Measuring Success

I was reading an article in Christianty Today online by Art Lindlsey* whose quote from C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity started me to think:

“We all want progress," he wrote in Mere Christianity. “But progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be and if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when we do arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start over again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pigheaded and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistakes. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.”  

Many worship leaders want to be innovative, cutting edge, or “progressive” to borrow from Lewis.  It is so easy to get caught up in following the latest trends, copying or imitating the “hottest” Christian artists,  bands, or churches.  Most of these people artists are sincere and godly individuals seeking to follow Christ the best way they can.  However, many times young worship leaders copy the externals of theses artists' style, dress, methodology, etc., and miss the personal struggle and process God brought those individuals through to get them to this point.  Failure to see the process and circumstances God used to mold and make them into the individuals they have become can lead to a lot of expended energy and frustration when things don’t work out as expected.  There are no shortcuts. We need to be careful not to fall into the trap of wanting the results and ignoring the process. As someone once said, "God is more concerned in making us holy, than happy."

We need to be honest enough to evaluate what we are doing compared to biblical standards, not other leaders or churches around us.  When we get to heaven, I doubt seriously if God will ask us why we didn’t use the latest projection software, or how we did compared to another person. The goal is to become like the “full measure of Christ.”  It is so easy to forget the focus dying to self and allowing Christ to remold our character and responses, and to be obedient to the great commission and great commandments.

Look again at the Lewis’ quote:
“We all want progress, but progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be and if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”

By what or by who are we measuring progress and success?  If it is anything less than Christ, we might need to stop and see if we are on the right road in the ministry. God doesn’t measure how many hits we get on our videos on Youtube or blog, nor is He impressed by book or music sales. The question is are we fulfilling His purpose for our lives by reflecting His glory, His nature and character?  If not, then, the smartest and most “cutting edge” thing we can do is get back on the right road.

How can we do that? Let me provide some links of previous blogs that will help us look in that direction. I hope and pray these might be helpful and useful.

Twelve Lessons for Worship Leaders from the Life of David
Where Am I as a Worship Leader?
When God Rejects His Leaders
Common Traits of Those Who Fail in the Ministry
Six Questions Those that Lead Worship Must Ask


*”Why We Need 'Dinosaurs' Like C. S. Lewis” .Art Lindsley/ APRIL 29, 2014

What Is Delighting in The Lord?

Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

What does it mean to "delight in The Lord"?  Is it a magic formula to get anything we want? We read this verse and wonder, what does it mean?  Let's clarify a few things first: It is not telling God that you love Him and then expecting that He will give you everything you want.  It is not bargaining with God, that if He will do something, then you will do something else.  Biblical truth is consistent with itself, so then, what does it mean?  I believe there are some wonderful expressions of this passage in the book of Samuel that will give us insight and help us apply the truth to our lives.

1 Sam 16:13-14
"So Samuel got the animal horn that was filled with olive oil. He anointed David in front of his brothers. From that day on, the Spirit of the LORD came on David with power. Samuel went back to Ramah. The Spirit of the LORD had left Saul. And an evil spirit that was sent by the LORD terrified him."

Saul had failed to be completely obedient in the destruction of the Amalekites. Fear dominates his life, he lies to push the blame on others, but God knows the heart and Saul's heart and dependence was on himself, not in trusting God.  This was his last opportunity, before God would reject his leadership, yet he assumed since God had put him in that position, he would always be king.  Then God sends the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the new king.

 {Just for thought... Though David has been anointed King, he did not assume the position until God actually gave it to him. God left a disobedient king in power for 40 years. God can still work regardless who is in power. The difference is that Saul did not receive the blessing of having been obedient to recognize the workings of God while he was king.}

Back to our story in 1 Sam 16:13-14.  Notice that when David was anointed king, the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power, but the the Spirit of the LORD had left Saul.  The reason was not that the Spirit could only occupy one person at a time. No, God had chosen one who was obedient and desired what God desired. It was the principle that David learns and share in Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Perhaps a little of the back story will help. Out with the sheep, David learns to love and depend on God. His heart's desire is to know God in an intimate way.  In 1 Sam. 13 Saul acts unwisely and takes the priestly role on for himself trying to keep his soldiers from deserting. He was driven by fear, rather than by faith in God and reveals that in a difficult situation he would rather trust his own resources rather than trust God.   In verse 14, Samuel gives God's evaluation of his kingship: "But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”  {1 Sam. 13:14}

David had a "heart after God;" Saul did not.  Go back to Psalm 37:4, the delight of  David's heart was was God, so God gave him what his heart desired, more of Himself.  Saul delighted in power and his own abilities, and he got what his own abilities and power could produce, an evil spirit, jealousy, and ruling by shear force.

