Step into a Hillsong London service and you walk into the Dominion Theater, which seats 2,000 people. Choose a seat on the balcony or on the ground floor, and when the strobe lights and sophisticated video images begin flashing in the dim theater, you might wonder if you’re waiting for We Will Rock You: The Queen Musical!, the show currently running at the Dominion.

Hillsong Church, which recently celebrated its 20th year in Sydney, Australia, is growing its global reach Sunday by Sunday. As the largest church in Australia’s history, it regularly attracts 20,000 people to its weekend services. GOD TV, a Christian satellite channel, broadcasts many Hillsong events, boosting its potential audience to 400 million worldwide.

A member of the Assemblies of God denomination, Hillsong has burgeoning church plants in London, Paris, and Kiev, Ukraine. It has also been holding services in Moscow and Berlin. Hillsong’s reputation alone is enough to generate huge interest. In London, a Saturday night service and three Sunday services are necessary to accommodate the 7,000 in attendance.

Hillsong is perhaps best known for its music. Its famous worship pastor, Darlene Zschech, wrote the song “Shout to the Lord.” It is estimated that 25 million Christians sing that song each week worldwide.

Since the 1990s, Hillsong has released about 50 praise and worship recordings. Hillsong United, its youth ministry and band, has sold recordings by the millions in the American market. Hillsong United began its recent North American tour in Nashville, at the worship service of the Gospel Music Association’s music week.

Last fall in London, 3,000 people gathered at the Excel Center for the first-ever Hillsong Conference Europe. On the first night, the crowd hushed and then broke into applause as the lights went off and words appeared on the video screens at the front: “The church is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body in which he speaks and acts and fills everything with his presence.”

Applause broke out again as the music began. A lone guitarist stood in the spotlight. Beside the stage, Zschech stood drinking coffee, bouncing up and down in her heels. Hillsong’s senior pastor, Brian Houston, stood front and center watching the screens flicker footage of a welcome from Sydney, Australia, to Paris, where a drummer played in front of the Eiffel Tower, to the slums of India to a crusade of thousands in Brazil to a choir in Toronto singing the Hillsong chorus “How Great Is Our God.”

This event was a Hillsong-branded depiction of the Great Commission and a moving visual picture of their self-proclaimed mission: “To reach and influence the world by building a large Bible-based church, changing mindsets, and empowering people to lead and impact every sphere of life.” And it means “every sphere”—from church growth to politics to revival to social action to personal healing.

Hard to classify

In the summer of 1983, Houston and his wife, Bobbie, began a new congregation in northwest Sydney with about 45 members from Sydney Christian Life Center, the urban church that Houston’s father, Frank, started in the mid-1970s. In a textbook example of how to build a megachurch, they increased its attendance 20-fold in less than five years. In 2000, the two congregations were merged and renamed Hillsong.

Marian Edeborg has been a member of Hillsong for 16 years, first in Australia and now in London. A member of the worship team, Marian remembers one of the first Hillsong conferences, which have been held regularly in the church and Sydney school halls starting in 1986. A logistical nightmare, the conference had to be split into different venues. She remembers standing in the cold school hall, waiting to practice their music.

“Brian and Bobbie wanted to build something excellent that reflected God in a beautiful way. Even before it was big and glamorous, it was never just about Hillsong, but about everyone else,” she told CT.

Houston, a tall man with piercing blue eyes, has the stereotypical Australian easy-going, “no-worries” manner. He seems to engender a culture of change.

Houston tells his staff: “If your own life is growing, you don’t have to be threatened.”

He makes sure his life is growing by spending either Friday or Saturday of each week alone in prayer and devotion, and by going for short drives on his Harley-Davidson. Houston’s concept of a healthy church comes from Psalm 92:13: “Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish.”

“It’s the will of God for people to be able to flourish in our environment,” Houston says. “So the question for every pastor is: Can people flourish under your ministry? If they can’t flourish, why should they stay planted?”

And flourish Hillsong has. In fact, because it is so unusual in its size and range of ministries, religion scholars have had a hard time classifying it. It does not fit neatly into what some scholars call the first and second waves of the global Pentecostal-charismatic movement—denominational Pentecostalism and the independent charismatic movement.

