A World Ever New

Have you noticed how hard it is to surprise us these days? We’re a pretty jaded bunch, us humans. We’ve seen it all, done it all, heard it all and thought about it all. We don’t feel that we have much to learn, and if we do, we want to find it for ourselves and not have it taught to us by anyone else. I have experienced this feeling in myself, and I’ve heard it expressed by people around me ranging from teenagers to the elderly. We have our smart phones, our laptops and the Internet. What could we possibly see or hear or learn that can’t be discovered – and in a more exciting or satisfying way – online?

This may be an exaggeration, but the jadedness and “surprise me” attitude is certainly a common one in today’s world. And, when it comes to spirituality – to the Bible and to worship – it’s even more pronounced. It’s like the old story about the man who told his friend that he wasn’t going to church anymore. “Why not?” asked the friend. The man replied, “I’ve been going to church for 30 years, and I can count on one hand the sermons that I remember. It’s just a waste of time.” Perhaps this is why Bill Gates referred to religion as an “inefficient use of time.”

But, when we come to worship with this jadedness, when we approach the Scriptures with the view that we’ve read it all before, we do ourselves a disservice. We may not feel it or believe it, but there is always something new to discover in the world, and there is always something new to discover in worship and in the Scriptures that are at its heart. God is always speaking, and God, I’ve discovered, is consistently and constantly capable of surprising me – if I will only be open to listen.

And that’s the key – my choice to listen or not. My decision to embrace a jaded attitude, a “been-there-done-that” approach to God’s communication keeps me from hearing anything that God may want to say. But, if I am able, like a child, to embrace the naivety and innocence that opens me to surprises and new discoveries, I soon learn that God speaks and that I am able to hear it.

I have been reading the Bible for over thirty years. I’ve been facilitating worship gatherings for just on thirty years. I could easily allow myself to become jaded and closed, to think I have nothing new to learn. But, just the other day, as I was preparing a series of worship resources based on John’s Gospel (which has long been my favourite and which I have read many times), I discovered a whole series of new insights, new truths, new challenges and new connections with God, with life and with myself. Yes, it was that dramatic and that far-reaching, and I am so grateful that I was listening when God was speaking.

So, next time you are tempted to become jaded, won’t you take a moment and make a different choice? Won’t you silence the cynic within you, and embrace the child? Won’t you stop and listen more carefully, more attentively? If you will do this, you will rediscover your sense of wonder and amazement, and the world will become, once again, a place of mystery and adventure. If you will enter worship like this, you’ll find yourself being surprised by God’s whisper in an old familiar hymn, by God’s smile hiding in the face of a companion worshipper, by God’s challenge coming to you in words and actions that you’ve repeated many times. If you will listen like this when the Scriptures are read and explored in preaching – and even in your own personal reading of the Bible – you’ll find new wisdom even in the most familiar passages.

It all comes down to this – do you want to wake up in the same world tomorrow that you lived in today, or would you prefer the adventure of a world ever new, ever exciting, with new treasures to discover every day? The choice is ours – to listen for the new word, or to close our ears and hearts to learning and growth. And there’s no better place to learn this gift of listening than in worship. Maybe you’d like to try it for yourself?

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

When God Speaks

"Then the LORD came and stood there, calling just as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel said, “Speak. Your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10 CEB)

I have always been a bit skeptical when I’ve heard people say, “God spoke to me.” Don’t get me wrong – I’ve said the same thing myself a few times. But I’ve realized over the years that people mean different things by that statement.

I remember once, in a youth worship gathering, I had a sense that there might be something that God wanted us to hear, so I spoke out, beginning with the words, “I may be wrong, but…” After the meeting a young girl came up and challenged me. “If God is speaking, you can’t be wrong,” she said, “so you shouldn’t say you might be.” I thanked her for her encouragement, but then responded, “I don’t doubt that God’s word is correct, but, I do doubt my ability to always hear God’s message correctly. So, in an attempt to keep things open-ended, I felt the need to acknowledge this when I spoke.” I’m not sure she was happy with my response, but I knew I could not embrace the certainty she was asking of me.

On the other hand, I also struggle with those who reject the idea that God speaks to us. I have never heard an audible divine voice. I have never had an unquestionable vision, or even had an inner conviction so strong that I could not doubt that it was of divine origin. But, I do believe that God has spoken to me. I do believe that God communicates with any and all who choose to listen. And I do believe that learning to “hear” God’s voice is a key feature of being human and of being in relationship with God.

