Worship

Interview with Ann

Questions:

Ann, introduce us to the Worship Pillar. What is your 30 second intro to the work happening with Worship team?

What work gets you the most excited within the worship pillar?

What has been the biggest “win” so far with worship pillar work?

Scripture

Ephesians 4:1–16 NIV

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Word of God for you and me the people of God, thanks be to God.

Pray.

Introduction

How would you describe Marvin to someone?

I have been asking this question since I got here.

missional

loving family

beautiful worship

a place of personal and professional growth, learning to live out the Christian life

historic downtown church with rich and powerful history

strong leadership

choir, worship band, preaching

My job today is to present the worship pillar, but also to introduce us to a vision for worship.

What is worship?

Well it begins with understanding the narrative that we are living into....

Allen Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory

God, sovereign and ever-living Lord. He is inconceivable and incomprehensible source of all existence; he is the invisible majesty who reigns on high. This God we claim to know is the one before whom thousands upon thousands of angels and archangels stand never ceasing to laud and praise him as the holy and glorious majesty. This Lord merely speaks, as he did at creation, and myriads of angels wait to carry out his will. He is completely unique, truly glorious and incomparably holy—there is no one like him, anywhere, at any time. And there is no measure of the magnificence and beauty of his holiness, for all his works are amazing, good, glorious.

And we say we know him!

Moreover, by his greatness and because of his grace, this God created us humans out of the dust of the ground and made us as his image, he made a Paradise for us and promised us immortality and everlasting joy in his presence. And even though we, his creation, treated him as worthless and relegated him to an insignificant place in our all-important lives, he still desired that we be with him and he with us. Therefore, he set about with his plan to bring us to glory. Such was his preoccupation with us, such was his love for us—who are but dust and ashes—that he prepared this plan in ages past, revealed it century by century, and then at just the right time in human history came into this little world in human form to die a humiliating death in our place so that our indifference to and rebellion against him could be forgiven and that we might still live with him forever. This incarnate Lord, the Jesus we talk about as if he were just another man, albeit extraordinary and exemplary, is the one who made all things. And he is the one who is the radiance of the glory of the Godhead, and the exact representation of the divine essence. It is he who bears the world along on its course by his powerful command. It is he who someday will come in great glory and power to judge the living and the dead. And it is he who will make all things new a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness and peace will reign undisturbed. There is no power in heaven, on earth, or under the earth that can change his plan, for all wisdom, knowledge, power, and dominion belong to him. Nothing occurs, or has occurred, or will occur, that he does not know perfectly well. And because of who he is and what he has done, there is nothing in all this universe that can compare with his unimaginable perfection, illimitable majesty, and incomprehensible glory. Our minds can scarcely begin to take it in.

And we say we know him!

This is our narrative! This is the narrative of worship. This morning I want us to look at Ephesians 4 for a vision of what Worship is and can be for our community. There are not perfect “Texts” for church and what worship is supposed to look like, but we get these hints as Scripture describes the community. 3 things we find here:

Worship is where we are brought into unity with God

Worship is where we are equipped

Worship is where we learn to live truth

Worship is where we are brought into unity with God

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which we read this morning, Paul begins by radically making the claim that the church, the community of God is in community with the triune, Father, son, and Spirit.

Let me read it again:

Ephesians 4:3–6 NIV

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

He says one seven times, to even a cursory reading one can tell he is trying to make a point.

First there is one body:

There is one body because there is one spirit. We are one body…all of those in Christ, even bigger than Marvin, we all are one body, a temple of the Holy Spirit building us all together. This means:

• Jew and Gentile

• White, black, all ethnicities and races

• slave and free

• white collar, blue collar, no collar,

• Baptist, Methodist, Catholic....whether we agree on that or not

• Pat Mahomes supporters and cowboy fans....

We are all one. This is important because how could we imagine to all be one if God’s assembled people at Marvin cannot be united.

There is one body

Second there is one hope:

This hope is our one faith, our one baptism, because there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.