Houston is president of the Assemblies of God in Australia (AGA), but he’s remarked that the denomination does little to shape Hillsong Church. His congregation is roughly 10 times the size of the AGA biennial gathering. Hillsong is distinct from traditional Pentecostalism, which has historically focused on speaking in tongues, charismatic expression, revivals, and being “baptized in the Holy Spirit.”

Since Hillsong began in the 1980s, it cannot be included in the second-wave charismatic movement either, which took shape in the 1960s. Second-wave charismatics typically are independent and cross denominational boundaries with relative ease. Most significantly, the second wave touched mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. Second-wave charismatic teaching puts significant emphasis on the “in-filling of the Holy Spirit,” the expression of spiritual gifts, and end-times teaching. It is more socioeconomically diverse than classic Pentecostalism.

In the 1980s, church growth professor C. Peter Wagner wrote The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit, describing what many now call the third-wave or neo-charismatic movement. Examples would include the Vineyard association, founded by the late John Wimber, and megachurches like Hillsong. They emphasize the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in individual believers and holistic mission, and many (but not all) leaders de-emphasize expressions of historic Pentecostalism, such as speaking in tongues and being “slain in the Spirit.”

‘The Hillsong Factor’

Hillsong’s influence, however you classify it, has grown beyond the religious sphere. It is politically influential enough in Australia that during election season, commentators talk about the “Hillsong factor.”

Hillsong members have found common cause with Australia’s conservative politicians. In 2002, John Howard, the conservative (Liberal Party) prime minister of Australia, opened Hillsong’s convention center. The church has held discussions on national issues, and certain political groups worry that Christian conservatives are using the Hillsong organization and numbers for political purposes.

This fall, Australia will hold national elections. Leading Australian politicians Peter Costello and Bob Carr have made pre-election visits to Hillsong. To some critics, such visits are evidence of lobbying within the church, and with 20,000-plus members in one congregation, Hillsong has a significant amount of ballot-box power.

Senior pastor Houston denies that Hillsong has a partisan agenda. He sees a difference between a church being involved in politics and individual Christians being involved.

“There is a fear of what we represent, anti-this and anti-that; if you’re pro certain agendas, you’re going to see the growth of the church as a threat,” says Houston. “In our own country, agendas are impure, and it’s much more to do with what you and I represent, with what they would feel is the growing of fundamentalism and what that threatens.”

‘Getting to Give’

Another controversial aspect of Hillsong’s ministry has been some of its teaching and practices. Mainstream Australian news media and Christian counter-cult groups consider Hillsong part of the manipulative health-and-wealth movement. As Hillsong’s global profile has grown exponentially, its critics have also grown in number and intensity.

The U.S.-based anti-cult website RickRoss.com hosts a forum with critiques of Hillsong teaching. Australian Baptist, Anglican, and Roman Catholic leaders have all accused Hillsong of promoting harmful prosperity teaching.

In January, The Briefing, an influential evangelical publication in Australia, published articles on Hillsong, faulting its lack of emphasis on classic Christian doctrines. It said systematic exposition of Scripture was “virtually absent” from Hillsong’s conference teaching. One columnist called for evangelicals to boycott Hillsong recordings in order to reduce the church’s income and influence.

This summer, more criticism appeared in the book People in Glass Houses, in which social worker Tanya Levin wrote about her childhood at Hillsong. Levin labeled Hillsong leaders fundamentalists and said they are preoccupied with money. “It’s a corporate organization being run by corporately trained people to achieve economic outcomes. Economic outcomes are the new measure of spiritual success and sign of blessing.”

Australian academic Shane Jack Clifton of Australian Catholic University is one of the few religion scholars to study Hillsong, Australian Pentecostals, and charismatics. In his doctoral dissertation, Clifton said that the rapid growth of the AGA has resulted in a greater emphasis on financial wealth, church-growth methods, and the “theology of blessing.”

Clifton points to Houston’s 1999 book, You Need More Money: Discovering God’s Amazing Financial Plan for Your Life, as one example of Hillsong’s “getting-to-give” teaching that the church’s critics have been disparaging for years.

But Hillsong says that, contra its critics, it teaches a balanced view of prosperity, a view common in Pentecostal circles. For example, another AGA leader, Steve Penny of Kings Christian Church, has elaborated on the concept of biblical blessing. In his dissertation, Clifton quotes Penny saying, “Prosperity is not an option, but a mandate and responsibility to all who believe in the authority of the name of Jesus. … The essential core of the Christian life is sharing. Prosperity has very little meaning if it does not include the ability to bless others.”

