I am honored to be preparing to present a couple of seminars at the National Worship Leaders Convention in Kansas City. This annual conference held each year by Worship Leader Magazine is going to be a great time of worship and learning how to be better leaders. Anyone can come, but especially people associated with designing and leading worship in all areas. There are musician tracks, leader tracks, A/V tracks, Bible tracks, simply put, all kinds of workshops for all types of interests. Of course, the worship experiences will be lead by some of the top names in the CCM industry and all of the main speakers are excellent.

I thought I would use my blog to invite you to come and offer you a bit of an incentive. I have been given a code you can use at online registration to get 10% off your total cost. All you have to do is respond to this blog and give me your email I will send you the code and you will be set.

I hope all of you can come. You can get more info at this web address www.nationalworshipleaderconference.com

Let me know if you want the discount code.

Last week I went to Worship Leader Magazine’s Creative Arts Conference in Nashville. I met a lot of wonderful new people and engaged in stimulating conversation about being an author (or at least a potential author) and about worship issues. It is incredibly stimulating to be able to talk to others in your personal field of interest and exchange ideas. Perhaps the most challenging discovery of the week, however, took me by surprise.

I went to the conference looking for insight into what it takes to be an author, how to get an agent, how to get published, etc. It is no secret that I have been developing a book (notice I said developing, not actually writing) for some time now and I am ready to get it written and released to the world. I guess I figured by now the entire process would have been packaged and available for sale like so many other facets of business today. It is to some extent, but that is not what God wanted me to find on this trip. Instead, I listened to many speakers and others in the writing business and realized what I am not. I am not the typical writer.

You see, most writers in my genre, at least the successful ones, want to tell you how to do something. They want to give you “10 steps to making you a better you.” Now that may take the form of an extended book with a lot of explanation about the how’s and why’s of your eventual transformation, but it is still essentially a “how to” list to get you from where you are to where the author thinks you should be. My focus is on teaching people, challenging people really, with new ways to “think” about certain topics. When you think about things the way I suggest, you begin to see things differently and you want to change. What I do not necessarily do is provide a road map to achieving that change. I am more likely to leave that up to the individual reader. Apparently this approach is very disconcerting to the mass populace.

So it now appears that I must consider a change in approach if I am to fit into the “religious author seeking to change opinions and experiences with worship” model. But I am not sure that I can or even want to. I believe that the challenge to change must begin with thinking differently. For instance, let’s look at the number one self help category in the nation: Weight Loss.

There are so many weight loss methods out there that anyone wishing to lose weight should be able to find a method to suit them. The need to lose weight is self evident to many people, however, there are those who do not realize the benefits outside of the obvious superficial and cosmetic. Now a doctor could write a book describing all of the ways that weight loss would benefit someone who is obese from a health and longevity point of view, call it higher quality of life, and encourage that person to want to make a change. Basically, the doctor is trying to get people to change the way they think about issues of weight and health with the hope that as they change their way of thinking they will want to pursue a weight loss program. In other words, the doctor is not putting the cart before the horse because he or she knows that true change will only come after the person reading the book changes the way they think and develops a desire to change their behavior.

This is the way that I approach writing about worship. I do not believe it does me any good to “prescribe” a treatment method until someone has changed their way of thinking about worship and desires a change in behavior. What I do with my writing is ask questions of the reader in a way that encourages them to see worship in new ways; to open up their hearts to hearing from God through new avenues. I could write “10 easy steps to new worship experiences,” but I do not believe that would lead to any lasting change unless the reader first understands and accepts that a change is needed. What I want any of my readers to do first and foremost is to think, and then maybe think some more, and then act.

So I am asking anyone reading this blog what you think about my dilemma. Should I write my soon to be written book from the perspective of developing new ways to think about and understand worship? Or, should I write the book with/as an action plan? Which would you be more interested in reading? After all, I am writing my thoughts about worship so that someone will read them.

Don’t forget to check out my teaching videos on youtube at The Worship Doctor channel and check me out on Twitter @worshidr

Until next time

A Heart of Worship
Two little words, of and for, separate worshipers into two very different categories. Either word presents action that is acceptable, even admirable, but only one bears the fruit of worship that Jesus taught about and God expects.

A heart for worship can be clearly seen when we gather to worship God. The heart for worship loves worship. There is a passion for all things worship. Exuberant singing, heartfelt praying, rapt attention to the word, perhaps even taking notes in the margin of a bible are all actions that can be seen in worship. A heart for worship wants to participate. It is very easy to see how a heart for worship can been seen as desirable.

Though there are many ways a heart for worship may appear to be exactly what is called for in the gathered body of Christ, the heart for worship is not enough.

