offer up a sacrifice of praise in accordance with our gifts.

In the hyperactivity of leading a worship service, I've found a couple of practices that are both centering for me and powerful for the people of God.  It's an unspoken, largely unseen ministry that we can engage in while we are in the moment of the worship service. It's a pastoral duty, and it's the simple act of praying for the people of God directly and sincerely.

Yesterday at Coral Ridge

At Coral Ridge, for instance, we celebrate the Lord's Supper by singing our way through it.  Yesterday, we sang three songs, one of them being a fabulous modern invitation song based on an old hymn called, "Come to Me" ( YouTube | iTunes ) by Michael Bleecker and a few others, over at The Village Church.  Its chorus sings:

There is freedom, taste and see
Hear the call: "Come to Me"
Run into His arms of grace
Your burden carried, He will take

I was reflecting with our choir before the service on what the Lord's Supper is and the unique opportunity it presents for people to truly "taste and see" that He is good.  And when we were singing that song, there was a strong sense that the Holy Spirit was prompting me (and us) to pray for people as they came forward.  Another singer was leading the song, and it gave me a chance to simply play guitar, sing off the mic, and look at the people of God as they approached the Table.  The choir and I began, in our hearts, praying for people, that they would be encouraged, strengthened, nourished, and fed.   

Praying Over the People of God in the Moment

That moment reminded me of just how much it has become a subconscious practice of mine during musical pauses and sometimes even while I'm singing and leading.  I look out at the people of God, some of whom I've had lunch or coffee with the week prior and heard their stories of terror and triumph, suffering and success.  I know that the guy over there is absolutely addicted to pornography.  I know that the woman over there despises her husband.  I know that the college student over there is burnt out from the pressures of final exams and "what's next?"  I know that the homeless man over there is just plain hungry.  I know that my co-pastor is struggling with discouragement in ministry.  I know that one of my singers is wrestling with the difficulties of her children.  And as I see them, the Spirit prompts me to pray, in the moment, that God would meet them there, minister to them and help them to not merely go through the motions of a given song, prayer, or element of worship.  

When God Stirs Up the Worship Mojo

I also realized that I could extend this ministry of prayer to others who help lead in worship, particularly the choir.  So, before the service, I encouraged the choir to engage in this practice of "praying over" the people of God during key moments in the service.  I can't tell you what a difference it made.  

But I can tell you that stuff like this doesn't happen every week and sometimes feels largely contingent on the factors of God's pure yet inscrutable will and our brokenness and receptivity.  When it does happen, though, it's magnificent, and I can't help but think that it had something to do with our faulty prayers, lifted up and perfected through Jesus' and the Spirit's prayers before the Father in heaven.  Yesterday, the gospel was palpable, felt, and enlivening.  People were singing more, and there was an "edge" in the room.  My charismatic brothers and sisters will often call that "God showing up," and I agree.  God showed up.  That may not be a neat and tidy theological statement, but it is a perfectly descriptive existential one. Many of us felt it. Many of us wished it could last longer. "Stay with us, Jesus, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over...just a little bit longer, Lord" (Luke 24:29).

Prayer Works

There are times in ministry where God graciously reminds us of the basics--that He has ordained certain means to accomplish His will and purposes.  One of the primary means through which God chooses to act is the prayers of His people.   It's not that our prayers force God's hand, like rubbing the lamp of a genie.  It's more profound and complex than that.  It's that, in many of His acts, God has chosen to accomplish them through the prayers He prompts His people to pray.  For us, it many times feels like its unprompted and spontaneous, but we need to remember that God's providence is so meticulous that He master-plans everything, including our prayer.  And thank God for that.  

So I commend the practice of active prayer for your people right smack dab in the middle of the worship service.  It's predicated upon the fact that, though worship is ritual, and though ritual is powerful and formative in and of itself, it is a moment of actual encounter with the living God. It's not mere playacting. It is interacting.

And the Winner of the Doxology & Theology Giveaway Is...

Two weeks ago, Broadman & Holman released Doxology & Theology, edited by Matt Boswell, in which I had the privilege of authoring a chapter on "The Worship Leader and the Trinity."  We had a little giveaway that involved spreading the love of this wonderful book.

