Today we begin a new weekly feature a long time in the making. Beginning today, and continuing each Sunday indefinitely, we are launching an extended series on the Psalms. The Psalms are unique in that they express the whole of the human experience and do it all to the glory of God. (more…)

High points of God’s grace and provision easily get lost in all the details and business of life. Here is a story of how God moved in an amazing way on Easter this year both in Mars Hill Church and with my daughter Trinity. I wrote this for an upcoming “year end” publication but wanted to share it here as well.

Good Friday and Easter are like the Super Bowl at Mars Hill Church. Each year this weekend holds both our largest attendance and most elaborate production effort. As your worship pastor, overseeing the music and many of the details of the sound, light and video, it is the busiest time of the year for my team and I. To be honest, it’s easy to get caught up in all the details and forget the core reason for all the celebration. (more…)

The last 2 weeks of music at the Ballard campus have been unusual.

Two weeks ago Pastor Mark was preaching on Worship as part of our Doctrine
series. We decided that it would be a good opportunity to emphasize the
larger context of worship by stripping things down musically.  I stripped it
waaaaay down to just me with an acoustic guitar.  We haven’t done something
that sparse in a long time.  It was a very interesting experience.  I
actually really wrestled with having a band or not.  I realized just how
dependent I had become on the experience of having a band. (more…)

You’re Best Life Now? Not necessarily…

I find that there is still a strong desire in my heart to adopt the “bible promise book” mentality I spoke of in my introduction to this series. I want to hold onto the promise that “all that I do will prosper” above all the rest of the prohibitions and cautions of this opening prayer of the Psalms. But the psalmist will not let me. I have access to that blessing only to the extent that I delight in God’s word and keep it close in meditation. The great english preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon says it well:

“The law of the Lord is the daily bread of the true believer. And yet, in David’s day, how small was the volume of inspiration, for they had scarcely anything save the first five gooks of Moses! How much more, then, should we prize the whole written Word which is our privilege to have in all our houses! But, alas, what ill-treatment is given to this angel from heaven! …How few among us can lay claim to the benediction (blessing) of the text! Perhaps some of you can claim a sort of negative purity, because you do not walk in the way of the ungodly; but let me ask you - Is your delight in the law of God? Do you study God’s Word? Do you make it the man of your right hand - your best companion and hourly guide? If not, this blessing does not belong to you.” from the Treasury of David - Psalm 1. (more…)

Most good books have a preface or introduction of one sort or another. The first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy begins with a chapter entitled, “Concerning Hobbits”. Star Wars always begins with, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” The Bible begins with Genesis, the book of beginnings, which starts, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” These prefatory statements are essential as they give a foundation for all that follows them. Without them we would not know that hobbits are small agrarian creatures with hairy feet, we might think Luke Skywalker is from Iowa rather than Tatooine and we would not know that God is eternal and the source of all life.

The first Psalm gives context to the whole book…

Psalm 1 (and many commentators believe Ps.2 as well) serves this same purpose as the preface to the book of Psalms. It gives a foundation on which the rest of the book comes to rest. The Psalm is basically divided up into three parts: the qualification (v.1-2), the blessing (v.3) and the curse (v.4-6).

The challenge of Psalm 1…

The psalm begins with a challenge: do not take the counsel of the wicked, be counted with sinners or join in with those who scoff (v1). Rather we must delight ourselves in God’s law, the whole of scripture in our case, and meditate on it day and night (v2). This is a challenge to a very high standard and is the qualification for the blessing that follows. If, and only if, the word of God becomes out delight, we will be blessed. We will be like a fruitful tree, well watered and nourished, we will not wither and all we do will prosper (v3).

However, we we fail to delight in the scripture and meditate on it both day and night, the opposite will be true. We will wither and die and the wind will blow us away (v4). God knows our hearts. We will not stand as righteous in the judgement and all our ways will perish (v5-6).

More coming soon…

When we look to the Psalms first and foremost to console and validate ourselves, we selfishly put ourself at the center of the purpose of scripture. Instead we must first ask what is the Psalmist praying and, most of all, what does it tell us about Jesus. In his excellent little book “The Prayerbook of the Bible” Dietrich Bonhoeffer says:

“If we want to read and to pray the prayers of the Bible, and especially the Psalms, we must not, therefore, first ask what they have to do with us, but what they have to do with Jesus Christ… Thus it does not matter whether the Psalms express exactly what we feel in our heart at the moment we pray. Perhaps it is precisely the case that we must pray against our own heart in order to pray rightly. It is not just that for which we ourselves want to pray that is important, but that for which God wants us to pray.”