When it comes to the question of how God speaks, I am comforted and encouraged by the Bible’s metaphor of the “still, small voice” or “gentle whisper” (See 1 Kings 191:12 & Isaiah 30:21). Perhaps the reason so many of us wrestle with the idea of God speaking is that we keep expecting God’s voice to come from somewhere outside of us. But, the Scriptural picture seems to be that the voice of God is most commonly heard within us. Those unbidden nudges to remember something, or to change our course of action, or to do something we hadn’t planned – I believe they are God’s whispers within us. Those sudden thoughts that pop into our heads with no connection to where we are or what we were thinking before – I believe they are God’s whispers. Those inner challenges that call to our best selves and leave us restless until we act on them – I believe they are the still, small voice of God. All we need to do is take them seriously and listen to them.

Which is why we need worship. As children we do not come into this world with the ability to communicate fully formed. We have the capacity to listen and understand what our parents and loved ones are saying to us, but we have to learn how to use it, we have to connect with them, listen to the sounds they make and then, finally, the meaning begins to become clear. In the same way, we all have the capacity to hear God’s voice and understand it, but we need to learn how to interpret the nudgings and promptings, the inner convictions and questions. And there is no better way to learn this, that I am aware of, than to gather with a community of God-listeners and allow the prayers and music, the Scriptures and rituals of worship to teach us to recognize God’s voice.

God is speaking. God is always speaking. The question is whether we are willing to do the work to learn to hear and understand so that we, too, may say, “Speak, God. Your servant is listening.”

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Giving Up Could Save Your Life

Have you felt like giving up? Like everything is just too much and you can’t carry on? Usually the result of this feeling is that we begin to streamline things – we start pulling out of commitments we’d agreed to, we start protecting our time and shutting ourselves away, and we begin to withdraw from others – sometimes even those closest to us. And, often even while we know that we need to care for ourselves better, we feel guilty, because we have, inevitably, let others, and perhaps even ourselves, down.

I want to suggest that the reason we get to this place, may not be because we have given up too soon, but because we haven’t given up soon enough! We hold on to too much – too many responsibilities, too many expectations, and too many activities – for much too long, and we end up having a breakdown of sorts where we know that unless we make some radical changes, we won’t survive much longer.

This is where the spiritual journey of Lent can be such a gift to us. This season is often thought of as a time of “giving things up”, and, of course, there are many teachers who rightly remind us that Lent is much more than this. To gain the spiritual benefit of the Lenten season requires more than just not eating chocolate for a few weeks, or not watching a particular TV show. But, that doesn’t mean that giving up cannot give us some wonderful gifts. Let’s not underestimate the power in the discipline of giving up.

If we were to develop a habit of regularly evaluating our lives, and giving up those things that were unnecessary, unhealthy, or just not our task, we would be far less likely to hit the burn-out or breakdown that leads to a total giving up. And that’s one of the important lessons that the discipline of giving up in Lent can teach us – that giving up should be an ongoing discipline, and it should result from a deep and continual evaluation of our priorities in the light of Christ’s call on our lives.

This is where worship is so powerful, especially in a season like Lent. As we gather weekly, we are reminded, through our songs, prayers and Scripture readings of the priorities of God’s reign. We are challenged to hear again God’s specific call on us, and to use our unique gifts and abilities in God’s service, while making space for others to use theirs. Worship, when entered into mindfully and whole-heartedly, has the ability to transform us, to remind us of who we really are, and to reset our values and commitments. Worship is the one thing we don’t want to give up for Lent! Rather, this season can be the inspiration to take our worship even deeper, and allow it to fill every moment of our lives through the discipline of giving up.

So, whatever you may be giving up this Lent, I pray that it will be a step toward a discipline of giving up that lasts all year - and that you will allow your worship to lead you and sustain you in this practice. After all, it could very well save your life – or at least your sanity!

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

What Difference Does Worship Make?

Soon after encountering Christ as a teenager, I began telling everyone about my new faith. Once, as I tried to convince a friend that Jesus would make a huge positive difference in his life, he expressed doubts - he felt that Jesus made no difference at all.
“I used to wait outside a church every Sunday morning,” he said, “asking for a lift to work. My family needed the money and I couldn’t afford the bus. But, every week I walked because the people just drove by. I can’t see any difference that Jesus made to them.”

Over the years I have thought back on his words many times. Now, as a minister and worship leader, I find myself wrestling with this question – what difference does worship make?

Each week churches around the world are filled with worshippers. But, in spite of this, violence between people of faith remains a reality and the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen even in countries that claim the name of Christ. I find this deeply disturbing.

But, as Amos 5:23 & 24 indicates, God’s desire is that our worship should lead us to make a difference in the world:

Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. (Amos 5:23,24 NLT)

Worship, then, is the fuel that inspires and drives God’s people to engage with the problems of the world.

Jesus' challenge is to live our worship in every every moment. Rather than just a weekly “fix” of joy, the worship service offers us God’s perspective on the world, and guides us to live from this vision.

This means that worship leaders need to move beyond a focus only on what God has done for us and include what God has called us to do. It means that preachers must wrestle with the tough teachings of the Scriptures, and offer a new vision of what the world can be. It means that worshippers must shift from being ‘consumers’, to being collaborators in God’s mission for healing our world.