C. S. Lewis one said that there are two types of people, those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "Thy will be done."  Saul represents the tragic later example.

God will allow us to go our own way and reap the consequences, to go to the empty wells of self sufficiency, self indulgence,  self glorification, and self confidence. Like drinking salt water, the thirst is never quenched and we only keep longing for more. But like the prodigal son, when we come to the end of our own sufficiency and we make Him the delight of our heart, He freely grants Himself to us. When we repent of our sin and seek Him, He will forgive. We will get what our heart desires and begin to learn the satisfaction of His sufficiency in all things.

God took David from tending sheep; he did not lay around in the grass dreaming that one day he would become king. He was diligent in the little things when no one else was around; faithful and obedient. God chose him because his heart sought those things things which pleased God.  In a similar way God takes us out of many different situations and places us in places to serve Him. But if we fail to trust Him and begin depending on our own strength and abilities, we will begin to delight more is ourselves than in God. God then gives us that which is our delight and all the heartache that comes as a consequence to such folly.  As the psalmist said in 106: 11-15:

   "The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived. Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.  But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel.  In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them."   

God delivered the people when they cried out to Him, but not long afterward, they forget all He has done. Then they began to crave for special foods, and God granted it, but it came without His blessing, and sickness overtook them.

While we live and breathe here in this temporal body, the temptations will always dog us at our heels. Temptations to seek personal gain over seeking God's will, temptations for self glorification, attempting to prove our worth by what we do, and the temptation to find delight in anything other than the Father. But if we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will be able to say as the author of Hebrews said:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." [Heb. 12:1-3]

"Fixing our eyes on Jesus," or choosing to focus our thoughts on Him through the situations we encounter reflects our focused desire in God. As we contemplate all He endured because of His great love for us, we will become encouraged, and God helps us to not grow weary, and helps us to get through the discouraging times.  Remember what the psalmist said in Ps 145:19:  "He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them."

In C. S. Lewis' Narnian tale, The Magician's Nephew, the great lion, Aslan explains to how though the witch ate the fruit of the magical tree, she did it her way and not His. The results were not what she expected: “All get what they want; they do not always like it.”  The witch desired the fruit of the tree that would grant unending life, however eaten in contrary to the Emperor's laws it brought unending life, but unending misery as well.

The good news is that we can choose who we will seek after. We can choose to seek after God and God will grant the desires of our heart. Or, we can choose our own way, which God will allow, but with the tragic consequences that will eventually occur.

The larger question that remains is "Will you delight in The Lord?" It is a question that we must ask every day and it is a choice we make.  We will delight in someone or something, the issue is Who will be the object of our desires.

Are there Characteristics of God’s Nature We Are Not to imitate?

Last week at the Seminary we had the privilege of having Dr. Paul Clark, Director of Worship and Music Ministries for the Tennessee Baptist Convention for our annual Crescent City Praise. As part of the various activities, Dr. Clark had several times to share in classes, but in one particular session that I was attending he shared an insight that every worship leader needs to hear. He shared that there are some characteristics of God’s nature that we should not imitate. {At this point he definitely had my attention.} I will just share a quick summary of his thoughts, but I promise if you will spend some time meditating on these, it will change how you approach ministry.

Only God is omnipotent, all powerful. He is God, you are not. Do not pretend to be, or attempt to be. Learning our limitations is a part of being human and it is a part of maturity.

Only God is omniscient, all knowing. He is God, you are not. Only He knows it all. After a few years it is easy to fall into temptation that we have got it all worked out and know everything we need to know. The truth is the longer that we are in the ministry, the more that we will begin to realize that we do not know it all, and that true humility is a sign of godly wisdom

Only God is omnipresent, everywhere present. He is God, you are not. Life and ministry will make demands on you that would require you to be in more than one place, were it possible. You can’t be; don’t try. We must come to the point that we realize God is big enough to meet the needs of those we love, regardless whether we are there or not.  This is another limitation that we must learn to accept.

