We’re only a few weeks out from the Continuous Worship Conference and I wanted to introduce you to friend who will be helping out. Each main session of the conference will followed by a small discussion panel to field your questions and help clarify and apply biblical truth to our gathered and scattered worship. I am very happy to say that Dr. Gerry Breshears will be joining us on the panel at all four sessions.

Gerry is the head of biblical and theological studies at Western Seminary in Portland, OR. He is a stellar bible teacher and a good friend of Pastor Mark and mine. My favorite thing about Dr. Breshears is how he elevates the scripture over any and every system of theological thought. He always likes to say that the bible should come with a warning label: Danger Corrosive to Theology!!! Gerry has served as a tremendous “biblical umpire” helping me think through ideas and he and Driscoll have been writing together for Crossways publishing. Their first book will be out this coming year. Here are some of his thoughts on worship…

What is worship? It’s a question that gripped me deeply as I finished three years of missionary service in the Philippines. I knew what “worship” services were. I’d been in them since birth. But they weren’t worship. The service was boring, the music dreary, the sermons exquisite details of irrelevance. Worship? Hardly. At best, the preaching told us something about God. Nothing was oriented toward God.

Someone took me to the Bible (good thing!). I read very similar phrases in 1 Chronicles 16:28-29, Psalms 29:1-2; 68:34-35; and Psalm 96:7-10:

7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!
9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

I began to study. I came to a short definition like this: “Proclaiming the greatness of God for what He by nature is.” Worship happened when I responded to His revelation of who He is with proclamation of His greatness. So worship was praise in word, song, shout, banners, art, or anything else that expressed God’s greatness.

I was happy.

Until I read my Bible some more. [I really think Bibles should be sold with warning labels: "Danger! Read at your own risk. This book is corrosive to religious faith."]

I discovered another side to worship. Romans 12:1 puts it this way: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Here worship has to do with the body.

OK. Hands raised and all that. But it’s more than that. One meaning of “body” is the person turned outward in action. It’s the spirit expressed concretely. So the church is the body of Christ in that it is the way He usually acts concretely in the world today.

Worship grew. It is proclamation or adoration and service.

I proclaim God’s greatness most when I act as He acts.

God’s glory is the glow, the brilliance of His presence. So to glorify God is to make His character present. The way we do this is living His characteristics. To glorify God isn’t just to proclaim His greatness in word and song, but it is also to be who He is, to act as He acts.

That’s why the people of Judah got in such trouble in Isaiah 1. They were making sacrifices, burning incense, doing praise gatherings, spreading out their hands, praying, and all that. But God rejected them. They were doing proclamation worship, but not service worship. They weren’t living and acting as the LORD does. Read Exodus 3:7-10 and you’ll see what He does. So He demanded that they live His life and “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17).

So worship is when we gather and sing His praise, adore His greatness, shout His glory, raise hands, dance around, and get all blissful and excited about the Lord together in church. But it doesn’t stop there. Worship also happens when we disperse into the world and do Jesus things. So giving a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name is worship. Comforting a distressed person, freeing someone bound up in poverty, being merciful to a suffering soul is worship.

Adoration and service. Gathered and dispersed. Glowing with the active character of the LORD.

That’s worship.

I love me some media player shuffle-time. Every evening, after work, I take my Snoop-Dogg out on a daily potty-break jaunt and frequently bring along the old ipod and I’ll put it on random just to see what it’ll come up with. Last weeks random-play was so redunkulously varied and obscure I just had to mention it here. It was like I was listening in on a schitzoid nightmare soundtrack or something. Check it:

• Track 1 Melt Banana, Warp, Spin from the CD “Teeny Shiny”. Melt Banana are my favorite girl-fronted Japanese punk band. For those old enough to remember playing vinyl records on a record player, imagine Melt Banana sounding like a 33rpm Iggy and the Stooges record on 45rpm while you’re simultaneously hearing a low flying jumbo jet overhead and breaking glass in the back alley. Or maybe a freaked-out cat. You get the idea.
• Track 2 Leonard Cohen, Coming Back to You from the CD “Various Positions”. Cohen started out doing super poetic folk music in the seventies and by the eighties was trying his hand at Casio-funk, one-man-band zen-Cassanova balladeering. Super cheesy, super awesome. (For those that don’t know, Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah was actually written and performed by Cohen)
• Track 3 Slayer, Piece by Piece from the CD “Reign in Blood” I think the band name and title pretty much says it all. Pure eighties thrash-pioneer goodness. Or.badness. Maybe.
• Track 4 Neutral Milk Hotel, Naomi from the CD “On Avery Island”. This was the quintessential Lo-fi singer/songwriter indie-cred artist to have in your collection from the nineties. If I remember correctly there was some controversy over the song The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3 from “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” since singer Jeff Magnum bellows out “I love you Je-suuus Christ! I love you, yes I do!” over and over which ordinarily doesn’t sit well with Pitchfork Media types. But lucky for Magnum, NMH has still managed to enjoy Sufjan Stevens type indie-rock canonicity since.
• Track 5 SOD, Freddy Krueger from the CD “Speak English or Die”. As can be imagined these guys sparked a little controversy in the mid/late eighties with their nobody-escapes-the-satire schtick but they were the poster-child band of the hardcore/metal crossover and became a joke-band classic. A couple dudes from Anthrax and a guy named Billy Millano.

