Great Singing!

“To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.” William Temple, Church of England

Dear Faith Congregation, Applegate Community, and Household of Faith Community,

This past Friday evening was especially encouraging to us as worshipers. We witnessed the blending of around 130 voices with the rich expressions of harmonies and melodies. After hearing from different ones about the intensity of the singing at our Good Friday service, I determined to write and continue in that same vein of praise and thanksgiving to God on how He facilitated the hearts and voices for the gathered people of God that night. Here’s what I heard from several:

“Wow. The acoustics brought the singing to life.”

“I sat next to ________________ (family name) and it was incredible. You want to learn how to sing, sit next to them.”

“Fantastic! May Jesus Christ always be praised.”

“The music was marvelous! I was transported by the beauty and majesty. Please let the flautists and accompanists know I was so blessed by it.”

“I had no idea that our voices would sound so rich in this room.”

“When we get together and sing like that, it sure makes for an encouraging time.”

“With the singing tonight, now we know what it is like in our church building to have more worshipers and more voices.”

Isn’t our God good?

To round out this brief note of thanks, I reference a few sentences below that I came across in my reading 5-6 days ago:

“Christian assembles have at all times and in all places read the Scriptures, prayed, and sung. The Christian liturgy was born singing, and it has never ceased to sing…The Church used music and singing in its worship well before it began to ask itself questions about why and wherefore, and such questioning was a first sporadic and empirical, connected with matters of discipline, devotion, and even polemics...”

A few sentences later, I read this:

“The first and most distinctive characteristic of singing would appear to be that of musical time. Singing places man before God as a creature existing in time.”

See the chapter, “Music and Singing in Liturgy” in the book, The Study of Liturgy by Jones, Wainwright and Yarnold Oxford Univ Press, 1978, pp. 440-441.

I am guessing we all see that music and singing in a worship context are to be praise. They also focus on the use of the Word for prayer, praise, confession and instruction. These things are true; however, I am struck by the Jones, Wainwright and Yarnold point that “Singing places man before God as a creature existing in time.” Interesting.

Singing shows God that He is God and we are creatures—His creatures! You cannot get more fundamental and basic than that! He is God. We are men and women. When we sing, we must make use of key signatures, timing, intervals, and volume. There’s submission involved. We submit as creatures to elements and applications of time.

In order to speak with musical expression of God’s God-ness and to show our creaturely-ness, we sing. And it all happens with air exhaling through our throats, bouncing around briefly within the small space of our cheeks and then forced out with rounded or sliced lips. Sounds rush forward for verbal chorus.

We show our limits with time and space; but within our limits, we get to praise our God and Redeemer. O for a thousand tongues—right?

Thanks be to God for this past Friday’s joint worship as congregations. We will treasure the worship for a good number of weeks ahead. Our voices became glory-filled vessels of claps, peals, laments, and tones. It was Good Friday worship—and the worship was good last Friday.

Sincerely, all for the praise of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus,

Pastor Sumpter

Launching T-Shirts at Halftime

Formality in worship

PCA Pastor Jeff Meyers, while writing about the propriety and significance of calling-garb for the pastor, comments on formality in worship. He persuasively wows the reader; he reminds me of the T-Shirt Cannon guys at halftime. Good, fun stuff.

“Since for Americans there is often an in-built negative reaction to any mention of formality in worship, let us turn briefly to Hebrews 12 and Revelation 4-5. Hebrews 12:22-24 describes a New Covenant (contrasted with the Old Covenant worship of vss. 18-21) corporate, Lord’s Day worship service. When the church gathers on the Lord Day she enters into heaven (by faith) to worship God with all of the angelic host and departed saints. It is as if the roof of the church building is torn off when the pastor calls the people to worship. Notice that the worshipers are all organized around the throne of God. The worship service does not merely provide an opportunity for private devotional experiences. The church is a ‘city’ and a ‘joyous assembly’ or ‘festal array’ (v. 22). The word translated ‘festal assembly’ denotes an assembly of people gathered for a celebration or festival. Later, when we are privileged with the Apostle John in the book of Revelation to peek into heaven, how is the worship conducted? What kind of worship is modeled for us in heaven? There are all kinds of liturgical lessons to be learned here. I only wish to highlight one aspect: the heavenly service is liturgical and formal. According to Revelation 4-5, heavenly worship is a formal, coordinated activity. There are cooperative, formal responses by groups of worshipers. Everybody responds together with the same words. There are no individual displays of spirituality. Angels, elders, and creatures respond antiphonally with responses that must have been learned! They have been trained. There is a pre-arranged form to the worship. They have rehearsed this event, and they are dressed accordingly (Rev. 4:4). In other words, heavenly, Spirit-guided worship is liturgical and formal (1 Cor. 14:26-33).”