In Christ the Psalms take on a whole new meaning. Jesus is truth incarnate (Jn 14:6) and as such there is no truth apart from Him. We are called to view all of scripture, both old and new testament, as by Him, through Him and for Him (Col 1:16). Martin Luther even went as far as to say:

“Every prophecy and every prophet must be understood as referring to Chris the Lord, except where it is clear from plain words that someone else is spoken of. For thus He Himself says: ‘Search the scriptures, … and it is they that bear witness to Me’ (John 5:39)…”

Jesus speaks directly to this when, after his resurrection, He taught the disciples that the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms all taught about Him (Luke 24:44).

However, Jesus not only inspired the Psalms to be written, he also identified with them in his humanity. Jesus sang the songs of lament and abandonment more deeply than any other human being ever will as he bore the wrath of God and the sin of the world in our place on the cross. And, rising victorious over Satan, sin and death, he proclaims the Psalms of praise inviting us to do the same. Jesus lived the full range of human experience and he did it to the ceaseless glory of His Father. He is the perfect worshipper and the fulfillment of all the Psalms.

So, when we come to the Psalms, there are always three narratives at work: that of the Psalmist, that of Jesus and then our own story. We must ask what is the Psalmist praying, then what is Jesus praying and, only then, what should we pray in response. I invite you to dig in deeply to this book of praises for that is what it is; the word Psalms is literally translated “praises”.

I invite you to dig in to the heart and mind of the Psalmist. I invite you to wrestle with how Jesus experiences the same things to the continuous glory of His Father. And I invite you to be transformed as your hearts are unified with His. Only then do we begin to understand the message of the Psalms.

Growing up as a total church kid I remember having a “bible promise book”. It was a small, hardback book filled with various situations and bible verses to address each one. If you were depressed it took you to something like Psalm 10 which begins, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?” If you were struck by the beauty of creation it would cite Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God…” If you found yourself impressed by the music of Arcade Fire go to Psalm 150, “Praise the Lord… with… trumpet… lute… harp.. tambourine… strings… pipes… cymbals!”

I think that many of us approach the book of Psalms in a very similar way. In many ways we use the book as a sort of “Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul” as we look for a Psalm to comfort or validate what we are feeling at any point in time. (more…)

This week I have the pleasure of leading worship and doing a little teaching at the Dwell Conference in New York City.  I have never been to NYC and am thoroughly enjoying it.  Dwell is a corporative effort between the Acts 29 and Redeemer church planting networks and features CJ Maheney, Ed Stetzer, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll and others.  Ironically it is being held at 4th Unitarian Universalist Church.

This afternoon I taught a breakout session on Missional Worship.  Thanks to all who attended and all your great questions.  I hope it was helpful.

As promised, here are links to the resources I mentioned in my sesh:

Here are the notes.

Here are the slides.

Here is a link to the talk I referenced detailing our new mission statement.

Here is a link to a resource page with our band development syllabus and a bunch of other stuff.

This week Mars Hill is hosting the Leadership Network “Multi-Site Exposed Conference”.

I had the privilege to teach a breakout session this afternoon entitled “Musical Multi-Site Missionaries”. We dug into Acts 17 and John 4 to define both worship and a missionary mindset and then applied these truths to music and worship bands. We didn’t record it but here are the resources I referenced…

Here are the notes.

Here are the slides.

Here is a draft of the mission statement I have been working on.

You can find the syllabus for our band development process along with other leadership development resources here or under the “leader training resources” page link on the right.

Pastor Tim

Last Saturday we had our first “Doxologist Intensive”. We invited all Mars Hill Church and regional Acts 29 music and production leaders and volunteers together for a time of teaching and discussion. My plan is to do these events quarterly at a way to maintain unity and fellowship across MHC and A29. If you didn’t hear about it or want to be on the invite list next time around talk to your team or band leader or post a comment to this thread and we’ll keep you in mind.

This first event focused on a new, departmental mission statement I have been working with pastors Matt Johnson & Joe Day. I have been the worship pastor for over 8 years now and yet there has been no single document detailing the core purpose of gathered worship and the role of music and production. Most of our unity has been maintained through relationship but with 6 MHC campuses, 17 bands, untold production volunteers and numerous A29 churches, this will simply not suffice any longer. As much as possible we need to articulate key ideas and “DNA” in writing and teaching that is captured so it can spread.

My plan is to continue to refine the statement and update it here as well as in “the city” for you Mars Hill folks. Just to be clear this is a draft and not the final copy. I already have a host of changes and edits to work on from this weekend. Feel free to post ideas here and they may be considered.

As promised here are the slides I used.

Here is the current draft of the mission statement.

Audio will be posted within the week.

Thanks to all who came out on a beautiful, sunny day to dig into the scripture together, especially the Acts 29 guys. Let me know if it was helpful and how it could be more so in the future.

Pastor Tim