Announcements

While perusing my normal list of blogs at work tonight, I came across a wonderful and hilarious post linked from the IX Marks website. There linked was documented the fantastic discovery of an entire chapter of I Corinthians that, until now, has been missing. You must read it. I will repost it here. But make sure to check out Kelly Randolf's blog and read many of his insightful posts after laughing and emailing this to all your church friends. He is now linked to in my links menu to the right of the text as Ecclesiophilist.

Chapter 17

Now concerning announcements, I do not want you to be ignorant brethren. When announcements are given, let there be only two or three and let them be given in order. Let the announcements be brief. Otherwise, those who are new worshipers and unschooled in the way of announcements, will they not say you are mad? It is better if announcements are written down and submitted to the church office so that the staff may make them. Are announcements more important than congregational singing or preaching? May it never be! Therefore, use your announcement time wisely and thus maintain a suitable balance in the service.

Let him who gives an announcement be careful lest he fall into temptation and a snare. Truly each one who gives an announcement considers his information to be holy. When giving his announcement, a spirit of rambling may overtake him and he may begin speaking in an unnecessary tongue. Let every man who makes an announcement pray that his announcement may be brief and to the point. Such announcements are edifying to the church.

Earnestly desire such announcements, but especially that you may read the bulletin. Announcements are of some value but the bulletin is greater. For now we announce in part and we know in part. But the bulletin gives full and detailed information so that your knowledge of ministry happenings may be complete. One who makes an announcement edifies a particular ministry. But the bulletin edifies the whole church. So then my brethren, listen to the announcements but do not neglect the bulletin.

Now this is all in good fun and I certainly am not trying to anger anyone who's thinking about quoting me the end of Revelation. Kelly Randolf, the man who wrote this, admits that this is part of his imagination, as he has a "pastoral daydream" which would correct an "announcement problem" that would have been an issue at Corinth. Then, presumably, we could use it to address OUR announcement problems in our churches! So my question to you is. . .

How do you deal with the problem of announcements at your church?

OR

How do you WISH your church handled announcements or other areas of service planning not directly related to the preaching of God's Word, the commanded singing of praises to God or any other explicitly commanded and mandated functions within our worship services?

Feel free to comment with your thoughts and suggestions!

{ht:Ecclesiophilist}

Desiring God Conference for Pastors

I have just finished listening to the audio from the Desiring God conference for pastors and God has blessed me immensly through the teaching and encouragement in the messages brought.

The conference is an annual conference offered through the ministry of Pastor John Piper at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If you are unfamiliar with John Piper's books, then I suggest downloading some of the audio from his many conferences. They are given free of charge, which is a rarity among many large ministries today.

The conference is entitled The Pastor as Father and Son. If you are a minister, then I suggest taking the time this week while in the car, or working around the home or office to give the audio a listen. But I would also exhort those who are either fathers or sons to give ear as well. I think you will find it a tremendous blessing.

You can stream or download the audio or video HERE.

The speakers include Don Carson, Crawford Loritts, Greg Livinstone, and John Piper.

POLITICS

After hearing that Mitt Romney has stepped aside, I realized that I haven't had much to say about politics lately. I used to be a political junkie, but I think that I have moderated a bit and that is a good thing. So, as a tribute to all the Ron Paul fans and the Duncan Hunterites, all the those hoping that this was the year for Kucinich or the lovely locks of John Edwards this is for you. After months of TV debates, it's nice to look back at what was...






{ht:Locust & Honey}

The Incarnation and A Song

The incarnation of Christ and His work on the cross is the center of human history. Period. All of history and revelation prior to this miraculous condescension of God pointed to this event. All of the subsequent moments and seconds look back to that time, in groaning anticipation of the second coming and final consummation in time of the realities of that work. Christ, through the incarnation, death on the cross, Resurrection, and Ascension have purchased finally and completely all the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:20) and the final victory that we await as pilgrims in these "last days."

This is the theological framework and backdrop that we often think about when we talk about the incarnation. It is the factual and real culmination of God's work. In heaven, we will be around the throne singing glory and honor to the lamb, who was slain and has bought for himself a people to praise Him forever and ever (Revelation 5:9-10). All true! All gloriously true. But no one could possibly read through the Gospels (much less the OT law and prophets) and miss the fact that the coming of the King of Kings would have social ramifications as well as theological ones. Jesus came feeding the hungry. Jesus came healing the sick. Jesus came and touched leapers - unclean, unholy, unfit. Jesus arrived and said that he came not to be served, but to serve AND give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

