My former pastor, Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill in Seattle) along with Dr. Gerry Breshears have written what looks to be an exciting new book on Jesus that is being released by Re:lit (a new division of Crossway Books). You can go to the link and pre-order for a early .PDF version of the book. I love Mark and of course, Jesus, who is the subject of the book, so if you're a blogger and can help spread the word, please link and give some love. vintagejesus.net

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." (Psalm 119:105)

In chapter four of Dr. Godfrey's short treatise on worship, he considers the importance of the Bible in our weekly gatherings. I used to travel quite a lot in my work and had the unique vantage of seeing many churches. One of the odd characteristics about 75% of the churches I worshiped in was the fact that the Bible was never read. It may have been alluded to in the sermon to get some helpful hints at better living, but you didn't get the idea that the word of God played a central role in the lives of the worshiping community.

Dr. Godfrey discusses the several roles the Scriptures can and should play in worship:

1. The Bible should be Read. This is sort of a no-brainer, but it needs to be said because of what I stated above. Do we believe God's word is a lamp to our feet and light to our path? Paul encouraged Timothy to "devote himself to the public reading of Scripture and to preaching and teaching" (1 Tim. 4:13).

2. The Bible should be Prayed. The Word of God should fall off our lips in prayer throughout the public service as we recount his promises and blessings, confessing to him as the psalmists of old once did. Our prayers should be informed by Scripture. Like Bible-reading, I think public prayer has probably suffered, too.

3. The Bible should be Sung. If you've read this blog for long, you know how much importance I put upon the content of the songs we sing in worship. The church's songs should be filled to the brim with God's word. And the thing that gets me about this is that the Bible is not lacking in content. We have a song-book of 150 songs in the Psalms.

4. The Bible and the Sacraments. There is a strong link for us reformed believers between word and sacrament, since we find the promises attached to the Lord's Supper and Baptism in the written word as spoke by Jesus. Augustine called them the "visible word," reminding us of the cross and the new life in our union with Christ.

5. The Bible should be Preached. Dr. Godfrey (and the entire reformation movement, both old and present) is big on this one. The word of God must be preached each week, exposited so the community comes to know and serve God in a deeper way. Dr. Godfrey quotes a nice section of the Cambridge Declaration, "The Bible, therefore, mus be taught and preached in the church. Sermons must be expositions of the Bible and its teachings, not expressions of the preacher's opinion or the ideas of the age."

In Chapter 3, Dr. Godfrey speaks about the character of our worship and shows the three primary ways the Bible uses the word worship.

1. Worship can refer to the whole life of a believer. This was Paul's sense in Romans 12:1-2 where our entire being - mind, heart, and hands are offered up to God as a living sacrifice of praise.

2. Worship can refer to those private times of devotion - prayer, reading, singing, etc. Godfrey uses Psalm 63:6-7 as an example of David praying to the Lord at night in bed.

3. Worship can refer to those public times when we gather together as God's people. Clearly, Hebrews 10:25 admonishes us to meet regularly to edify and encourage one another in the faith. God's people have always gathered in a time of response to his grace - to sing, to live up needs, to confess, to learn and of course, to partake of his sacraments.

Because of misunderstandings in the public gathering of worship today in both the traditional and more contemporary worship arenas, Dr. Godrefy spend the remaining aspect of the chapter diving a little deeper looking at Hebrew 12:28-29:

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire".

From this passage, Godfrey says that we learn about the "character of God" and our "response to God in worship".

1. The Character of God.

a. Our God is Triune.

b. Our God is Holy.

2. Our Response in Worship.

a. We should respond in thanksgiving (Joyful)

b. We should respond in awe (reverence).

In light of WHO our God is, and what we know to be true about the entire canon and experience of God's people, we need to strike an even balance in our worship between reverence and joy.

"All Christians need to cultivate a life with God that is growing and developing. If we are not growing, we will stagnate or die," writes Bob Godfrey in the 2nd chapter of Pleasing God in our Worship. Using Hebrews 10:19-22 as a backdrop, Godfrey shows how important "drawing near" to Christ is in both the individual and corporate sense. I particularly like this line: "Christianity is a religion in which individuals become an integral part of Christ's body. We are not just an association of individuals, but we are organically connected to one another." He goes on to show that we express this connection as the body most fully when we meet God together in public worship.