A heart for worship can also be judgmental, opinionated, and self serving when it comes to worship. A heart for worship often believes that worship must meet a certain criteria for success. A heart for worship is concentrated on what happens within the walls of the church. In trying to be sure that worship is wonderful, the heart for worship can exclude and even alienate others.

Jesus taught of a heart that is more like God’s heart. A heart that can love God so much that the love spills over and others are loved the same.

The heart of worship can also be clearly seen when we gather to worship God. The heart of worship loves worship in the church. Exuberant singing, heartfelt praying, rapt attention to the word, perhaps even taking notes in the margin of a bible, are all actions that can be seen in worship. The heart of worship wants to participate. BUT, the heart of worship is so much more.

The heart of worship never stops worshiping. The heart of worship believes in LIFE that is a continual act of worship. The heart of worship is inclusive when gathered for worship. The heart of worship loves everything that brings glory to the One being worshiped: God. The heart of worship takes worship to the streets, to the boardroom, to the classroom, to the lost, to the lonely, and to those in need. The heart of worship does not seek glory but only desires to give glory to the one worthy of glory: God.

What is the difference? The heart of worship has been changed by God, transformed by the power of the Spirit through worship to see God in everything. The heart of worship has become God’s own heart.

Whose heart do you have in worship, yours(for) or God’s (of)? Let God change your heart to one of worship and bring God glory not just in church, but in life.

Acceptable Worship

It is interesting to me when a noun becomes a verb. Take Google for instance. The word Google is a proper noun for an internet search engine. However, when we use the search engine we say that we have “googled” something. Google has become synonymous with the action. There are many search engines available, but only one has become a verb. Xerox was the same phenomenon. While Xerox was the proper noun for a photo duplication machine, xeroxing became the verb of using such a machine, even if it is not a Xerox.

Worship is such a word. It is a noun that can be defined, categorized, and regulated. However it is also a verb that implies action. The foundation of “acceptable” worship is action. It involves us giving of ourselves in response to God’s invitation and love. Worship is not a “thing” to attend, it is an event that requires our participation. But that is only half of what it takes.

In today’s scripture Jesus says that we should worship the Father in spirit. What does that mean for our worship? It means that when we approach God with a right spirit, when we offer God our best in worship then our worship will be blessed by the Holy Spirit and become something more than we could ever do on our own. Just as in every other aspect of our lives, what God expects and deserves from our worship is more than is humanly possible. Nothing we can do will possibly equal what was done for us on the cross. But God does not leave us to do it on our own. The Spirit was sent so that we could be in a relationship with God that is impossible by ourselves.

If we come to worship and do little but wait on God then we should expect little. If we come to worship and give much yet keep a bit for ourselves and expect it to be enough, we will be disappointed. If we continue to trust in our own abilities and talents to bring us into right relationship with God through worship then we are trusting in the wrong power. But, if we come to worship and give of our whole heart, if we invest what we have in God’s will because we love God more than ourselves then the Holy Spirit can make our praise something that is right and acceptable to God in a way we cannot hope to achieve on our own.

It all starts with a verb: worship.

Once again this week we look at one of the sacraments of the church: Baptism. As we saw with Communion, the act of Baptism has been interpreted in many ways throughout the history of the church. We have disagreed on who should be baptized (infants, children or adults), how to be baptized (sprinkling, pouring, immersion), when to be baptized (as conversion or after conversion), and of course how baptism “works” or why it is even necessary. I have a book on my shelf dealing with baptism called “The Water that Divides.” Like communion we have to wonder how something that was done by Christ and interpreted as an action that brings us together through the grace of God can be an action that also separates us from each other.

For the purpose of these inserts about worship I am not going to attempt to explain all the various theologies surrounding baptism. Nor will I debate the infant versus adult or the various modes of baptism. What I want to focus on is something that everyone does seem to agree on and its implications for our worship. Baptism is a visible sign (Wesley says both external and internal) that we are now part of the new covenant with Christ and members of the family of God. It is also an act of obedience to the will of God.

In terms of worship, what does it mean to be in covenant with God through Christ and a member of the family of God? For one thing it means that we are not alone in the struggle of rejecting sin and living as Christ has called us to live in the world. It means when we gather together to worship as the church, we should do so believing that those who gather with us are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not a room full of strangers. We are not even a room full of like minded people. We are believers who have been adopted into the family of God by the blood of Jesus Christ and our baptism. It also means we can approach God through our worship with the confidence of a child of God, not an outsider hoping to simply curry favor from some benevolent King.

Too often we limit God. We also limit our importance to God. We understand the power of a family name. My mom might say to me, “Don’t give up, remember you are a Gilbert!” which reminds me of the strength of my bloodline. When we hear, “Remember your baptism and be holy” we are given the same call, to remember to whose family we belong and whose power flows through us.

Remember your baptism and worship accordingly.