Honoring Christ In Toil And Suffering- Day 1
At MakeJesusCulture.com we had several speakers talk on toil and suffering in their work. One of them was Harrison Hollingsworth, the New York City ballet conductor and bassoonist who leads worshippers at Redeemer Presbyterian Downtown. His main talk revolved around how meaningless our toil is without relationships – particularly relationship with the father of heavenly lights. And this of course applies to all made things, whether...
Honoring Christ In Our Singing-Day 6
TARGET IN SINGING We’ve considered our singing through the use of these words; total, text and tone, and now we must add one more perspective to the list—our target. Target with 1 – 2 – 3 Mike Cosper in his book Rhythms of Grace offers some helpful insight to our conversation here in what he calls “1-2-3 Worship.” He says that our singing should have three audiences or targets: God, each other, and...
Honoring Christ In Our Singing-Day 5
TONE IN SINGING Recently, I found myself philosophizing with friends over the state of singing in the church[jm1] . We talked about how the church has grown too “happy;” wherein we pop songs like worship pills and it seems to stink of inauthentic denial. Jesus, in his perfect, fully God, fully man state, here on earth, experienced the full tones of human emotion. He wept, he laughed and he got angry and tired[jm2], etc. He...
Honoring Christ In Our Singing-Day 4
TEXT IN SINGING | Pt. 2 Continuing from Day 3, one more thing emerges for our consideration in our songs. If we think back to the words of Colossians 3:16, our singing is actually supposed to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, through singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Dave Yauk in The Tempo of Discipleship: The Rudiments and Rhythms to Shaping Followers of Christ helps us devise some quick learning...
Honoring Christ In Our Singing-Day 3
TEXT IN SINGING I hope we can all agree that songs are as important as the sermons from our teachers in telling the total story line of God. Our songs are important in total scope in how they develop a broader mentality, but this also does not negate the fact that songs are also important in textual specifics. Those who write lyrics, or share them with others, are responsible for the words they put...
Honoring Christ In Our Singing-Day 2
TOTAL SINGING One of my Professors in college once said that most Christians are struggling deeply with their faith because they believe in a “canon within a Canon.” He shared this when talking about the 66-book Canon (or standard) of Scripture. What he meant is that most people cherry-pick verses from the Scriptures in whatever manner they like, and assemble the truths (apart from their context) into beautiful worldview bokeh...
Honoring Christ In Our Singing-Day 1
Day 1 | FOR THE MIND, THE BODY & THE SOUL Songs are important to us! They not only have the power to equip us for a good car ride, but the world is making every effort to perpetually define the style, the songs and the artists that are appropriate for the training of the human mind, body and soul. We must realize that God created singing, and thus as its grand architect, he knows completely its purpose and appropriate...
Honoring Christ In Photography-Day 3
The idea of transposition is a photography term, but is helpful for us in how to see the world God has made when we apply it in the manner of the great Christian philosopher C.S. Lewis. This way of perceiving the world—which photography and any form of art can help us understand—came to him one day when he came upon a toolshed in the woods. He describes the occurrence; “I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun...