Notes From Tim Smith (14/03/09)

This weekend, Pastor Tim Smith from Mars Hill Church in Seattle came and spoke at the Worship School that Simon's been running over the last academic year. I would probably liken it to when Driscoll came and spoke at the conferences, but on a smaller scale to a specific ministry department, pointing out the elephant in the room and moving us forward by a significant amount. Also, as well as having good taste in music and an ex-member of Frodus in his band, he recommended Demon Hunter to a room full of worship leaders and elders. He is a good man.

Anyway, I took an unnecessary amount of notes, as I am prone to doing (thank you OneNote), something like 8 pages worth over 3 seminars and a Q&A. I can send the full docx to anyone who wants it (e-mail me), but I thought it would be worth putting a very condensed version up here:

Worship and the Glory of God

In John 4, Jesus fulfills 1000s of years of corporate worship, and moves worship from a time and place to in Spirit (as in, God the Holy S) and in Truth. Cannot bring glory to God except through regeneration, with the Spirit at work within. The implications are, therefore, to abide in Christ, continually, as his presence is with us continually, through his gathered and scattered people. When we come to a worship time, then, we do not go to worship, but we come worshipping. It is only through God's initiation, via. special or natural revelation. The point is: God draws us, at all times, for his glory.

But what is glory? Greek word, doxa, means more than our English encapsulates (see: glory, glorious, honour, praise, dignity, worship, splendour, brightness, magnificence, excellence, pre-eminence, grace, majesty, blessedness, to extol, to celebrate, lustre, renowned, illustrious, worth, exalted). God's glory, in the beginning, is perfect, continual and Trinitarian. God brings glory to God. Man's glory is finite, limited, and because he is made in God's image. Sin enters, teaches people same sin of Satan - self-glory over God. Either pride - self-glory - or idolatry - glory of things that are created. But then Jesus, doxa incarnate, comes, and is nailed to a cross. This is his most glorious moment, despite it looking strangely like defeat. He is then risen, by and through and to God's glory. Our response, see the Westminster Catechism - to bring glory to God. This is the meaning of life. Our work in outreach or in worship or evangelism - point to God's glory. Finally, in eternity, we will fully know as we are fully known, knowing the fully revealed doxa of God, which lights up the whole of heaven. As 2 Corinthians 3 says, we are being transformed from one degree of doxa to the next. How does this work? We simply reflect his own doxa back to him, nothing of our own, and in doing so, we are transformed by the Spirit to look more like him. Honour him with hearts and mouths, giving vent to the full range of affections. We must laugh, must weep, hate, rejoice, desire, fear, cry, raise hands, all in Spirit, all in Truth.

Everyone comes worshipping with baggage - most people create an anti-theology, being defined by what we are not. For example, Mars Hill set out not wanting to look like most US charismatic churches, so there's a big emphasis on the cross, big emphasis on the weightiness of glory (see CS Lewis), on intellectual and not just emotional responses to God. NewFrontiers has a different background - we don't want to look like dead, liturgical, overly intellectual churches, so we are very free. But, we need to get out of the cul-de-sac, because there is more to God than just the Holy Ghost Party every week. We killed God. That's a good reason to feel heavy. Needs to be a multi-faceted journey of praise, otherwise it's an unbalanced picture of what true worship looks like in the day-to-day. This is our job - to respond to the glory of God in every circumstance of life.

Missional Worship

Syncretism and sectarianism are both bad. Culture is merely the expression of people - it's a natural thing. Paul at Mars Hill (in Greece, not Seattle, or even Grand Rapids) quoted the Athenian poets, cites their worship statements, and actively engages - not relying on second or third hand knowledge - in the marketplaces and synagogues, arguing Christ from their culture. It is not passively accepted or passively dismissed - it is actively engaged with. We need to do the same, doing 3 things:

- Receive anything not counter to the gospel (musical styles, technology, aesthetic values
- Reject anything counter to the gospel (individualism, self-centred styles of expression, me me me songs, any mediatory function of music, e.g. synth pads = Holy Spirit moves!!!, cultural imperialism
- Redeem objects of sinful worship for the glory of God (the form of the pop song, rock concert production, the style of the rock band, music culture).

There are two gaps for the non-believer to cross: the gap of culture and the gap of the gospel. We must do everything in our power to bridge the cultural gap so that people hear the gospel without the cultural baggage we add on to it. It's much better for the unbeliever to stumble on Christ than on rubbish music or weird Christianese responses. Perpetual reinvention until Christ comes again. Roman Catholics saw the Roman marches, poles, processions, etc, and contextualised. They failed to ever contextualise again. Our truth is non-negotiable, our methods always are.

7 Marks of Missional Worship:
1. Doxological. God's glory is the greatest motivation for everything we do. All else serves this purpose.
2. Head and heart worship.
3. Liturgical. We take people on a journey. Constantly crafting route.
4. Instructional. Every step is explained. This is why we sing. This is what a tongue or a prophecy is. Sometimes just good to be silent, explain - we're going to be silent and feel the weight of sin because we killed Jesus.
5. Bands, not 'leaders'. This is Smith "and not the Lord" (to quote Paul), but we better contextualise the gospel with bands, there is consistency, whereas groups of musicians are usually playing catch up, less unity, less good.
6. Quality. GOOD music. Can't expect people to see hearts if your music is not good! Hearts in the right place, but the fingers aren't. Otherwise, less likely to give you a hearing.
7. Mixed musical influences. Modern culture has to be PRIMARY reference point for music. Denomination history, classic hymns, songs within movement are good but should be supplementary. Music-referential, not just tradition. Goal is to proclaim Jesus in a way that draws others to him.