When lives are changed by worship and the world is changed by worshippers, there is no question – worship really does make all the difference.
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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Are You Listening?

Writer Charles Swindoll tells of a time in his life when he was particularly busy and stressed, working too hard and with too many commitments. One night as he was wolfing down his food before rushing out to another meeting, his daughter came to him and said, “Daddy, I want to tell you something, and I’ll tell you really fast.” Seeing her frustration, he responded, “You can tell me slowly, honey.” To which she replied, “Then, listen slowly.”

Listening is a significant human practice that is all too easy to forget. In a world that is filled with noise – background music in shopping malls and on our iPods, media playing always on TVs in restaurants, cars and homes, email, text messages and the internet always in our hands, traffic and the constant banging and blasting of construction sites all around us – we quickly learn to shut our ears, for the sake of our sanity if nothing else. But, in the process, we find that we stop listening.

True listening – not just hearing sounds, or words, but being attuned to their meaning, and being captured by their message – requires focussed attention, and we are all too easily distracted. True listening requires moving out of ourselves, and opening ourselves to another person, another reality, a different way of being. But, all too often we struggle to stay connected with ourselves, let alone with one another. And the impact of all this is being felt in our families, our relationships and our communities. When listening fails, people get isolated and suspicious of one another, society fragments and conflicts escalate out of control. Sometimes the most prophetic and healing thing we can do is just to be quiet and listen.

But, if listening is hard to do, it won’t come naturally to us. We will need to learn it – and it is a skill that can be learned. We need to move into practices and situations that challenge us to become focussed, that call us to stillness and that encourage us to open our ears and our hearts to our world, to others and to God. I can think of no better place to learn to listen than in the spiritual discipline of worship. Unfortunately, even our worship is too often allowed to become noisy and distracted. We fill the time and space with words and sounds, and, when silence does happen, we grow uncomfortable and even a little frightened. However, if we will heed the call to true listening, and if we will allow our worship to teach us, we can find renewed connection with ourselves, with others and with God.

How does worship teach us to listen? There are a number of ways it does this. To begin with, as we enter a worship gathering we discover very quickly that our agendas have very little place. The whole orientation of worship is toward a different reality, to a higher purpose and to a new way of being. Our role is not to demand or direct, but to submit, to open ourselves and to receive. This is the first lesson in listening – to release our agenda, and open ourselves to what may come.

The second way that worship teaches us to listen is through silence. In some traditions silence plays very little role, but more and more churches are discovering the benefits and blessings of incorporating times of silence into the worship gathering. When we allow our worship to be less ‘noisy’ and less ‘wordy’ and make more space for stillness and silence, we learn to listen for the ‘still, small voice’ of God, and we grow increasingly aware of the whisperings of God’s Spirit.

Finally, while I recognise the valid criticism of much of worship’s non-conversational nature, and while I recognise the need to allow people to participate and add their voice to the worship experience, the fact that we are sometimes forced to stop talking, to stop adding our viewpoint, and to just listen – whether to a prayer, a hymn or a sermon – teaches us the discipline, and the joy, of listening.

If we have the humility and the courage to allow worship to challenge and change us, we will find that these practices lead us into a new ability in, and appreciation for, listening. And, once we have begun to listen more and better, we will discover again the healing that comes from deep connection with God and others, and that is found in rediscovering our true selves.

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.

Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Treasure

“It’s interesting that we don’t stand for prayer, but we do stand when the offering is received!” This comment, asked by a friend during a worship gathering, was spoken with some disgust and frustration. It was like all he could see was that money was being given more prominence in the service than God. In that moment I realised how the moment of giving is perceived by many churchgoers – and I can’t help but sympathise with them.

The truth is that the Church has often not handled money well. I remember watching a documentary about a well-known televangelist in which the pledge cards that were issued by his ministry were examined. The presenter noticed that the smallest amount that could be pledged (indicated by a check box on the card) was $5000! We have all heard the stories of wealthy pastors who stand before crowded congregations of people, many of whom struggle to make ends meet, and promise divine blessing if the worshippers will just give sacrificially into their ministry. The numbers of those who have left the Church because of such abuses is impossible to count.

In response, some churches have gone to the other extreme – removing the act of giving from worship altogether. But, I can’t help wondering if this practice doesn’t hurt worshippers more than it helps us. The act of giving is about far more than just the money that we choose to put in the plate. It’s about the extent to which we are willing to put our faith in God and God’s reign. It’s about the extent to which we really mean it when we say, “Jesus is Lord”.