I have a tendency to glory in the last half of that statement. I sing with vigor and my heart wrenches in pain as I contemplate the agony of the sinless dying to ransom many, but I rarely wrench in agony and distress when I think of the multitudes of desperate, sick, and hungry around me. I have little affection for the emerging church or for the liberal protestantism in our country today, but I do see that they have one critique of the modern evangelical church that is apropos. It is our reluctance to get dirty to serve the poor. We have megachurches building massive buildings with bookstores and coffee shoppes, all in the name of Christ. Christ tells us to lay up treasures in heaven and not here on earth, but we have a decadent and misguided streak in the American evangelical church that believes that as Christians, our communities are to be established to care for ourselves and promote an ease in our lives that is found nowhere in scripture. We are commanded to remember that we are pilgrims and strangers in this land and we are awaiting, just like Abraham a far greater city that God has prepared for us (Hebrews 11:16). We are "just passing through" as the song says. Hebrews tells us that this is the reason that Abraham lived in tents all his life. He, different than other tribes at the time, never built homes and walls and fortifications because He was waiting for the heavenly city.
It is time that we make our ministries look more like Christ's own and less like Six Flags, or the local mall.

The hymn text below draws these two great truths together. Beginning with his life and ministry in the first verse, we contemplate the compassion and physical ministry of Christ. In the second, we are directed toward the great truth of Christ's accomplished work on the Cross. And in the second, with resolve, the hymnist proclaims submission to Christ by imitating his life and praying for the power and Spirit to not shrink back from carrying our cross, even if it ends in death just as Christ's did. It is a serious hymn. The refrain is a prayer for Christ, incarnate and eternal to captivate our hearts that are so prone to wander and prone to complacency toward the other half of Christ's mission.

WITH A PRAYER
Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2002 Thankyou Music


With a prayer You fed the hungry,
With a cry You stilled the storm;
With a look You had compassion
On the desperate and forlorn.
With a touch You healed the leper,
With a shout You raised the dead;
With a word expelled the demons,
With a blessing broke the bread.

refrain
Love incarnate, love divine,
Captivate this heart of mine
Till all I do speaks of You.

As a sheep before the shearer
You were silent in Your pain;
You endured humiliation
At the hands of those You’d made.
And as hell unleashed its fury
You were lifted on a tree,
Crying ‘Father God, forgive them,
Place their punishment on Me.’

I will feed the poor and hungry,
I will stand up for the truth;
I will take my cross and follow
To the corners of the earth.
And I ask that You so fill me
With Your peace, Your power, Your breath,
That I never love my life so much
To shrink from facing death.

This hymn is written by Stuart Townend of How Deep the Father's Love For Us and In Christ Alone fame. He lives in Brighton, England and works in the music publishing industry. He has 3 children and is involved in worship leadership at Church of Christ the King in Brighton.

To hear Stuart Townend speak about the challenges of writing Modern Hymns and Worship Music, see October 5, 2005 HERE.

For purchase a recording of this song see HERE.

NEW BAPTIST HYMNAL

In 1991, the Southern Baptist Convention press, now Lifeway, gave us the Baptist Hymnal. This hymnal is the one my church uses today. Lifeway is currently working on the New Baptist Hymnal, scheduled to be released July 1, 2008. This new offering will contain around 650 songs, only a few less than the prior version. Lifeway is also supplementing the pew version with an online resource and database of 1000 songs that will be available to churches in various formats: a multimedia database of texts, a recorded database for churches without musicians and, orchestrated accompaniments for larger churches. Lifeway is hoping to add 100 songs per year to this online database, giving churches access to new songs as well as all the old standards that many baptist churches love to sing.

The aim of such an online database is to provide a centralized resource for worship planning and to confront some of the problems of hymnal publishing that are unique to our digital age and to put better tools into the hands of worship planners, giving more options than the standard pew publication provides. It also shows foreword thinking for those on the mission field and small churches who may be worshiping where musicians are not available. Granted, the idea of playing an MP3 recording for my congregation to sing to is not exciting to me, but considering that most of our convention's churches have less than 100 members, with limited budgets for paying accompanists, it appears that Lifeway is truly seeking to help churches where they are.

The printed hymnal will be dually titled The Baptist Hymnal and The Worship Hymnal. Both editions will be available hardbound in order to market the hymnal to non SBC churches who may share our hymn tradition and theological perspectives but may be of another denomination and aren't interested in many of the "changes" to texts that many other published hymnals of the past few decades have indulged, such as gender neutrality and theological tweaking to take away "unhelpful" themes like "sin" and "judgment" and "eschatological triumph." Many denominations today find these as unnecessarily provocative and harmful to the christian message and have changed traditional hymn texts accordingly.

The publishers say that they have found that most Southern Baptist churches use around 300 of the hymns in the 1991 hymnal. They have retained these baptist standards and are supplementing these with over 200 new songs that have been published in other hymnals but have been absent from the Baptist Hymnal. They also will debut over 100 hymns that have never been published in any hymnal to date. Maybe this will include modern hymns like "In Christ Alone." I'm crossing my fingers.