Frustration and failure are destined for those who attempt to be omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. This was never in God’s plan for us, but to learn to trust Him to be Who He Is.  There is only one God, and He desires that we allow the nature and character of Christ to be fully developed in our lives: His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control.  As we grow in His nature and character we will also grow in our faith and dependence on Him, not try to compete for His power.

When God Rejects His Leaders

{Numbers 20:2-13} 

2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! 4 Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”

6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.

Before we unpack this passage, let’s review just who Moses was:
– raised in the household of pharaoh, having access to the best education and lifestyle of the day
– God appears to him in a burning bush, speaks to Moses face to face
– especially set aside by God to bring the Israelites out of 400 years of Egyptian bondage
– Used by God to cross through the sea on dry ground, while drowning the Egyptian army
– the intermediary between God and the people,
– first hand witness to the miracles of the manna, quail, and the fact that their clothes did not wear out during the 40 years of the desert
– strikes a rock with the rod that God had changed into a snake and water comes out
– interceded for the people before God
– had received the tablets with the commandments written by the very finger of God, twice
– of whom God, Himself said, that He spoke face to face as with a friend

There is just not another resume in the Old Testament or New, outside of Jesus like that of Moses. No he wasn’t perfect, yet God used him. Yet for all that Moses was and did, one mistake kept him from entering the land that had been promised to him. One. It wasn’t the murder of the Egyptian, or the marrying of a foreign wife. It wasn’t breaking the tablets with the commandments written on them in a fit of anger. What then, was it? That is the subject of Numbers 20: 2-13.

The children of Israel once again find themselves in a position in which they must trust God for the provision of water. This was not the first time. Previously, God has told them: “I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.” {Ex. 17:6} But this time, it was different.

Pent up frustration with a complaining disobedient people tempted Moses to assume that he was too important.  When the problems came, they went to Moses. They came in droves, and he became overwhelmed with the load. A restructuring helps and added judges help, but through the trials of desperate needs the people complained about God and Moses’ leadership. There might have been some sense of defense of his ability to lead in the action mentioned in Numbers 20. There could have been a need to show that he, Moses, still had the power to lead by proving that he would bring them water. As for what personal motivations there might have been, we will probably never know, for Scripture is silent. However, God was not silent in explaining to Moses what displeased Him so much that God would cut Moses off from entering the land he as dreamed of for 40 years.

God had commanded to “speak” to the rock; much different that the command to “strike it” before. Notice that even in Moses’ disobedience, God still provides for the needs of the people. God’s will and plan not be thwarted by man. Water flowed, the people drank, and everything on the surface looked fine. However, there was one issue: Moses had struck the rock rather than speaking to the rock. If fact, Moses actually strikes the rock twice. God’s commentary on the situation was quick, austere, and final:  “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” [20:12] One of the most amazing figures in all the Old Testament drops the ball toward the end of his life and ministry. What is going on? How could God do that?

Stop and think about what God had just said:
You didn’t believe Me enough to just speak to the rock; 
You didn’t believe me enough to regard me as separate, absolutely holy, different than you. 
You did not trust me to provide, even after all the miracles you had seen Me perform. 
Moses, you wanted to have the glory for yourself; you wanted the people to see how big and important you were. 
But, Moses, I share my glory with no one. 
You did not honor me as holy in the sight of those whom you were trying to lead.  
Moses, this is too serious to let slide by; you cannot enter the Promised land. 
Moses, I don’t always do the same thing the same way. Don’t presume to have figured me out. 
I AM God. There is none other.

As a worship leader who serves in front of a congregation, I am painfully aware of the many well meaning church members who appreciate the work and ministry, but who would place you on a pedestal and focus praise and attention on you. Those of us in highly visible ministries are at the constant temptation to allow the fruit of the hours of preparation just go to our ego and heart and miss the real blessing.  Music leadership must work hard at developing the craft, talents and skills to lead and play, yet we must never let the words spoken to Moses get very far from our hearts and seek out the praise of those for whom God has called us to minister.  We must always have an awareness that our obedience and inward lives and character cannot substitute for allowing the Spirit of God to shine through in simple transparency, to trust in Him enough to honor Him as holy.

As James said “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.” {James 3:1-2} Leadership in the ministry will be judged more strictly. We must be models worthy of following. When leadership stumbles, it does not stumble alone, it causes many to fall as well. Any taking of the glory from Christ so as focus it on ourselves is a form of idolatry. It is a serious matter to God and He takes serious measures to correct such actions.

