Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

Greetings
“Hey, how’s it going?”

The typical daily greeting often leaves me in an existential dilemma.
I know I’m supposed to say, “fine-how-are-you.”  (Like it’s all one word) But, I struggle.   I have a bit of a mean streak in me - a dark sar-chasm that tempts me to be a jerk.  I’m tempted to reply with a mundane litany of details.  You know - start with how I slept the night before, talk about how busy I am, how my feet ache, how I have a little something in my eye, how my shirt doesn’t fit quite right, my toenails need to be trimmed, I feel like I’m coming down with something, and I think I might have to use the toilet in a few minutes - How are you?  In other words, I am tempted to really answer their question.  But I don’t.  I don’t share those kind of details unless someone is actually asking - and they hardly ever are.

You may not struggle with this at all.  It’s part of our culture.  But, because of this, I think we are all pretty used to not really answering the questions that people ask us.

The Social Contract
It’s the social contract.  It’s the deal that we all agreed to.  The one that says we will not bore each other with medical details, brag about our children, argue about politics, go on and on about our favorite subjects or say disgusting things at lunch or dinner.  Most of us honor the contract, and try to avoid people that don’t - or at least look for the nearest exit once they start talking.

But, there is one subject that can make any awkward conversation even more awkward.  Next time someone is boring you to the brink of pain - breaking the social contract, try this - ask if you can tell them about Jesus.  That should send them running.  Jim Gaffigan says even the Pope tries to get out of a conversation when people start talking about Jesus. “Easy, freak - I keep work at work!”

It’s true. No one wants anyone to walk up to them and start talking about religion.

Unless they ask.

1 Peter 3:15
Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. ¹⁶ But do this in a gentle and respectful way.  Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.

Serious As Hell
Anyone who is not in Christ will be lost.  They will die in their sins and if they are not covered by the work That Jesus did on the cross - if they are outside of Christ, then they have no hope.   But, no one wants to hear that!  No one is eager to hear the bad news.  And it is not our job to tell them the bad news.  It is our job to tell them the good news - the Gospel.

Imagine that a woman is late for work.  She gets into her car and it doesn’t start.  She opens the hood and starts pulling wires, taking things apart and pouring gasoline onto the motor.  Go ahead - imagine it, it’s kinda fun.  We want to run up to her and stop her, asking her what on earth she thinks she is accomplishing.   Imagine that her answer is, “Well, the car wouldn’t start - I had to do something! I’m late for work.” *

“Always be ready to explain it.  But do this in a gentle and respectful way.”

Imagine that a man is sitting at a burger joint happily eating a double bacon cheeseburger. Then imagine that a vegetarian-health-food nut walks up to him and tells him that he is going to die if he continues to eat this way.  Will he listen?  Or will it just ruin his lunch? But, imagine that the same man is trying to lose some weight because of health problems so he’s talking to a personal trainer or his doctor.  Now he can hear it.   Now he is very interested - now he’s asking.

“Worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks…”

I think this is the key.  Wait for them to ask.

Wait for it
Live a life that begs the question.  Live as if Christ is the Lord of your life.  Work hard at your job.  Don’t complain about your work or your pay or your co-workers.  Clean up after yourself, and clean up after other people. Take the really crappy jobs that no one else wants to do, then do the best you possibly can. Work hard at living the kind of life that Jesus taught us to live.  Love people instead of using people.  Help people instead of seeing them (and their ideas) as a threat. Live a life that shows you have hope in something beyond the here and now.  Live your life as spiritual act of worship before Christ the Lord.

And then listen.

Listen to people’s concerns, their fears, their doubts, their dreams.  When the time is right, and if they ask you a question - Then be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you.

Easy Now
But, even once they ask, you have to be very careful.

“But do this in a gentle and respectful way.^”

It’s still not time to break the social contract.  We are not to be so eager to throw Jesus at them like a life saver - that as soon as they say something like,”Why are you so calm about all this?”  We pounce on them saying that, “they are going to Hell and need to be baptized for the remission of their sins!”  Instead, we need to be gentle and respectful.

For Real
The friendships and relationships that we build in this life have to be real.  We’re not supposed to fake friendships with people just so that we can tell them about Jesus.  Yech! We are not selling fake-plastic-Jesus-answers door to door like aluminum siding. We’re bringing the real truth and love of Jesus Christ to hurting people - The Gospel.  We’re sharing the hope that we have in our God with the people that God has put in our lives.

Some people do have the spiritual gift and calling to be an evangelist - Someone who makes cold call sales for Jesus. Maybe you have that gift and calling, and if you do - then get to it.  I ain’t stoppin’ you.

But, for the rest of us - Let’s live our lives in such a way that people will be moved to ask.