Ah, yes. You’ve got to love ipod shuffle..!

A couple of months ago I wrote about Juel Best, wife of Harold Best (featured speaker at the upcoming Continuous Worship Conference, and her struggle with cancer. I, as well as the whole Best, family have appreciated the prayer and concern on their behalf.

Juel Marie Best went to be with Jesus at midnight the morning of July 31st. She had fought cancer for over twelve years in one form or another. Juel died at home, peacefully, in her own bed, surrounded by her entire family. This was a great answer to prayer for the family who feared a long and painful decline. Just a week earlier Harold and Juel celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

I did not know Juel well. Most of my time with the Bests has been spent with Harold and Gareth (guitarist for Mars Hill band “Brothers of the Empty Tomb”). However, every time I was around her I was struck by her joy, humor and warmth in the face of her deadly illness. We rejoice that Juel is with her savior and mourn her loss to Harold, Gareth and the rest of the family.

Harold will still be joining us for the conference next month. If you know Best or have been touched by Gareth’s music or Harold’s writings, please take a moment to express your condolences to the comments on this thread. I will make sure they are passed on to them.

Brian Eno
Thursday Afternoon

I have been a huge fan of Brian Eno’s ambient works for many years, and all told have listened to his records (Thursday Afternoon in particular) probably more than anything else I own.  Part of the reason is because it’s easy to throw on and forget about.  You can nap, work, read, sit and chill, etc, and pretty much forget its on.BUT it has the effect of a wonderful but subtle candle in a room that just gives it that subtle.well.ambiance.  (more…)

On Thursday, September 6th at 7pm, the MHC worship dept is having an open invite called “Making the Band” open to all musicians and songwriters interested in serving in the music department. It’ll be in the former Paradox space at the Ballard Campus and food will be provided. (more…)

We have been chomping at the bit with overdubs for quite some time now, several bands are finished, and a few bands are about ¾ of the way along. There have been some good times and some grueling long nights, getting into what we’re lovingly calling “seshdog’ mode. This is where you have spent too much time in a window-less recording studio and you should go home, but you’ve got to get that mythical guitar tone that you’ve been searching for over the past few hours. It’s such a bad place to be, and no matter how much I tell myself not to become a seshdog before I go in to the studio, after a few hours, the black hole has removed all sense of logic and reason (pun intended). (more…)

My buddy Ryan Harmaning wrote this piece for the print version of the Vox-Pop. It’s well done and me thinks it deserves to be posted in another format here on Doxolgist. Ryan and his wife Ruth (along with baby Zoe) used to attend our weekly home-group. It wasn’t uncommon before and after group to find Ryan and I nerding out over our favorite local brews and pubs. While I’m certainly not as knowledgeable as Ryan, and don’t have as developed a palate as he, we still enjoy ourselves a good ale in the name of The Lord. AMEN!

Alcohol. Few words in the English language carry so much baggage to the Protestant of the 20th and 21st centuries. It wasn’t a frightening topic for the better part of two millenniaafter the time of Christ.and well before. Long have the dangers of inebriation been known we’ve got examples throughout Scripture and extra-biblical history of the multitudeof sins compounded by the initial sin of lacking selfcontrol one sin leading to many. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery” (Ephesians 5:18; NIV). (more…)

Some of the tune-age I’ve been rocking lately:

Battles - Atlas. Dudes from Helmet and Don Cabellero paired up and spit this out. Not sure how to characterize this particular track other than to say that it sounds like a cross between that traditional football game pep-band song Rock and Roll and a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory song that the Umpaloompa’s would sing while they’re working. If you’ve got an ounce of rhythm, this song will virally implant itself into your head whether you like it or not. and if you got kids, they’ll be sure to love it….

Interpol - Our Love to Admire. I’m still soaking this in and have only listened casually so far but I like what I’m hearing. I’m still partial to Turn on the Bright Lights though.

Impending Doom - Nailed Dead Risen. I’m not sure what to say about the irony of a Christian Band playing gory sounding death metal other than to say…it’s amusing. Does nihilism plus Christian themes cancel itself out? (This reminds me of Horde’s Invert the Inverted Cross) Negation negating negation? There’s a tag line on their myspace site that says “GORSHIP”. The absurdity is almost too much. Well, if it’s good, it’s good. Not exactly music, but it’s good.