Well, it has certainly been quite a week. So much cool stuff has happened that it has been impossible to get
another blog post out before now, and yet only an incredibly long post could
tell about everything we’ve experienced this week so it’s hard to even begin.
It’s been such a whirlwind that Seth and I had to stop on Friday and try and
remember what we did each day, and it wasn’t all that easy. Between worship, lecture, meals, hang out
time, games, walks to the Valley, and everything else there’s really not much
time left. Living in community means you can always be spending time with
people, and sometimes you have to careful not to forget individual Bible-reading,
journaling, and praying, all of which are central to the main reason we’re here
– to know Jesus better and learn how to make him known.
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| Our excellent worship teachers (and one of the little Dawsons!) |
While heaps of things happened this week, to me the undisputable most
important part of this week was the lecture time. This week was devoted to learning
about worship from Matt and Cora Dawson, both of whom are worship leaders and
have an amazing and deep perspective on what worship is and how true worship
happens. I might add that both of them are excellent teachers and communicators
who spoke truths and told their stories with total vulnerability. Over the
three days that Matt spoke, he used his own testimony, extensive worship
experience, and humor (we laughed a lot) to bring out wonderful insights
concerning how we connect with God and worship him completely not just in our
designated “worship times” but most of all in our entire lifestyles. There is
absolutely no way for me to convey everything he did in those three days, but
here are a few things for you to think about:
We don’t change through strength of will, but by the total renewing of our minds in Christ.
Worship is a natural outpouring of genuine love for God. But we can’t give God any authentic love until we are free. And what sets us free? The truth makes you free. So really being able to worship begins with being truthful about the current state we find ourselves in - our own brokenness and sin, the wounds we have given and received (he went into a lot of detail concerning this), the doubts and insecurities we feel, and everything else. It also begins with truth about who God is and what he has done for us. Once truth is there, we are finally free to love extravagantly and worship completely.
Love, vulnerability, and risk are inseparable. It is impossible to build trust without taking risks. We have to step out in faith and depend on God to come through, and then every time he does pull through for us it becomes easier to trust him.
Worship is not necessarily where you cultivate intimacy with God, it’s where you find out whether you have intimacy with God.
If other people doing things out of the ordinary during worship distracts you from being able to worship, then what you need is not for them to stop but to have a personal revelation of who Jesus is. Is the Jesus we worship really so boring that we need a good show to be able to fully worship him?
When we really know he Jesus is, we realize that worship is not about us, it’s about Jesus – connecting with him and listening to him. When that is the case, the Holy Spirit might actually lead you to minister to other people during worship, extending encouragement, guidance, forgiveness, and prophetic words through you.
We want to be most familiar with God himself, not with the form of worship that we use.
So that’s quite a bit, but there’s still a lot that I’ve left out.
After all of this, Matt ended his time on Wednesday not with teaching, but with
an experience that he felt was important for bringing truth, and therefore
freedom to worship, into our relationship with God. He had us write down any
questions or doubts we had to bring before God, no matter how big. He had heard
from the Spirit that God wanted to say to all of us, “I am not offended with
you,” assuring us that God could take anything we could dish out, if only we
would tell the honest truth. After writing down questions and doubts, he had us
write a letter to the Father, Son, or Spirit, speaking to him in all honesty
whatever was on our heart.
Finally, Matt told us to pray, asking God for a vision of ourselves
with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. At this point, my doubts kicked in,
certain that there was no way I would receive a vision, since I don’t think I
ever have before. But God has a way of answering you if you ask for something,
and so to my surprise I really did get something from him, if not a single
picture! Actually the first thing that popped into my head was the Wilderness
Trail logo, five people hiking in a line, each helping the person in front bear
their burden. Then I more images came to mind – Half Dome mountain in Yosemite…people
backpacking up a mountain…a sunset…two people hugging…a smile…and the face of
old man with a wild beard, full of joy and love. “Let’s go on an adventure,” He
says, “Let’s climb a mountain. Trust me.”
The next day in lecture Matt’s wife Cora taught, bringing us even more
perspective on worship. Like Matt, she told us her story and imparted all sorts
of wisdom that I don’t have time to share. The main point of her talk, however,
was that each one of us has our own unique connection with God and expression
of worship. Worship is about you, with whatever gift you have, elevating your
heart to God and connecting with him. Especially in our culture today, we feel
like nothing is expected of us in worship but to show up and sing words that
someone else has written. But that’s not right – you have something that only
you can bring to God in worship (not necessarily music), and that’s what He
wants! The enemy wants us to conform, but God wants us to be totally ourselves
as we worship him. She gave the prime example of David, who was of course very
honest in worship and used his gift of musicianship to begin the tradition of
corporate worship through music and singing.
And so, having discussed this, Cora and Matt gave each of us an
assignment: to consider the vision we had received from God the day before and
turn it into one line of singing. Then, we would get up on Friday and sing it
in front of everyone as we worshipped – our own unique contribution to worship
straight from God. Now, of course my first reaction (and the reaction of anyone
who doesn’t usually sing in front of people) was that this was a ridiculously silly
idea. As it turned out, though, our time of worship on Friday was one of the
most powerful that I have ever been a part of! For two and a half hours, Matt
played just two chords on the guitar and one by one people got up and shared
the line(s) that the Spirit had given them. Then, as each person sang, we would
join them and sing whatever beautiful truth God had given them. And so, with
two chords, our voices, and only words we ourselves wrote, we made some
incredibly beautiful music and had an awesome time of worship! It didn’t matter
at all whether each of us could sing well or not, God turned it into a perfect
expression of worship.
In case you’re wondering, here’s what God gave me (definitely more than
one line):
The Father’s face is filled with
joy
And filled with love
And filled with wildness
And he says to me:
Come away with me
Put your trust in me
I have a journey planned for you
and me
An adventure planned for you and
me
Anyway, this week was a great week for worship even outside of lecture,
as I had the privilege of going to the Dawson’s house on Wednesday night for
something they do each week called “love songs.” This in itself was a lesson in
Spirit-led worship. As on Friday, nothing was planned. Matt would play a few chords
on the guitar, then we would sing whatever the Spirit led us to, whether a
simple phrase or an actual worship song. We didn’t even have to sing – we could
just sit and pray or read Scripture or do nothing at all. It was, more than
anything else, a time of resting in Jesus’ presence. And there’s not much that’s
better than that.
Hmmm…I think that’s enough for one post. More coming soon!
Toodles,
Dan
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| From the road to the base |
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| The beach near Mt. Maunganui |
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| Also from the road to the base |
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