On Worship Music

I lead the worship music ministry in our church, under the oversight of our elders.  This has been a tremendous privilege.  Our church is just over two years old and one of the blessings we’ve seen the Lord bestow on us a unity and humility with respect to music in the church, which in recent years has been, sadly, a source of such division in so many churches.

Week over week, I’m responsible for selecting the songs we sing in our Sunday worship services.  As a lover of both well-written hymns of old as well as more recent styles of worship music, it’s been a pleasure to introduce a number of songs to a generationally diverse congregation from a few years to a few hundred years old (the songs, not the saints *grin*).

This privilege is not without its challenges, however.  One of my challenges is being pastorally sensitive to the congregation’s preferences in music and style while maintaining a high standard for the music that we sing as a church.  Our church’s philosophy of worship is well-thought out, and encourages diverse and Biblically-saturated songs:

[The] songs the Church is to be singing are religious, biblical, spiritual and theo-centric in nature. That rules out secular, man-centered, unbiblical earthly songs.

It also provides guidance on what “Biblical” means:

God puts a premium on truth as expressed in words, written and spoken. So the words of our songs sung in church need to be consistent with Scripture—extolling Scripture, explaining Scripture and applying Scripture.

But with the plethora of “Christian worship music” out there, I find myself often challenged to see whether the songs I’m choosing — and often the songs I’m deliberately not choosing — are founded from these principles.  There are a number of very popular songs in the worship music industry, for example, that I very quickly dismiss because I find them lacking in substance and clarity.  This has been a dilemma for me for a long time, which was why I asked the question of pastor and song leader Bob Kauflin via his blog early last year:

I’ve at times received well-intentioned “suggestions” from folks who’ve enjoyed one song or another while visiting other churches (perhaps on vacation).  While occasionally these are nice songs, I’ve often felt that many of the songs simply lack Biblical substance but are musically very catchy… How might you respond to members of a congregation (particularly small churches) who enthusiastically ask for you to play songs that you otherwise feel lacking in substance, or are perhaps even overly man-centered and poorly written?

His answer was very helpful and has given me guidance ever since.  Especially helpful was his closing thought:

I’m sure I’ll make some wrong decisions in choosing what songs we shouldn’t sing. But if my goal is always to sing songs that exalt God’s glory in Christ in people’s hearts and minds in the clearest and best ways, I don’t think I’ll ever have any regrets.

On Suffering

One of the graces God has bestowed on our young church is that He has spared us from any great tragedies.  In so many churches we’ve been through, and so many lives we’ve encountered, one constant has been the reality of suffering.  And, of course, this is altogether consistent with a Biblical worldview.  Anyone who is surprised when suffering and tragedy occur and thinks them to be abnormal has either not lived long enough, or not read his Bible carefully enough (e.g., Romans 8:17-25).  Life is hard in this sin-entrenched creation, and will be until God renews all of creation to glory.  Anything we do as a church — preaching, singing, fellowship — must not be ignorant of this reality.  Nor surprised by it.  In fact, if anything, Christians should be as well equipped (by the church) as anyone to cope with suffering!

On Worship Music and Suffering

Today I came across a moving post on Kauflin’s blog that reminded me why it’s so critical to uphold a high standard in the music of the church.  If we merely settle for “self-expressive” worship songs, and fail to endeavor to actually build up the faith of our churches through songs that express Biblical truth richly and meaningfully, then I believe we fall far short of what we could accomplish in our music.  Kauflin writes about a pastor, Terry Staufer, who he had briefly met last year whose 14-year-old daughter was tragically murdered recently:

Providentially, Terry has been studying the book of Job, and recently wrote a post on the Sovereign Grace CD, Come Weary Saints, a CD we put together for those going through challenging times. When we’re putting together songs for a project, along with trying to write music that people will want to sing and listen to, we always aim to write songs that are rich in biblical truths and the gospel.

Kauflin quotes this bereaved father from his blog:

My wife Juanita commented that one song, It Is Not Death to Die, gripped her from day one. I remember her saying that when we first listened to this album. Now we know why.

Wow.  And now I’m even more deeply convinced that we as churches need music which deepens us, stretches our faith, enlarges our view of God, and enables to express a wide ranges of sentiments (praise, celebration, lament, etc.) in a way that helps us to grow yet still deeper roots in our knowledge of Him.  That’s what worship has to do with suffering.  If the songs we sing as a church bring us little true God-centered comfort when life is normal (read: difficult), then they are of little use.  Our worship music must help us grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, strengthening us through the massive promises of God toward us in the gospel.  As Kauflin writes:

Music can only comfort us emotionally and for a brief time. The gospel comforts us in every way and forever.

In a previous post I talked about our recently introduced practice of having a daily family reading.  I’m very happy to report that the more we’re consistent with having family reading, the more we all enjoy it.  The kids look forward to it and even ask for it.  This is definitely becoming a family tradition.

