Worship

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Redeemer's effeminate worship...

Tim Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City had this for an offertory a couple months ago. My brother David once made the observation that "all the applause at classical concerts is self-congratulatory." Listen to the end of the video.

I just did a post on the gays in the Vatican. Added this post a few minutes later.

My greatest grief is not that Redeemer parades its cultural sophistication during Lord's Day services and the people applaud it. That's what you'd expect Tim Keller to produce in...


Report of PCA Study Committee on Women in the Church (7): silence is obsolete...

(This is seventh in a series of ten posts critiquing the Report of the Presbyterian Church in America's Study Committee on Women Serving in the Ministry of the Church: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventheighth, ninth, and tenth.)

The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. (1 Corinthians 14:34)

In a long section titled "The Roles of Women During the Apostolic Era," the PCA's General Assembly Study Committee on Women's Roles in the Church goes on at great length about what this and that New Testament passage does and doesn't mean. They quote lots of scholars saying one thing and another about the meaning of this and that Greek word. Some of it is unobjectionable, beyond the fact that the reader is left exhausted; and maybe that's the point?

Finally, though, the Committee is forced to conclude something or other about the texts' application to congregations within their own religious non-profit association. Given the spread of their legs from the concrete and timber dock of Jackson, Mississippi to the sleek yacht with a gaping hole in her hull up there in New York City, it's hard for them not to embarrass themselves by...


Palm Sunday: Calvin on using our bodies in worship...

The inward attitude certainly holds first place in prayer, but outward signs, kneeling, uncovering the head, lifting up the hands, have a twofold use. The first is that...  - John Calvin


What people complain about after worship...

Yesterday after morning worship, one of the men of our congregation was mad at me for exhorting the congregation to worship God with more self-forgetful zeal than March Madness fans. He loves sports and thinks I don't, and that my exhortation was spiteful towards him and his fellow keepers of the cult.

I tried to reassure him I was just as idolatrous as the next guy. I don't think it softened him.

Now I try another tack.

Should we take basketball and bracketologists seriously? Umm.

To help your answer, here's the best bracket in our Bayly family... 


Why I like doing weddings: along with a model liturgy and sermon...

You might think I'm crazy, but as a pastor there's no service I'd rather lead than a wedding. Even when things go wrong there's always lots to love. You may not know you should think I'm crazy for feeling this way.

Many pastors dread weddings. For starters, they're one of the higher-pressure services we lead. The pastor gets caught between the wedding coordinator, the bride, and the mother of the bride. And if that weren't enough, the bridal party underestimates the importance of the rehearsal, the ushers rarely buy into the importance of their job, and musicians often want to wing things, so the stress really amps up and it's square on your shoulders. So why are weddings my favorite?

Maybe it's that I've officiated at enough weddings by now that I'm more comfortable with them. Having spent a decade or so in college ministry in a college community, weddings are a constant for us. Maybe also because I've managed to miss the most difficult weddings. For one reason or another, they were passed on to other pastors in our church.

But this past weekend I was honored with the privilege of officiating the wedding ceremony of...


Fully Funded!!! Just a couple days left to get your advance copy...

 

I'm pleased to announce that the Kickstarter for My Soul Among Lions's latest studio project (Psalms 11-20) is fully funded. We're so grateful to God and to every one of you who has chipped in to support the project. Many thanks!!!


Psalms project continues: help us kickstart Psalms 11–20...

Last summer we asked you to help us with the My Soul Among Lions Psalms 1–10 Kickstarter. Many of you did so and God used your generosity to bring about the production and distribution of seventeen new versions of the first ten Psalms. God has blessed this work as these songs have become part of the household music of many individuals, families, and churches both near and far.

Now we’re ready to roll tape on the second volume, Psalms 11–20. Yup! We need your help this time, also.

Would you please watch and share this Psalm 11-20 Kickstarter video and do whatever you can to help us with this work? And if you can't help with the Kickstarter campaign, we ask you to pre-order the album because even that will be a help and encouragement to us. Thanks. To God be the glory!

We're also pleased and excited to announce that My Soul Among Lions will be on tour this week in South Carolina and Tennessee...


Coming soon...


Glory this Christmas...

