"Gracious and Holy"

Over the past month, the Student Pastor at our church (and a dear friend) Evan Smith has been filling the pulpit on Sunday mornings as our senior pastor enjoys some much-deserved vacation time. (You might have noticed, but 2020 was a rather hard year for folks, and perhaps especially pastors.) Evan chose to deliver a cohesive, four-part sermon series, and settled a couple of months ago on the theme of God's presence. Over the four weeks, he planned to illuminate the thread of God's desire to dwell with His people that runs through the whole of Scripture: from Eden (where God walked with Adam and Eve), through the Exodus (where God "tabernacled" with the Israelites), to the Embodiment (or Incarnation, where Jesus — the Word who both was with God and was God — became flesh and dwelt among us), and into the promise of Eternity (where the people of God will enjoy the immediate presence of God forever). And if you were paying close attention, you noticed that those four waypoints were alliterative — such a good Baptist pastor! But between the lines of this story runs the equally deep and powerful truth of God's nature as both perfectly holy — such that imperfection in His presence runs the risk of eradication — and immensely gracious.

These were some of the many thoughts swimming around in my head on July 4, 2021. I was hiking alone the Robbins Branch Loop Trail in the Uwharrie National Forest, and trying to enjoy a calmness of mind. Irritatingly, though, my brain just seemed frantic — jumping from thought to thought across all the various roles I play (husband, parent, employee, worship leader, etc.). At one point, I actually yelled aloud in the forest in frustration, "Why is it so noisy in here?!" And then a strange thing happened. In what seemed like no time at all, the melody and opening words of the chorus of a new song were in my head, coalescing around the themes of Evan's sermon series. I spent the next several hours (and about 8 miles of hiking) developing the skeleton of the song. I was super-grateful to be alone in the woods, not least because it's really embarrassing to be tripping over tree roots whenever I turned my attention to my phone's voice recorder app or tried to type into it some lyric ideas!

Once home, I spent the next week or so putting meat on the song skeleton. Friends I shared the concept with seemed more supportive of this song than usual, so it felt like effort well-invested. And this past Sunday, Amy and I — along with other members of our church's worship team — shared the song with our church family. God be praised for using such an unworthy vessel to encourage His Church in song. Gracious and holy He truly is.

"Gracious and Holy" You made the Earth and the heavens. Spoke words to form them and fill them. So all that we have is by Your hand. Gracious and holy You are. You gave us freedom and purpose. We chose rebellion and curses. But hope lingered under the surface. Gracious and holy You are. Gracious and holy You are. You are here, always with me, Nearer than sacred to naked should be. You speak promises over my shame. I know that I'll never be the same. You came to dwell with Your people; Strengthen the downcast and feeble; And rescue us from every evil. Gracious and holy You are. Humbly you gave Your life for us. Hope is reversing our curses, Restoring our freedom and purpose. Gracious and holy You are. Gracious and holy You are. You are here, always with me. Nearer than righteous to wretched should be. You speak promises over my shame. I know that I'll never be the same. Now you are seated in Heaven, So, by the Spirit You've given, We will proclaim, "Christ is risen!" Gracious and holy You are. Gracious and holy You are. You are here, always with me, Nearer forever than failure could be. You poured righteousness over my shame. Called me Your child and then gave me Your name. You are here, always with me, Nearer forever than failure could be. You poured righteousness over my shame. I know that I'll never be the same. I know that I'll never be the same. ©2021 C. Michael Pilato; License: CC-BY-3.0

Here also is a demo recording that I made as a reference for our worship team (with many thanks to my son Aidan for lending his percussive skills):

C. Michael Pilato · Pilato - Gracious And Holy (demo)

Finally, you can get lead sheets (including the source MuseScore file) for the song from my GitHub repository.

My custom Planning Center Services plan report. You're welcome.

To all my fellow Planning Center Services jockeys out there, I thought I'd share with you a custom Plan report that I created (using one of the built-in reports as a baseline, mind you) and have been using for years now. Now, before you assume that all I've done here is fiddle with colors and fonts and page layout, hear me out. There are some features of this template that I want you to know about.