Derek Foo, who serves as the Head of Worship Ministry at Elim Church Assembly of God in Singapore, won the giveaway. Elim Church gathers about 600 people for worship, and Derek works alongside a worship team of about 30 people!  As you read this, pray for Derek and his ministry to the saints across the globe.

Thanks to all my readership for allowing me to do some self-promotion and for making this release a greater success!

In Worship, We Forget About Ourselves in Order to Remember Who We Really Are

It's All About You, but it Radically Informs Me

Growing up in church, I used to sing a verse from a chorus which encouraged:

Let's forget about ourselves
And magnify His name
And worship Him

I appreciate the sentiment and intention.  We want worship to be God-centered, God-focused, and God-directed. "He must increase, I must decrease."  And most of us have well heard the penetrating critiques of the "me-centered" worship that has characterized not a small part of our modern evangelical doxology.  It's why songs like "It's All About You" and "The Heart of Worship" were written.  

However, "forgetting about ourselves" is only half the truth of what worship is and does.  Worship is also a huge jolt into remembering who we really are.  Weekly and daily, on conscious and unconscious levels, we are formed and shaped by visions of who we are, which compete with God's true Word of our identity.  We spring out of worship each week, and these false identities whisper into our ear lies about our true self--"You are your job achievements," or "You are your success as a parent," or "You are your reputation as a healthy, fit person," or "You are fine just as you are and merely need to accept yourself," or, most penetratingly, "You are an unforgivable sinner, too broken to ever be fixed."  Lies.  Painfully mal-forming, degenerating, corrupting, fragmenting, truth-twisting, life-smashing, soul-crushing lies.

Worship Rescripts Us

Similar to what I was saying when I wrote about how worship is the most human thing we do, Michael Horton writes:

Even if we are lifelong Christians, we forget why we came to church this Sunday until it all happens again: We come in with our shallow scripts that are formed out of the clippings in our imaginations from the ads and celebrities of the last week, only to be reintroduced to our real script and to find ourselves by losing ourselves all over again. It is not merely as we entertain the possibility of being a character in this story, or some other purely subjective strategy, that this narrative has the dramatic power to reconstitute us. Rather, it is as God the Spirit works on us through the proclamation of the Word that we are rescripted: our lives, purpose, identities, and hopes conformed to that "new world" into which the Word and Spirit give us new birth--instead of the other way around. Instead of our remaking God and his Word in terms of our experience and reason, we end up being remade--caught in the action of the divine drama.*

Some Takeaways About This Truth

This is not just high-level, un-groundable, esoteric stuff.  It's deeply applicable.  

For the worshiper:

• It makes worship not merely experiential, emotional, or ritualistic, but formative. Worship becomes so much more deep than just getting a spiritual high or getting re-charged for a new week.  Worship becomes something that actually molds and shapes us.
• It puts corporate worship on the top of our spiritual formation's prioritized task-list.  It throws out the window any sense of lackluster attendance, because it is our lifeline of spiritual health and centeredness, and in it are God's primary intended means of nourishing our souls.
• It raises the stakes on active participation in corporate worship--engaging the whole self, to the best of your ability, at every moment.  Humanly speaking, there is a strong correlation between how actively we participate in worship and how formative it is. God can and does (thankfully) subvert this reality, but the truth is that the more we are engaged, the more we are shaped.

For the worship leader:

• The stakes are raised on our worship planning. We can't just plan a fast-to-slow "worship flow" and think that we've done our due diligence.  We now have to analyze the content of that worship flow for its "remembrance-quotient."  We now have to ask ourselves, "Do the songs we sing, the prayers we pray contribute to God's proclamation of our lives being re-scripted around the identity, person, and work of Jesus Christ, or are we just vaguely emoting about and toward God?"  How much of God's script are we really disclosing to His people?  A partial plot-line?  A slide show?  A chapter?  A preview?  A trailer? God help us if our worship services are cliff notes of the gospel story.
• The gospel of Jesus Christ moves front and center.  If the dead-center of our "remembrance" is the good news of who Christ is and what He has done, it behooves us to make EVERYTHING about worship point to that reality.  The more we move away from that, the more we contribute to our people's amnesia about who they really are.  Hear me clearly.  A sermon preached without the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a worship set planned without the gospel of Jesus Christ, regardless of how "Christian" it sounds or how "biblical" it seems, is neither Christian nor biblical because it is not ground-wired to the epicenter and source of its power--the gospel of Christ.  A gospel-less "Christian" worship service is as good and formative as a pagan service.  No gospel, no power. 