Glory, the Everlasting Word Band's Christmas album has been out a month. If you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen. Cheryl and I can't get enough of it. We're listening to it over and over, kind of like we listened to Good Shepherd Band's Repeat the Sounding Joy several years ago, and some of the latter albums by the musicians of Mars Hill Church--Ghost Ship and Dustin Kensrue especially. Several years ago Cheryl and I drove through southern Europe for a month with our youngest son and daughter, listening to the Ghost Ship and Dustin Kensrue worship albums over and over and over on the rental car's stereo. This album is the Christmas equivalent. It's a fabulous piece of work.

 


"Glory" to be released next Tuesday...

After two years of recording silence, the Everlasting Word Band is excited to announce the release of its third album, Glory, on November 24th...

 


Calvin on Covenant Renewal, Federal Vision worship...

Responding to the post titled, "Worship wars: Jeff Meyers and Peter Leithart have won...", one brother comments:

Surely the issue is not how often, but simply "how"? Weekly communion is Reformed (Calvin). Communion without a sermon, communion which is somehow emphasized at the expense of the sermon, communion in which there is any adoration of the elements, any concern that "Jesus is being spilled," etc., communion which is understood and presented as repetition of the sacrifice of Christ—or anything approaching that—is not.

I respond: Most of the things you highlight have been Reformed commitments from the beginning. The pairing of weekly communion and paedocommunion have not. Each without the other would have less of an implication for Reformed worship than both together. And make no mistake about it: both together are a confessional issue to the Covenant Renewal Worship, Federal Vision crowd. Yet there's no precedent for it in Reformed sacramentology or worship.

Everyone likes to say Calvin was for weekly worship, acting as if that supports what the Covenant Renewal Worship, Federal Vision men have done to Reformed sacramentology and worship, but they miss the larger picture. Calvin was for weekly communion, yes; but Geneva's observance of the Lord's Supper was quarterly and Calvin didn't leave Geneva over it. In other words, for Calvin and the Geneva reformers, frequency of communion was adiaphora.

You'll never get the Covenant Renewal Worship, Federal Vision crowd to agree with Calvin on this. For them, weekly communion is anything but adiaphora. To them, weekly communion is a confessional issue and you'll know it because you'll watch as they drive from Geneva to Strasbourg every single Lord's Day to get their family...


Sound of Triumph 2015...

The Sound of Triumph 2015 is quickly approaching and we would like to invite you to join us as we celebrate the triumph of Christ's birth…

This year, there are concerts in two locations. You can get all the info at soundoftriumph.com.

We hope to see you there. 


Worship wars: Jeff Meyers and Peter Leithart have won...

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  - 1Corinthians 1:14-18

Luther didn't bother writing a systematic theology because his dear friend Melanchthon had. Luther held Melanchthon's volume of systematics titled Loci Communes (Commonplaces in Theology) in such high esteem that he declared them worthy of inclusion in the canon: "Invictus libellus non solum immortalitate, sed quoque canone ecclesiastico dignus."

Considering the current fascination with all things sacramental among the Federal Vision crowd and Covenant Seminary alumni... 


And manic pixie dream boys shall lead them...

When my wife attended Wheaton College, one thing she didn't like was what she termed the "whiny-voiced worship leaders." Let me describe the phenomenon in a bit more detail, as I'm sure you've experienced it, too. She was talking about the man-boy who raises the pitch of his voice in order to communicate the depth of the emotion he is feeling. Trying to look "rugged" and doing his best 90's female angsty pop star impersonation—think Alanis Morissette singing "You Oughta Know"—this guy is perpetually trying to use emotional prosody and poor singing technique to convince us of how authentic his deep, deep feelings of passionate love for God are. His voice is  tight and pinched giving the perpetual impression that he is on the edge of being overcome by emotion. Never mind that all he actually manages to convey is the sense that he forgot to use the restroom before he got on stage. He is "so humbled to be standing brokenly in front of us," and he "just wants to invite us to join him" in his whiny-voiced worship...

Article continues at Christ Church Cincinnati's site. 

 


The coddling of the Presbyterian pew...

A brother forwarded a link to an Atlantic Monthly piece titled "The Coddling of the American Mind" reporting on the prevalence of emotionally pampered college students who are using emotional blackmail to imprison their profs and fellow students. It's an excellent article...


A thank you message from My Soul Among Lions...

With our 'Psalms 1-10' Kickstarter campaign drawing to a close (just 4 days left to go!), we're so thankful and pleased to see that God has not only allowed us to meet our basic goal of $9000, but also our first and second stretch goals, too. This is wonderful!

