It was a minor change, in fact, no one noticed and I even changed the words to match the original lyrics perfectly although the meaning of the line changed significantly, it’s impact on the song was minor.

I have been challenged lately to make sure that our songs aren’t misrepresenting God and His word. Sometimes we can even quote Scripture in our songs, but taken out of context, or even with-OUT context can cause us to be singing something that is not entirely accurate or true.

The band was quite excited about this and the conversation was somewhat heated at times, which is great. In the end I think we realized how important it is that our songs support what we are preaching in Church and not taking away from the message.

The topic this weekend was healing. We believe that God is our Healer and we believe that nothing is impossible for God. I believe that God can do anything. He does NOT however, do things the way I ask, nor does He do things when I want Him to, nor does it always produce the results I’m looking for.

God’s ways are not our own, so when we sing songs that make statements somewhat trivializing the magnitude of God’s greatness and power or without qualifying God’s promises or when we make generalities about what we can expect from God without a thought that He doesn’t alway do things in the way and the timing that we are asking – i think we hurt God’s people and we undermine the leadership of the church. If we are preaching one thing and singing another – those mixed messages are harmful to the body.

I don’t know where the balance is because we definitely don’t want to encourage word-policing in our churches, hindering our worship and holding us back from expressing our love, thanks and needs to our Heavenly Father.

For me, it has become an exercise in discernment. I am reliant on the Holy Spirit in these cases. In three years I have only changed the lyrics of two songs and on both occasions I felt prompted to. It’s not that i disagreed with what the song was saying but rather the lyrics in both cases were too loaded to be thrown out there without context. Some things are huge issues for people and other things aren’t. We need to know what we are singing and why.

In the end we don’t want to confuse people with our music, we want people to understand God more and to find safety and rest in His presence. If we need to change some lyrics here and there to ensure that we are being faithful with the people God has put in our care, we can do that. This is another great opportunity for us to be seeking the Holy Spirit’s wisdom.

There isn’t a day when I don’t find myself asking Him to guide me. I have come to love the fact that I really am dependant on Him and when I seek Him, His voice, His truth – I will serve people much more effectively than when I do things in my own strength and ‘knowledge’.

The first question in the Westminster Larger Catechism is “What is the chief and highest end of man?” The answer is “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and fully to enjoy Him forever.” John Piper rewords that a bit saying: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God by fully enjoying Him forever”.

Worship is defined as an expression of finding delight in the one who is delightful.

In our Sys Theo class today we talked about the fact that our lives are made for God’s glory. Somehow we (or at least I) have learned that glorifying God is something we ‘do’ for God which tragically plays into our (my) ‘works’ mentality.

I need to keep reminding myself that God doesn’t need me. He didn’t create me because He needed me. He is not needy. He didn’t create me because He was lonely. He didn’t create me to fulfill His need for fellowship. He is completely whole and fulfilled relationally within the Trinity. He created me as an expression of His glory. I don’t glorify Him by what I do and how I live, I glorify Him because as part of God’s creation I am an expression of His magnificence and splendor. We are an outward expression of His internal excellence.

God created us for His glory -which means that we are a display of God’s splendor not that ‘we’ glorify Him, but rather He reveals His magnificence through creation.

One of the guys in our class brought up a great point today and that is that we all glorify God. He said that it’s funny how as Christians we say that our purpose is to bring glory to God as if that’s something special about us and it’s something special that we do by choice or achievement. But he went on to explain that ALL of creation brings glory to God. Saved and unsaved. The only difference between the Christian and non-christian purpose of glorifying God is that as Christians we can enjoy it.

The Bible gives lots of examples of God using sinful man to glorify Himself. Every human will glorify God either by wrath or grace. Our choices, our pursuit of holiness is something we can live out each day in obedience to God and out of love and desire to honor Him, but God is glorified in us, either way.

It’s a humbling thought actually. If I choose a life of sin and disobedience, God’s wrath upon my life will bring Him glory (because a holy God cannot tolerate sin and we wouldn’t want to serve a God that could, right?). If I love Him and serve Him, God’s active grace is seen in the fact that perhaps in this moment I was able to overcome temptation or that I didn’t sin this time; His redemptive work in my life will bring Him glory.

It really just comes back to Him. The Author and Perfecter of our faith.

Augustine says it well: Your purpose in life is to love God with all your heart and then do whatever you want. Simple? Maybe, but if I simply love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength – focussing all my time and energy on Him and His Kingdom – I’ll be on the right track!

I have been taking a Systematic Theology class that started in September and goes until June. For a girl that grew up in the church, I sure didn’t know much about Bible. I am loving learning what the whole Bible teaches us today about any given topic. This was a good idea, even though it has me out the door in the morning before there is any light in the sky and any noise in our home.

