“The worship at church never challenged me to change… I had a job to do and as long as I stayed busy, I didn’t have to face my issues or talk about anything important like the depleted state of my heart and soul.”   (Rory Noland)

I confess that there have been many times in my life when I have hid in busyness.  Sometimes I was hiding from issues in my life.  Sometimes I was overburdened with the workload and saw working harder and faster as the only way out before I could address anything else.  Have you ever had those moments?  I wouldn’t point the finger at the worship service either – it was my own personal worship life that was lacking.  How pastoral of Noland to use child pornography use as an example of an issue that all would agree is deplorable and then show us that all sin is against God.  How do we balance our individual worship with our responsibilities for corporate worship?

“But some doubted.”  Noland says how much he has been bothered by those words.  How could someone view Christ face-to-face and have any doubt?  But it’s comforting, isn’t it?  Doubt happened in those situations and then transformation.  We can be inspired to think that we can transform our doubt into faith.  How has God helped you to grow from doubt to faith in both the big and small moments?

Idolatry – not a popular or common word these days except for American Idol.  What do we idolize?  Noland talks about the idolatry of our worship preferences.  Our seminary community is very diverse and the individuals bring their worship style preferences with them.  It’s a great challenge to all and certainly not limited to the old “traditional/contemporary” words.  We have Chronological Idolatry, where certain time periods (including the present) and the music/art/theology/literature/liturgy they produced are more important than others.  We have Geographic Idolatry, where music/art/theology/liturgy produced in certain areas of the world are more important than others.  We have Art Form Idolatry, where certain art forms are more important than others.  Everyone has gathered in the community out of love, obedience and service to God and yet these idolatries poke their ugly heads up.  How can we get rid of them?  How can we truly love the person next to us enough to sing their song, pray their prayer?

Noland has identified the three basic questions that we can ask ourselves individually and as churches – who is God, who am I and what is God inviting me/us to do?  I taught a class this summer where we considered the planning process for worship services and writing vision and worship statements.  It’s harder than it sounds!  The process asks you to answer those questions and we have different answers among us.  How does your church work together to answer these questions?  How does that influence your worship planning?

Margaret Brady
 

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Note: This is the 4th part of a book discussion led by our friend Margaret Brady. The book is The Worshiping Artist is by Rory Noland. Rory will be our speaker for 3 sessions at Worship Connection '08. Formerly the music director at Willow Creek, Rory now leads retreats for worship artists, pastors and leaders. Please come. The Covenant worship community is growing in numbers and friendship. WC08 will feature Rory's sessions on the worship-life of an artist. Plus we'll have breakouts, artists' forum, Nichole Nordeman concert and other community building and learning.

Learn More about WC08:

Schedule
Sessions
Speakers and Artists
Artists' Forum
Registration/Scholarship Forms
Elective Seminars