Maggi Dawn mentioned this posting from David Keen which I checked out. His experience about the difficulty of truly worshipping when he’s led so much of it himself rang very true to me. I was hoping to have more hints from him on how to improve the situation … but at least I know I’m not alone in having the symptoms. And to know ahead of time that if I ever land up going through vicar factory, it’s only likely to make things worse. Better to know that now, so I could try and do something about …

Just read Jonny Baker’s take on Greenbelt, and was interested to hear about some of the things that I missed. Including the Grace service they did, where they created a ’small in crowd’ and a ‘larger out crowd’ that didn’t get special treatment. No surprise that some of the latter got rather irate until they realised it was all part of an unusually visceral exploration of hospitality.

I also echo Jonny’s closing thought:

it always feels like summer is over once greenbelt is passed and a new season looms once september kicks in…

Simon’s got steamed up in his blog about the worship song “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin. I know what he’s getting at, but I mostly disagree. Why?

But first a diversion. I’ve always found a particular type of passage in Revelation has always excited and touched me - for example:

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell face down before the throne and worshipped God. They said ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength belong to our God forever and forever. Amen!’ (Rev 7.11-12)

I learnt a new song at Spring Harvest 2006: “Creation’s King” by Graham Kendrick. (Which was recorded for the ‘One God’ live worship album that year.) I loved it straight away, because it had a catchy tune, and it quoted a variant of this passage.

“Indescribable” takes this same type of passage, with a slight twist:

Indescribable, uncontainable … all powerful, untamable; awestruck, we fall to your knees as we humbly proclaim … incomparable, unchangeable …

So at least most of the chorus is Biblical, which is a Good Thing. It also has a catchy tune. And I like the poetry of

You placed the stars in the sky, and You know them by name … / Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light / Yet concelas it to bring us the coolness of night?

There’s not enough good poetry around in modern worship songs, but far too many tired rhymes. And this is a great summary of how God treats us:

You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same.

At the same time, I’d prefer to change a couple of the lines. It works better when sung in context that it looks like on the page, but “You are amazing, God” feels slightly vacuous, and I’d prefer “You are amazing, Lord”. Simon might still feel this is crass, but it is a simple statement of worship, which is what it’s all about. The bigger problem is with “Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go …”, which whilst poetically showing the power of God, just makes me think of the tens of people each year who die when hit by a thunderbolt - did God really aim them specifically at them? Unlikely. I’d prefer “Who could tell every lightning bolt where it should go …”.

The [ASBO Jesus blog](http://asbojesus.wordpress.com/) has added some great new cartoons recently. Given our debates at PCC about the 6.30 service and its music style, this made me sigh with recognition …

(Via [jonnybaker blog](http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/).)

At Martha’s prompting I’ve been reading Tools for Transformation by Peter Craig-Wild. It has some OK bits, but I’ve now found some stand-out sections. As a service and/or worship leader (your language for this my vary; I’m not saying I like these terms), I care a lot about designing services that work well. The first paragraph that really brought me up short was:

“My task as a worship leader, is to allow the inherent power of the liturgy to emerge and do its own work. I was not to be an architect or engineer of worship, but a midwife that allowed liturgy to live.” (p.51)

At Greenbelt back in 2004, Mark Pierson spoke on his experiences of pastoring a church in NZ that deliberately was targeted at creative types. There was less structure, more space and silence, and much greater use of art and expression of all levels of quality. They didn’t have worship leaders: they had worship curators. (The title of the talk? Freedom from the Tyranny of Worship Leaders!)

From before then I’d seen the need to let there be space for God to do what He wishes to with His people, and woe betide me if I make the service too full and ordered to make that easy. However, I felt I couldn’t usefully use the ‘curating’ term. But this idea of midwife is one I could use.

More thought-provoking material in chapter 4:

“Every aspect of the service [can] have a revelatory possibility - ‘Wow, God is really here!’ ‘Wow, my sins really are forgiven’ …”

“Before the Service: How can we encourage people to gather, so that their gathering enhances their sense of being the people of God and heightens their expectation of God’s presence?”

“The Entrance: How can the entrance of the ministers give the sense of God coming among his pilgrim people?”

This needs some thought! And I have the opportunity to try and act on these, as I’m now being service midwife once a month or so. More thoughts soon, I hope …