I think Americans, in particular, have suffered the effects of our "rugged individualism" for so long that it has just become part of the ethos of our brand of evangelicalism. Church for many is not necessarily about God, or even others, but instead self. The idols of personal preference and consumerism (particularly intellectual consumerism in reformed churches) will always be part of what worship leaders and pastors fight against in our worship. Godfrey calls upon Calvin's well worn phrase that our hearts are "idol factories". Is is possible that we can worship the true God falsely? Most definitely.

"The story of the golden calf (Exod. 32:5-6) reminds us that God's own people can fall into idolatry in their worship of him." What Godfrey is pointing out is that we can get overly creative and invent new forms of worship that can lead to idolatry, while all along thinking we are pleasing God. In the end, we are probably just pleasing ourselves when this happens, and it does happen. But then again, we can also worship him with very conservative forms, and also fall into a form of false worship if our hearts are not in it as Jesus states by restating Isaiah 29:

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." (Matthew 15:6-8)

This chapter in Pleasing God in our Worship reminds us that the Bible alone is sufficient in directing our worship of God. We would do well to search the Scriptures to find out what it says about worship.

Is God pleased with my worship? This is a question that frustrates many believers, especially ministers of music. Over the next week we'll be looking at W. Robert Godfrey's little tract from the Crossway Books Today's Issues series, Pleasing God in our Worship. Godfrey is the President of Westminster Seminary right here in Southern California. I spent some time with him, his family, and his church community a few years back and he is a dear man, albeit a very strict Calvinist with very strict ideas concerning the application of the philosophy of worship in his little book. But with that said, I find his philosophy of worship to be God-cenetered and Bible-driven.

In the introduction, Godfrey gives some examples of past "worship wars" that are often over superficial matters such as: pews vs. chairs, instrumentation, songbook vs. powerpoint, style, etc. Godfrey states that his intention with this book is to "help Christians begin to think about worship from a biblical point of view." By doing so, he states, "our own worship will become a more meaninful experience."

Foundational to the ideas expressed in Pleasing God in our Worship stands the Alliance of Confessing Evangelical's (ACE) Cambridge Declaration. Godfrey is a member of ACE and had a hand in informing / forming the declaration. Let me quote that relates directly to worship:

"The loss of God's centrality in the life of today's church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel, preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful...We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God's Kingdom, not our own empires, popularity or success."

Though this declaration was written a decade ago against the modernist seeker-entertainment oriented service, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, for the postmodern emerging forms of worship are just as susceptible to entertainment, market-driven popularity-fests as the the seeker parents that birthed them. One is just a reaction against the other and when the pedulem swings it rarely ever finds a biblical middle ground. More to follow. If you'd like to follow along, I've added Pleasing God in our Worship on my recommended book list. Just click and it will take you direct to Amazon. - SDG

I have been involved with church music ministries for the last 15 years, and I don’t think that six weeks have past without either performing, or being asked to perform the most popular hymn ever written: Amazing Grace. This song has been featured in almost every hymn collection published since its inception, and as of today, itunes has 150 different versions available for download. [1] With such popularity you would think the hymn’s enigmatic writer, John Newton, would be more celebrated today.

I hope that will change with a new biography written by Jonathan Aitken entitled, “John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace.” Like most people, I knew Newton was a seafaring slave trader in his younger years and that he had a remarkable conversion experience at sea during a terrible storm, but I didn’t realize that his life was the kind of epic adventure you would normally associate with a Cecil B. Demille movie.

Aitken’s biography is one of the most compelling historical books I’ve had the pleasure to read. It is thorough, well researched without being dry, and written by a man who knows something about “being lost but found,” since Jonathan Aitken became a believer while serving time in prison for perjury in an infamous London trial. Throughout the pages of Newton’s life you are confronted with a man that knew the depth of his sin, but by God’s grace, lived to preach, write and sing about God’s forgiving grace found in Jesus Christ.

Newton was brought up by a very devoted Christian mother who catechized him, prayed with him, and forced him to memorize scripture until he was six, when she died of tuberculosis. His father, however, was a very distant and stern sea captain. Young Newton rebelled and from the period of his teenage years onward began to fight against all authority figures, often becoming his own worst enemy. By the time he reached the age of 11, his father felt he was ready to begin his career at sea, and Newton’s journey from a young seaman, to gang-pressed navy midshipman, to slave trader, to becoming one of the most influential evangelical preachers of his day began.

