Talking Of iPhones...

My wife just got the new iphone! It cost her a morning lining up outside the 02 store in town, and even though she was a nail-biting number 50 in the queue and stock levels were uncertain, her patience was rewarded.

It took till the next morning to get the thing going, but ever since then this Blackberry man has been thoroughly humbled by demonstration after demonstration of its amazing capabilities. It is easy to forget that you can also make phone calls on it!

Yet despite all it can do, when it does ring and the name of one of my daughters appears on the screen, all the bells, whistles and applications suddenly take a considerably lower place in the pecking order compared with this rather more mundane function that allows her to hear their voice and talk, and talk, and talk…..

The business of music, song and worship leading in church has become a little bit like the iphone – there have never been so many possibilities, options and resources out there, at least for the more affluent nations. But there will never be anything more important in the list of functions than the simple art of listening – to God and to one another.

In Hebrews chapter 2 we read: "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises." And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me." [Hebrews 2: 12-13]. This is Jesus in his humanity, as our brother, speaking to the Father, and what an extraordinary picture! It is a two-way conversation, not only is he declaring the Father’s name [shorthand for the sum total of who he is] to the church, he is leading the response of praise! This is consistent with the bible’s teaching that our worship is to the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit.

If you believe as I do that the scriptures teach that the risen exalted Christ himself is ultimately our worship leader, we can ask reverently as we pray for the people we lead: “Jesus, what are you singing among us, what is on your lips to the Father on our behalf, and what is the Father’s song on your lips for us to hear? Listening is not easy and in our impatience we can default to the song-that-worked-last-time-latest-favourite-copy something that worked for someone else.

There are great songs, ideas, varieties of models and resources for praise and worship out there that can be very useful to us, and we should get the benefit of whatever can truly serve us, but nothing compares to getting answers to these questions. One of the ways to hear the voice of our heavenly worship leader is to listen for echoes of it in your church.

I remember days of renewal which gave birth to much of the worship patterns that are now commonplace, and yes there were new songs, and yes there was a new style, but most of all there was a new sound which the ‘ears’ of our spirits heard, as if the churches had found a new voice. Singers and music producers talk about people ‘finding their voice’, poets and dramatists speak in similar terms – it is when you hear that which is authentic, in character, real and true. I could hear that ‘voice’ even when I disliked the songs or the music that expressed it, it was the sound of God present in his people, it was the new song that flowed out of a new thing that was happening.

I find this a helpful metaphor. So, how can we discern that worship ‘voice’ and give it expression? I believe that every congregation of worshippers has a unique voice, or note or timbre, a resonance to the particular ways in which God is present within that peculiar set of relationships.

One of the ways we discern the songs of the Father and the Son is as we listen to the ‘overflow’ of the worshipping community – putting aside our personal and ‘professional’ preferences, agendas, plans and opinions for a moment and listen to what overflowing hearts of worship are saying, praying and perhaps singing. Look for what is new and fresh in people’s walk with God. If the Spirit of God is at work among us, should we not for example hear his voice in those who pray for the church faithfully and passionately, in what are they praying, in what themes are rising to the surface? Keep your eye on those who are known for loving others, for serving sacrificially, what are they longing for or dreaming of? Then explore how this ‘voice’ can be heard more clearly in our public worship, which songs, texts, prayers and actions might release it. Listening is a part of loving.

Talking of iphones, I wonder when is my next upgrade is due…….