First—and the primary reason that I love this template so much—is that it handles Plan and Item Note categories dynamically. Unlike the built-in templates, this report template doesn't have to be modified just because you use different Notes categories than the default Planning Center ones. In fact, it doesn't care what specific Notes categories you have at all. Rather, it examines the Plan and its Items and dynamically determines which Note types are actually employed. This means two things: that it doesn't waste any page/screen real estate on unused Note categories, and you can use the same template for entirely different Service Types with entirely different categories defined!

The second, admittedly minor, thing that I like about this template is that it adds a column for icons that appear next to certain Item types. So Songs show up with a music notes icon (♫) next to them; Media items show a "play" triangle (⏵). It's a little thing, but it draws the eye to certain Item types quickly.

Finally, the template itself allows some quick customization of the features it employs via a collection of boolean variables at the top.  This allows you to use the same basic template for multiple custom Reports, but with little easy tweaks to goven the feature set for each one.  So, for example, I have a Report that shows everything that I distribute to my A/V operators and band members.  But I have another one using this same template that I use for our Ushers and Greeters where the variables show_plan_people, show_plan_notes, and show_item_notes have been set to false.

So, without further ado, my template. Please feel free to copy, use, and modify this thing to better suit your church's needs!

<!-- QUICK CUSTOMIZATION: {% assign show_plan_notes = true %} {% assign show_plan_people = true %} {% assign show_item_times = true %} {% assign show_item_length = true %} {% assign show_item_description = true %} {% assign show_item_notes = true %} --> <html> <head> <title>{{ plan.ministry.name }}:: {{ plan.dates }}</title> <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto:ital,wght@0,400;0,600;1,400;1,600&display=swap" rel="stylesheet"> <style> body { padding: 0; margin: 5px; color: #222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; } h1 { font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: normal; text-shadow: 0 -1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); } h2 { font-size: 1.1em; font-weight: normal; padding: 20px 35px; margin: 0; line-height: 1em; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 white; } h3 { font-size: 0.9em; text-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); } pre { margin: 0; padding: 0; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: .9em; } table#plan { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom: 15px; font-size: 10pt; } table#plan tr { border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; } table#plan thead { display: table-header-group; } table#plan th { color: white; background: #444; font-weight: bold; padding: 0.5em 1em; vertical-align: middle; } table#plan td { text-align: center; padding: 0.5em 1em; } table#plan .icon { padding: 0; } table#plan .preservice .time, table#plan .preservice .length { color: #aaa; } table#plan .time { width: 3em; text-align: center; } table#plan .length { width: 3em; text-align: center; } table#plan .note_column { text-align: left; background: #f8f8f8; border-left: 2px solid white; } table#plan .header { text-align: left; font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #ddd; } table#plan .note { font-weight: bold; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle; min-width: 1in; } table#plan .element { min-width: 3in; text-align: left; } table#plan .element .description { font-size: 0.86em; color: #444; font-style: italic; } table#header { width: 100%; border: none; padding: 0; border-collapse: collapse; } table#header td { padding: 2px; vertical-align: top; } .artwork { float: left; margin-right: 15px; height: 40px; } .note_content { background: yellow; padding: 4px 8px 0; border-radius: 0.3em; } #header { padding: 5px 20px; background: #000; color: white; line-height: .8em; margin: 0; } #header img { float: right; height: 60px; margin-right: -15px; } #titles { color: #333; font-size: 1.1em; font-weight: normal; padding: 10px 20px; margin: 0; line-height: 1.1em; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 white; min-height: 45px; } #plan_title { font-style: normal; font-size: 0.8em; display: block; color: #666; margin: 4px 0 0 0; } #plan_notes, #plan_people { background: #f8f8f8; margin: 1em 0; border-left: 4px solid black; padding: 0.5em 0 1em 2em; } #plan_notes { font-size: 0.8em; background: #ffffd0; } #plan_notes .plan_note { margin-top: 1em; } #plan_notes .plan_note_category { font-weight: bold; } #plan_people { font-size: 0.9em; } #plan_people .person { font-size: 0.7em; margin-right: 15px; display: inline-block; } #plan_people .person_status_U { opacity: 0.5; } #plan_people .person_category { clear: both; padding-top: 1em; } #plan_people .person_category p { font-size: 0.8em; margin: 0; } #plan_people .person_position { font-style: italic; } #plan_people .position { font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body> <!