My latest posts have only strengthened by desire to get Worship Theory into the hands of worhipers, worship leaders, church leaders and pastors. There isn’t a single person who lifts their hearts to God that would not be encouraged and challenged by the concepts in this book.
Unfortunately, the publishing community is not quick to snatch it up. So I have decided to give you the opportunity to read one of the chapters.
Yesterday I met with a fellow pastor and was showing her around the site a little bit. As I explained to her the Law of Dynamic (a.k.a. Law of the First Date), she asked me if in following such a method, would we be in danger of trying to force the Holy Spirit, or force human reaction, and actually remove the leading of the Holy Spirit.
As I started to understand what she was asking, and though I responded a little bit then, it seemed like a great opportunity for a follow up post.
My latest book, Worship Theory, had a working title, The Laws of Worship. As I considered what I was writing, the perspective I was writing from, and the fact that I have to admit that I don’t know everything, I ended up changing the title and cutting some of the content. Some of that content were “laws” I try to follow and encourage others in when leading worship.
One of these laws can be entitled, The Law of the Dynamic, and it states “A worship service should employ and be a mixture of the different levels of music.”
As I toy around with ideas for my next writing project, I tend to start elaborating on some of the concepts running through my mind. Here is one of those “start-up” ramblings.
So often we bypass the Cross in our lives. Sometimes we don’t mean to, sometimes we do. Take for instance, a benign occurrence one day. I received two free devotional booklets from an international publisher of devotionals, the kind they send out in an effort to get pastors to purchase a case of them for their congregations for the days leading up to Easter. A friend of mine was with me when I opened it up, and I offered him one. One was titled after the blessings of the Cross, and the other for blessings for day to day. I honestly don’t know why he chose the latter of the two, but you have to wonder how many decisions we make that avoid the Cross each day.
Continue reading “Choose the Cross”
The author of the book of Hebrews told his readers, “you need someone to teach you again the first lessons of God’s message” (5:12b, NCV). In my wandering thoughts this week, I came to think about worship as one of these first lessons, or “elementary principles” (NKJV).
You see, we talk a lot about reading our Scriptures, praying, having our devotional times with those classics by Charles Spurgeon or Oswald Chambers. But what did people do before the printing press brought books to be available to the masses? What about when the Scriptures were only in Latin, and the average person couldn’t read, much less read the Bible? What did these people do for their “devotions”? Surely we cannot say that they didn’t serve God, did not truly know Him because they didn’t read their Bible or have My Utmost available to them.
Continue reading “Elementary Worship”
You might have seen the remake of the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street back during the Christmas season. One of the great zingers at the end of the movie is that the two “henchmen” of the big bad villain are each secretly wearing buttons that boldly proclaim “I BELIEVE,” referring of course to a belief in Santa Claus.
There are many who would liken a belief in God to a belief in Santa Claus. “I believe God is more of a feeling than a real being.” “That’s for kids. Haven’t you grown up yet?” “You’re a bit naïve to believe all that stuff.” “I used to believe in God, until…” But like those in the movie, I’m not so timid or scared to tell you that I believe in God. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16, NKJV).
Continue reading “I Believe”
Chris MacKinnon 