We live in a world where money is the primary measurement of value of pretty much everything. Our bank accounts and wallets represent for us our security, our value and the potential contribution we can make in the world. Throughout the ages, those with lots of money have been treated differently from those with little. The wealthy have greater power, greater respect and a far greater variety of choices than the poor. It is extremely easy to get drawn into the constant quest for more wealth, but if we buy the message of the money-centred world, we inevitably lose our souls.

It is impossible to value a human being in financial terms. It is also very dangerous to estimate the value or contribution that someone can make by looking at their bank account. Does anyone really believe that Donald Trump would be a good president just because he has lots of money?

So, when we gather for worship and we share in the act of giving, we are doing a number of significant and prophetic things. First, we use money as the symbol for our giving because Jesus made it clear that we need to see money as more than just the metal and paper we place in the plate. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be,” said Jesus (Matthew 6:21). By placing a representative proportion of our material ‘treasure’ into the offering, we are seeking to move our hearts away from our bank accounts, our homes and our possessions, and to a more lasting, life-giving reality – God’s reign.

Second, in the act of giving, we are proclaiming, against all that the world may tell us, that we don’t believe that money provides us with value, security or the possibility of a rich and full life. Rather, we demonstrate that we place our trust in God’s care and provision for us, and in God’s call for us to share what we have so that others need not go without.

Finally, as we place our money in the offering plate, we are symbolically placing ourselves – everything we have and everything we are – at God’s disposal. By giving generously, we make a commitment to God and to God’s people that we and our resources are available to be used by God for God’s purposes in our world.

This is why we stand (at least in my church) when the offering is received. In one sense, the act of giving is the most profound act of worship we can offer. And, if we practice it regularly and wholeheartedly, it will inevitably lead us to give of our time, our abilities, our resources, and our very selves to bring justice and healing to others wherever we may have the opportunity.

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.

Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Generosity

“I am so lucky! I have a job, wonderful friends, and my faithful guide dog to lead me around. I am so very grateful!” These words were spoken during a radio interview by a blind woman who had clearly learned what gratitude means. In contrast, a recent study revealed that the group of people most likely to feel deprived and longing for more is the so-called “middle class” – those who have much, but tend to watch the wealthy folk around them with envy, and, as a result, fail to recognise what they have. Gratitude, it seems, does not always collate with our circumstances.

One of the features of the 21st century world is the culture of accumulation. Our whole society is oriented around the desire to have more. Linked with this is what seems to be a growing sense of entitlement among people in the developed world. We don’t need gratitude for what we have, because we believe on some level that the world owes us a “good life”. Whatever plenty we may possess is not enjoyed, but expected, and whatever we think we lack is a failure on the part of the universe to give us what we “deserve”. And so we fall, all too easily, into a cycle of complaining, bemoaning what we don’t have, and ignoring the abundance that surrounds us.

I wonder, for example, whether we would have landed in the economic crisis of the last few years if we had developed a culture of generosity and gratitude, rather than accumulation and expectation in the western world. I wonder whether the “happiness quotient” of people in developed countries would be higher if we spent less time striving for more stuff, and more time enjoying and sharing the stuff we already have. I wonder whether, in some not-so-mysterious way, the contentment I wrote about last week, is to be found in the twin disciplines of thanksgiving and generosity.

Saying thank you is a good and important practice – both in spirituality and in human relationships. But, it can often feel like it’s not enough. The words are too easy to say, but to try and repay whatever gift we’re thankful for can diminish the gift and seem like an insult to the giver. This is where generosity is such a powerful practice – and one of the reasons why giving is such a significant act of worship.

I’m reminded of the movie “Pay It Forward” in which people, who have received some gift from another – often a stranger – are told not to try and repay the gift, but to “pay it forward”, to do something else to benefit three other people as a way of expressing gratitude for what has been received. This principle reveals a basic truth – giving and thanksgiving are inseparable. The glory of developing a lifestyle of giving and thanksgiving is that we find ourselves becoming increasingly aware of the goodness, the beauty, the truth and the abundance in our lives. And, as we share our plenty with others, through simple, daily acts of giving, we increase abundance and wealth all around us. They key, though, is to give mindfully – not thoughtlessly, just checking a box on a list or salving our conscience, but with a real concern for what the other person actually needs, and what gift will most benefit them.

All the great faith traditions of the world have robust teachings about giving. All the great spiritual teachers have recognised that it is not having that brings joy and fulfilment, but enjoyment. There are those who have much, but, through their lack of enjoyment, will always be poor, and there are those who have little, but through their capacity to enjoy, will always be wealthy. The best way to develop the ability to fully and intentionally enjoy the gifts we have been given is to give them away – to practice thanksgiving through generosity, and to share the abundance with others.

This is why, whenever followers of Christ gather for worship, we take up an offering. In practicing the discipline of giving, we are opening ourselves to the gift of enjoyment and abundance, and we are saying “thank you” in the most profound way. And then we inevitably learn the truth of the Scripture that says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.

Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.