-- If showing item notes, first build a list of item note categories in use. --> {% if show_item_notes %} {% assign used_item_note_categories = '' | split: '' %} {% for item in plan.items %} {% for note in item.notes %} {% assign category = note.category.name | split: '|' %} {% assign used_item_note_categories = used_item_note_categories | concat: category %} {% endfor %} {% endfor %} {% assign used_item_note_categories = used_item_note_categories | uniq | sort %} {% endif %} <div id="header"> <h1>{{ plan.ministry.name }} - {{ plan.dates }}</h1> </div> <div id="titles"> <img class="artwork" onerror="this.style.display='none'" src="{{ plan.series_artwork_url }}" /> <div id="series_title">{{ plan.series_title }}</div> <div id="plan_title">{{ plan.plan_title }}</div> </div> <!-- If showing plan notes, first build a list of plan note categories in use, then iterate. --> {% if show_plan_notes %} {% assign used_plan_note_categories = '' | split: '' %} {% for note in plan.notes %} {% assign category = note.category.name | split: '|' %} {% assign used_plan_note_categories = used_plan_note_categories | concat: category %} {% endfor %} {% assign used_plan_note_categories = used_plan_note_categories | uniq | sort %} {% unless used_plan_note_categories == empty %} <div id="plan_notes"> {% for plan_note_category in used_plan_note_categories %} <div class="plan_note"> <div class="plan_note_category">{{plan_note_category}}</div> {% for note in plan.notes %} {% if note.category_name == plan_note_category %} <div>{{note.note}}</div> {% endif %} {% endfor %} </div> {% endfor %} </div> {% endunless %} {% endif %} <table id="plan"> <thead> <tr> {% if show_item_times %} {% for time in plan.plan_times %} <th class="time">@{{ time.starts_at | date: '%I:%M' }}</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% endfor %} {% endif %} <th class="icon"></th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> <th align="left">Element</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% if show_item_notes %} {% for category in used_item_note_categories %} <th class="note">{{ category }}</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% endfor %} {% endif %} {% if show_item_length %} <th class="length">Length</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% endif %} </tr> </thead> <tbody> {% for item in plan.items %} {% case item.item_type %} {% when 'Header' %} <!-- Header rows --> <tr> <td colspan="{{ colspan }}" class="header">{{ item.title }}</td> </tr> {% else %} <!-- Non-header rows --> {% assign item_class = ''%} {% if item.is_preservice or item.is_postservice %} {% assign item_class = 'preservice ' %} {% endif %} <tr class="{{ item_class }}"> {% if show_item_times %} {% for time in plan.plan_times %} <td class="time item {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}"> {% for item_time in item.times %} {% if item_time.time_id == time.id %} {{ item_time.actual_time | date: '%I:%M' | downcase }} {% endif %} {% endfor %} </td> {% endfor %} {% endif %} <td class="item icon"> {% if item.item_type == "Song" %}&#9835;{% endif %} {% if item.item_type == "Media" %}&#9205;{% endif %} </td> <td class="item element {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}"> {{ item.title }}{% if item.song %} [{{ item.arrangement.music_key }}]{% endif %} {% if show_item_description %}<div class="description">{{ item.description }}</div>{% endif %} </td> {% if show_item_notes %} {% for category in used_item_note_categories %} <td class="item note note_column {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}"> {% for note in item.notes %} {% if note.category_name == category %} {{ note.note }} {% endif %} {% endfor %} </td> {% endfor %} {% endif %} {% if show_item_length %} <td class="item length {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}">{{ item.length }}</td> {% endif %} </tr> {% endcase %} {% endfor %} </tbody> </table> {% if show_plan_people %} <!-- If showing plan people, first build a list of person categories in use, then iterate. --> {% assign used_person_categories = '' | split: '' %} {% for plan_person in plan.plan_people_not_declined %} {% assign category = plan_person.category.name | split: '|' %} {% assign used_person_categories = used_person_categories | concat: category %} {% endfor %} {% assign used_person_categories = used_person_categories | uniq | sort %} {% unless used_person_categories == empty %} <div id="plan_people"> {% for plan_person_category in used_person_categories %} <div class="person_category"> <p><strong>{{ plan_person_category }}</strong></p> {% for plan_person in plan.plan_people_not_declined %} {% if plan_person.person.name != null %}{% if plan_person.category.name == plan_person_category %} <div class="person person_status_{{ plan_person.status }}"> &bull; <span class="person_name">{{ plan_person.person.name }}</span> <span class="person_position">({{ plan_person.position }})</span> </div> {% endif %}{% endif %} {% endfor %} </div> {% endfor %} </div> {% endunless %} {% endif %} </body> </html>