There is no other salvation:

no baptism by works or merit…let me work really hard to be good or build the right kind of life

there is no baptism by success in life or career

there is no baptism by positive thinking

there is no baptism in any other god,

There is one lord Jesus Christ and we are all baptized in Him

Finally, there is one Christian family:

Because there is one God and Father who is above all and in all. We are all called into the family together.

Not the Core family, and the sanctuary family, and the Student family, and the missions family.

John Stott:

We are now in a position to repeat the three affirmations, this time the other way round and in the order in which the Persons of the Trinity are normally mentioned. First, the one Father creates the one family. Secondly, the one Lord Jesus creates the one faith, hope and baptism. Thirdly, the one Spirit creates the one body

Stott, J. R. W. (1979). God’s new society: the message of Ephesians (p. 151). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

This means we must live, as pointed out by Paul, with humility, gentleness, patience, and love. The only hope for unity are in these moral qualities. And when we do, we are brought into the community of the triune God.

Examples:

liturgy

theology

combined sermon series

theology of worship, that teaches all of us what all this means

Worship is where we are equipped

We worship because this is where we are equipped. We are formed and shaped under the headship of Christ when we worship together. Our Lord has given us gifts, look again in verse 11....

Ephesians 4:11–13 NIV

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

apostles

prophets

evangelists

pastors

teachers

Do you think this list only refers to professional Christians, to the vocational ones, or is it also a calling for all of us?

The Worship Pillar is studying congregational participation and in worship from children to retired folks, inviting you all to lead in important ways.

Worship Pillar will continue in our commitment to Scripture, to the historic church, to worship that glorifies God, because it is through all of this that we begin to attain to measure of Christ.....when we become like our head, our Christ.

One of the things I am most excited about for Worship Pillar:

Digital Strategy of equipping.

Worship is where we learn truthing

My favorite part of this passage is the closing. So much so that I wrote my docotral thesis on Ephesians 4. There is a beautiful image here for what it looks like to be a faithful worshipping community.

Ephesians 4:14–15 NIV

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

“Speaking the truth to one another in love” is one of the worst english translations I have come across because it falls woefully short of the greek meaning.

And we love this verse, chalking it up to be this thing we do when our friend steps into some sin....just go speak truth in love.

Nope, the greek is more rigidly “truth with one another.”

Paul is telling Ephesians to live truth with one another.

If we will live gospel truth with and next to one another then we will become Christ like. Worship is the place that we do that most centrally.

This is why it will be so important for us to encourage consistent attendance and calling folks into participation with what we are doing here.

The Gift or the Fire Storm

Margaret Wheatley writing about leadership talks about the importance of identifying competing narratives in an organization.

Illinois Math and Science Academy

The head of the school, Dr. Stephanie tells of a crisis and her response.

30 days before the beginning of a term, the head of enrollment told her about a huge mistake of enrolling 32 extra students from the waiting list when they had no room. They wanted to immediately write the 32 families and tell them the mistake.

But Stephanie was having none of that and vowed to find a way to make it work.

This started all kinds of chaos with the staff and parents of the children. Shortage of resources, no room, computers, beds, led to all kinds of frustration at this decision.

Stephanie knew she needed to listen and had a staff person go and interview parents, staff, and admin.

What she heard was clearly two different narratives.

people that loved the hospitality and care

and people that were frustrated, doubted leadership, and were driven by fear

When it came time for the beginning of the term, Stephanie had the opportunity to address the entire community. She represented both of these narratives visually with a wrapped gift box....for those that believed this was indicative of their community. and a fire storm, for those that were living into a narrative of chaos and confusion.

Stephanie said:

“Usually we don’t know what the competing stories are and we just keep doing what we have been doing, living into competing stories. Now you see these and must choose what narrative you will live into.”

Now, let me challenge you a little: I began this sermon describing one positive narrative but I have also heard a different one

Not very friendly

Clicky

Can be an exclusive community

worship does not equip us to live out our faith

a lack of belief that we are worshipping the trinitarian God

a good church, but maybe not a transformative one.

Is this where we encounter the living God together? Is this where our giftings are put to use so that the body might mature? Is this where we are “truthing” with one another so that we might withstand the cultural winds?

“It is not strategic plan that creates change, we need to see clearly the narrative we are following and consciously choose who we want to be and become.”