Praise and Worship Leader Series

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Idolatry

David Guion for one24worship.com - encouraging the daily praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

The next characteristic in the one24worship.com Praise and Worship Leader Series that I'd like to suggest for qualities of a Christian Praise and Worship Leader is having a passion for the worship of God alone. To put it another way: to determine to forsake all idols and to pursue a lifestyle of worshiping God alone.

Idolatry can take on many forms. It does not always manifest itself in statues or even physical objects. Idolatry can be essencially anything from an idea, concept, or pattern of thought to a physical image or object. Either way, idolatry is an issue of the heart.

Some idols are easier to identify than others. For example, idols that are made of gold, silver, or wood are easily identified. These objects of worship may simply represent some false god or they may be considered the actual god itself.

Psalm 135:15-18 describes this type of idol: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them!"

But this is not the only type of idolatry that exists. For anyone desiring to lead praise and worship, the idols of the heart and of the mind can be a greater threat to the authentic worship of the one true and living God.

Dr. Dan Allender, in his book, THE WOUNDED HEART, says this about idolatry: "Idolatry is placing our longings for what only God can provide in the hands of a creature instead of the Creator. When I live for my work, or my wife, then I have made them my false god. When I am failed (and I can be absolutely sure that a false god will be impotent at the point of my greatest need), then I will experience the shame of failure and misplaced trust. The writers of Scripture are crystal clear that dependence on a false god will inevitably result in loss, pain, and shame (Isaiah 42:17, 44:9-11). A false god will disappoint."

For everyone in leadership, some false gods will have more appeal than others. Fame, money, power, and prestige all promise to meet some heart-felt void that only God Himself can fill. Being influencial is at the heart of leadership but beware when having influence becomes a false god. Great leaders have great influence but when being influencial becomes an idol, then that person's leadership itself is headed for destruction and ruin.

A passion for the authentic, singular, and heart-engaged worship of God alone should be fundamental in the lyrics and music of every praise and worship song. Idolatry of all forms should be renounced and forsaken. Truly, that can only happen by the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship Leaders and Christian songwriters must not allow idolatry creep into the content of their lyrics. It matters that the confessions of our music match the determination of our hearts.

David Guion

ps - Another book recommendation for all Praise and Worship Leaders is Robert Webber's, THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP

DESCRIPTION:
A superb survey from interdenominational and historical perspectives! Formulating a definition of worship based on Old and New Testament practices, Webber's masterful study examines theological themes such as covenant, sacrifice, words of praise, and more. It also covers the history of biblical worship from the Patriarchs through the early church. 356 pages, hardcover from Hendrickson.

David Guion for one24worship.com
encouraging the daily praise and worship
of Jesus Christ.

one24worship.com
because worship is a daily lifestyle...
not just a weekly event!

All content ©2007 by David Guion All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Labels: idolatry, leader, praise, worship

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Honesty and Integrity

David Guion for one24worship.com - encouraging the daily praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

In this session of the one24worship.com Praise and Worship Leader Series we're going to look at one of the most important character qualities of a Christian Praise and Worship Leader - honesty.

Honesty and integrity are vital for anyone in a leadership postion - especially Worship Leaders. Even though this may be stating the obvious, being a person of integrity is crucial because people will not willingly follow leaders that they cannot trust. If a leader is untrustworthy, regardless of what other talents or gifts they may possess, it will be difficult for people to follow their leadership.

Around our home we have a statement that we speak to one another often. It's a simple, yet profound sentence: "Our highest relational value is the truth." Every other relational value is directly tied to our commitment to the truth.

In Matthew 5:33-37, Jesus is quoted as saying, during His Sermon on the Mount, "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil."

Christian Praise and Worship Leaders should desire to be men and women of integrity - men and women of their word who can be trusted.

In their book, THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE, James Kouzes and Barry Posner talk about a study that they have conducted for over 20 years called, "The Leadership Practices Inventory." In the survey, they asked people to "vote" for a list of characteristics of leaders that they admire and would willingly follow. According to the 3rd edition of their book, over seventy five thousand people have participated in the study. What they discovered was that people preferred their leaders to have the following characteristics: to be forward-looking, competent, inspiring and intelligent - each of which were rated toward the top of the list. But the characteristic that consistently ranked highest of all is honesty.

We live in a time where leaders face a crisis of integrity. Whether you are just starting out in ministry as a Praise and Worship Leader or a seasoned Minister of Music, being a person of honesty and integrity is absolutely crucial.

It has been said that a person earns future trust by the accurate way they report past facts. That statement reveals how powerful the truth can be. But that should not surprise us. After all, Jesus said that He Himself is, "...the way, and the truth, and the life." (John 14:6)

David Guion

ps - Another book recommendation for all Praise and Worship Leaders is Jack Hayford's, MANIFEST PRESENCE

DESCRIPTION:
"The Holy Spirit is summoning believers everywhere; the whole world is being touched with a sense of the Spirit's moving us to worship the living God ..." With these words, Jack Hayford invites you to join an unparalleled search into the depth and breadth of what the Holy Spirit is doing and why worship is utterly essential.
Through this fascinating study of God's Word, you'll learn to approach God's throne, the fountainhead of power, with praise that welcomes His creative touch. You'll also discover the immense privilege of worship, the many forms it takes, and the promise it holds for calling your hopes and dreams into life. Join Pastor Hayford as he reveals God's passion for this global, and very personal, awakening. God is ready to reveal Himself in spiritual power today in your life as you usher in the glory of His manifest presence.