As of a few minutes ago, I've submitted this report template back to the fine folks that develop Planning Center Services so that they may consider integrating its enhancements into the core product itself.

"O For a Thousand Tongues"

Way back in January 2016, I was working to create a modernized arrangement of the Public Domain hymn, "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" by Charles Wesley.  I'd hope to preserve the original melody and lyrics, and maybe just add a bridge or something.  I ended up adding a sort of bridge for each stanza.  Unfortunately, while I was really happy with my additions, they never really paired well with the feel of the original hymn.  So I shelved the idea, revisiting it from time to time over the years in further failed attempts to shoehorn together two incompatible ideas.

On June 30, 2020, however, I gave up trying to make fit what never would, and instead restructured the whole song around my additions.  I heavily edited the original hymn lyric and melody while still trying to preserve the essence of what it said.  After all, to wish that one had a thousand tongues to sing God's praise all the louder is a beautiful sentiment!  So that, as well as the general message of the hymn's stanzas, remain the core of what is now essentially a brand new song.

As I intend to share the song with my local church, I needed to whip up a demo of it.  Last night I spent about an hour tracking acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar.  After my son Aidan finished watching a movie with his friends, I asked him to come upstairs and lay down a drum track.  Then this morning, I was able to get my wife Amy in front of a microphone to track the lead vocals, with me laying down some harmonies immediately thereafter.

I've licensed the song under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  And as part of my commitment to reducing barriers to adoption for music truly written for the church (rather than for a paycheck), I've posted the sheet music for the song to my GitHub repository.

UPDATE(2024/12/31):  It's been almost exactly four years since I first posted about this song.  And for four years I've had some nagging complaints about the melody, key, timing, and lyrics.  So here in the final moments of 2024 I've tried to address those concerns.  I've renamed the song to just "For a Thousand Tongues" (trying to further distance it from the original hymn in order to avoid confusion), and pulled down the original demo recording for the same reason.  The aforementioned sheet music has been updated, too.

Here are the (slightly) updated lyrics: 

"For a Thousand Tongues" All-gracious Master, glorious God, Give me the words to proclaim. Spread through the whole earth — here and abroad — The honor of Your holy name. Father, You give me the choice, But Your grace compels me to lift up my voice. If I was mute, I'd still make joyful noise to the King. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing! Jesus, your name calms the deepest of fears. You bid every sorrow to cease. Your mercy is music in this sinner's ears— Your love is the source of my peace. Savior, You knew all along That you'd trade perfection for all I'd do wrong. Lord, may my life make a beautiful song to the King. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing! Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise! Sing of the glories of my King; the triumph of His grace! Jesus you've broken the power of sin. Your blood sets the prisoners free. Dying you saved us, then rising again Accomplished supreme victory! Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise! Sing of the glories of our King; the triumph of His grace! Your church in heaven and earth below, this sacrifice we bring! Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. Spirit of God, fill this place. Write on our hearts songs of mercy and grace. Oh, God, we're desperate to give every praise to the King. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing! Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing! Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing!