As previously mentioned, we give each kid a toy to play with during the reading time, given that they are not to play with each other and not make noise.  The toys they’re given are only brought out during family reading and after we’re done reading, they are put away in a different room.  Some of the toys that we find helpful to fiddle with during the reading time are as follows

• Simple wooden blocks
• Pattern blocks
• Food cutting set
• Duplos
• Mega blocks
• Coloring or drawing sheets

It’s interesting that I, too, need something to fiddle with during this time so I busy myself with the following:

• Fold laundry
• Iron clothes
• Clean and dust the room
• Crochet or knit (once I learn how to do it)

To get a glimpse of our family reading time, here is a photo journal of our family:

Daddy reading:

Emmie playing with the pattern blocks:

Calissa playing with the food cutting set:

The boys playing with wooden blocks:

Here’s me folding laundry:

Whenever I go to homeschool conferences, the kind of workshops I’m drawn to are the ones that talk about writing.  Why?  Because writing is not easy and many struggle with this specific subject, whether they’re in home school or public school.  I struggle with it all the time and my hope is that my children will learn how to write well in the future.  I believe writing is very important because it enables us to convey our thoughts on paper (or on the computer screen) to others.  It is a form of communication.  My goal of education for the children is to teach them to write well, speak well, and think well.

I believe writing should be taught when the students are young.  Unfortunately, most students get formally educated around junior high and high school age, and by then it is more difficult to learn good writing skills though it is not impossible.   My oldest is officially in first grade this year and I have already started him on writing.  Lest you think I’m teaching him how to write essays, research paper, creative writing, or the nitty gritty of grammar, rest assured that the kind of writing assignment I have for him is quite attainable.

The kind of writing my oldest is doing is copywork in which he copies word for word from a sample of good literature.  This approach is very simple yet very beneficial in learning how to write.  The rationale behind copywork is that by copying good writing, you learn the writing structure and the components that make an essay, article, or book a fine piece of literature.  With good models the students will eventually learn how to write well.  Of course copywork is the first step towards writing well and there are other techniques and components.

I am currently having him copy the gospel of John from the Bible, one verse a day.  The reason I picked this text is because our pastor recently began a sermon series teaching through it.  Doing copywork during the week helps my son to be familiar with and understand the teaching on Sundays.   Before he starts writing, I read the verse with him and point out several observations of the verse such as:

• The first word of the sentence is capitalized.
• Notice that this is a new paragraph so you have to indent.
• Proper nouns are capitalized.
• The letter “I” is always capitalized no matter where it is in a sentence.
• There are several different punctuation marks here.  What are they?
• Notice the open and close quotation marks?

The above observations are very simple and takes little time to explain.  The goal is not to educate him on all the grammatical nuances but to allow him to be familiar with it.  Soon enough he will  begin to notice a pattern of writing and learn why certain punctuation marks are used.  The instructions I give him for copywork are:

• Copy every word and punctuation marks, word for word.
• Verse numbers, reference, superscript, and subscript do not need to be copied.

After he finishes his assignment, I go over with him and discuss mistakes he’s made.  After he corrects his mistakes, he is all done with his assignment.

I’m all ready for this baby to come, but I still have 9 more weeks to go.  In order to prepare for the season of nursing, I made a nursing cover as shown here:

So, what is a nursing cover? It is akin to an adult bib, but lot more stylish, for nursing in public.  The free pattern I used can be found here.  This cover is very similar to the popular Bebe au Lait covers.

For our dental hygiene we use Oral-B electric toothbrush, and just recently I discovered another use for this electric toothbrush.  I feel so innovative and a notch smarter for this idea: I use OLD toothbrush heads to clean the grout in our shower.  The grout lines in our shower got lots of mildew and discoloration that I desperately wanted to get rid of.  The best tool I know of is a manual toothbrush because it can clean in between the small thin lines.  Using an electric toothbrush makes the job even easier because you use less elbow grease or none at all.  I just spray the grout with a cleaner and then let the electric toothbrush do its work, just like it does for my teeth (again, different brushhead).  This cleaning job was so much easier and faster with this newly discovered tool.  I’m sure others have already discovered this, but this was extremely enlightening for me and I happily share this tip with anyone who has an electric toothbrush and yucky grout.  Happy cleaning!!!

Ever since listening to a workshop titled “Nurturing Competent Communicators” by Andrew Pudewa, director for Institute for Excellence in Writing, both my husband and I were persuaded that we wanted to implement family reading into our daily lives in order to raise competent communicators.  The workshop description from his website is as follows:

Many parents and teachers assume that good readers will naturally or automatically become good writers. Others think that writing talent is just a natural ability—some have it others don’t. Both are myths. History and observation show very clearly how good writers have developed, and what are the two most critical things parents and teachers can do to nurture a high level of aptitude—from a young age through high school.

With humor and insight, Andrew will share the two easy but unbelievably powerful things that must be done at home and in the classroom to create confident communicators.

I’d encourage anyone to attend Mr. Pudewa’s workshop if possible.  Here is his speaking schedule for those who are interested.  The essence of his idea of a “competent communicator” is one who can communicate ideas and thoughts with grammatically correct, reasonably sophisticated English.

