Anything to do with patriotism, in general, invites a lot of silliness that we wouldn’t embrace in other situations. No lie, I have been to a Christian “worship service” that included a civil war reenactment and a delivery of the Gettysburg address. (Of course, the battle ended with Lincoln guiding the two sides to stop fighting and shake hands, though I suppose the alternative – John Wilkes Booth playing the part of Judas – would have been even worse.)

Because the ideas of “God” and “country” have become so intertwined, the identity of the church as the transnational bride of Christ becomes obscured. Evangelicals in the US embrace Thomas Jefferson while shunning John Shelby Spong, despite their remarkably similar views on the Bible. Many Americans come into corporate worship on or around July 4 expecting to sing about a Grand Old Flag and amber waves of grain. In fact, many pastors and music leaders get angry calls and/or emails if America isn’t celebrated. (NB: There’s a difference between being thankful for freedoms enjoyed in America and celebrating America in a time that’s supposed to be reserved for Jesus. An Iraqi Christian living in Peoria can be thankful for the freedom to worship freely without having to say the Pledge of Allegiance.)

The wise thing to do isn’t to put up a huge middle finger and accuse everyone of idolatry. Because it’s the air so many of us have breathed for so long (especially our parents and grandparents), dealing with matters of God and country requires gentleness and wisdom. But neither should we cave in and sing My Country ‘Tis of Thee or The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

So what do I do? I cheat. We sing my favorite “fake” patriotic hymn: God of Our Fathers. It has enough civil connotation to evoke some of the nostalgia that hymns to America do, yet the text isn’t about America, it’s about our fathers (and mothers) in the faith. It’s much more Hebrews 11 than July 1776.

As wonderful as they are, the stars and stripes won’t last forever. Jesus’ kingdom will.

I’m also in the process of cleaning up our Order of Worship format to be more readable and helpful. More on that to come.

(Reading books like REWORK have done wonders in helping me as an editor. Superfluous words choke out meaning.)

• Doxology (Praise to God the Father Sing) Lead Sheet

Praise to God the Father sing.
Praise to God the Son, our King.
Praise to God the Spirit be,
Ever and eternally.

Here’s the closing prayer:

Master, this day is our day to stand and look. To be amazed and disturbed. This is a day to put away glad songs, and to see the terrible cost of our salvation. This is also a day to believe, and as Watts said, to know what is demanded in the Great Exchange at the heart of the Gospel. Forgive me for living in the shadow of this bloody execution as if it were religious art or a cultural symbol or the inspiration for music or preaching. This is my life, my death, my sin and your love. This is the beating of the heart of a Christian. Give me grace to pause and look. To see, feel, weep and above all, believe and keep on believing. Through Jesus. Amen.

Read the whole article. But before you do that, pray for Michael and his family.

[T]he essence of worship is not external, localized acts, but an inner, Godward experience that shows itself externally not primarily in church services (though they are important) but primarily in daily expressions of allegiance to God.

John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, page 228 (ebook edition)

I preach occasionally at our church and have recently come to be more interested in what it means to preach Biblically, clearly, and to the heart. It’s not completely outside of the realm of this website, either, given that it is an integral part of the corporate worship of God. And, the lines between the content of the preaching and the content of the worship service should be consonant.

John Witvliet said at the Where Are the Psalms? Conference that one of the goals when composing a sermon should be to ask and answer the question, “What Psalm should we, as a congregation, sing or pray in response to this passage?”

I can’t promise that the preaching material will be insightful or ground-breaking or even learned. After all, I’ve spent many more years as a musician than as a preacher. Hopefully, though, the preaching material will be cogent, clear, and helpful.

Though I have limited opportunity to preach, I enjoy preaching and have a very high view of the calling of the preacher to faithfulness and clarity.

1. As I’ve stated in a couple of venues, I think the variety that the Central Florida Presbytery brought to the worship services was a great thing. A denomination that embraces many different styles of praise to the Lord is a good thing.
2. Sound engineering was an issue, especially Wednesday evening. The guest artist was turned up so loud that it obscured the congregation’s singing. That’s never okay.
3. With the variety of music being written and produced in PCA circles today (Red Mountain Church, Indelible Grace, Park Slope – Brooklyn), it was a shame that the only real exposure we had to any PCA music was from Laura Story. Please don’t hear this as a criticism of her, she did a fine job, but she’s easily the most accessible, CCM artist that could have been featured, when we need to find a way to feature more of our own artists whose music might not be as readily accessible in mainstream evangelicalism.
4. Likewise, aside from songs by Laura Story and one by Josh Bales, there were no songs written by PCA members. We had several Sovereign Grace songs, several hymns, several Tomlin songs, but nothing RUF, nothing Red Mountain, etc. I’d love to see more churches working those songs in and General Assembly working those songs in as well.
5. Of course, it’s entirely possible that none of those songs fit the themes for the evenings. The services were well-designed around the themes related to a New Creation.
6. All in all, my first trip to General Assembly was a very positive one. I’m looking forward to future assemblies.
7. Finally, the next time it comes time for someone to yell out a hymn for us to sing during a break during Assembly sessions, please, please don’t yell out “How Great Thou Art” with its misleading 4th verse. Yell out “263!” (For All the Saints) or something good like it instead.