G. Mark Sumpter

To God Be the Glory

Encore!

Why are we biblical Christians? Yes, we use the Bible. But why? Because it is the book that God has given. And why is that important? It is to the Bible we go, where we learn about God. And why be concerned about God? Because God is at the center of all that God is about. And to see God at the center, God for His own glory…God for His own honor…God for His own name… God for His own purposes… God asking the questions, God answering the questions… God in the midst… not to the side… God in fore-thought, not an after-thought… this is to confess what the God of the Bible confesses: for Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever and Ever and Ever………. And we can yet ask again, why be God-centered about God? Because God is centered on God.

It is like a symphony hall…. The Father is the conductor…. The entire orchestra is the Son of God; and the audience who bears witness is the Holy Spirit. He, our God, enjoys the hall… for it’s His hall… it’s His score of the music, His conducting of the score, His playing of every note—each section perfect in pitch, time, with skill and peformance; He is the display, the witness, the response, the eyes that are fixed in wonderment and awe, the One who moves to the edge of the seat to turn His ear to melodic and pastoral textures, and then stands to cheer, “bravo, bravo!” This is the symphony hall called Trinity Hall… the marquee board reads, “For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things. To Him be the glory for ever and ever.”

G.Mark Sumpter

Is This Taking It to the Next Level?

Environmental Projection In Traditional Worship

1990s Sound Man-guy, move over; in fact, we're gonna have to let you go. We've just hired a VG man.

Visual Graphics and Worship, it's here.

VG 1



VG 2VG 3


Faith OPC is inching closer and closer to developing specific plans for her new worship facility on Scoville Road in Grants Pass. Should I send this post over to our First Phase Committee?

G. Mark Sumpter

Cheesy Recessional After Worship---Not

I had to warm up to this

After the benediction at the end of worship, our elders have a liturgical recessional. We walk the center aisle to the back of the worship assembly, and proceed to stand at the back to greet the saints as they leave the service of worship.

I have been in multiple conversations over the years with folks about this recessional--sometimes with fellow elders, sometimes with the members of the church.

Why? Why do you men walk out of the service going down the aisle through the congregation?

One of our elders has repeatedly said: We're leading the congregation out from the presence of God in His worship, so that the congregation is led forth into His service in the world.

Well spoken, and it's very practical contributing to our symbolism regarding the called-together worshiping soldiers and saints of God's people.

God is our fore guard and our rear guard. Our elders lead at the beginning and at the ending of worship.

It's taken me a long time to warm up to his explanation. But I'm there.

G. Mark Sumpter

Liturgical Foot Prints

Printed forms of liturgy in the worship bulletin or no?

“The right balance, it would seem, would be an orderly approach that employs Biblically based historical liturgical forms, while leaving room for free prayers and the work of the Spirit. Again, the practice of the early church provides guidance. While moderate liturgical worship developed very early (with use of the Ten Commandments, Creed, Confession, Lord's Prayer), the responsive litanies (e.g. santus, sursum corda, kyrie eleison, the peace), are mainly a later development. Worship that employs only fixed forms is stifling. The complete absence of fixed forms, however, may leave the church unnecessarily vulnerable to the every changing cultural-ecclesiastical environment.”

Terry L. Johnson in Leading in Worship, p. 7

G. Mark Sumpter

Hands Raised

"Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground." Nehemiah 8:6

The following is a one-question quiz with multiple choice answers. Go for it.

Why do confessional, historic Presbyterians neglect to follow the example of Nehemiah 8:6?

A. We don't want to be confused with Pentecostals.

B. We raise our hands in our hearts, on the inside.

C. We've never had a pastor who's courageous enough to lead the way, to be an example.

D. 1 Timothy 2:8 allows for men to raise hands during prayer, but it's no command.

E. We'd feel funny about it, in fact a little embarrassed, so our feelings rule.

F. Nehemiah 8:6 is in the Old Testament, public worship is regulated by the New.

E. Since we don't bow nor kneel, and perhaps since we neglect to stand for the reading of the Word, it makes no sense to raise hands.

G. None of the Above.

G. Mark Sumpter