So let's remember this paradoxical truth.  We come to worship to place our attention outside of ourselves onto God, His promises, and His Triune mission of gathering the nations in to His intra-Trinitarian self-love, to the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit.  But it is precisely in the moment of forgetting ourselves and hearing that proclamation that we remember who we are--blood-bought, loved, adopted, justified sinners, completely loved by God in Christ.  And, in the midst of this remembrance of who we are, God is remaking us into who we will be.

*Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 52.

How the Gospel Fills Worship with Passion

Dead Worship, Anyone?

Every new worship leader goes through that painful transition period where the rose-colored glasses come off and you realize that not everyone is as "into" worship as you are.  Part of the reason you took on this role is that you simply love to worship God with the people of God, and your fervor is spilling over.  But, when you're doing it week in and week out, and when you're looking out upon the countenances, posture, and engagement of Christ's Bride, you can't help but get a little depressed.

If the good news of Jesus really is as sweeping and epic as the Scriptures proclaim it to be, why do our worship services which seek to display it, retell it, savor it, and revel in it seem so often to not look like the gospel is as grand as it is?  Why do our services lack passion?  (Notice that this line of questioning transcends issues of musical style or high- or low-church liturgy.)  There are hosts of important answers to this question, from cultural, to sociological, to theological, to biological, to psychological, to existential.  

Lincoln's History vs. A Dictionary's History

One answer worth pondering is given by Michael Horton, where he helps us to understand the difference between viewing history "from within" and "from without."  It is the difference between truth and dramatic truth:

H. Richard Niebuhr contrasted "outer" and "inner" history--one as told by a supposedly objective bystander, the other by a participant in that history:

"Lincoln's Gettysburg Address begins with history: 'Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.' The same event is described in the Cambridge Modern History in the following fashion: 'On July 4, 1776, Congress passed the resolution which made the colonies independent communities, issuing at the same time the well-known Declaration of Independence.' ..."

It hardly seems that Lincoln and the Cambridge Modern History were describing the same event. "Hence," Niebuhr adds, "we may call internal history dramatic and its truth dramatic truth, though drama in this case does not mean fiction."  We cannot approach the preaching of the Word as if it were merely describing its doctrinal or moral content; it must be preached as indeed it was written--namely, as the dramatic, developing story of God's creative and redemptive work in Jesus Christ as God's true and faithful Israel.*

The Gospel as Dramatic Truth

We can extrapolate outward the very poignant illustration beyond preaching to the entire worship service and experience.  Do we celebrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ as dramatically as it truly is?  Do we sing, pray, hear, read, and taste the Glorious Message as passion-filled insiders who have been changed by it, or as cold and clinical outsiders who are analyzing it?  It's the difference between Lincoln standing in a context of racial inequality and passionately remembering and rehearsing the Declaration's glorious truths upheld and the dictionary reporting the game-changing event of 1776.

Toward a Solution

"Solving" this problem is multi-faceted and way too complex for my very limited brain to handle.  But there is a very simple and easy first starting place for us as worshipers and worship leaders--personally cultivating a life of savoring the Gospel.  A few weeks ago, Scotty Smith preached a soul-melting sermon at Coral Ridge in which he outlined two simple practices to staying smitten with the love of God in Christ:

• Stay focused on the dying love of Jesus on the cross--perpetually survey, think continually on, place before you, always go back to the cross; never depart from thinking on it, even if at times doing so feels rote.
• Stay focused on the undying love that Jesus has for us--remember, savor, rehearse Jesus' ongoing, perpetual love for you; remember that, in Christ, God cannot be more pleased with you than He already is and that He delights in you as a Father would a child who is perfectly obedient, perfectly selfless, perfectly perfect. 