We sang the following hymns/songs:

• Awesome is the Lord Most High
  • Words and Music: Cary Pierce, Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Jon Abel
• Your Grace Is Enough
  • Words and Music: Matt Maher
• Indescribable
  • Words and Music: Laura Story
• I Will Lift My Eyes
  • Words and Music: Bebo Norman, Jason Ingram
• Grace
  • Words and Music: Laura Story
• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
  • Words: John Newton, Music: AMAZING GRACE, Chorus: Chris Tomlin, et al
• Mighty to Save
  • Words and Music: Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan

Matt Brown gave a testimony about the church planting work in Brooklyn. (He also “proved” why Brooklyn is God’s favorite borough of NYC and why the Bronx is his least favorite.)

Greg Thompson delivered an excellent, convicting sermon called “To Become Ourselves” based upon the Jerusalem Council meeting in Acts 15.1-35. The sermon is worth listening to; it’s been posted on the podcast of Trinity Presbyterian – Charlottesville, Virginia. A large portion of the sermon was an honest discussion on how hard it is for Christians to talk to one another. Most helpful quote: “Sometimes, ‘vision‘ is nothing more than a euphemism for ambition, unhinged from the inconveniences of love.”

This was the most varied night in regards to music. We had everything from solo organ to a heavily sequenced rock-style arrangement. The chosen songs were:

• Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
  • Words: Henry Lyte, Music: LAUDA ANIMA
• Before the Throne of God Above
  • Words: Charitie L. Bancroft, Music: Vicki Cook
• O the Wonderful Cross (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
  • Words: Isaac Watts, (Chorus: Chris Tomlin and JD Walt), Music: HAMBURG, (Chorus: Chris Tomlin and Jesse Reeves)
• Satisfied
  • Words: Clara T. Williams, Music: Karl Digerness
• Jesus, Thank You
  • Words and Music: Pat Sczebel
• Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners
  • Words: J. Wilbur Chapman, Music: HYFRYDOL

Skip Ryan gave a testimony of his tumbling spiral of addiction and need for approval as well as the Lord’s faithfulness in delivering him. It was a powerful moment to hear how a man who had been in such a place of power and prestige within the denomination had found freedom precisely in losing those things that had given him power and prestige.

Dr. Paul Kooistra’s sermon was a call for unity.

The most memorable moment of the service for me, however, was in the corporate prayer which was taken from the Valley of Vision. It is called “Continual Repentance”:

O God of Grace,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,
and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul,
clothing me with bridegroom’s robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.

But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.

I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.

Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day’s work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.

Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.

“I need my tears to be washed.”
What a powerful image.

This was probably the service that inspired the criticisms of “schizophrenic” worship. It’s a shame that those charges were leveled. Having worshiped with both Orangewood and Seven Rivers, I know from personal experience that the styles used in the service, from very traditional to very “contemporary” (for lack of a better word), were reflections of the congregations that they serve. Is it possible to do multiple styles well? Yes, absolutely. Is it a healthy thing for churches to embrace both old and new? I believe so. Is “blended” music the only way to worship God faithfully? Of course not.

I’ll reflect more on individual worship services over the next few days but, for now, a few general comments:

• Joe Novenson of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian outside of Chattanooga did a wonderful job serving as our worship leader (note: in this context, worship leader is not the same as music leader). Every word that he said seemed to be drenched in pastoral love for all gathered.
• Despite one commissioner’s comments insulting Central Florida (in a misguided attempt to be funny), the Central Florida Presbytery did a wonderful job of hosting and of putting the worship services together. Central Florida is a model for the rest of the denomination of what a healthy, church-planting presbytery looks like. I don’t think there’s another presbytery with such a commitment to planting churches in every neighborhood and town of their region. (Would that every presbytery had that commitment!)
• The setup of the room was such that the pulpit was a lectern, flanked by tables with Roberts’ Rules of Order and timekeeper placards, etc. It was an unfortunate bit of symbolism that we were a court before we were a congregation.
• The testimonies were wonderful reminders of God’s faithfulness in lots of different situations.
• In such a large hall, we had phasing problems. Meaning, there was a delay between when the organ played and when the congregation sang. As such, hymns tended to drag (through no fault of the organist).
• Everyone gathered did a good job of singing.

Finally, a brief word concerning some of the criticism that I’ve read online. I will not link to the source(s) but I’ll address some of their concerns. There was a complaint that General Assembly corporate worship was “schizophrenic”; that it was a hodge-podge of lots of different currents within the denomination and was, therefore, poorly led. I could not disagree more. There was a tremendous breadth of music in the assembly, but that breadth was representative of the different congregations within the assembly and within the presbytery. I’ll remark on the individual worship services in a few days but, overall, I was thankful for the variety of expressions. If commissioners were uncomfortable with the mostly contemporary instrumentation, that’s more of a reflection on the age and tastes of the commissioners than a reflection of the denomination as a whole. We have a wide array of styles and expressions of worship and a wide array of musical genres and instruments utilized within the denomination. That’s a great thing. In fact, it’s one of the areas of diversity within our denomination that we can point to and say, “Yes! We do things in different ways but we worship the same Lord!” A General Assembly that reflects that is a good thing.