Status Updates From Doxology and Theology: How ...

“We’ve got to do more than lead songs; we’ve got to disciple people. If nobody’s following us Monday through Saturday, we’re not leading worship; we’re just leading songs.”

“When pastors learn to empower creatives (as opposed to importing creativity), it allows the congregation to lead worship through word, symbol, music, visual art, and architecture that uniquely reflects our tribe—our unique, local, context. This is contextualizing in the best possible sense: the gospel has impacted our lives, and we respond with our own celebration and proclamation of that changeless gospel.”

“… the [church] body passively consumes… note for note something that came from another context. Rather than making disciples and carefully discerning context, we can simply purchase and import from others. But if we want to empower Christ’s church to use their gifts… it’s worth the effort.”

“Here is the very heart of biblical worship: God speaks, and we respond. This fundamental principle of “revelation and response” should guide every form and part of our worship service. God speaks through His Word, His Son, His Holy Spirit, and we respond through our words, songs, bodies, and service to each other and the world.”

“May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering! Not “pray for us.” Not even “pray for the people we’ll be serving.” They wanted Jesus to get glory; that’s the point. That’s worship as the goal of missions.

“If we are not using Scripture in our worship sets then we are leading people into idolatry. If the Word is how we put God on display, which leads to worship and joy and mission, then we must be filling our worship gathering with the Bible.”

“The greatest injustice in the universe is that there are human beings who do not worship Jesus Christ.”

“True expository preaching that seeks to exegete and apply the Scripture will always arrive at God’s ‘authorial intent’ if lifting up the gospel of Jesus. Christ will be preached from every text, and the gospel will be the core of application.”

“Because the Spirit has applied the perfect worship of the Son to us, we’re free to worship as one’s delighting in God’s glory rather than one’s seeking to earn it.”

“Trinitarian worship, then, at its core, is the worship of the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That said, should we only directly worship the Father and not all three Persons? Not at all. If anything, the above statement is meant to show the Trinitarian direction and shape of worship by highlighting each of the Person’s roles.”

“The perfect worship that the Father demands has found all its qualifications met in the Son’s righteous living—both His personal piety and His fully obedient participation in corporate worship—while on earth.”

“Churches are looking for songs with no heresy. That is not enough.”

“Worship leaders are singing theologians. We communicate truth with poetry and verse; we organize doctrine with rhythm and rhyme; we proclaim the good news through melody and harmony. With every stanza of every hymn, we are articulating and teaching what we believe, intentional or not.”

“The motto of our practices of worship must not be ‘forward’ but ‘backward’ to the Scripture. This describes the important work and trajectory of the modern worship leader: always back to Scripture.

“Therefore our pursuit is not to lead worship, but to worship. And as we are set ablaze by God’s truth, we become enabled to lead the people of God in life-transforming worship.”