David Guion for one24worship.com
encouraging the daily praise and worship
of Jesus Christ.

one24worship.com
because worship is a daily lifestyle...
not just a weekly event!

Labels: honesty, integrity, leader, praise, worship

Monday, February 4, 2008

Our Identity in Christ

David Guion for one24worship.com - encouraging the daily praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

As we continue this one24worship.com Praise and Worship Leader Series, I'd like to say that, for anyone desiring to lead praise and worship, it is possible for us to forget that we are human beings, not human doings.

It is vital that we remember that our gifts and calling are not who we are. Our identity must come from the Lord for free and not from some postion on a platform or from a title before our name.

We must be willing to admit as Praise and Worship Leaders that our identity is in Christ alone - even though we know ourselves to be a bundle of contradictions.

These days, a Worship Leader has at his or her disposal all sorts of new and amazing tools - especially new worship songs from the likes of Integrity, Hillsongs, Maranatha, Worshiptogether, just to name a few - but again, our identity in Jesus cannot be reduced to tools or song lyrics. The talent or the tools don't have any power to breathe life or transformation. Our spirit may be willing but our flesh is weak.

For example, in a corporate setting, we can be lost in the very presence of God, singing from our heart the words to some new song, and then, in an instant, we can be distracted by a gnat or a fly away from His presence and into the flesh. Even as Lead Worshipers, we possess the capacity for both incredible dignity and inconceivable fallenness all at the same time.

Paul wrote in Romans 7:18-19, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Paul knew that, in his flesh, he was capable of anything! His identity had to be in Christ and not in his performance.

Blaise Pascal addresses both the fragility and dignity of man it in his book, PENSEES, by saying, "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water, suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the unviverse has over him; the universe knows nothing of this."

Weak though our frame may be, God has created us fearfully and wonderfully. We are a collection of contradictions and yet we are deeply loved by the One who gave His only Son in our place!

As was said at the beginning, we are human beings, not human doings, loved for free by God despite all of our many contradictions.

David Guion

ps - Another book recommendation for all Praise and Worship Leaders is Matt Redman's, THE UNQUENCHABLE WORSHIPPER

DESCRIPTION:
The Unquenchable Worshipper issues a passionate call for a return to a pure, first-love lifestyle of worship. In his first book release, respected worship leader and songwriter Matt Redman writes: "The revelation of God is the fuel for the fire of our worship. And there is always more fuel for the fire. When we open the eyes of our heart, God's revelation comes flying at us from so many different angles." Open the eyes of your heart and let the gut-level message of The Unquenchable Worshipper cause you, like martyred missionary Jim Elliot, to say, "Saturate me with the oil of Thy Spirit, that I may be aflame. Make me Thy fuel O flame of God."

David Guion for one24worship.com
encouraging the daily praise and worship
of Jesus Christ.

one24worship.com
because worship is a daily lifestyle...
not just a weekly event!

Labels: identity in Christ, leader, praise, worship

Sunday, February 3, 2008

The Grace of God

David Guion for one24worship.com - encouraging the daily praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

In this one24worship.com Praise and Worship Leader Series, we're starting off with tips of a spiritual nature before moving to the practical aspects of leading praise and worship.

Another crucial thing for all Praise and Worship Leaders to be leavened by is the grace of God.

A Lead Worshiper who is actively experiencing the amazing, astonishing grace of God will be a dispenser of grace, as well. In the church today, there is a great need for songwriters to craft lyrics that proclaim both the unmerited favor and the divine enablement of our awesome God!

Paul told the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 15:10 that, "...by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." He acknowledged that it was by God's grace alone that he was who he was! Paul knew that without an active, continual dependence upon the grace of God he would be nothing.

This was not a "back-burner" matter to Paul. God's grace was his (and is our) only hope in everything!

But Paul also recognized that we are to be active participants in the grace of God. We are to be diligent workers who, in the midst of our labor, are not deceived about the source of our power. We work and lead praise and worship according to our absolute dependence upon the grace of God!

Kenneth Boa, in his book, CONFORMED TO HIS IMAGE, states, "In his grace, the Lord invites us to cooperate with the formative work of the Holy Spirit in our lives by engaging in the disciplines of faith, repentance, and obedience and by trusting in his ways and in his timing."

Notice how Boa unpacks both aspects of Paul's observation concerning grace. Grace is not simply to be experienced as unmerited favor. Yes, it is unmerited favor but it is so much more! It is also divine enablement to accomplish everything, every good work, that the Father has prepared beforehand that we should walk in!

Our music, our hymns and worship songs and lyrics, should all proclaim both aspects of God's amazing grace - His unmerited favor and His divine enablement.

