Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


5.09.2004  

Glorified Ushers

Finals. I got two coming up in the next twenty-four hours, and my eyeballs are about to start falling out. Fun fun fun!



During my conversation with Boss early this morning, we talked for a bit on worship leading. I shared with him one thing that I've been tossing around in my head recently: the idea of a worship leader being a teacher, a preacher. I asked Brian if he, when he goes in to worship the Lord with his brothers and sisters, is immediately ready to worship, and he is at a point where he has a clear apprehension of the gospel and his affections toward God are being stirred by powerful conviction based on truth. My point in asking was to show that we, while saved by the atoning work of Christ, are still stuck in this sinful body, and therefore we desperately need to hear the saving and sanctifying truth of God's Word over and over again. More often than not, I find my affections dry, and my convictions weak.



With that in mind, I would desire for the person who is leading a congregation in worship to be able to, in the midst of his leading, constantly convict people with the truth that points toward the Cross of Christ. Why? It's simple. I'm not going to assume that people are at a point where they're seeing God rightly. To do that as a preacher would be disastrous. Why do that as a worship leader? Jerry Bridges, in The Discipline of Grace, says, "to preach the gospel to yourself means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life." Continually. The assumption that we must take is that we all are in need of the gospel each and every day, each and every hour, each and every minute. If we don't, we're deceiving ourselves. I told Brian that what people will often say of our worship leaders is that they're there to "usher people into the presence of God." I don't know about that anymore...I don't want to settle for just a glorified usher...I want someone to tell me how I ought to behave when they lead me before the throne.



Leeman once said that he hears more gospel from Chip Stams than anyone else. What makes that so remarkable is that Chip Stams isn't "preaching" anywhere on Sundays. Rather, he leads worship at Clifton Baptist Church, where he and Leeman are members. I suppose I've had this idea stuck in my head for quite some time now, since I remember being struck by what Andrew told me last summer about Pat, the worship pastor at Andrew's church up in Langley. He said that corporate worship was different under Pat. Why? I don't remember exactly what Andrew said at the time...but I think I may have an idea now, though.

posted by Bolo | 11:36 PM
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