I won't be leading music - just worshipping.  Feel free to join me at Tyler Street UMC!!

I won't be leading music - just worshipping.  Feel free to join me at Tyler Street UMC!!

Taking a breath. Easy! I do it all the time'right?

Well ' let's take a moment to consider breathing for singing versus 'regular' breathing. This is a 'crash course', so I'll get right to it. First of all, when you breath for singing, never breathe only through your nose. It is too small and you end up working too hard to get the air you need. Think about breathing in through your mouth and nose at the same time! Secondly, there shouldn't be much or any sound when you take air in through your mouth. If you can hear a 'rasp' in your throat, then you're doing it wrong ' relax your throat and open up. Finally, If you want the best possible breath, then shape your mouth into the shape of the first vowel that you're going to sing. That will help you sing a good vowel sound AND get a good breath!

Music Theory fun fact:

Notation ' time signature

Time signatures are important in that they tell us how many beats are in a measure and how to count the rhythms. (A measure, by the way, is determined by the notes in between the vertical lines in the staff.)

The top note tells us how many beats are in the measure. (This can be ANY number.)

The bottom number tells us what kind of note 'gets the beat' (This can be only: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc' - the most common by far is 4 and next is 8)

Philosophy fun fact:

Is singing hymns/songs for the purpose of preparing our hearts for worship?

This is an easy one' NO! Singing doesn't prepare our hearts for worship... Singing IS an act of worship. One aspect of worship isn't any more important than the other. They should all support one another 'not simply prepare you for another act of worship.

Easter Sunday.

Preston Hollow UMC will be featuring: Tom Booth (associate trumpet of Dallas Symphony Orchestra), Greg Hustis (principal horm, Dallas Symphony Orchestra) and John Kitzman (principal trombone, Dallas Symphony Orchestra)

Maybe we shouldn't walk out of church asking each other, 'What did you think about worship today?' That almost sounds like worship is something that happened to us for the last hour. But maybe we should be asking, 'Hey, how did I do??' If we ask ourselves that question, then it seems that we're putting the right people on the spot.

Now, enough of this serious stuff' let's talk about my favorite verb' worship.

The Where of Worship'

The woman at the well said to Jesus that the Jews told her to worship at the synagogue. And Jesus replied that soon there would be a time when God's worshippers would understand that they are to worship Him is 'spirit and in truth''

From Psalm 150: Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise God in His mighty firmament.

That is everywhere' in spirit and in truth ' outside and inside ' it is more important that one worship than where one worships.

The Why of Worship/Praise'

From Psalm 150: For God's mighty deeds'

He is the creator! He made all that is!

The "How" of Worship/Praise'

A few years ago I was talking at a church service about worshipping together. I made the point that it really brings the whole church together for one purpose. I used the band as an example. All of the musicians were EXCELLENT! But, if they all played their own thing when and how they wanted, it was a mess. And, I had them all play their favorite song. It was a mess! And it wasn't even that each musician wasn't playing their song very well. They were.

Then I asked the band to play a single song. It was awesome!

The same is true in our church. We are all fully capable for ministry. We are all wonderful in our talents and gifts and who we are as people of God. However, a church where we don't worship together IN ONE SPIRIT' can be a mess. Everyone WANTS something out of the church- when we come together, like these musicians, everyone has to give up just a bit of themselves, but when they do the result is so much greater than the sum of the parts.

Now for the final part of the Psalm 150 ' 'Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!' That means no one is off the hook!!

God wants us to break the surley bonds of our own self-conciousness and get all wrapped up in the worshipping of God Almighty. I want you to sing out because when you sing out you give the person next to you the courage to sing out.

God wants YOU to praise His name! With everything that is going on in your life ' it is YOU that God wants! We all have troubles in our lives right now ' loss of family, sickness, problems with spouses, problems with children, trouble with work, trouble finding work' and God will give you great joy if you'll praise His name. It takes YOU doing it to make worship pleasing in God's eyes. Don't let anyone do this for you' don't be lead into thinking that I'm going to praise God for you ' or the band, or the singers' Just like if you went home today and everyone in the sanctuary here called you up and gave you a compliment' none of them are any less valuable than any others ' but the difference is that God knows your name and your heart. God knows what thrills you and destroys you. God wants YOU to worship Him. You personally.

