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Don’t forget to SPRING FORWARD this weekend!

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Chick of Clarus Photography.

This is what Sunday looks like at House of Joy. We worship with a ton of energy.

1-4 The Young Americans doing a step and dance routine as a transition into our Elephant In The Room series. (Today was “Pornography”). They had a show cancel and so they were going to be in the area for a few extra days. We invited them to come and do their thing at our place. Which is pretty cool because as far as I know TYA has no religious affiliation. It was obvious when we cranked up HE REIGNS, though, that there were some believers in the mix and they worshiped headlong with us. A great group of kids overall.

From the Young American’s Website:

Budget cuts have caused the systematic removal of music programs in our nation’s schools, and with them, a chance for millions of talented students to discover ways to express themselves creatively. The International Music Outreach Tours were created by The Young Americans® in 1992 to bring music back into schools, opening doors of discovery for the musical talents of young people.

The comprehensive performance workshops cover everything from vocal techniques, dance, and comedy improvisation, to stage movement, sound, lighting, and more.  Hundreds of students from 4th through 12th grade learning to work together, to respect each other’s strengths, and to discover their own potential – all through the universal language of music and dance.

After three days of intensive performance instruction it’s show time!  The Young Americans perform the first act, then to the astonishment of parents, friends, teachers and administrators the participating students perform the second act with The Young Americans.

The International Outreach Tours have touched lives in nearly all 50 states and beyond including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ukraine, Gibraltar, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Japan.  More than 150,000 students have participated in these exciting workshops and many more are waiting for The Young Americans to visit their cities and schools.

5-8 Our AWESOME band rocking WE SHINE. Look at the guy vocalist behind me. I have no clue what he’s doing…but at least he’s doing it passionately! From this angle you don’t see our bass player or other guitar player, but they were rocking it as well.

We do everything high energy and in your face at House of Joy. I normally don’t lead from up front like that…In the last photo you can see the empty keyboard and mic stand. That’s my normal roost. But WE SHINE was so energetic I had to get out front and jump around and really connect with out people in a different way than “normal.”

You can see up on the bg screen behind us, the words to WE SHINE. Great song!

Also part of Fred McKinnon‘s Sunday Setlist shindig!

I Used to Be One of Those Crazy Free Spontaneous Worshipers

I grew up in a faith and worship environment that strongly encouraged spontaneity in worship. Kind of an unspoken rule that if you had a strictly planned schedule and stuck to it you were not “sensitive to the move of the Spirit.” Now we all had good intentions and probably unconsciously looked down our noses at all of the wonderful folks who followed a more liturgical approach to worship but for the life of me I can’t understand why we as humans always tend to lean to the extreme end of the spectrum.

Spontaneous Worship

Spontaneous worship (in my experience) is a worship environment that might have a bit of pre-planning involved but relies more on doing things spontaneously because of a negative stigma attached to agenda. You could starve from lack of lunch due to the often long-running service times. Again I’m talking about extremes here.

Planned Worship

Planned worship (in my experience) is a worship environment that has every detail of the worship gathering and service planned to the minute and allows no room for spontaneity. You could set your clock by the start and end times of these services. Of course, just in case you forgot, I’m talking about the extreme case here.

Either/Or?

As humans, we somehow naturally slide to one or the other. At least in the way we VIEW our worship gatherings. Why is it that it’s either/or?

Quit Worshiping Idols!

Here’s the bottom line: If we place higher priorities on either of these ideas over listening for direction from the Holy Spirit we are building shiny new golden calves. That’s right, it’s idolatry.

When we choose to be spontaneous for the sake of NOT being too traditional (a buzz word that we wanted to avoid like the plague back in the day) but we don’t listen closely for the voice of God in our spontaneity we’re, in essence, worshiping spontaneity.

When we choose ritual or tradition (or even routine) for the sake of NOT being too free (a scary word for some of the more traditional and liturgical folks I’m sure) but we don’t listen intently for the voice of God in our liturgy we’re, in essence, worshiping ritual.

Believe this: You can be both spontaneous and planned in your worship environments and STILL be idolatrous.

Believe this: You can be both spontaneous and planned in your worship environments AND listen to the Holy Spirit for guidance and direction in your gatherings.

I believe that God wants us to incorporate any and every means we can to express our worship to Him and to demonstrate His love for the world in and through our worship gatherings. This includes both spontaneous and planned elements. But remember without the fresh touch and inspiration of the Holy Spirit both spontaneous and planned worship elements can be a stench to God’s nostrils if we offer them as worship.

Now I’m A Planned Spontaneous Holy Spirit Inspired Worshiper

That’s right! I believe there is room enough in our worship of the most terrifying and loving force in the universe for both spontaneous worship and planned worship. God is so big that we need every element we’ve got to express worship to Him! Also, I believe that it really doesn’t matter ultimately which way you lean as long as you are leaning on GOD! Listening for His Spirit.

Currently, I serve at a church where planned is the current mode for our worship gatherings. However, for weeks and weeks we are praying for each and every element of the service and the Holy Spirit can and does speak to us from time to time and nudges us in a different direction. Occasionally, we’ll have a moment in our gathering where we DO go in a different direction…but it’s because of a nudge from the Holy Spirit…not just because.

In Jewish Roots (an interesting read), Dan Juster says,

Preoccupation with form or lack of form will never deliver us; but only pressing into depth with God will deliver. Ritual can be a valuable expression, a tool of teaching, a revealer of God’s majesty and grace; or it may be idolatry, a means of avoiding the reality of God, a hiding behind the merely familiar, self-worship, a precluding of the surprise of the Spirit’s revelation.

This can also be said for “free” worship.

Leadership Versus Idolatry

I believe it is the leadership of any given faith family’s God ordained responsibility to help guard against idolatry. We are to model sensitivity and discernment. When someone asks why you “do” your gatherings the way you do, one of the first things that should come out of your mouth is, “We believe that God wants us to do it this way.” That then can be followed up with logistical and technical conversation about WHAT you do.

Some wrong answers to the why question:

• Because we’ve always done it this way.
• Because our parent’s did it this way.
• Because the other ways are weird.
• Because it’s cool.
• Because we have to compete with MTV.
• Because if I don’t I’ll get fired.
• Because if it’s good enough for Paul…
• Because it’s in the KJV AV1611.

The one right answer for any “why” when it comes to elements of our services, spontaneous or planned, should be:

• Because the Holy Spirit led us to do that.

There’s a great discussion going on over at The Worship Community forums (related to the Pure Praise Study) if you’d like to hear other’s perspectives.

Posted yesterday from my mobile phone…but sadly I couldn’t find the publish button so I had to save it as a draft. I’ll be looking for a wp-admin mobile plugin. Anybody know of one?

today I left the internet behind…well, I left the wifi and cable modem behind.

I’m blogging from my phone.

tonight our leadership team is hiding away in a woodsy retreat complete with a lodge and a lake.

in a few minutes we’ll be sharing our guts about this thing we call leadership here at hoj.

we’ll be planning for our next year (february – january), revisiting vision, mission, and focus.

if you don’t mind shoot a prayer our way as we seek to wrap our hearts, minds, and lives around doing this thing in the most impactful way possible for our community this year.