The more I learn about God’s Word, the more I am challenged as a worship leader and songwriter. While reading Warren Wiersbe’s book ‘Real Worship’ last year I was so impacted to hear that most people’s theology (good AND mostly bad) is learned from music in our worship services. As I thought about it, I had to agree.  A lot of the wrong thinking I have had I have learned from self-focussed, self-gratifying (the benefits we receive from God) worship lyrics rather than songs that focus on God and His glory.

The more I learn the more I understand that my life is not my own, nor is my time on this earth about what I can get or have. Life isn’t always good and God’s primary concern is not my prosperity or happiness, but instead, His glory.

I think I worship differently now. I always thought I was making everything about God and His glory but really I was making everything about me. I wanted to bring Him glory because of how that made me feel and how that would benefit me.

I’m hoping to spend another year learning more about God and the truth of His word.

Hopefully I write more often when I’m not writing elsewhere about my life as a mom and as my role as a woman, equal but different than all the guys out there.

God bless!

Erin xo

Matt Redman considered this a few years back and among his crowd, they coined the title or phrase ‘lead worshiper’ instead of ‘worship leader’. I think it’s worth thinking about – you’ll enjoy this; It’s brief and to the point… not to mention, she’s a total doll. Vicky that is.

“Worship” – What On Earth Do We Call It??

“Worship” is such a time-worn and easy term to describing the act of singing to God. But it’s also quite misleading, and maybe not the best choice.

Among the community I live in, both at home and on the road, we often use “worship” to refer to the time we spend singing songs corporately to God in church. But many of us are realizing the dangers of calling it this, as it implies that the other things we do when we gather corporately are not “worship” in the same way that singing is. Worse still, it implies that when we are not singing, we are not worshiping. This is clearly not in line with Scriptures like Romans 12:1 which states that our whole lives are to be offerings of worship!

We also use the phrase “worship leader” a lot. This title is useful as it’s been used so much that we instantly know what is being refered to. But it is also misleading and theologically unhelpful.

It implies that the only person leading any form of “worship” is one person standing up the front. Some church traditions use this term to refer to the lead/senior pastor or preacher, as they are presiding over the “worship” of the corporate gathering. This seems unhelpful as again it pigeon-holes “worship” as something that is led by a certain person, and thus cannot happen unless we are in a room with that person; nullifying our ability to worship alone outside of that context.

Other church traditions – mine included- use “worship leader” to refer to the person who leads the musical and sung portion of the gathering. This also seems unhelpful, as it implies again that singing is the main or only form of “worship” in our spirituality, and also that we need someone at the front to enable this “worship” to take place.

The problem is, if we don’t use these time-worn titles (which are useful because they are widely understood), what do we use? I’m doing some study at the moment on possible alternatives, as I believe that as well as us using words, words use us. So words can actually colour our view of things. So it’s crucial that we choose the right words, to correctly represent our spirituality and theology.

It is not enough for us to be where God is worshipped, if we do not ourselves worship him, and that not with bodily exercise only, which profits little, but with the heart.
Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume 2 (McLean, Mac Donald Publishing Company) 999

God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.
John Piper

The shortest route to deeper and richer worship is a clearer theology.
P.D. Manson

The salvation of souls is a means to the glorifying of God because only saved souls can duly glorify Him.
C.S. Lewis

The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express that same delight in God which made David dance.
C.S. Lewis

We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man.
Dwight L. Moody

When I bow to God, God stoops to me.
Robert Chapman

They hung up their harps and committed to sing their God-songs, to God alone, even though they were being asked to sing their songs for the people (essentially, for entertainment). Their own confession was that they would rather “lose their skill” and have their “tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths” than use their gifts, songs, for any other purpose than to honour and worship God. Remembering Jerusalem, not forgetting where they come from, WHO they belong to; the God they serve was their first pursuit.

In a world where we see musicians, singers, actors and other performing artists getting their start in the church but upon success, even minimal, the first thing the do is forget where they came from. Listen in interviews how many celebrity singers explain that they started ‘singing in the church’. Brittany Spears, Jessica Simpson came from ministry families. Beyonce and many other R&B artists got their start singing solos in the church choir.

So… fame is wrong? Success is bad? No, it doesn’t have to be, but it doesn’t make it any easier to walk with God. The more you have the less you need. When we don’t see our need for God we… what? Yeah, we forget. We forget our deepest needs because they are band-aided by everything we ‘have’ that the world loves, which is the opposite of what really matters and that is our relationship with God. Our desperate need for Him.