So you might say to me ' hey, all of the rhetoric about worship is great, Mark. We can talk about this all day. We now realize that you are infatuated with worship and you think we should all be a part of it. But, tell me how to do this.

Gladly!

Let's first answer a question' a big question ' Who is worship for? Is it how WE feel about worship or what GOD feels about worship?

John Calvin said that any time worship is given to any part of creation rather than the Creator, then the glory of God is diminished.

That is heavy stuff! Do we need another burden as Christians? But, if we don't raise him 'high and lifted up', then who's going to?

If we come in here on Sundays worried more about how we feel about worship rather than how God feels about worship, then we need to re-evaluate, don't we?

Here's another thought, then' what is our role in worship?

Wrong Answers Right Answers

Audience? Congregation God

Actors? Pastors and musicians Congregation

Director? God Pastors and musicians

I'm not the first to come up with the chart above - Soren Kirkegaard was the first, or one of the first to put worship into this kind of perspective. We are, as a society, taught that we are the audience (TV, movies, plays, magic shows, etc... are all devised with us as the entertainee). And we are taught that people on the "stage" are the entertainers... furthermore, anyone backstage and not seen are the directors/producers, etc... That works fine for theater - but, works poorly for church. Because in worship, God is the audience! Yep - he's listening to and watching us! So, we are the "actors" or the entertainers, in this analogy and surprisingly, the pastors and musicians are really like the director. This is because the director's job is simply to help the actors do their best for the audience. That really should be the role of the church musician and pastor!

Now, thinking of worship that way...

Let's say that you paid $120 for a ticket to your favorite musical. What would you think if it started 10 minutes late, half of the orchestra is talking amongst themselves or falling asleep and midway through your favorite song the lead singer took a quick cigarette break? You would be furious ' you paid $120 for your seat!!! Then think about worship in these terms. What price God paid for us to be here as Christians ' worshipping. He paid with His son! Did you know that he seriously loves us that much? He loves us enough that in our lives that so often turn our back on His love, grace and glory, He sent His son to turn us away from the dark and to the light. He paid a huge price and deserves us to give our best!

We are the 'actors' folks ' for an audience of ONE!

Several years ago I gave a sermon that spoke about the fact that we are made for worship. I haven't changed my mind ' not one bit!

In fact, I believe it now more than I did a few years ago. Why? Because I discovered something ' that we need to learn to live a life of praise everyday. If we simply enter the sanctuary once a week to 'praise' then we are missing the point. This hour of praise should represent the beginning and the end of a week of continual praise.

'I will extol the Lord at all times' ' Psalm 34:1

'From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised' ' Psalm 113:3

Being a Christian and only worshipping on Sunday is like saying ' well, ok, let's say that I tell you that I'm an athlete. That's all well and good, but when you ask me how much time I put toward athletics' doesn't it sound a little weird if I tell you that I put an hour to two hours a week into it? You and I both know that to call one's self an athlete, you must have an overwhelming passion for athletics. You want to do it all the time! To be a Christian, you must have an overwhelming passion for Christ and praising His name is how we express that passion' and we should want to do it all the time!

In 1 Peter it says, 'But you are a chosen people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.' 1 (Peter 2:9).

It doesn't say that we are a chosen people that we might make our own lives and at some point during the week we praise God.

What is the first commandment? 'Thou shalt not put any other Gods before me' '(Exodus 20:2) Gods can be anything, folks ' our jobs, our spouses, our children, even our problems can become Gods ' if they become something that we feel is more important than God. And to say something is important in our lives, don't we have to take an inventory?

I have heard that if you want to see what is your priority in life, look at your checkbook. Yikes! What about our time? Where we put our time is a priority, too. What about our thoughts? Again ' if we spend more time thinking about how we are going to make money than we do about God ' doesn't that mean that money is more important to us than God?

I said a moment ago that even our problems can be a God. If we spend more time dwelling on what is wrong in our lives than we do praising God ' isn't that putting our problems before God?