AMEN

* Props to Pastor Douglas Wilson for this analogy.

 Discussion
- Tell me about a time when someone asked a question that led to a faith conversation.

Change is Good
In the previous article I discussed 15 elements that I believe should be part of any Christian Worship service.  As I have looked at our worship services in light of these liturgical elements, I have worked with some other members of the CrossPoint staff to come up with a monthly plan to incorporate them into what we are already doing.  I will outline the basic plan in this article.

A Little About Us
CrossPoint is a very “missional” LCMS church that has two locations in Katy, Texas (so far), Westgreen is the campus where I serve along with my good friend and partner in ministry Pastor Matt Popovits.  The other location is Seven Lakes where Nathan Huse (myspace.com/nathanhuse) leads worship and serves along side Pastor Dan Hauser (crosspt.org/sevenlakes).  The four of us got together and came up with the list of 15 essential liturgical elements.  Then Nathan and I discussed how we would set them in motion per month.  This is the result of that work.

Not everything is New
Many of the elements have been part of our weekly or monthly services for many years.  For example, we have always had a sermon, praise songs, etc.  Other elements have been included, but not as consistently (which is why we are talking about this.)  We want to be intentional about the components that we include or do not include.  For example, in the past we may or may not have said the Lord’s Prayer in a given month, and in the future we want to include it at least once a month in our services.

The CrossPoint (Great Co)Mission
Another thing to keep in mind is that CrossPoint’s Sunday morning service is an outreach event first and a worship service second.  Both of these ideas are imperatives. Our worship service is always both, but it is important that anything we do on a Sunday morning works through the first imperative to reach the second (not the other way around).  This is actually pretty easy to understand.  If we explain the things we are doing for the guest then the people who have been attending for years will also understand.  If we expect people to understand without explanation, then only the people who have been around for while will get it.  We don’t want that.

As we include these  ancient liturgical elements into our modern worship services we must be intentional, creative, culturally incarnational, and prayerfully diligent to keep our eye on the mission.  Every element must work to reach the unchurched as well as deepen the faith of the people who are already part of the mission.  Our “liturgy” must be attractional, inviting, user-friendly, and authentic, as well as God honoring, theologically articulate, Biblical and deeply Christian.  Horizontal as well as vertical.  Both immanent and transcendent.

With all of this in mind, we submit the following plan:

Every Sunday
• Introit (Entrance) - Opening song
• Invocation - We begin in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  One God.
• Praise songs, Hymns, Spiritual songs
• Salutation (Meet and Greet)
• Hymn or Song of the Day (Feature Song)
• Sermon
• Offering/Offertory
• Confession/Absolution (In response to God’s Word)
• Prayers of the People
• Benediction/Blessing

1st Sunday
• Apostles Creed
• Baptism
• Welcome new members
• Epistle Reading (pertaining to Baptism)

2nd Sunday
• Old Testament Reading
• The Lord’s Prayer (Sung or spoken)

3rd Sunday
• Confession/Absolution - in preparation for Lord’s Supper.
• Epistle Reading (Words of institution)
• Lord’s Supper

4th Sunday
• Gospel Reading
• Apostle’s Creed (unless 5th Sunday)

5th Sunday
• Epistle Reading
• Nicene Creed

Tension
Is it possible to worship GOD in a way that is both reaching out to the people who need to hear the message of hope while at the same time deepening the faith and stimulating the growth of the people who already believe?  Yes, but the two ideas will always be in tension.  We have to intentionally include the components that will both reach outside to people who do not yet believe, and also inspire and nurture the people that GOD has already called to serve Him as part of our mission. Tension is good, with just the right amount of tension we will make something beautiful.  Think of a guitar string.

Now go and tune your liturgy!

 Discussion
- What elements do you think should be added to your worship service?
- What elements are not needed?

Origins - Part 2 from crosspt media on Vimeo.

A CALL TO PREACH
A few months ago Pastor Matt asked me if I would be willing to give the message on the 5th of July. He doesn’t know this, but my emotions split in two directions. Part of me jumped up and down with excitement, I went to school 25 years ago to study the Bible and to someday be a pastor/teacher. The desire to stand up in front of a group of people and tell them about Jesus and God’s word has been burning in me for a long time, probably since I was twelve years old. However, another part of me was filled with dread, like I just found out that I would be having major surgery - in front of 1200 people. Pastor Matt and Pastor Bill set the bar really high and the thought of being measured by their standard is daunting. I told him that I would love to give it a shot.

It was a while before the series and topics were solidified. We settled on a series called ORIGINS, a series that would look at several of the stories of people in the Bible and retell their stories with an emphasis on the big theological ideas that they teach us. Once I found out that I was going to be speaking on the subject of Abraham and the covenant I started thinking about how to prepare.