I am totally at the mercy and grace of God. I am ashamed at how many times I have failed in this area, and even more amazed that God would forgive me, especially when I see that it was just this one time that made Moses loose his position. As I enter the last part of my life and ministry, I want to finish well and one way toward this process is to “trust  enough to honor Him as holy in the sight of His people.” I pray that many would join me in the this prayer that in all we do that we live and lead in such a way that we trust in Christ to honor Him as holy.

Worship Leadership Amnesia

We all have times of forgetfulness. The older I get, I have to confess that I occasionally have to mentally search for a word longer than I once did.  There is a lot more to remember, and more critical in nature, passwords, etc., which almost control all we do and good memory plays an ever increasing role.

There is another type of forgetfulness that seems to be encroaching across believers in an ever widening wave, one that is more threatening more than just having to carry around a card with passwords on it. This is the forgetfulness stems from the neglect of remembering what God has done in the past and from where we came.  It was God’s plan from the beginning to build into our lives a memory of His works that we would rehearse in our minds and with our families. Consider God’s instruction to the Israelites in Exodus 12:25-27:

When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’  then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

To accomplish this required not just the observance of the Passover, but the explaining to the children why they were doing what they were doing.  It is very possible that the failure to keep the Passover in subsequent generations stemmed from the absence of the instilling the crucial element of the importance of why it was being done.

Deuteronomy 32 is a song Moses sang to the children of Israel not long before his death and is an important study in and of itself. But focus with me on his commentary afterwards in verses 44-47:
Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.  They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Notice that one crucial method of remembering God’s law was through memorizing a song. The implication was that not only were they to learn it, but they had the responsibility to teach it to their children. Joshua, Moses’ servant who succeed him in leadership, continues this emphasis all his life as implied in Joshua 24: 31: “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.”   They had recalled the great workings of God before as well as what God had done during Joshua’s lifetime. Failure to teach the children these critical elements of their faith took their toll as recorded in Judges 2: 10: “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.”  The entire book of Judges is the tragic record of the people falling into back into idolatry because of their rebellion and failure to remember. The last verse of the book is a classic summary of what happens when we fail to keep to the forefront those things that are of highest priority: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” [Judges 21:25]

Fast forward to David moving the ark of God to Jerusalem. David chose to move the ark in the same way the Philistines had years before: on a cart. [2 Samuel 6] There had been clear instructions that the ark had to be carried with poles on the shoulders of the Levites.   [Numbers 4 & 7] The king’s failure to follow the instructions provided for a situation in which caused the death of Uzzah, who reached out to steady the ark when the oxen that were pulling the cart stumbled. This would have not happened had David remembered the commands for moving the ark.  He allowed the surrounding culture to give direction rather than Scripture.

The Old Testament is replete with dozens and dozens of occasions in which disobedience was a failure to remember, and much more space would be required than allowed to enumerate each one.  The books of Chronicles are the post-exilic retelling of the history of the nation. Knowing the history, know the law, knowing where one’s roots are and why are indispensable.

The Matthew and Luke begin with a genealogy of Christ, and John begins with Who Christ was, not just from what lineage.  Jesus taught not to try to fit an older understanding of Scripture into what He was teaching, since what preceded looked toward the coming of Messiah and now a new covenant was being established. However, even with that, Jesus underscored the blessing of knowing what had preceded: “He said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.’” [Matthew 13:52] The early church made going back over what had been written a focus of their worship: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” [Acts 2:42] Paul emphasized the need for continued study: “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” [1 Timothy 4:13]

The need for rehearsing, restating, retelling the miracles, the history, and the wonder of God works and ways is undeniable. If it were important then, it is even more important now. The rapid availability and access to so much information has made the need for memorizing almost a forgotten art [no pun intended]. Before cell phones, I could have told you ten or fifteen telephone numbers without batting an eye; now I do well to remember my own as well as that of my wife. Information is as close as the touch of our phones, Ipads, or laptops. Why try to remember, when I really don’t “have” to?  The words of the psalmist come ringing in my ear: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” [Psalm 119:11] We must make it a priority to learn and memorize God’s Word, since everything around us in our culture is training us not to have to know or remember.