One of the critical factors in developing a competent communicator, in Mr. Pudewa’s experience, is reading out loud.  Mr. Pudewa argues that even when a child is an avid reader and reads quality books, he often skips words and as a result, his vocabulary list and grasp of language isn’t as great as one might think.  This is his explanation for why “great readers” are not automatically going to be “great writers.”  On the contrary, if a child is “forced” to work slowly through all the well-composed language of well-written literature–such as in the case of reading out loud–a child is receiving not merely what his eyes might process (and not skip), but everything that is on the page.  Thus, Pudewa strongly encourages families to read good books out loud together in the interest of helping children (and adults) to become confident and capable communicators.

We were both so motivated by this workshop that we decided to implement a daily family reading where everyone, both adults and children, are required to attend.  Daddy reads and everyone listens.  In order to help the little ones to keep busy with their hands, we allow them to color or play quietly with blocks or other toys. The rule is that they must not talk to each other or make noise on their own.  This is a time to listen and play quietly individually.  We often think that a child is not paying attention if he fiddles with a toy or something else, but on the contrary, many children is actively listening even when his hands are busy with other things.  We have found this to be true with our children.  Even though our oldest may be coloring, we find him stopping from time to time just so he can listen more intently.  And even though our younger ones don’t understand the stories being read, I believe the stories they hear are beneficial for future communication skills.

We’ve been having family reading for about a month now, and we discovered three noteworthy observations during this short period of time:

1. As Mr. Pudewa has experienced, keeping a daily family reading is very difficult because we’re busy all the time.  So, as a confession, we do not have family reading every day even though this is our intention.  Inevitably there are some commitments during the week that take us away from our home.  This is the reality of our lives so we just move on and do our best to have family reading the following day.  At present, with social get-togethers, church functions and other distractions, we are averaging two reading sessions per week.
2. We read anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour, and we quickly discover that reading more than 30 minutes is quite strenuous on one’s vocal cord.  This problem does not deter us from abandoning our effort so my techie husband checks out downloadable audio books from our library.  Since the kind of books we’re reading (C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series at the moment) are classics, they are readily available.  Our plan then is have daddy read as much as he can last, and then continue with the library’s audio version.
3. Our family reading is held in the evenings right before the children’s bedtime, and shortly after dinner.  We find that listening and playing quietly helps them calm down and get ready for bed.  This is definitely an added bonus.

One of the callings of a believer in Christ is to be an ambassador and therefore a communicator of the gospel.  So while some might see this practice as merely academic, we actually see it very much as part of our training our children to become winsome and effective messengers of the gospel.  Our hope is to make this a long-term “tradition” in our family life, with a view to helping shape their minds to be able to express themselves (and God’s truth) in a clear, competent and “sophisticated” way.

UPDATE: Added perk we’ve discovered as we’ve become more consistent.  Our family reading time is not only a great way for the kids to wind down.  As Evers reads aloud, I’m free to quietly sit on the side and either iron clothes or fold laundry, because the kids are required to quietly play each on their own.  Thus far, with our brood, we get through about 30-40 minutes before they start getting antsy.  Which works just about right for Evers’ voice too…

The title of this entry could just as well have been “Waiting for Miss Right.”  But in our day and age, with so many young men deferring marriage until they’re “set” — or simply because they’ve not yet grown up — it seems there are a lot more young women wondering, “Where have all the good men gone?”

That’s the impetus behind this next-to-last post in our intermittent series on relationships (in the last post, we hope to cover a bit on key principles while in a relationship).  And for this, we’d like to refer to some wise advice from (unmarried) author Lydia Brownback from her devotional book Trust.   In particular, she has a chapter titled “Good in Every Way” in which she speaks to this question of waiting for God’s provision with respect to this very heartfelt desire.  Below are a few key thoughts; the chapter in its entirety can be viewed online here at Crossway’s website.

Most of the single women I have known  over the years have desired to be married.  They have prayed long and hard for God’s provision of a mate, and surely many of those prayers have been answered with godly marriages… Others seem not to have received any answer at all to that prayer.  As the years go on, their discontentment lingers and their anxiety increases.  Oh, they recognize God’s blessings in their lives–great jobs, lots of friends, good churches–but they just can’t get past the fear that their chances for having a family of their own are growing dimmer by the year…

Perhaps you are struggling with your marital status… The reason we remain anxious and caught in unhappy limbo is not because we are lacking something we need–it is because we aren’t trusting God.  And the reason we aren’t trusting him, although we may not recognize it, is because deep down in our hearts we don’t really believe God is being good to us in allowing us to linger where we are…

God always has our best in mind, and he works to bring it about, no matter how it may look initially to our way of thinking.  We can trust him.

(Read the whole chapter)

As emotional as I can imagine being single can be, having friends who didn’t get married until their early 40s, and others who remain single past that age, Brownback is right.  How you respond emotionally is ultimately tied to what you truly believe is going on.  Do you believe that the right now is exactly what He wants for you?  Or do you imagine that He’s got something good for you down the road, but now ain’t so hot?  If the latter, your response will not be trust, but fear and anxiety.

If you’re in this situation, may the Lord grant you grace to understand His providence, believe in His goodness, and trust in His wisdom and love for you!