Are all religions the same?
Revival: Untwisting the Lines
I take many trips to the Maritimes of Canada. I had the exciting opportunity to sail out into the Bay of St. Lawrence on the north side of Prince Edward Island to fish.
Our family brought fishing poles for the trip. The captain of the boat let down the jigging line for mackerel. This consisted of long lengths of fishing wire with hooks attached in intervals. They threw two of these lines overboard, catching lots of fish as we watched.
When we cast our lines in from our rods, we had up to 5 lines in the water from one said of the boat. At one point, the inevitable happened: entangled fishing lines!
Oh the frustrating task of disentangling the lines from each other in order to work with them individually. But it was necessary work that had to be done before any other work could be accomplished.
For Christians reading this book in Canada, your mental lines will be untangled for the most part. For brethren in Mexico, your mind will not be confused. For brethren in England, my understanding is that the country is now so far removed from any concept of the God of the Bible that there is very little chance of confusing a love for England with being a Christian.
However, for my brethren from my native country of the United States, any talk about revival is entangled with nationalism because our nation’s history is so replete with workings of God. Our culture was heavily influenced by these workings of God in revival throughout our existence. I am certainly not disparaging the history of any other country. I have close friends in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and more.
But in the United States, there are many who believe that they live in a “Christian” nation, and that makes them Christians as well. Even true believers have trouble imagining that II Chronicles 7:14 can apply to a country other than the USA. This is a problem.
Please do not misunderstand. I love my country. I am named after a family member who gave his life serving. I have more family who have served or are currently serving in the armed forces. I love them and I am incredibly grateful for my country. And I know that God has used the United States in mighty ways in the past.
But the United States is no longer a Christian nation, and the sooner American Christians realize this, the better.
And I feel that I cannot help my American brethren until I first disentangle the mental lines that tie love of country and love of God together. They are both good but separate things, and one certainly takes precedence over the other.
Most American Christians don’t really want revival because they don’t know what revival is.
Uptick in Revival Talk: What Does It Mean?
As I travel, I am finding increasing interest in the subject of revival. More people are talking about revival. More people are praying for revival. More churches are seeing the need for revival. When I ask congregations what they think is the greatest need today, invariably they will agree on the word “revival.”
In the United States, my home country, people feel that this must be a sign that revival is on the horizon, that God will be pleased, and the great days of our nation will be revisited. After all, II Chronicles 7:14 promises that if we pray, God will answer and HEAL OUR LAND. Amen! That’s what we need, brother! We need God to heal our land!
The thought process goes something like this:
“After all, look at our nation. We are deluged with perversion on television. Abortion has been the scourge of our country for decades. The reading scores in the public schools have fallen since we removed God. Our school kids cannot pray publicly, marriage is under attack, people swear, and not nearly as many people go to church as in the past. What a state we are in! Our country needs revival!”
If you are ready to give a good hearty “AMEN!” to those two paragraphs, I don’t blame you. Our country is in far worse shape morally than she has ever been. Sin has taken its course in our society as it always does.
But revival has much less to do with the state of the country than you may think. In fact, if the word “revival” brings thoughts such as those paragraphs to your mind first and foremost, you have been caught in a trap; a patriotic, country-first trap but a trap nonetheless.
Our country needs revival, but the revival our country needs is not the revival most church folk think it is. We need to untwist the lines in our mind to be able to effectively understand what revival is and what revival isn’t. If we don’t, we will miss out on what God could have in store.
Are You a Worship Service Participant or Just a Spectator?
The alarm clock rings. And rings again. And again. Mom and Dad stumble out of bed and cajole sleepy kids to scarf down their breakfast and find shoes. Kids dawdle, Mom and Dad frantically grab coffee mugs, and somehow everyone makes it into the car. By the time you get to church, find a parking place, deliver kids to their respective classes, and apologize to your spouse for your irritability, worship may be the farthest thing from your mind.
If this scenario sounds familiar—and let’s be honest, we’ve all been there—don’t despair. God’s grace is sufficient to meet us in our vulnerability and bring us where we need to be. But there are also some steps we can take to become better worship service participants—not just spectators.
1. Come Prepared
Worship involves an intentional offering of sacrifice to God. Hebrews 13:5 instructs us to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” But how can we praise God if we aren’t even thinking about him? If we expect to truly worship God on Sunday morning, then we need to prepare both our hearts and minds ahead of time to engage during every part of the worship service, from the congregational singing to the sermon. How can we do that?