I’m writing this article as a sort of “bonus feature” to the sermon that I delivered on July 5th.

WRITING THE SERMON
The first thing I did was a search the Bible for the word Abraham. I wanted to read every passage in the Bible that mentioned him. He is in a lot of them. I prefer to listen to the Bible, and I have a few audio versions, so I collected all of the passages where he was mentioned and made an iPod playlist. The playlist was about 3 hours long.I would listen to God’s word and make notes. Anything that I found to be interesting. I wasn’t looking for order, I was just writing anything that jumped out at me or occurred to me. Little notes like, “Sarai must have been really beautiful,” and “Abraham never saw much of the promise that God spoke to him.”I had several pages of notes.Then I searched through some blogs and sermon databases of preacher/teachers that I am fond of. I’ll admit it, I listen to sermons on my iPod all the time for fun. Some of my favorites are Doug Wilson, Kemper Crabb, Mark Driscol, Matt Chandler, and Ravi Zacharius. I looked for some messages where they had talked about Abraham and found a few. Pastor Matt also sent me a sermon that he had given on Abraham a few years ago.

By this time I had far more information that I could ever use in one message, and it was time to figure out what I was actually going to say. I asked God to guide me. I thought about our congregation and our community. The message started to take shape. I was going to concentrate on believing God’s promises as we wait in the space between. I was also going to show how the promises given to Abraham were fulfilled in Jesus, and how all Christians are heirs to that promise.

The first draft of the sermon was far too long. I had to simplify, get to the essential center of the message. This meant that some really cool stuff was left on the editing room floor. A sermon is like a short story, you don’t introduce any ideas that are not vital to the big point. A sermon is not a novel, where you can develop sub-plots, minor characters, intricate foreshadowing, etc. Those kind of things are best saved for a Bible study/teaching format.

I had to lose most of the literary exegetical components, even though they were really cool.Here is an example of the kind of things I had to cut. Although they are fascinating and cool, they are not essential to the bottom line of the message I was delivering. Moses wrote the book of Genesis to encourage and instruct the children of Israel while they were wandering in the desert preparing to enter the Promised Land. They followed the presence of God as he appeared to them as a cloud by day and a fire by night. When God appeared to Abraham as a smoking pot - cloud, and a flaming torch - fire, the original audience knew right away that it was God. They saw Him take a similar form every day. In the message I simple say that God appeared to Abraham and passed through the animals to “sign” the covenant for both of them. As soon as you mention the “smoking pot and flaming torch” you have to add ten minutes of explanation, and you run the risk of side-tracking the message.

I also had to condense Abraham’s story. The name change from Abram (Exalted Father) to Abraham (Father of Many/Multitudes) is mostly missing. I mention that Abraham’s name meant “Exalted Father” but that is misleading. The purpose of this message was not to give a chronological account of his life.

In my original draft I didn’t have any personal stories. I’m not saying that every sermon has to have personal stories, but maybe they should. God gives us our lives, and He expects us to share what He gives us with others. On Saturday (before I gave the message on Sunday) I added the portion about my conversion. I think it set up the message and made it stronger, by adding some personal testimony.I went over the message with Pastor Matt Popovits, my friend Rob Camper (Creative Director at CrossPoint), my wife Kim Hart, they helped me find the center of the message and say it clearly. They also helped me know what needed more explanation, what was funny and what was just confusing. I sent the draft to Pastor Bill, and he helped me reword a few places to articulate CrossPoint’s mission more clearly.

PREPARATION TO DELIVER
Finally, I had to prepare to deliver the message. Writing the message is one thing, but in an attractional ministry like ours, the way the message is delivered is half the point. The message has to be delivered in a way that truly engages the congregation. I can’t just stand up there and read my message.I recorded myself reading the sermon. I tried to do it the way I actually wanted it to be “performed.” It took several attempts. I would record it, listen back, make notes about what I thought was terrible, and try again. I came up with some humorous voices and worked on timing.

Eventually, I had a recording that I thought was passable. I listened to this recording until I could say the message word for word along with the recording. I videotaped myself giving the message and tried to think about body language, what to do with my hands, etc. I’m not an expert on these things, I just didn’t want to get in the way of what God wanted to say through me.I formatted by manuscript in blocks with big bold headings. I indented scriptures and highlighted them, anything that I could give myself permission to simply read, so that it was easy to find. I worked with Rob and we came up with some interesting visuals and captions to accentuate what I was saying on the screens. We used images from Bible comic books.

So there you have it. That was my process. Does it seem like a lot for a 30 minute sermon? Maybe it seems like I left something out. I’d be interested in hearing about any techniques that you do (or have heard of) that I didn’t employ.