As a husband, friend, and pastor, Jonathan Aitken, lets you come face to face with Newton himself, since much of the book is taken from Newton’s own personal journals, which were extremely detailed, warm, and just plain authentic. It becomes painfully obvious why he had such a profound impact upon the stoic religion of his day. Although Newton was an extraordinary scholar who taught himself Greek, Hebrew and Latin, he was able to preach, pray and write songs for worship that the common man could relate to. He didn’t put on any airs, and attempted to give dignity to the lost, the least, and the last through his pastoral ministry. When his autobiography became a best seller, it just confirmed his popularity with the average working man. “Here is a man of God who knows what it is like to struggle with the flesh and temptation, and yet finds forgiveness, grace and mercy in the Lord,” said many a dockworker.

While his life was far too multi-faceted and interesting to recount it all in this review, I will mention three things that jumped out at me that I think the present church can learn from:

He was ecumenical. John Newton had a rough road to ordination in the Church of England. It took him six years of toil, because of his fondness for the preaching and evangelical leanings (enthusiasm) of George Whitefield and John Wesley. Newton was close friends with Independents, Presbyterians, Methodists, Dissenters, and Baptists. He worshiped with them often, and had no difficulty preaching from their pulpits. In fact, when he was finally ordained and given a pastorate, all the surrounding non-Anglican churches and clergy soon welcomed him, and sought to collaborate in various ministries for the betterment of the city and its people. This didn’t mean he was soft on scripture. He held firmly to his beliefs, but was able to find common ground with brothers from different traditions to further the Kingdom.

He was progressive. John Newton created many church practices that had not been a part of regular ministry in his day. He created a weekly prayer meeting that grew so large he had to utilize the great house of Lord Dartmouth (his benefactor). He created a children’s ministry (unheard of before this) that met weekly to pray, sing and learn from the Bible. He wrote songs for them to sing that would help them memorize scripture. This ministry had such a profound impact upon the countryside of Olney that many churches sent their children to this ministry. At its height it grew to 200 children! Today this may seem normal, but it was a radical invention for his day. In the established church, it was very uncommon to hear hymns in public worship. Psalms may have been chanted as part of the liturgy, but new songs set to well known melodies and accompanied in a simple fashion were considered very low-brow by 18^th century English standards. Newton, along with his troubled friend and poet, William Cowper, wrote several hundred hymns in the common vernacular that were simple to sing, easy to memorize, and yet profoundly theological and deep. They were not written for the erudite elite, but for the people in his pews. He saw music as a powerful learning tool. He took Paul’s words to “admonish and teach one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” seriously, and the church has not been the same since. Newton thought “outside the box” before the phrase had a chance to become cliché.

He was proactive. Though not an immediate movement of his ministry, as he continued to grow in grace, Newton became heavily involved in the abolition of slavery and many other causes by mentoring and encouraging Christians involved in government, trade, and social welfare; viewing the Gospel not only as the means of salvation, but in the broader sense of seeing it as the A to Z of life, which includes the restoration of human dignity.

Much more could be said about the amazing journey of John Newton, but I’ll just recommend you pick-up a copy of Aitken’s biography, snuggle up in a comfy chair, and take the time to get to know the man himself. There is great wisdom to be learned from the dead guys. I’ll leave you with the words he was quick to state whenever he had a chance: “I am a great sinner, but Christ is a great savior." That about sums it up. 

[1] Two of them are mine since I’ve recorded it twice. One can be found under the band, Bezalel, while the second can be found on my solo album, Tales of Thomas: Hymns Revisited and Remixed.

Hey readers,

There is no doubt that one of the church's most influential hymn writers and preachers of all time is John Newton, although he is often just known as that reformed slave trader that wrote Amazing Grace. Jonathan Aitken has written a fresh account of Newton's life in a soon to be released book by Crossway entitled, "John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace". The book is available on June 19th through Crossway or Amazon. Once it comes out, I will start a daily commentary through the book. If you are a regular reader of the SRR page, I welcome you to pick-up a copy and we can learn about, and from this great figure of God's grace together. I welcome your comments and particpation. John Newton was a profound song writer, combining great Biblical themes and imagery with very personal and intimate experiences; leaving his listener basking in God's grace - promoting worship that involves the head, heart and hands. His story is a pretty crazy adventure, and biographer Jonahan Aitken knows quite a bit about being "lost and found", as he himself came to Christ while serving a prison sentence for perjury in a fairly infamous London trial. You can click on the book in the upper left or check-out through the recommended reading section. Let the reading begin!