· Have a morning devotional time—Spending some time in God’s Word before you head out to church will keep the rest of the morning in its proper perspective. It doesn’t have to be long. Maybe it’s just reading a psalm and asking God to prepare your heart for the service. But those few minutes can help you turn your heart and mind to worship before you ever enter the church building.
· Listen to Christ-honoring music before church—Whether you realize it or not, music helps determine your outlook. By taking the initiative to play some worshipful music at home as the family gets ready or in the car on the way to church, you can help turn everyone’s attention to God and His Word.
2. Stay Focused
John 4:24 tells us that “God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” True worship always involves acknowledging and agreeing with the truth. But it’s more than that. We must worship God in spirit also. As we actively engage our minds with the truth of God’s Word, God’s spirit communes with our spirit. Worship is an activity that should involve both the heart and the mind. If we fail to engage both, we err either on the side of intellectualism or emotionalism, neither of which constitute true worship without the working of God’s spirit in us.
3. Leave Remembering
When the service ends, is that the end of worship? Or should our activities on Sunday follow us through the week? I think we all know the answer to this question, but sometimes it’s not easy to make it happen. I’d like to suggest three ways we can intentionally carry the spirit of Sunday worship out the doors of the church and into our homes:
· Take notes during the sermon—Taking notes helps you focus on the sermon and also gives you a way to refer back to the message during the week.
· Pray through the bulletin—The bulletin offers a great way to intentionally pray for your church. It probably includes the names of church pastors and staff members, financial information, ministries happening that week, and possibly prayer requests for church members.
· Use the pastor’s text in your family devotions—Referring back to the message during family devotions throughout the week helps the whole family remember and meditate on the truths presented.
Worship involves much more than simply sitting through a service. Let’s be intentional participants as the people of God, offering our sacrifice of praise to the One who set us free.
Does God care about technology in worship?
There’s a lot of debate about what kinds of technology are appropriate for church, and how those technologies should be used. Opinions vary widely on the topic, and discussions can get heated quickly. My purpose here is not to categorically tell you what kinds of technology you should or should not be using in your church. Instead, I would like us to think together about the theological underpinnings of the choices we make. Does the Bible have anything to say about worship settings? Is technology helpful in creating an atmosphere conducive to worship?
Is There a Chapter and Verse About Technology?
Since the Bible was written several thousand years ago, it does not specifically talk about bluetooth, microphones, or music tracks. However, it does give us specific principles on which we can base our choices. I’d like to discuss two of those principles here.
- Everything we do should glorify God. I Corinthians 10:31 teaches us that everything we do—eating, drinking, singing, using a screen—should be done for God’s glory. If it doesn’t glorify God, don’t do it.
- Music should help the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Colossians 3:16 says that one purpose of music is to help us meditate on God’s Word. It follows, then, that anything associated with the presentation of that music should also help us focus on God’s Word.
Now, let’s see how we can apply these principles to our technology choices.
Let’s Talk About Worship Styles
Anyone who knows me knows what I believe about worship styles. In a nutshell, music carries morality. Worship styles can either glorify God or not glorify God—they are not all equally acceptable. When technology comes up for discussion in Christian circles, the discussion often centers not on the technology itself, but on how it is used. For example, many people believe that a microphone is okay if it is on a stand, but it’s not okay if the singer is holding it in his or her hand. Why is that? It’s because one of the hallmarks of contemporary style is that the singer holds the microphone very close to the mouth, creating a breathy, sensual sound.
But let me ask a question: is the problem that the microphone is held in the hand? Or is it the way the singer is using that microphone? I know for a fact that a close microphone can be used in a non-sensual way, because I do so in my concerts all the time. See, when we talk about technology, it can be very difficult to separate the physical object from the way in which it is being used. But I believe this is an important distinction. The question we should be asking is not whether or not we should use hand-held microphones. Instead, let’s ask whether the song and the style in which it is being sung 1) glorifies God and 2) helps us meditate on God’s Word.
Can Technology Play a Role in Biblically Appropriate Worship?
In our conservative culture today, many types of technology receive a bad rap. Articles have been written about why churches shouldn’t use screens, hand-held microphones, dim lighting, or other technology options. Maybe in a future article I’ll talk about some of those in more detail. But the point I want to make here is that technology is a tool. Just as you can use a hammer to build a house or to smash a window, so technology can be used to help us create music that glorifies God or music that doesn’t.
Let me be very clear. This is not the same as saying all musical styles are equal depending on how you use them. Music as an end product carries morality. The physical object—the microphone, the screen, or the piano—remains neutral until a person uses that tool to produce something. It’s not about the tool; it’s about how you use the tool. Let’s not blame the tools for bad methodology.