And here is the new demo recording, which again features my son Aidan drumming but, sadly, lacks the lovely voice of my wife.

C. Michael Pilato · For A Thousand Tongues (demo)

Self-publishing my worship songs

I've talked about it forever, but this past weekend I decided to finally act.  I've setup a GitHub repository to which I intend to commit sheet music for the various Christian worship songs that I compose.  You can visit the project at:

https://github.com/cmpilato/worship-music

I've added the music from my recent "Shepherd of My Soul" composition (which my worship team at Providence introduced to our congregation brilliantly this past weekend, I might add!), plus a few other songs.  I also have placeholders for several other tunes that I'm committing to self-publish here, too.

Those who know me well know that I can be pretty outspoken about copyrights and licensing and such, especially as regards music written (at least ostensibly) "for God" or "for the Church".  This is why every worship song I've written carries a Creative Commons license.  But while it's all well and good to say, "My songs I offer without restrictive licensing," it matters little if there are other barriers to sharing and re-use.  This self-publishing effort is a way for me to remove some more of those barriers.  I genuinely want folks to take and use these songs with minimal impediment if they find them worth taking and using, and I'm willing to put in the extra effort to encourage as much.

My goal is to keep for each song MuseScore files with—at a minimum—lead sheets for the songs, plus MusicXML and PDF exports of the same.  I could, of course, just use PDFs, but that would discourage getting corrections submitted by folks who are far better at musical transcription than I am.  It would also prevent easy transposition of the songs into alternate keys.  At the moment, you can load the score into MuseScore, select the whole score (Control-A), and then use the Notes > Transpose... menu to put the song in whatever key you wish.  It's that simple!  Someday I may also include links to recorded demos of the songs, specific hints for individual instruments, etc.

May God bless this tiny little human's effort to make His praise even more widespread.

"Where You Lead (Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer)"

There are a great number of wonderful Christian hymns which are passing into obscurity in large segments of the world's geography.  (When Fanny Crosby writes 8,000+ hymns herself, it's easy to understand how a few of these things could go unnoticed!)  These songs offer solid theology in their lyrics, but are often musically inaccessible to modern worshipers.  I was recently inspired by the folks at Sovereign Grace Music to do my part my preserve the important parts of these songs — their beautiful, poetic words — while enjoying the liberty to set those words to a different (even original) musical arrangement.

So I've taken my first crack at this.  At my church, we are beginning an emphasis on the topic of prayer.  So I searched the collection of public domain songs (those whose copyrights had expired) in the CCLI SongSelect database for songs with a prayer theme.  I found in that list the hymn "Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer".  This song was written around 1859 by Love Maria Whitcomb Willis.  It appears to have gone through some minor edits over time, but I took the version that SongSelect presented to me and set its words to a simple melody.  I then added a short chorus for summary and variety (trying to maintain the authorial voice of the original hymn).

The following lyrics are the ones I used; the italicized bits are my little addition.

Where You Lead (Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer)

Father, hear the prayer we offer.
Not for ease our prayer shall be,
But for strength that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.

Not for ever in green pastures
Do we ask our way to be,
But the steep and rugged pathway
May we tread rejoicingly.

Let not these words ring hollow,
This we plead.
Lord, make us brave to follow
Where you lead.

Not for ever by still waters
Would we idly rest and stay,
But would strike the living fountains
From the rocks along our way.

Be our strength in hours of weakness.
In our wanderings be our guide.
Through endeavour and failure and danger,
Father be there at our side.

Let not these words ring hollow,
This we plead.
Lord, make us brave to follow
Where you lead.

Father, hear the prayer we offer.
Not for ease our prayer shall be,
But for strength that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.

Almost immediately after recording a demo of the song (which you can listen to below), I learned that there was another verse to the original hymn.  So in live settings going forward, I'll use the following verse as the final one instead of repeating the first stanza:

Let our path be bright or dreary,
Storm or sunshine be our share;
May our souls in hope unweary
Make Thy work our ceaseless prayer.

