Archive for 2012
Jul 11
Resources for Congregational Listening and Singing
In Sunday’s sermon, “A Both/And Kind of Praise: The Form,” Ryan addressed a number of principles that give shape to our Sunday gatherings.
The Role of the Sermon Listener
We learned that corporate praise should be both pastoral and participatory. So, while some are responsible for leading in song, all of us are part of the “church choir.” We should be engaged in singing, in relating with one another, and in prayer. But we should also be engaged in the preaching. That is, we should actively listen to and digest Sunday’s sermon as it comes at us. Much of our listening in a week is passive. Not this listening.
To help with this, there are two resources available at the Resource Center that teach us sermon listening skills:
Expository Listening: A Practical Handbook for Hearing and Doing God’s Word
by Ken Ramey
Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons
by Christopher Ash
Principles for Song Selection
Song selection is pastorally directed as well, a function of the shepherding role of our leaders. And our leaders aim to select songs that are singable and encourage our unified engagement in song. In addition, our praise, as Ryan explained, should connect us with the past and the present. For this reason, we work to utilize the best of older and newer songs for congregational singing. We want to sing songs that accurately, thoughtfully, and beautifully express the truth we love in a manner that fits that truth.
Several writers and writing groups are worth mentioning, each devoted to serving the church with texts and music for congregational singing.
Keith and Krystin Getty are modern hymn writers. You might recognize the songs, “In Christ Alone,” “By Faith,” or “O Church, Arise.” We have the Gettys to thank for those tunes and many others. Their two popular albums are, In Christ Alone, and Awaken the Dawn. Â
Then, there’s Sovereign Grace Music, writing new songs and putting old songs to new tunes. You might be familiar with “Arise My Soul, Arise,” or “Now Why This Fear.” Both of these songs are from the newest Sovereign Grace album, From Age to Age.
Another group to check out is Sojourn Music, from Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY. Like Sovereign Grace Music, Sojourn writes a number of their own songs, and sets some of the better older songs to updated or new arrangements. A full list of songs with links for purchase is available here, including “Before the Throne of God Above,” “Warrior,” and “Absent from Flesh.” Examples of excellent songs that might not be familiar to you are, “Glory Be,” “Only Your Blood,” and “In The Shadow of The Glorious Cross.”
And, of course, at DSC we sing newer songs, many written by our own members, and older songs with updated arrangements. Click here for albums previously released by DSC, and check back to DSC’s bandcamp page for a slow trickle of free downloads of songs recorded at last year’s Cause for Praise concert, including, “He Hideth My Soul,” and “Kyrie (Lord, Have Mercy).”
The most important singing we do in a week is on Sunday morning when we’re together. But you can’t go wrong by investing in some of these songs for listening throughout the week.
Jul 5
God, Praise, and the Nature of Christian Singing
In Sunday’s sermon, “A Both/And Kind of Praise: The Ingredients“, Ryan included a number of insightful and memorable quotes.
D.A. Carson on how to find excellent corporate worship, from Worship By the Book:
Although there are things that can be done to enhance corporate worship, there is a profound sense in which excellent worship cannot be attained merely by pursuing excellent worship. In the same way that, according to Jesus, you cannot find yourself until you lose yourself, so also you cannot find excellent corporate worship until you stop trying to find excellent corporate worship and pursue God himself. Despite the protestations, one sometimes wonders if we are beginning to worship worship rather than worship God. As a brother put it to me, it’s a bit like those who begin by admiring the sunset and soon begin to admire themselves admiring the sunset. This point is acknowledged in a praise chorus like “Let’s forget about ourselves, and magnify the Lord, and worship him.†The trouble is that after you have sung this repetitious chorus three of four times, you are no farther ahead. The way you forget about yourself is by focusing on God—not by singing about doing it, but by doing it.
Jonathan Edwards on the relationship of truth, affections, and expresion:
God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to. . .their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself.
. . .God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart.
. . .I don’t think ministers are to be blamed for raising the affections of their hearers too high, if that which they are affected with be only that which is worthy of affection, and their affections are not raised beyond a proportion to their importance, or worthiness of affection. I should think [it is] my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.