Cultivation of a passion for the good news of Christ is the most important thing that pastors and worship leaders can do to lead their flock.  Human beings have an instinct for being able to identify the difference between those who believe in truth coldly from the outside and those who believe in it passionately from the inside.  

And, by the way, this is at the center of what it means to be a "Spirit-filled" worshiper and lead "Spirit-filled" worship.  Someone who is Spirit-filled swoons for the things the Spirit swoons for.  The Bible is clear that the Spirit's heart skips a beat over Jesus.  The Spirit desires, even "lusts after" the Son (Gal 5:13-26).  Being Spirit-filled means to get caught up in the intra-Trinitarian infatuation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

So let's keep in step with the Spirit by doing no more and no less than lingering at the foot of the cross to survey Christ's dying love and meditating on the very throne room of the Father, where Christ has ascended, and is pleading His undying love for us, to which the Father replies, "This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well-pleased."  Because the punch line is, when God is talking about Jesus, He's talking about us (Eph 2:6).

*Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 58-59.

The Worship Leader and the Trinity, Part 2

Andrei Rublev, Angels at Mamre**FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY of Doxology & Theology, released last week, still going on.  Enter by going here.**

The previous post in this two-part series outlined the first half of my chapter, "The Worship Leader and the Trinity," in Doxology & Theology: How the Gospel Forms the Worship Leader, where we saw how the Trinity effects the possibility and proximity of worship and protects the priority and purity of worship.  We now move from high-level to ground-level in processing a Trinitarian saturation of our worship.

The Trinity Affects the Posture and Procedure of Worship

1) The Trinity encourages a peaceful, humble posture in worship.  
There's a tendency, when we engage in worship and faith, to live with a level of anxiety about pleasing God, "having our heart in the right place," or "being a clean vessel."  The Trinity puts these pensive, doubting, fearful thoughts to rest because of the finished work He provides.  When we understand just how active, aggressive, and thorough the Trinity's work is in our salavation, we are both humbled and at peace.

2) The Trinity shapes how worship proceeds.  
When we grasp what the Trinity truly and actively does in our salvation and worship, we begin to recognize that God the Father not only calls us to salvation and worship but actually, throught the Son, by the power of the Spirit, also provides us with the response to that call.  Trinitarian worship, therefore, takes the shape of a dialogue--God speaks, we respond, God speaks, we respond, etc.  When our worship is structured as such, we reflect, practice, and truly embody the work of the Trinity among us.  Even further, though, this dialogue, because of the way the Trinity does His magnificent work, takes the shape of the gospel

• God's holy glory
• our recognition of our brokenness, depravity and inadequacy 
• God's provision of Christ, inviting us to intimate fellowship with the Trinity

When we walk through this general three-part story in worship, we "rehearse the gospel," worshiping in "Trinitarian procedure."  Gospel-shaped worship is Trinitarian worship.

The Trinity Directs the Practices and Propositions of Worship

1) The Trinity should be reflected in our worship practices.
How does the way we conduct worship--from our "stage" setup, to our architecture, to the proportion of congregational vs. pastoral/leadership participation, to our musical style, to the language of our prayers and readings--reflect that our God exists in Trinitarian community?  Practices that err on the side of the communal versus the individual "look" more Trinitarian because they mirror God's oneness within His many-ness.  Suddenly, supposedly neutral, mundane, and up-for-grabs things can be informed by God's very nature.

2) The Trinity shapes the propositions of our sermons, prayers, songs, and readings.
When most speak, write, and think about "Trinitarian worship," this is usually the most obvious starting place.  How well are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit named and addressed in our worship services?  Do our songs, prayers, messages, and readings overtly reflect the Trinitarian nature of God?  (In this section, I argue that gospel- and Christ-centered preaching is a gloriously Trinitarian practice, whereas moralistic, self-help, and prosperity preaching is not just bad but anti-Trinitarian).