Here's the aforementioned demo recording:

In Spirit and in Truth

For a few weeks, the topic of worship has been hot, hot, hot around Providence. For some, that’s made for a great opportunity to think about how we as leaders can facilitate a more active and purposeful worship in our services. For others, it’s been a source of confusion and even hurt feelings.

"Does the Bible require that I sing in church?"
"Does raising my hands make me a better worshipper?"
"Why does the pastor invite folks to come forward and pray at the front of the church, anyway?"

These are just some of the questions I and others at the church have been asked in recent weeks.  But while there are surely some specific answers to those questions that could be given, I'd like instead to explore from a more high-level perspective what the Bible teaches about worship that is acceptable to God.  I genuinely believe that when we understand the big picture of acceptable worship, these more specific questions will fall away as less interesting.

Framing the Question

John 4 tells us of a unique encounter that Jesus had with a Samaritan woman he meets at a well.  He impresses this woman with His supernatural perception and insight into her personal life and failures.  So she does what many of us would do:  she tries to change the topic away from her own sin and onto something else — in this case, she chooses some religious debate the Jews and Samaritans have been having.
We’ll pick up the text in verse 19.

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

What’s going on here?  Jesus is deflecting the woman’s question by indicating that it’s essentially no longer relevant.  He’s saying that the old questions about worship style no longer apply — a new worship paradigm has been introduced.

Worship in Jesus' day was, at its core, much the same as it had been since the days of Moses:  as proscribed by Mosaic Law.  This worship was primarily about specifically prescribed activities at specific geographical locations — sacrifices, festivals, ritual cleanliness, at the Tabernacle, Tent of Meeting, Holy of Holies, etc.)  Jesus’ own family would have been bound to these same rituals.  (Luke 2 tells us how Mary and Joseph had to go to Jerusalem to offer the prescribed sacrifice for a first-born son.)

Our text describes a move away from Mosaic worship and into something else. Moreover, Jesus indicates that this transition “is coming and has now come”.  Well, if the change has now come, what ushered in the change?  What happened in the world that would permit worship to deviate from the strict patterns of Mosaic Law?  Put simply, Jesus happened.  He’s the difference.  Jesus changes the game.  Elsewhere in the Bible we are taught that He is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices; the High Priest to eliminate the need for all other high priests; and that the body of the believer is the new temple of the Holy Spirit.  Worship as prescribed by Mosaic law appears to have received an update.

So what’s the new worship paradigm?  If it’s no longer about being at the right place at the right time with the right ritual, then what is it about?  According to the text, it’s about worship "in the Spirit and in truth".

In Truth

Worship that honors God must be true.  This worship must be educated and informed, and must not behave contrary to what it knows to be true.  True worship is:

• true to Who God is and what He's done (and doing).
• true to who God designed you to be.
• true to the Gospel, grateful for the gift of Jesus (“the Way, the Truth, and the Life…”).

In true worship, there is no room for anything artificial, manufactured, manipulated, or fake.  There is no room for anything that’s uninformed and unbiblical.  We are compelled, then, to grow in our knowledge of and relationship with God.  In doing so, our worship can more fully align with His truth.  Without that, our worship will always fall short.

In the Spirit

John 3:16 is arguably the most popular verse in the Bible, but do you know the context in which it appears?  In John 3, a prominent religious leader named Nicodemus is visiting Jesus under cover of night to question the Rabbi about His teachings.  They enjoy an almost comical (if understandable) exchange in which Jesus coins the phrase "born again" and Nicodemus misses the metaphor.  But then Jesus explains this second birth in verse 6:

⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

As Christians, we are (re)born of the Spirit, therefore we have a spirit component to our existence.  The life of our spirit flows from God's Spirit.  Our entire identity is rewritten in light of God becoming our spiritual Father.

We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation.  The Holy Spirit’s jobs are many:  to act as our Counselor, our Guide, our Comforter; to help us understand God’s Word and His revelation (past and present, written or otherwise); etc.  These are all very real-time activities.  The Holy Spirit is a person, alive within us, actively working right now to help us make sense of God and His Word and the world He created.