C.S. Lewis on the nature of praise, from Reflections on the Psalms:
When I first began to draw near to belief in God. . .I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made by all religious people that we should ‘praise’ God; still more in the suggestion that God Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness.
. . .I did not see that it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the ‘fair beauty of the Lord’ is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. But the most obvious fact about praise. . .strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. . .The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars.
. . .I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.
. . .I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.
John Wesley on how we should sing together, from “Directions for Singing”, in Select Hymns, 1761:
Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.
Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.
Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.
Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.
Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.
For an excellent sermon on the subject of singing in worship, listen to Ryan’s sermon, “Spirit-Filled Singing,” from Ephesians 5:14-20.
Jul 2
Interview with Nathan Sherman, Part 3
This is the third post in a three-part blog interview with Nathan Sherman, DSC’s new Minister to Youth and Families. Part 1 explored Nathan’s church background and ministry training. Part 2 explored some of the influences in Nathan’s life. Part three is a little less serious. . .but just a little. Read on!
How do you like to spend your down time? Any hobbies?Â
I love any good story. Whether it’s a true story—a history book or a documentary film—or a fictional story—a novel, movie, or TV series. We are people who love stories, and God has revealed himself to us primarily through story, so I love reading, watching, or listening to stories as they imperfectly but often very acutely point to that Great Redemptive Story.
We also love going to parks and playing with our boys. I also really love baseball. I whole-heartedly endorse pastor David Prince’s sentiment on baseball, the Church, and the gospel. I’m a huge fan of the Texas Rangers and am excited because their AAA team often comes through Albuquerque.
Okay, now a few left fielders:
What is the dumbest thing you did as a kid?
One time I wanted to make a maze out of cardboard boxes for my cat, Coconut. I asked my mom if I could cut up a bunch of boxes to tape together, so that I could see if Coconut could find her way out in a weird lab rat experiment kind of way. My mom wisely said no, so I waited for her to leave the house. I then tore holes in the boxes, since my mom merely told me that I couldn’t cut the boxes. I taped the maze together, put cat food at one end and Coconut in the other end. She completely freaked out, went crazy, and broke apart the first two boxes, making my hours worth of work last for about 2 seconds. Then my mom found out, and I had to spend the rest of the night in my room by myself. A really worthwhile and wise use of a day, that was.
Any odd talents that we should know about up front?
I can beatbox mildly well. I’m well above average on a foosball table. I’m an exceptional Tecmo Super Bowl player on the original Nintendo. And you wouldn’t want to challenge me in riding roller coasters—I’m really good at riding roller coasters.
What’s your favorite animal, and why?Â
A great past-time of mine is proposing hypothetical Octagon of Death scenarios, in which two beings enter without weapons, and only one can exit the Octagon alive. This can include fictional character (Rocky Balboa vs. Rambo) or historical figures (George Washington vs. Abraham Lincoln), but it most often pits two animals against each other. I’m pretty confident in a Bengal tiger’s ability against most of the rest of the Animal Kingdom, so I’ll go with him. Or a Grizzly bear. No, a Bengal tiger. Final answer.
Without going to the internet, do you know what a Lobo is? An Isotope? Carne Adovada?
I know that the Lobo is the UNM mascot, and the Lobo looks like a really vicious, wolfy-looking guy. So I will guess that a lobo is some kind of a wolf?
I’m pretty sure that once upon a time Mr. Williams taught me what an isotope was in high school chemistry. I can’t tell you exactly what an isotope is, but I do know that without isotopes, the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb wouldn’t be possible. And I do know that without Isotopes, the Dodgers would have very little Minor League talent.
I took five years of German in high school and college, so my Spanish is not very good. I know that carne means beef, and adovada reminds me of avocado—one of the more superior things that God has created—so I’ll go with some kind of beefy-avocado combination. And I’m sure isotopes were somehow used in creating such a delectable treat.
And, for one last question, red or green?
