Monthly Archives: March 2013

Why singing in church is nothing like the footy

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Often, in answer to the accusation that Aussies don’t sing, we say that they do sing at the footy.  It’s true… we often throw caution to the wind, not caring about what the people around us think, and belt out our team song.

Well some people do.  Perhaps it’s proof that there is a place in society where Aussies sing, and so therefore we shouldn’t shy away from doing it in church.  But to be honest, I never sing if I go to the footy.  I’m more likely to be annoyed at what a racket the small groups of enthusiasts around me are making than encouraged to join in without regard for what people around me think.

Perhaps this shows us a potential danger with being overenthusiastic about our singing in church too…  maybe there are those like me at the footy who are actually annoyed, and frankly disengaged, by the enthusiasm of others around them who are singing their worship songs lustily.  After all, just because in church we’re all on the same team doesn’t mean there isn’t vast variation amongst us in terms of how we express ourselves.

Well, no, I don’t think there is a danger of being over-enthusiastic in church, because church is nothing like footy.  Here is a quote from Harold Best’s “Unceasing Worship” (p57), which I was reading this morning:

Christ comes to us; Christ redeems us; Christ is in us; we are in each other; God is our sanctuary; Christ is the everlasting Temple; the body of Christ is a living temple; Christ is knit into it as chief cornerstone; each believer is a living stone and yet a temple; each believer indwells all other believers; and Christ is all in all.  It is with this full promise that we are to go to the place called church and to the necessary times of corporate gathering. We take these unshakable verities with us.  They are ours to keep, just as they keep us sheltered within the Almighty’s shadow and equipped with the full armor of God.

It’s the conclusion of a stunning chapter on the extraordinary word “in”, which so powerfully says things about the nature of relationship with God and with each other.  We dwell in Christ, as he dwells in us, as the Father dwells in the Son, and so also in us.

What God has done for us is not simply revealed characteristics about himself or descriptions of things he’s done so that we may know about him.  In fact he has done even more than enable us to know him (which would be extraordinary in itself).  He has done things that enable us to dwell IN him, and enable him to dwell IN us, and we IN each other.

We are in some unbreakable way connected with God, and therefore also connected with each other.  This is so much more than simply connection through a common interest, such as a football team.  This is connection into a new body; almost a new organism in its own right, except that it’s an invisible connection, which we know about because of his promise.  Best calls them the “unshakable verities” (truths).

Our dwelling in each other and in God means that our times together will look very different from a football match:

  1. We don’t go to church: we are the church.  It’s what it is to be Christian.  The church meets physically because of this spiritual dwelling in each other and in God.  Considering yourself part of the church if you don’t meet with other Christians is theoretically possible, but hard to demonstrate in reality.
  2. The things we do when we’re together will outwork the realities that we know from the promise.  That is, we’ll be on the one team, yes.  But more than this: we’ll actually BE ONE with each other.  This shows the tragedy of division amongst Christians, of not carrying each other through life: it’s like a deadly virus in a physical organism, threatening to do serious damage or take away life itself.
  3. When there are group activities like praising or thanking God through singing, the very thing we should expect is oneness.  This is not to say that the body isn’t made up of many parts, each of which has its own distinct characteristics and role.  But it is to say that we all act together, according to the prompting and leading of the Spirit through the word of God.

Some of this sounds quite theoretical.  But I’m basically saying that when we’re at church, we need to be super careful not to look around at others with an individualistic, critical spirit, waiting until I feel personally comfortable before I participate in any way.  When the Scripture urges us to sing and dance and clap and rejoice, it’s an exhortation to the whole body of which each of us desperately needs to be a part.  

We sing because we’re united in this ministry of praise and thanks to God.  Let’s embrace it together as a way of embracing each other.


     

 

A new vision for Revelation

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Revelation Music is an initiative of the Trinity Network of Churches based here in Adelaide.  I’m the music minister of Holy Trinity Adelaide, which is the main planting church within our network.

It’s been wonderful to see God’s blessing on our city over the last decade or so (I’ve only been here 8 years), with growth to a network of 6 centres or campuses, with 12 gatherings every Sunday, and about 2000 people gathering to hear the word and respond with faith, joy and obedience.

Over this time of growth, it has become obvious to me that a music conference was essential to enable us to move forward with common goals in music ministry, given that the churches in our network operate largely independently of each other, and yet we desire to maintain a common ethos.

So we started Revelation Music and Ministry Conference in 2011, with my father (David Peterson – author of “Engaging with God”) as the main speaker, and Geoff Bullock and Nicky Chiswell as the guest artists.  The conference was opened up to those outside the Trinity network, and we’ve never looked back.

We then had an enormously successful follow-up conference in 2012 with Peter Adam as the main speaker, and Nathan Tasker and Garage Hymnal as the guest artists.

Well in 2013, Revelation is in an expansion phase.  We want to be more than a conference – we want to be a community of people sharing together in music ministry.  This will be a community based on the sharing of resources and ideas: whether songs or recordings, tips from old hands or from up and coming musicians, training courses, a growing web resource, and of course Revelation conference, which will now run once every two years around September.

In view of this expansion, our team has come up with a vision statement that I think will help people to see what we’re trying to do.

Vision: That as God’s people encounter him together, they praise him in a Biblically derived way with vitality, strengthening one another by singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord (See Eph 5:18-20), and that seeing this, non-Christians come to faith.

There are 4 aspects worth highlighting:

  1. We want to focus on the times when God’s people get together.
  2. We believe in a response of praise that is Biblically based and full of vitality.
  3. Our singing addresses each other and God, the crucial two-sides-of-the-coin approach of key New Testament verses such as Colossian 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18-20.
  4. Our singing has an evangelistic edge: there are always non-believers in our midst, and we want our music to be infectiously engaging for them too.

Well, this is what we think is important for us to aim for in our music.  There’s much more flesh to put on those bones, but it’s a start.  I’d love your thoughts.

Mark