So this new worship is not just physical — right place, right time, right ritual.  It flows from the Spirit, which means:

• it can only be embraced by those born of the Spirit (Christians).
• it involves our whole re-born being.
• it carries the characteristics of the Holy spirit — it’s alive and interactive.

Missing Pieces: Where Things Go Wrong

Worship in the Spirit and in truth is the recipe Jesus gives for successful worship approved by the Father (God).  But like most recipes, things go wrong when we are missing an ingredient.

Worship that is sincere but not guided by the living, interactive Holy Spirit is incomplete and dry.  It removes the interactive element provided by the Holy Spirit’s on-the-fly, in-the-moment communication and revelation about the things of God.  As such, it tends to be emotionless, focused on rituals and patterns that run the same course regardless of what's happening in the worship environment.  This is very much like Mosaic worship.  It may not involve animal sacrifice, but the major components of Mosaic worship are still there.  This kind of worship tends to happen only in certain environments (such as a church building) and at certain times (such as on Sunday mornings), performing the same rituals every time (such as singing songs and listening to sermons without any genuine emotional or spiritual response to them).

On the other hand, if you have worship that's emotional and interactive but lacks truth and sincerity, you have mere emotionalism.  Emotionalism in worship is, when it comes down to it, the result of making the hunt for a good feeling the point of worship.  Sadly, this is all too common in churches where worship is all about having “an experience”.  Don't be deceived!  Feelings and emotions are easy to manipulate.  I can feel joy, sorrow, excitement, anxiety, and a whole range of other emotions simply listening to instrumental classical music or opera in a foreign language.   (Actually, I can't tolerate opera music, so I mostly feel only pain and irritation when I listen to that!)  The service and retail industries have known for years how to use music to manipulate consumers.  You cannot have “an experience” with the Holy Spirit and the only effect be that you “feel better” for an hour or so.  Our God is a Universe-authoring God!  Nothing He touches remains the same!  If your worship leaves you with little more than an emotional high, is that anything more than you could pick up at a concert or a ball game?

Worship in the Spirit and in Truth — How?

Moving beyond ritualistic worship and into Spirit-led, interactive worship can be a challenge due to many reasons:  social pressures, ignorance, fear, doubt, and so on.  Certainly, it's much easier to just keep going with the flow, doing what you do, and not rocking the boat.  But that's pretty much never the course God calls us to take.  So how can we start to move past those challenges and into the fullness of the worship that God actually desires?

First, we must be born of God’s Spirit.  You cannot worship God fully and completely and in a fashion that He will accept if you don't have a relationship with Him. You must be born again, in and of the Spirit.

Secondly, we need to understand the relationship between obedience and faith — namely, that they go hand in hand.  Without obedience, there is no faith.  Faith without obedience is called "dead" in the Scripture.  I can say that I believe that God is worthy to be praised by all of my being, but if I withhold part of myself in worship (my emotions, my natural physical expressions, my vulnerability), then my actions tell the sad-but-true story of what I truly believe.  God's word is absolutely full of worship-related instructions, from prayer and fasting to singing and shouting and even various postures of worship.  When we ask God for faith regarding things he's already told us to do, his response is often, "My child, just obey me.  When you see how it all works out, faith won't be an issue for you".

We also benefit from the support of our church family.  The first time we break from our established, ritualized worship patterns in public is always the hardest time.  We’re probably convinced that everyone is noticing that we’re doing something different and judging our sincerity.  This kind of free exploration of Spirit-led worship is so, so much easier when we’re surrounded by folks who we know are not judging us because they love us.  (This is also why we are often more free in our worship when we attend Christian conferences or concerts — we figure that the random folks we sit near in those venues and who we'll likely never see again aren't judging us, either.)

Finally, I strongly suggest and beg (beseech!) you to take all of this and process it in your private worship time.  If you don’t have a private worship time, get one.   It will revolutionize your relationship with God.  In your private worship time, read your Bible, pray, sit silent and listen, “try out” the various biblical postures of worship, paint a picture inspired by Scripture, write a poem or a song.  It doesn't so much matter what you do specifically.  The idea is simply to commune with God, to expand the scope of what you consider "worship", and to learn to follow His lead regarding how He wants to spend that specific time with you.