Green means go. You can sleep when you’re dead.
Many thanks to Nathan for giving such care to these questions. And, just to make sure everyone is clear on this – Nathan had to write me back to share that he looked up “red or green” on the internet and realized that he misunderstood the last question. Of course, part of our purpose in asking was to expose a contextualization weakness and I think we’ve found it!
Pray for the Shermans this week as they transition to Albuquerque, and greet them warmly on July 8, their first Sunday with us at DSC.
Jun 29
The Steadfast Love of the LORD Never Ceases
At Wednesday’s Lord’s Supper service, Ryan preached a sermon titled, “The Roots of God’s Love,” unfolding the riches of two Hebrew words found in Exodus 34:6. There, God gave Moses his long name, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
The pairing, translated, “steadfast love and faithfulness,” shows up all over the Bible. Below you’ll find a myriad of verses from the Psalms, the rest of the Old Testament, and the New Testament that pick up this pairing. For this reason, you might consider printing this post out and tucking it in your Bible for a few weeks.
But first, we should explore the meaning of “steadfast love” a little further. As Ryan said, in most cases English is adequate to convey of the meaning the original Old Testament Hebrew text. In this specific case, the word, hesed, translated, “steadfast love,” is more difficult. This is evident from the myriad of ways this word gets translated: lovingkindness, steadfast love, goodness, etc.
Ryan gathered a number of helpful lines from various writers to give us this definition of hesed:
Hesed is. . .God’s gracious character and exceptional commitment to his people, . . .an attitude of God which arises out of his relationship with his people. It means that he has bound Himself to his people. Hesed is outside the realm of duty, even though a promise to do hesed brings with it the idea of commitment. It is not merely an attitude or an emotion; it is an emotion that leads to an activity beneficial to the recipient. . .in the context of a deep and enduring commitment made by one who is able to render assistance to the other/needy party. That is to say, God’s hesed is the providential exercise of his power on behalf of the needy people with whom he has established a special relationship. It is a promise and assurance of future help and fellowship, that is characterized by permanence, constancy and reliability. It is primal, elemental, associated with God’s love, grace, and compassion. It is rooted in God himself. In short, it is simply who God is.*
The pairing of “steadfast love”  and “faithfulness” appears twenty-four times throughout the Psalms, clearly drawing from Exodus 34:6. Here they are:
Psalm 25:10  All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalm 26:3  For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.
Psalm 40:10-11  I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!
Psalm 57:3  He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
Psalm 57:10  For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Psalm 61:7 Â May he be enthroned forever before God;Â appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
Psalm 85:10Â Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;Â righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Psalm 86:15  But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Psalm 88:11  Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Psalm 89:2  For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.â€
Psalm 89:14 Â Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;Â steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Psalm 89:24  My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
Psalm 89:33  …but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.
Psalm 92:2  …to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night…
Psalm 98:3  He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Psalm 100:5  For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 103:8  The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Psalm 108:4 Â For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;Â your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Psalm 115:1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Psalm 117:2  For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!
Psalm 138:2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Elsewhere in the Old Testament, “steadfast love” and “faithfulness” appear together from Genesis through the prophets:
Genesis 24:27  Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master.
Nehemiah 9:17  But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
Isaiah 16:5  …then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.
Hosea 2:19–20 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.
Joel 2:13  For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Jonah 4:2  You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Micah 7:18–20  Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Then, in the New Testament, this pairing shows up in some surprisingly familiar places. The authors of the New Testament wrote in Koine Greek and carried over the meaning of these Hebrew words into words we translate, “grace” and “truth.”
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 1:1–3, 2:17  Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by  his Son. . .He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. . .he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
The appearance of this pairing in John 1:14 is especially fascinating against the backdrop of the context of Exodus 34:6. God gave Moses his full name, “The LORD. . .abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” after Moses asked in 33:18, “Please show me your glory.” God would not do it, at least not for Moses, and not then.
But he has done it for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. For Christ is the radiance of God’s glory, and it is in the gracious salvation of sinners through Christ that God’s glory is most brightly seen and praised (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).