Well, that is my first core value of worship ' that we should do it more. We aren't serious enough about the work of praising God' yes, the WORK of praising God. 'Liturgy' comes from a Greek word meaning 'the work of the people'. Anything we do in worship is liturgy. Nowadays, 'work' has a bad connotation, doesn't it? It conjures up thoughts of sweat and toil. For example, my idea of 'work' is being out and working with wood, hammers, saws, etc' just like on Mission Trip. However, let me tell you two things about that' first of all, not everybody has the same feelings about wood working that I do' there are thousands of people who can't wait to get off of their jobs each day so that they can go spend it in their garages building things with wood. They find total joy in that work. My uncle is like that. He works in a hospital 40+ hours a week and can't wait to get home to his wood shop. But, let me also tell you this' when I think of the mission trip ' I think of hard work ' sweating, hot, waking up too early to get out and hammer ' WORK. But, I'm addicted to it ' why? Because it gives me a chance to do the work of the Lord in the world' And I guess that is why praising God, to me, is doing the work of the church - another reason that I think worship is so important.

Romans 12:1 says, 'Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, WHICH IS YOUR SPIRITUAL SERVICE OF WORSHIP.'

You see, I guess I see worship as the 'hub' of the church. See our church as a wheel- with spokes coming to the center' I think that center should be worship. Now, again, I might be stepping on a toe- but let me tell you how I see this. I think that it should be mandatory that all church members attend worship. When worship is viewed by the church as the center of the church a number of things happen. First of all, you can see around you the community that is Christ in our world. We are gathered in one place for one reason ' to worship. That creates energy ' an excitement. And I guess this is where my analogy starts to take off ' at least to me'

What happens when a wheel spins? Do you know what kind of energy is produced? It is centrifugal force. When a wheel spins, what happens? The energy creates an outward force ' and that is what our worship should do' it should excite people to a place where the energy sends them out into the world to be ministers of Christ ' to create and inspire Sunday school classes, to work in the missions of the church, to simply go and be Christians and PRAISE GOD!!!

You know, my aunt told me a story about her granddaughter ' my second cousin, Emma. She's 4 and my aunt was up visiting her in Alaska where she lives and they were going to go to church. Emma, got so excited and exclaimed to my aunt that she was so happy because they were going to church to 'see God'. Now, chagrined, my aunt had to explain that they weren't actually going to 'see' God. And at this point, I have to say that I would be scared to death to 'see God'' but she was excited. Bubbling up with joy about it. We should all be so excited to 'see God'' I guess that is what they mean by coming to Christ as a child. But, she was looking for an actual glimpse of God. I guess my point about all of this is that I think that if we worship like we should ' by putting God first, that we do create glimpses of God.

Just about everyone that I have ever met that was drawn into a serious spiritual journey through their church's worship tell me that what inspired them to join a congregation and really 'understand' worship is when they walk in, they are greeted warmly and then ' the important stuff ' they ALL participated in the worship. The place people meet God in worship is when they are invited into that worship by being swept away in the actual act of worship. When everyone is worshipping, then there are glimpses of God. When the Bible says that 'where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am also' however, that doesn't mean that in an room of 100 people, if there are only 2-3 that are gathered for praising God that God's spirit would descend and be felt by all'

But I think that in a room of 100 that 2-3 is a great start! If 2-3 will fully participate, it is contagious' don't be scared ' sing out' it doesn't matter if it is on key or in the wrong time' I have been in congregations where everyone sings' a group of 50 can sound like 100 and 100 can sound like 500' and in that moment, I see a glimpse of God'

You see, in these congregations that everyone is participating, it is understood that worship is a VERB!! NOT A NOUN!!!

Here's my analogy for this. Have you ever noticed that if you blow into a dog's face that it just annoys the dog? They usually won't run away from you, but they usually get a little twisted about that. But, if you get into a car with a dog and roll down the window, they'll hang their heads out the window in like 50 mph winds?? That is what we need to do folks! We don't need to have people to worship and expect that someone else is going to sing ' that someone else is going to welcome then. That is the same as blowing in a dog's face. Because when a few people are singing, when a few people are paying attention to the sermon, when a few people are 'as a VERB' worshipping, then we aren't opening the window of Christianity and letting them hang their head out the window?

I mean ' for those of us that are conscientious about singing, wouldn't we all agree that surfing is easier in the ocean than in a bathtub??