Building Missional Bands

The Mars Hill purpose statement: "We exist to magnify the glory of Jesus in the hearts of the church that we lead with music and production." Magnify the glory of Jesus = see his glory. In the hearts = should move us. Of the Church = particular people. Lead = leadership as service - not just a house band! With music and production = tools not ends.

The larger you grow, the less realistic it is you'll be able to do worship bands relationally, through a direct personal connection. Needs become greater. 3 stage process at MHC:

1. Assessment: Joel Brown and Tim Smith in central team have influence over what is and isn't a Mars Hill worship band. Campus pastors (:associate pastor) oversee local campus identity, including bands. 23 independent bands. Each band is attached to a campus. There are bands that Tim hasn't seen! Has to be done relationally to the needs of the campus. Prerequisite that they have a campus connection from beginning.

2. Training. Broken down by statements. Magnify glory of Jesus, etc, assignments for each bit. 3 main books: Unceasing Worship, Harold Best, Worship Matters, Bob Kauflin, Desiring God/When I Don't Desire God, John Piper. Mixture of assignments. e.g., read chapter, answer questions. Mixture of theological questions, practical assignments (e.g. Attend a concert - receive, reject, redeem), musical assignments (songwriting, etc). Assigned a sponsor - seasoned band leader - walking them through it all. Record demo, big or small. Ideal musician has been in a mainstream band, has toured, lived out playing quality music by the world's standards, then gotten fed up with that, then gotten a job, gotten married, and want to serve.

3. Implementation. Small stage trials (not a Sunday). Then green light to lead on a Sunday, with all but one song of the first few sets from a Meat and Potatoes list of 25 songs (a mix of hymns, originals and covers) that work at MHC and define it. No total rearrangements, no sets of total new songs. All bands still use at least 1/2 songs from the Meat and Potatoes list every week.

*****
To end, just a personal note: as well a gifted preacher and an all-round funny dude, he is incredibly kind. Having spent the last year geeking out on the Mars Hill site downloading their music library (legally) and listening to bands, I spoke to him after the second keynote about one or two of the bands, and any plans to release full lengths and whether I could buy some. He just gave me some! (As a side-note, the Rain City Hymnal is far more accessible than most people back home will assume, the Easter Sunday disc is upbeat, yes, loud, but also incredibly moving, and the Good Friday disc is weird and dark and kinda scary, but that's fitting.) He's a great guy, it was a privilege to hear him speak.

Week 9 Blues (And Radiance)

I have no idea how I coped with full terms last year. It's nearly the end of week 9, and I am so sleepy, it's crazy. Maybe it's because I haven't actually been home since before the New Year, but I'm nearly ready to be home, even if that means sleeping on a sofa for 3 weeks (here's hoping that doesn't happen).

Here's what's gotta happen before I do: 1 week 1 day (or 9 hours of teaching) till term ends. Then I stick around for a week, because on the Sunday after I'm leading a Host Team in the evening and doing some worship with the kids work in the morning and I should probably be around for those. I have 2 essays to ideally finish before I go home, if not, at least make some serious headway on. Blah blah blah, yeah yeah yeah, boring. I also get to lead worship a whole load before I go home for a break from that business. I'm at the point now where I lead 2 or 3 times a week - at Celebrate Recovery* at CCK, which has been a real blessing and eye-opener to be involved with, at my small group most weeks, and at CU, where now that Jon Carroll, the other main worship leader, is now president, I lead a whole lot, or I get to be bringing people through, which is just as fun!

I say this all not to boast except to boast in the cross.

About a year ago, I felt hard done by if I had to lead more than twice in the same month. When I would get up to lead, I didn't feel particularly able or equipped, and struggled a whole lot with the whole thing. Looking back at how God used me, I am amazed that he did use me in the middle of some very patchy areas, only by his sheer grace was I able to point people to Jesus, the only one who can usher us into God's presence. Specifically, I remember in particular one Sunday when one of the elders had to both preach and lead worship. He had asked me to step up, and I knew God would have given me the grace and ability. But I said no. In short, there was a lot of stuff I said 'no' to I should've said 'yes' to, and a lot of stuff I said 'yes' to I should've said 'no' to.

BUT, by God's grace, this is learning. As part of worship leadership, as with any leadership of any size, I know that one day God will hold me accountable for the way I led back then. And it probably won't be great, which is why I can do nothing except to point to the cross. For whatever reason, God took a somewhat flaky, timid boy who couldn't really sing, and used him for his glory. A little bit like Gideon.

Anyway, enough of that. This week I've been songwriting a lot, which has been great. Some moody indie worship songs have come through, which is exciting. I can't wait to go back home and meet up with Alex and get some demos done up. I reckon I've got 10 (8 + an intro + a hymn), but a full-length might be a little bit premature right now. A boy can dream.

This Saturday, Tim Smith from Mars Hill is coming to speak at Worship School. I heard Tim preach when Driscoll was out of the pulpit (I love the internet), and he's a really good guy. I sort of aspire to be like him - good pastor, good songwriter, good beard. So I'll be taking notes like a massive geek through the whole thing and try blog them this weekend. Also, on Thursday I'm seeing Peter Doherty at the Brighton Dome, which should be an experience. He'll either be amazing, or completely off it - both of which would be entertaining. I'm excited. But not as excited as I am for Saturday, oddly.

All of this to say: this is what I've been meditating on lately. Psalm 34, "those who look to him are radiant / their faces are never covered with shame". In Uni work, out in the clubs, in every circumstance of life, there is radiance for those who will look to him. Their faces are never covered with shame - like Ps103, he does not treat us as our sins deserve. I'm not sure which of these is cause and effect - we are radiant, and he does not treat us as our sins deserve. No. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, our faces are never covered with shame, and because of this, we are radiant. All because we look to our God, and not ourselves. Or, if you're a Calvinist (which you should be), because God has turned our faces toward him. Hallelujah.