For a rich meditation on the meaning of God’s hesed, consider reading Puritan, Edward Griffin’s, “The Tender Mercies of God.”
––––––
*Ryan compiled material from the following sources for an extended definition of hesed above.Â
- Gordon Clark, The word hesed in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993).
- Alphonso Groenewald, “Exodus, Psalms and Hebrews: A God Abounding in Steadfast Love (Ex 34:6)“ HTS 64 (2008) 1365-78.
- HJ Zobel, “hesed” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Vol. 5: 44-64.
Jun 28
Interview with Nathan Sherman, Part 2
Last week we began a three-part blog interview with Nathan Sherman, DSC’s new Minister to Youth and Families. Part 1Â explored Nathan’s ministry background and training. In Part 2, below, we will learn about some of the formative influences in Nathan’s life. We’ll start by learning a bit about the most important person in his life, Marcie.
We had a chance to meet Marcie during your visit with us in May. She’s a marvelous lady. Tell us a funny story from the early stages of your relationship.Â
She is a marvelous lady, isn’t she? Marcie and I are both from Denton, TX, but we didn’t know each other growing up—we went to different churches and high schools. We knew of each other and had a lot of mutual friends but had never met. I went to college in Austin, and she went to the University of South Florida in Tampa to be closer to her family who had just moved back to Florida.
So there was this smarty-pants at Harvard that made this website that allowed you to put pictures of yourself on the internet to make people think that your life is a lot more exciting than it actually is. And in our junior year of college, we became “friends†on this Book of Faces. Always having a secret crush on Marcie, I messaged her, and apparently she had a secret crush on me too because it took about 15 seconds for her to reply. These messages turned into phone calls, plane flights, an engagement ring, and three sons.
How does she complement and strengthen you as a husband and father?Â
First of all, she’s my best friend, which makes the whole one-flesh thing a lot easier because I genuinely love just being around her. She’s a place of rest for me, and I love to just sit and talk about ministry, talk about ourselves, or just watch a TV show with her. She’s bold and not afraid to confront me in the ways in which I’m blind to my sin, stupidity, and laziness. I’ve learned to be a better listener and not talk so much just because she often tells me to shut my mouth. She loves our boys, and even though we’ve only been parents for 3 ½ years, she’s already an exceptional and intentional mother as she’s at home with them.
She also has a Master’s from Southern Seminary in Biblical Counseling and is a really great counselor and discipler of women and girls. I’m excited for the girls in the youth ministry to not only spend intentional time in the Bible together with her but also for them to just watch her be a wife and mom.
What book has had the most impact on your life, besides the Bible?
If I had to only pick one book, I suppose I would pick Desiring God by John Piper. His ideas of Christian Hedonism—God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him—have been extraordinarily influential in my life. If God has created us to find joy, and the place in which we find maximum joy is in him, this changes the way we both pursue God and fight sin. If it’s true that “pleasure is the measure of our treasure,†then the amount of pleasure we have in God is a reliable barometer for our spiritual life.
Tell us about the most influential sermon you’ve heard?Â
In October of 2009, my last year at Southern Seminary, pastor Matt Chandler preached in our chapel service. He preached from Hebrews 11 about those who through faith had conquered and stopped the mouths of lions but also about those who through faith were tortured, imprisoned and put to death. He preached not only about the inevitability of suffering but also its importance in the lives of believers. He prayed that when he inevitably encountered suffering, he would respond well and in faith. This was an extremely challenging sermon to a room full of seminarians who could sometimes tend toward faithless theology, and it would have stood alone as one of the most challenging sermons I ever heard.
However, the next month Matt Chandler had a seizure on Thanksgiving morning, revealing what was thought to be terminal brain cancer. Throughout treatment—and now through his complete recovery—he has been a faithful witness to God’s grace and mercy and absolutely practiced what he preached at Southern the month before. I pray that when suffering comes to me and my family—and it will come—that I will respond by faith in our good and loving Father.
Check back later for Part 3 of this thee-part interview with Nathan.