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This post was adapted from a lesson I developed and taught to the Impact Student Ministry of Providence Baptist Church in Harrisburg, NC.  And, uh, my apologies to all the parents of teens that I irritated that night by running 30 minutes over my allotted speaking time.

I am a worship leader. (And so are you.)

While contemplating God's love letter to artists, and directly on the heels of a message at church last night about the ways in which Satan attacks Christians, I find myself staring directly into the eyes of some of the same old insecurities that have haunted me over the past few months. I'm ready to 'fess up about those now.

I have some musical talent. I think I can even offer a pretty objective evaluation of that talent:

• I sing, but my voice is thin in higher registers and can suffer pitch control problems in lower ones. And, probably due to vocal abuse, the clean tone I could produce ten years ago is giving way to something more crackly.
• I play guitar, but am self-taught, and have never invested enough into learning either the acoustic or electric guitars to move beyond competence and into proficiency.
• I'm not such a fine songwriter. I'm lyrically uninspired, and melodically challenged. But I'm really good at taking another person's song foundation and enhancing it (with neat arrangements, harmonies, counter-melodies, motifs, and so on).
• I can wield digital audio software skillfully, and have even developed some pretty neat sonic "tricks" that have served me well. But I can't seem to produce output that sounds quite like I envision. (A recent attempt at something Counting Crows-ish was referred to — behind my back, mind you — as "yacht rock", with an apparent Air Supply influence. Ouch.)

I think it's healthy for folks to be able to recognize what they truly can and can't do. Wouldn't you agree?

Then here come the demons. "Why, again, are you helping to lead worship at yet another church? You don't fit the mold. Real worship leaders have hip haircuts; wear trendy clothes; are 10 lbs. underweight (instead of 20 lbs. over); have at least eight stomp boxes and a sound engineer devoted solely to their rockstar groove; sing with perfect pitch, tone, and timbre; and can spew God-honoring utterances while ripping fingers-of-fury blazing guitar solos. With their eyes closed and both hands raised to the heavens. You are no worship leader. You are, at best, background noise."

Oh, man, that stuff stabs. Plunge. Twist. Gush. (It hurts even now, just thinking about it.) But that's okay — I figured out some time ago how to protect myself from those barbs. See, I've dealt with this in the past by simply denying that I was (or was attempting to be) a worship leader. I was "just trying to help with the music program", or something like that. After all, the Enemy can't beat me in a race I refuse to run, right?

Sadly, I was wrong: I am defeated because I refuse to run. My responsibility as a created being — the tax on my very existence — is to worship the Creator. But my responsibility as a human is to lead (by encouragement, example, or otherwise) my fellow humans to do the same. My roles as a husband and father, especially, demand this service to my wife and children. And how can I be seeking loopholes in the Covenant when I've failed to lead those who I would consider some of my closest friends to worship God with me? No, whether I accept the label of "worship leader" or not, the responsibility is mine. God's will begins with thanksgiving and worship.

I appreciate the perspective Geoff Janes provides on the search for God's will at http://geoffreyjanes.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-is-gods-will-for-my-life.html. I should consider myself fortunate to have discovered — through the talents God has given me and the discernment of trustworthy others — a piece of God's extended will for me at this time: demonstrating that thanksgiving and worship with a guitar in hand at Providence Baptist Church. It may only be for a season — that is not mine to know. But at any cost, I must therefore seek only to do that will, and waste neither energy nor emotion chasing the unattainable stereotype constructed by the Enemy. My skills are not worthy of renown. Fortunately, they weren't fashioned for that purpose.

So today, I reject as invalid the notion that leading worship isn't my job. I accept as valid criticism that I've not been particularly good at this in the past. I apologize to my family and friends for not living a life that consistently and convincingly compels you to worship, too — love demands better than that. And as for that background noise I'm ever-so-capable of? I'm cool with that. But may it be a joyful noise from this day forward.