Did you know that every backer will be receiving at minimum a pre-release copy of the album? We're already oversubscribed, but if you haven't yet contributed to the campaign and you'd like to be among the first to receive the album, consider making a $10 or $25 pledge before this Saturday night in order to reserve yourself a pre-release copy. The album won't be publicly released until early 2016, but we hope to get it into the hands of all our subscribers by mid-november, in digital form at least.

Thanks again, everyone, for your encouragement and support! 


A Modern Psalter...

What could be more important to the reform of our churches and homes than restoring God's Word to the center of worship? And, outside of preaching, what better way to go about this than reintroducing the forgotten practice of singing the Psalms?

We're embarking on an exciting adventure, and we're inviting all of you here at Baylyblog to share in it with us. Just this spring some of the musicians and songwriters here in Bloomington teamed up with a handful of worship leaders from Indianapolis and Toledo to begin work on producing a modern psalter for our churches and homes. In just a few short months, we finished multiple versions of the first ten psalms, and now we're looking to record them and produce charts and lead sheets, made available entirely for free.

We want to encourage a revival of Psalm singing in our churches, but we need your help. So we launched a Kickstarter project. Check out the video below, and then head over to Kickstarter to sample more of our work (see the videos at the bottom of the page), check out the rewards we're offering, and see how you can help. If nothing else, do us a favor and pre-order the digital album for only $10 or hardcopy for $25. And if you're a pastor, be sure you take notice of the sweet deal you can get your church on booking a concert...


Independence Day...

If you’re a Christian and a patriot mourning this week over the unjust weights and balances of our nation’s highest law court, now’s a good time to remember there is one kingdom that will be left standing after all others fall. 

Take comfort this Independence Day in the inevitable, the irrepressible, the inexorable, the indomitable, and the interminable rule of Christ promised us in Psalm 2 (versified for singing by some of our Clearnote musicians).

Listen and be wise…

With thanks to Phil, Jake, Nathan, and Nate

[Download the audio free at Noisetrade]


Listen while you work...

Here is an audio page from Clearnote Fellowship's work called Clearnote Songbook. Start now with the hymns Lead On, O King EternalIn the Fulness of Time and Rejoice the Lord Is King, then continue Ah, Holy JesusWash Me in the Blood; Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, and Immortal, Invisible. Here are original settings of Psalm 1 and the Ten Commandments. (We regularly sing the Ten Commandments in corporate worship as Calvin did in Geneva.) Here are two Children's songs, I Am the Way and Little Lamb. Then a couple pieces from our choir, Star in the East and I Want Jesus To Walk with Me.

Finally, if you listen to nothing else, you must not miss His Final Word. My spirit is lifted to Heaven each time we sing this in worship.

The Songbook currently has over a hundred Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for use in worship—some for choir, some for children, but most for the congregation. There are a number of original contemporary hymns and Psalms, as well as traditional hymns with settings written for instruments in addition to piano and organ. The Songbook also contains other worship resources including prayers, confessions, Powerpoint aids, lead sheets, etc.

Use the Songbook. You'll find it a great help in the continuing work of church reformation. And if there are things that would be helpful that our worship leaders and musicians haven't thought of, please e-mail them.


Reforming worship according to the Reformers; body posture, the holy kiss, paedocommunion...

Asst. Prof. Hutchinson at Hillsdale just did a post listing and interacting with some of John Calvin's comments on body posture in worship. Dr. Hutchinson has done us a service and others should add to the collection—both from Calvin and other Reformed fathers as well as Early Church and Apostolic fathers. Here's an excerpt:

Worship of God without the heart is useless; but, at the same time, what we do with our bodies is closely bound up with what we do with our hearts, and not in a symbolic way merely. The posture of the body ought to be emblematic of the posture of the heart, yes. But, ideally, the posture of the body serves to form the posture of the heart as well... Kneeling is not just a sign of submission; kneeling aids in producing submission.

Dr. Hutchinson has nothing about greeting one another with a holy kiss. There's little doubt this was part of the Early Church's corporate worship since it's commanded by both the Apostles Paul and Peter, and Jesus rebuked Simon for not kissing Him when He came for a meal at Simon's house.

So kisses are absent. And although he includes quotes from Calvin which touch on them, Dr. Hutchinson himself avoids any mention of headcoverings. The holy kiss and headcoverings are not heart, but body postures. Who can ever forget that beautiful scene of Rebekah dismounting her camel and covering her head when for the first time she enters the presence of Isaac, her betrothed (Genesis 24:64, 65)?

During worship at Christ the Word, Toledo and Clearnote Church, Bloomington, we lift holy hands...