4. August 2010 by admin.

I read a quote today by the famous missionary Hudson Taylor that struck me… “Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest;  heaven so real that we must have men there; Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to Him of many concerning whom he prayed: ‘Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with Me where I am that they may behold My glory’”

The reality of Christ and who he is…the fact that heaven and hell are real…ought to drive the Christian to a new place of devotion.  Where the praise of God permeates everything that we are so that we never forget our God breathed mandate to love people and bring them to lover of all; Jesus Christ… True worship demands obedience to Christ. It is such a shame when we reduce the expression of worship that should be in “Spirit and Truth” to expressions that are merely self gratification.  Do we even cry for those who are lost anymore?

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2. July 2010 by admin.

The dilemma worship leaders often face is the unresponsiveness of the people they lead.  Why are people unresponsive? What kind of expectations do we have as leaders?  What do we want to see happening in the pew?   For a lot of years I guess I have not been terribly concerned about how responsive people are, because outward expression may not be a clear indicator of the condition of the heart.  Some cultures are naturally less expressive or physical in their praise.  Non expression may not translate to non responsive, because you cannot tell what is going on in someone’s heart.  Now that I have said that, I am going to directly contradict myself…I am sure that non-responsiveness is not praise.  Praise demands response…so back to the dilemma. What do I do as a worship leader to assist my people to become responsive?  Let’s chew on that for a while…   

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15. February 2010 by admin.

One of the issues that have come up in discussion with other worship leaders is; how do we get men to be more expressive in worship, or even participate at all?  This is a great question.  I see it all of the time, even men who have a vibrant relationship with the Lord often seem sedate in some worship settings.  I have wondered at times about the style and characteristics of certain worship choruses and how men relate to them.  I live in Western South Dakota, and everybody drives a four wheel drive and packs a gun.  Men are men and proud of it, and there is not a lot of interest in getting in touch with their feminine side.  Men relate differently to issues of intimacy than women do.  And so much of our praise music is about intimacy with the Lord, as it should be.  I have been in worship services where the song lyric is somewhere out of “Song of Solomon” and it is talking about longing for the kisses of your mouth, and going into the kings chamber… the women are weeping and the men are rolling their eyes at each other or burying their head in their hands, trying not to look disrespectful, but praying to God that this song would end really soon, and the twenty two year old boy with spiky hair would get married soon to relieve all of his sexual tension…Of course many of the men are raising their hands and worshiping, because they stopped concentrating about the middle of the second verse.  And others need no stimulus to worship and can relate fine because it is using something out of scripture, even though this would never be a song they would choose if they were leading. Besides the worship leader likes it and he is a really nice guy.

I think that often worship songs in their attempt to express intimacy are too feminized for men to relate to…now I know that statement is going to get me in all kinds of trouble.  Our society has worked so hard at making men and women the same that the church does it too…Men and Women are not the same and never will be…and we relate to God differently.  You can’t expect men to express their love for God the same way Women do.  Some women may easily relate to God as a lover, but, a man may relate to God more as a warrior.  I think everyone relates to God’s grace, kindness, and tenderness.  We all long for his love and intimacy.  But, I see men much more responsive when songs talk about His power and glory and might than I do with songs that are wordy and contemplative.  There are lots of men out there that are artists and poets and can spend their lives in the vast uncharted land of metaphors, contemplation, and allegory. But most men don’t get it and that is Okay.  I am not saying throw out all of the intimate songs, but don’t expect men to respond the same way the women do.  Give the men some songs about the powerful attributes of God, and how mighty He is, and you might see your men praising a little more.  Slurppy worship love songs are kind of like chick flix, guys might put up with them but that doesn’t mean they relate to them…      

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3. February 2010 by admin.

Just had a great conversation with several high school students today.  They are part of a discipleship class I lead.  The topic went the direction of who God is, His attributes and character.  We talked about fundamental attributes like Omnipotence and god being Eternal and all knowing.  The longer we talked the immenseness of God becomes clearer and in a sense less clear…God is beyond comprehension but yet He reveals Himself to us…How amazing is that?

So, when you are thinking about God today and I hope you are, Remember you don’t have to understand it all… and that is OK…

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1. February 2010 by admin.

Let me introduce myself…I am Jerry Wood, I am the worship pastor at Open Bible Christian Center in Rapid City, SD… I have been in ministry for over 25 years and have a passion for writing songs, leading worship, and discipling people…

Worship is my life…which makes since it is a lifestyle not an event…it is a shame we have reduced worship to events we call services….since worship demands much more that just playing music and participating in a church music culture.  So, hopfully we can foster some good discussions on this blog… 

Here I’ll start things off…

Worship A Priority:

A Priority is something that takes precedence, or has preference in regard to privilege (Webster’s).  The root word is prior which means previous.  The idea then stating that worship is a priority is that it gets our attention first.  It is more important than other things. And in the case of worship it is more important than anything. 

First Things First— 

Worship is the honor of God… Putting him first in everything is the true worship of God.   

Passion is a level that we operate in everyday or maybe the better way of saying it is we operate by our passions, or physical, & mental persuasions, scripture teaches us that we have a sinful nature that wants it’s lusts and desires fulfilled.  We sin because we are drawn away by our lust, The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life.  The members of our bodies become engaged in sinful activity because of these things.  Worship then is means by which we honor God with everything that we are, each member of our body becomes an instrument of worship as we dedicate it to the Lord. 

Because we are people of Passions and we are use to giving ourselves to the sinful nature it is easy to even let our “Worship” Become polluted.  When we give the playing of our instruments and the singing and the songs over to the self-centered mentality of the American entertainment mentality, or for that matter the professional musician mindset, we look to what our performance looks like over the honor of God.  How we play becomes more important than whom we are playing to, or who we are worshiping.  We play to God not for God.  Our playing is an act of surrendered worship not performance for the congregation.  The pollution comes when we are more concerned about the style of the song and the quality of the performance that we are in laying at the feet of Jesus.  He is the object of our worship not the songs, the team or the opinion of the congregation…

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