I think Psalm 137 is a great prayer for all of us. Whether artists or not. Just as God-fearers… God-worshipers… God-lovers. We need to pray that our sites don’t get blinded by the distractions the enemy puts in our path everyday. Psalm 137 reveals the true worshipers heart – our bodies, our temples are reserved for God. Our worship is set-apart for Him. Our songs, our gifts, our pursuits belong to God alone.

I think if I can remind myself of this everyday it would make my life a lot simpler. We see people falling away from God at the first sign of success – it’s an epidemic in Hollywood to say the least. How can a pastor set his daughter up to be a famous singer when every step along the way is compromise? Because we forget. Every decision leads to another one… the first one might not be the worst, but those seeds of compromise are planted the minute you take God out of the equation. We are desperately in need of the Holy Spirit’s counsel everyday. The minute we start making decisions without His voice, we are playing with fire.

Let’s remember who we are and Who we belong to. God can bless us and add to our ability as He chooses, our life is His, but that means that it belongs to Him from start to finish. He’s not our agent. He’s not our Assistant. We are His. He will use us as we seek to honour Him and glorify Him with all we are. Let’s remember!

2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

[This community lament remembers the Babylonian captivity, and provides words by which the returned exiles can express their loyalty to Jerusalem and pray that God would pay out His just punishment on those who gloat over its destruction. ESV note]

This love of Jerusalem is about what Jerusalem represents; Jerusalem represents God, His Work, His worship (where His people worship Him), His people, His covenant, – Jerusalem is the centre of what God is doing and His people naturally want to be where God is and where He is worshiped.

This chapter stands out to me for a couple of reasons. Their loyalty to God and their conviction to worship God alone. I have had seasons where I have ‘hung up my harp’, when I was tempted to or at least felt like other things were demanding my worship. People, circumstances and things were distracting me from my ‘first love’ and the songs “they” (those things) were asking me to sing were songs that should be reserved for God alone.

I read in Warren Wiersbe’s book last week (Real Worship) that we worship other things when we elevate anything above God or substitute other things in place of God. Putting worth on something above God.

I don’t want to worship anything other than God, but sometimes before I know it, it has happened. I have valued other’s opinions, material possessions and myself above God on a daily basis and what I love about this Psalm is that they recognized the evil around them and they hung up their harps rather than to sing the songs that were supposed to be reserved for God, to something other than Him.

In fact, they didn’t just hang up their harps, they even prayed that if they forgot Jerusalem [Forgetting Jerusalem would be act of treachery against God, His covenant and His people. ESV note], that they would lose their skill to make music altogether. If God wasn’t at the centre of their music, their worship, they would rather not make it at all.

They were so committed to keeping their worship pure, unadulterated, they hung up their harps, refused to sing their songs in vain and chose that if they forgot their first love, the centre of their lives, they would rather have their hands lose their skill (may my right hand forget its skill) and their mouth unable to utter a word (may my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth) if I ‘do not remember you, do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy’.

What about us today? As worshipers, as worship leaders, as pastors, leaders, Christians – do we have this same conviction? Do we hang up our guitars or put away our pianos when we realize that we are singing songs for other reasons or other people, rather than God? Do we stop writing songs when we realize we are writing them to impress others or simply to write something catchy to make a buck? Do we stop leading worship or ministering when we realize that our worship has become motivated by the praise of man (affirmation) rather than the glory of God?

Do we remember our First Love, first? Are we motivated to live a life worthy of God and to His glory alone or are we motivated by people and pleasing others? Do we worship with our mouths when our hearts are far from God (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6) or do we forget about everything else in light of God’s glory and grace?

The Psalmist is recalling a season when their worship was not easy and it was costly. There were a lot of things that were vying for their attention and a lot of things that could have caused them to turn away from God or in the very least caused them to forget what they were all about, the core of who they were.

But no, they would not offer their God-songs to any other than God (Isaiah 42:8). This was their accountability – they would not sing songs to another, they would not play for another, they would not give what was for God, to any other.

This is my desire as well. That my life would be used for God and that He would be glorified in all I do. If there are any gifts that I have that I am not using for Him, I would rather lose the ability to use them at all if not for His glory and in a way pleasing and acceptable to Him.

As I’m finishing up, the following verses come to mind. I’ll end up with this – great prayer for us:

Psalm 19:12b-14

Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Just bought this off itunes a couple of weeks ago – some great tunes by well known Jesus Culture worship leaders and some others. Great version of Healer and some other definitely ‘to do tunes’ for our worship sets. What I love about Bethel and Jesus Culture is that they actually give their charts away on their sites. I can’t tell you how much i appreciate that. It definitely helps get us doing these songs in our churches quicker if we aren’t having to hunt down the charts and find a way to purchase them as i HATE buying stuff when I’m not sure how secure the sites are.

Great songs to get lost in worship.