David Guion

ps - Another great book recommendation for all Praise and Worship Leaders is Robert Webber's, MUSIC AND THE ARTS IN WORSHIP, BOOK #1

DESCRIPTION:
Music and Arts in Christian Worship opens with an explanation of how church music is conducted in some fifty different church groups and denominations. The second section deals with the history of philosophy of music in worship. Writers for the third section discuss the arts in worship and include articles on the worship enviroment and the visual arts. The final section addresses drama, examples of the dramatic arts found in Scripture, and examples of dance and mime in worship.

David Guion for one24worship.com
encouraging the daily praise and worship
of Jesus Christ.

one24worship.com
because worship is a daily lifestyle...
not just a weekly event!

Labels: grace of God, leader, praise, worship

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Humility

David Guion for one24worship.com - encouraging the daily praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

This Praise and Worship Leader series is designed to encourage anyone desiring to lead praise and worship in a corporate setting from two vantage points - the practical and the spiritual. We are starting with the spiritual and then moving to the practical because leading praise and worship is first and foremost a spiritual engagement.

The second aspect for Praise and Worship Leaders to understand is the need for humility. Any Lead Worshiper who does not minister from an authentic posture of humility will encounter profound obstacles. For any human being to be a worshiper of a sovereign God is, at its core, a humbling encounter.

C. S. Lewis said it like this in his book, THE FOUR LOVES, "Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and cry for help?"

Humility comes when we are confronted with two realities - first, who we really are in light of, second, who God truly is! It is impossible for finite worshipers to be proud and haughty in the presence of an infinite God, regardless of how talented they may be!

Zephaniah 3:10-12 says, "From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering. On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain. But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord..." Only humble people find cause to "seek refuge in the name of the Lord."

Humilty is a crucial characteristic for all Christian leaders - especially for those with a creative and artistic giftedness.

David Guion

ps - Another great book for all Praise and Worship Leaders is A. W. Tozer's, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO WORSHIP?

DESCRIPTION:
Decrying much of contemporary worship as entertainment, Tozer says, "When we are worshipping...if the love of God is in us and the Spirit of God is breathing praise within us, all the musical instruments in heaven are suddenly playing in full support." Originally preached as sermons at Avenue Road Alliance Church in Toronto, the chapters of Whatever Happened to Worship convey Tozer's attitude and thoughts on Christian worship.

David Guion for one24worship.com
encouraging the daily praise and worship
of Jesus Christ.

one24worship.com
because worship is a daily lifestyle...
not just a weekly event!

Labels: humility, leader, praise, worship

Friday, February 1, 2008

The Glory of God

David Guion for one24worship.com - encouraging the daily praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

I have often had young Praise and Worship Leaders ask me how to get started in leading worship corporately. Some are looking for insights of a spiritual nature while others are interested in platform techniques or tips. While there is definitely a need for new, young Worship Leaders to understand the practical aspects of their task and calling, the spiritual dimension is of primary importance.

So, in this one24worship.com Praise and Worship Leader Series, I would like to start off with tips of a spiritual nature before moving to the practical. My hope is that, whether you are a new, young Worship Leader or a seasoned Minister of Praise and Worship, you will find encouragement, insight and revelation as you read.

The first aspect for Praise and Worship Leaders to understand is the need for an unwavering devotion to and for the glory of God! Worship is, in essence, drinking deeply from the only fountain that can truly satisfy and experiencing that satisfaction for yourself. For any Worship Leader to be able to stand before people and encourage them to make much of God in praise and worship, they must first have tasted for themselves that the Lord is good and He alone satisfies.

You and I were made for more than this temporal, fallen existence. This existence is incapable of satisfying our souls. We were designed to satisfy ourselves on the eternal, exalted glory of God. When we do that, we magnify His worth to ourselves and to an on-looking world.

In his book, DESIRING GOD, John Piper says,"He created us 'in His image' so that we would image forth His glory in the world. We were made to be prisms refracting the light of God's glory into all of life. Why God should want to give us a share in shining with His glory is a great mystery. Call it grace or mercy or love - it is an unspeakable wonder. Once we were not. Then we existed - for the glory of God."

There is nothing greater nor anything higher to live for than the glory of God. Anyone serving in a position of worship leadership who does not desire to live for the glory of God first and foremost has settled for so much less than God intends.

Philippians 2:9-11 says, "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Paul tells the Philippian church that there is just one primary reason for every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord - the glory of God!

The first thing for anyone seeking to lead praise and worship corporately is having a passionate desire for the glory of God!

David Guion

ps - Another great book for all Praise and Worship Leaders is Louie Giglio's, THE AIR I BREATHE

DESCRIPTION:

We are all worshipers...of something. But are we spending our lives and filling our days with what matters most? Newly revised, The Air I Breathe will awaken you to the reality that worship is more than a service on Sunday. It's every moment reflecting God's glory and grace.

David Guion for one24worship.com
encouraging the daily praise and worship
of Jesus Christ.

one24worship.com
because worship is a daily lifestyle...
not just a weekly event!

Labels: glory of God, leader, praise, worship