Want to see how these ideas are fleshed out?  Get the book!

The Worship Leader and the Trinity, Part 1

**You've got ONE MORE WEEK to sign up for the FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY of Doxology & Theology, released last week.  Enter by going here.**

In honor of the release of Doxology & Theology: How the Gospel Forms the Worship Leader, I want to cliff-note-outline my chapter in two parts in hopes that (a) it will make the topic of the Trinity in worship even more digestible, and (b) it will entice some of you to get this great book and read it in its entirety.  I want to start by saying that the Trinity, or God's three-in-oneness, is one of the most relevant, applicable doctrines for living out the Christian faith on the ground level.  Think of any issue in life, from the highly philosophical to the mundanely pragmatic, and it can--and should--be informed, indeed formed, by the Trinity.  If you have a hard time seeing this, I'd suggest Michael Reeves' Delighting in the Trinity (135 pages) as an accessible starting place, then graduating up to Fred Sanders' The Deep Things of God (256 pages) as a good next step.

Click to read more ...

Doxology & Theology - FREE Book Giveaway!

Doxology & Theology Released May 1, 2013

I'm pleased to announce the release of Doxology & Theology: How the Gospel Forms the Worship Leader, edited by Matt Boswell and authored by some of my favorite worship leaders in the US.  I had the privilege of contributing a chapter on how the Worship Leader is shaped by the Trinity, synthesizing important theological reflections on what it means to be truly Trinitarian in our worship.  This book is by worship leaders, for worship leaders.  For that reason, I also think it's a worship book that's very accessible for worshipers who don't have a big store of theological jargon in their vocabulary.  Here's a chapter breakdown, and no doubt I'll be posting on its contents in the weeks to come.  Happy reading!

GET IT HERE on Amazon.

Chapter Outline

Chap 1: "Doxology, Theology, & the Mission of God"
Matt Boswell, Providence Church (Frisco, TX)

Chap 2: "Qualifications of a Worship Leader"
Matt Boswell

Chap 3: "The Worship Leader & Scripture"
Michael Bleecker, The Village Church (Dallas, TX)

Chap 4: "The Worship Leader & the Trinity"
Zac Hicks, Coral Ridge Presbyterian (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

Chap 5: "The Worship Leader & Mission"
Matt Papa, The Summit Church (Durham, NC)

Chap 6: "The Worship Leader & His Heart"
Stephen Miller, Journey Church (St. Louis, MO)

Chap 7: "The Worship Leader & Justice"
Aaron Ivey, Austin Stone (Austin, TX)

Chap 8: "The Worship Leader & Liturgy"
Bruce Benedict, Christ the King Presbyterian (Raleigh, NC)

Chap 9: "The Worship Leader & Creativity"
Mike Cosper, Sojourn Church (Louisville, KY)

Chap 10: "The Worship Leader & Disciple-Making"
Aaron Keyes, Integrity Music

Chap 11: "The Worship Leader & His Pastor"
Andi Rozier, Harvest Bible Chapel (Rolling Meadows, IL)

Chapter 12: "The Worship Leader & Family Worship"
Matt Boswell

Chapter 13: "The Worship Leader & Singing"
Matt Mason, The Church at Brook Hills (Birmingham, AL)

Chapter 14: "The Worship Leader & the Gospel"
Ken Boer, Covenant Life Church (Gaithersburg, MD)

FREE Giveaway!!!

**UPDATE: Thanks to all who participated in spreading the love of this release.  We posted the winner here on 5/18/13.**

Now for the fun part.  We want this book promoted!  So if you tweet about it or mention it on Facebook, you'll automatically be entered to receive a free copy of the book.  We'll announce the winner at the bottom of this post on Friday, May 17, which gives you two weeks to get the word out.  To enter the giveaway you must either tweet or FB with the following: 

• Mention the book.
• Link to this post.  (Here's a shortcut: http://ow.ly/kDCDV )
• Tag me (@zachicks, Zac on FB).

Last day to enter: Thursday, May 16, 2013.