There is one more area in which forgetfulness or even neglect seems to be running rampant and the need to remember has all but vanished is the knowledge of our own Christian history. Just as it was important for the Israelites to know and have a strong sense of their identity by knowing whose they were and from where they had come, we have a responsibility for knowing our own worship history and knowing from we have come. Presently its seems as if we are losing our corporate memory for what it means to be the people of God. The saying “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana] applies to the realm of knowing our worship history as well.  It is very possible even for those teaching worship in Christian colleges and universities to have never had a course in historical theology or hymnology, yet be training the next generation to be the worship leadership in our churches.  How can we adequately know where we are going if we do not know where we have been?
Allow me one brief illustration and I will draw this to a close. In the early 300s AD a controversy led by Arius arose that denied the divinity of Christ. One of the chief methods of spreading his false doctrine was the use of easy to remember melodies. Obviously, there were no hymnals or committees reviewed the texts of what was being sung. The effectiveness of his methodology is attested to the fact the heresy had spread so far that congregational song was eliminated in the Council of Laodicea [363-364 AD].  Major figures like Ambrose and others fought against the heresy with his sermons and songs of his own. [He is attributed as having invented Long Meter 8.8.8.8.] Years passed before the effects of the erroneous doctrine were eliminated.

But how soon we forget. Many in worship leadership utilize only the latest and greatest songs that can be downloaded from the internet which straight into the rehearsal room and on to the service without much thought to the implications of the theology presented.  Some have never received formal or informal training in these areas and have placed the theological instruction, the words that will pass through the lips of the congregation and think about all week, to which ever artist has the best tune and beat. {A study I did on the Theology of Contemporary Hymnody is available in another blog in Worship HeartCries.}

What are the implications of our present situation? How does this apply to worship leadership? [Please know that I am aware of many who doing a wonderful job of leading worship, and are both knowledgeable and intentional in utilizing the time of worship for biblical teaching. Nor am I saying that I am aware of what is going on in every congregation. The following remarks are observations.] Let me list out a few:

1. We run the risk of doctrinal confusion at best and heresy at worse for the failure to review everything that is sung.

2. We run the risk of allowing culture to set our standards, rather than Scripture. Being relevant to the culture does not mean that we succumb to the standards of the culture. Rom. 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

3. Leadership must be trained to recognize doctrinal issues, be willing and able to correct them if possible or refuse to use the song.

4. An insistence on using only the latest songs denies the development of a canon of worship songs that can be passed on and shared from one generation to the next. Equally as bad, is the fact that even a meaningful new song never lasts long enough in use to become engraved in the heart of the believer that can be recalled during times of great difficulty. Consider the repercussions of the failure to teach and instill biblical truth in the next generation: “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.” [Judges 2:10]

5. There is a false sense of superiority given to the present that implies that anything old is bad anything new is good.  C. S. Lewis called it, “chronological snobbery;” it ignores the fact that truth is eternal. Truth is part of the very nature of an unchanging God, though  how truth is expressed may change, the veracity of its nature does not.

6. It ignores historical perspective. God had commanded Moses to teach the history of the great acts of God from generation to generation. In the same way, the Lord’s Supper is that reminder of the saving work of Christ, a celebration so that we not forget: “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  Though truth may be expressed in new ways, to emphasize only the new seems to minimize truths that might be handed down generation after generation.

7. It lacks the tests of time to validate its worth and usefulness. There are songs that are from generations past that continue to minister to countless across generational lines. By granting value to a song based on its publication date relegates the theological filter to a calendar more than on the teaching of Scripture.

8.  It sets itself for designed obsolescence, for built into the very nature of the attitude is that good is measured more by a ticking clock than by how well is measures to the truth as expressed in Scripture.


The solutions seems to be a careful reviewing of what is sung by those who are prepared to do it as well as bringing back into worship those songs that have proved themselves over the years as worthy and useful elements for corporate worship.  When the psalmist wrote “sing to the Lord a new song,” he was not saying, “sing to the Lord, only a new song.” That “new song” was a encouragement to seek new ways to declare the infinite nature and character of God. We need to be like that the scribe that Jesus described as one who heard Christ’s words and accepted them, and so was getting treasures, both “new and old.” An active appreciation of the past is not an attempt to forget relevance, but better understand who we are. If we cannot see where we have been, we will not be able to see where we are going.  As we master the balance of remembering the old and incorporating the new we can avoid the plague of worship leadership amnesia.