Oh, in one article, they explain that "I'll fly away" will make it back into this edition. That will make my church family glad!

For more information, check out Lifewayworship.com for news and updates on the new hymnal project.

Puritan Reading Challenge

I am taking the Puritan reading challenge. You can click the button at the top right of the blog above my profile if you would like to join and find out more information about what it is all about...or press:

If you don't own these books, be sure to check the link. Reformed Heritage books is selling all 12 paperbacks in one bundle for $65.oo, nearly 40% off. If you do not have a plan for study in this new year beyond normal Bible reading, then this would be a wonderful way to incorporate devotional christian reading into your life. I am looking foreward to this and hope many of you can join with me and take the Puritan Reading Challenge.

Get Out The Vote!

As a worship student and minister of worship at my church, I have spent a lot of time reading and thinking through the biblical guidelines (or lack thereof) for the Church's service of worship. The weekly job of planning worship primarily falls to me and I take this job very seriously since it effects the spiritual life of every member and visitor that comes through our doors. Making Christ known while balancing beloved tradition that reaches and speaks to the hearts of my people and teaching new music and liturgy that more fully tells the grand narrative of scripture and salvation history is a tough job. Issues like the regulative principle rarely get discussed outside of the classroom even though it is an issue that gets to the very heart of what we mean when we say that scripture is sufficient for all of life.

So, it excites me when I read blogs that are talking about this and hearing pastors who are thinking through these issues. One such blog is Provocations and Pantings penned by Southern Seminary student Timmy Brister. Timmy has posed a question to Mark Driscoll, pastor of Seattle's Mars Hill Church, who is conducting a survey of topics to preach on. Pastor Mark recently preached through 1 Corinthians and realized that the occasion for Paul's writing was to address specific issues that were on the minds and hearts of the members of the Church at Corinth. So, in like manor, he's asking his church and the wider church to give suggestions. At this point in the process, the questions have been narrowed down to the top 20 vote-getters. The top Nine (9) will be answered by Pastor Mark from the pulpit when he preaches this series.
You can vote 10 times in one day. Please email this post to your friends and get out the vote.

SO...I'm asking you to go and vote for Question Number #10. Here it is:

Do you believe that Scripture not only regulates our theology but our
methodology? In other words, do you believe in the regulative principle? If so,
to what degree? If not, why not?

In the future I will be discussing my take on the Regulative Principle and how I think about worship planning in the context of the local church, but first, let's put on our Rally Caps and get out there and vote.

Speaking of funny stuff...

I know this has nothing to do with worship or church or God (mainly - everything in some way relates to God...) but it's just funny. If you don't get the joke, then go HERE.




{ht: Justin Taylor}

Funny Stuff

This is a funny clip that I found on the blog of Mark and Stephen Altrogge. They are gifted song writers and churchmen. Mark pastors The Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania. Stephen leads worship at the same church. Mark is an avid musician and has been writing songs for Sovereign Grace Music for several years now and Mark, his son is following in his Dad's footstepts. You can learn more about their dynamic worship music Here. Look around and listen to some of their christmas music.

This Christmas, my church will be learning and singing "Hope Has Come" which is featured on the website linked above. You can download a PDF Lead Sheet for FREE HERE.

These guys aren't only talented. They're funny. Here is a video I found on their blog. I laughed for several minutes. Enjoy the music and the laughs.

(ht: The Blazing Center)

What Held Christ on the Cross?

HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR US

Stuart Townend

Copyright © 1995 Thankyou Music

.

How deep, the father's love for us,

How vast beyond all measure,

That He should give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure.

How great the pain of searing loss –

The Father turns His face away,

As wounds which mar the Chosen One

Bring many sons to glory.

.

Behold the man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders;

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished;

His dying breath has brought me life –

I know that it is finished.

.

I will not boast in anything,

No gifts, no power, no wisdom;

But I will boast in Jesus Christ,

His death and resurrection.

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer;

But this I know with all my heart –

His wounds have paid my ransom.

.

This hymn by the British hymnist Stewart Townend has been a blessing to me since the first time I sang it. It opened up the richness of the cross to my heart in a fresh new way. Tim Challies, perhaps the most widely read evangelical blogger, recently posted his reflections on just one line of this beautiful hymn that caught his mind while singing this song during a communion service. It was a blessing to me and I wanted to bring it to you. You can read the article HERE.

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If you would like to read the author's words on writing this hymn, click HERE.

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If you would like to hear the author speak to the importance of modern hymnody for the church today and the importance of Hymns in the Worship and thoughtlife of christians from October 5, 2005, download files from HERE.

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I love this hymn, maybe I'll have a post forthcoming on the intricacies and precision of the propositions in this hymn. That would be fun!

May God continue to bless you all.