For Twitter folks, here's an auto-tweet to make it easy on you.  :)

Three Books That Changed My Life as a Young Worship Leader

I began leading worship as a young teenager who wanted his youth group to sing.  I had fiddled around on the ukulele (Hawaii’s instrument of choice) for a few years, and I was ready to step up my game.  My mom had an old nylon string guitar buried in a closet along with a wrinkled sheet of chord shapes.  I found some Hope Chapel Hawaii praise songbooks and started plowing my way through them one Saturday morning.  Eight hours later, with fingers throbbing, eyes blurry, and brain exhausted, I emerged from my room-turned-woodshed ready to be a worship leader. :)

It was only a few years later that I encountered the three books that would put me on a new trajectory.  I now look back on the years between ages 18 and 21 as three very pivotal ones because of the paradigm shifts that redirected me toward a general course on which I still find myself sailing as a young thirty-something.

Most young worship leaders are like huge trees with little root structure, as I was.  They are full of life, they spread a big canopy, and they look dazzling.  They're brimming with energy, fervor, and potential.  But what they often find underdeveloped is the supporting system of tendrils burrowing deep and wide, far underground. When God began fostering in me a desire to love Him with my mind, I began to witness that root structure form, and, in a sense, God "filled out" the emotional, devotional side of my Christian walk with a passion for the life of the mind.  

Three books, in particular, summarize much of the paradigm shift I went through as a young, aspiring worship leader.  They permanently sit on my bookshelves as old friends, reminding me of tried and true proposals turned convictions.  Inasmuch as they were formative to me in my early years as a young worship leader, I commend them to other young and aspiring worship leaders who are looking to whet their intellectual sword. 

Some might say that these books aren’t the best books out there on the topics they cover, but they were momentous for me.  They hit me with the right message, at the right time, in the right place.  I thank God for Moreland, Best, and Sproul.

J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind

Age 18

This book literally changed my life.  It lit a fire under me as a young 18-year-old, and that fire is still burning.  In high school, I hated reading.  I was (and continue to be) a slow reader, who had to read, re-read, then re-read again just to get it.  My comprehension was always low.  I sweated those sections of the SAT’s.  Love Your God With All Your Mind gave me a passion for the life of the mind by fitting that pursuit into the grand scheme of the Great Commandment and the outflow of devotion to God.  It inspired me to think logically and philosophically, and it gave me the rudimentary tools to do so.  It not only encouraged me to read, but taught me how, and some of its principles are now hard-wired into my practice (marking up books in the margins, briefly outlining chapter summaries at the top of the chapter’s first page).  It nearly instantly transformed my intellectual life from laborious slavery to devotional love.  I read this book the summer before I went to college, and it radically altered my college experience and propelled me into a lifestyle of reading and writing.

Harold Best, Music Through the Eyes of Faith

Age 19-20

Perhaps this is on here simply because it is the first book on worship that I had ever read, but when I read it, I found it a game-changer.  It addressed so many of the front-line philosophical, musical, and theological questions I had as a young worship leader who was encountering planning worship, leading singing, and “dealing with” people in the church.  I found it cogent, accessible, inspiring, positive, and challenging.  It gave me a framework upon which I could hang many other future ideas, all of which developed into the full-orbed theology and philosophy of worship I now have and continue to hone. 

R. C. Sproul, Chosen By God

Age 20-21

This book heralded my shift from a generic Arminian, semi-Pelagian outlook to a Calvinistic one.  It introduced TULIP to me, and it answered the questions I found most plaguing about the hard-to-swallow Reformed doctrines of grace. This book changed the way I worshiped and led worship.  God got infinitely bigger to me, and I started to become smaller in my own eyes--which was a good thing!  Sproul lit a passion in me for seeking God’s glory and my disappearance in any future leadership I would have.  It gave me confidence in God’s missional enterprise through the broken church, and it introduced me to a whole body of thought--the Reformed tradition of Christianity--which still captivates, fascinates, and invigorates me to this day.   

OLDER, MORE SEASONED WORSHIP LEADERS: What have been the books/writings that have impacted you, which are valuable to share with young worship leaders who are just beginning to explore the life of the mind?