This perspective on blessings is evident in the famous Hillsong sound bite, “Blessed to be a blessing.” Leaders teach that Christian discipleship and social engagement with the poor are essential aspects of ministry.

In his opening message for the Hillsong Conference Europe, Houston put it this way: “Jesus embraces the poor. He doesn’t embrace their poverty. If we don’t have a revelation that God wants to build our lives, we’ll never be able to build others’. If you have nothing, you can do nothing.”

Clifton said Houston now shies away from using the word “prosperity,” replacing it with the idea that faithful Christians should “flourish” in all aspects of life.

Houston has been very quick to deal with some accusations. In 2004 the Sydney Morning Herald reported, “Houston tackles criticism with the same gusto he applied to allegations that his father, Frank, had abused a child in New Zealand 30 years ago. He confronted his father, removed him from active ministry at Hillsong, and then told his congregation.”

Revival where you are

Traditionally, Pentecostals have viewed revival as a church-based and church-organized event, and said that the fervor of believers must be maintained by great expenditures of time and talent from the local church leadership.

Hillsong leaders, on the other hand, teach that it is the responsibility of individual Christian disciples to take revival into the world. “The rivers of living water are in you, so revival is where you are,” said one of the pastors. This may be one reason Hillsong’s influence is spreading internationally.

Houston says, “For my father’s generation, [revival] had more to do with being in the front of the church. For me, it’s much more to do with what we’re called to do. The Spirit is upon me to reach hurting people. I really believe that the church needs to be focused out.”

Several years ago, Houston created the Hillsong Network and launched it using the corps of loyal church leaders who attend the annual Hillsong conference in Sydney, Hillsong’s signature event. Its mission is “to champion the cause of the local church.” Houston says, “The bigger picture is to build a healthy model for church that people feel like they can grab hold of.”

The network is designed to produce resources for church leaders. Local church leaders have the opportunity to attend “network intensives,” which are courses with titles like “Five-Star Church Intensive,” “Worship,” and “Kids’ Ministry.”

Houston desires to build the local church, rather than to replace it. “If I tell church leaders I’m here for them, but build a Hillsong Church next door, what am I really saying?”

In the U.K., Brian Wallis, who has been an evangelical pastor for 25 years, is a good example of the kind of church leader attracted to Hillsong. His current congregation in Hampshire, England, has 50 members.

Attending Hillsong’s first conference in the U.K., Wallis speculates on the reasons for Hillsong’s growth. He looks for things that might be useful to him.

“They make a big effort to be welcoming, user-friendly, and community-orientated,” Wallis told CT. “Society is so insular that this type of community draws people. Hillsong is very sophisticated. I have to understand that I can’t hit that in my church. We don’t have the talent or the budget, but I can learn from the principles.”

The God factor

Hillsong London has doubled in size every 12 months for the past four years. That’s due in part to word-of-mouth marketing, quality music, and upbeat services.

“Obviously, the God factor is big,” Houston adds good-naturedly with a smile. He also believes that people attend the church in such great numbers because “they are genuinely being helped.” And there is no question that thousands are helped.

Take Christine Caine, overseer of the Hillsong Network and the community action and evangelism stream. Caine grew up poor, living with her second-generation migrant Greek family in government housing before it was cool to be Greek, before My Big Fat Greek Wedding, she says. Men abused Caine for years when she was a child. She later discovered she was adopted. Although she’s only five-foot, four-inches, Caine has a commanding presence, and when she’s speaking, she fills the space, whether in an interview room or on a stage in front of thousands, where she walks confidently around the platform.

Caine is articulate and at times brash, not afraid to be honest, not afraid to make people uncomfortable. “You can almost hear them squirm,” she says, referring to people listening to her testimony, “because finally someone has put words to their experience.

“I grew up with a lot of reasons not to make it. When I got saved, I got saved. I had to work through rejection and shame and hurt, but I was personally transformed.”

People often say to her, “I can’t believe how healed you are.” Her reply: “Isn’t that what Jesus does? It’s the gospel.”

In her words: “My proclamation flies on the wings of my life, my wholeness.” Part of Hillsong Church for 18 years, she said sitting under healthy biblical teaching and being part of a loving, faith-filled community helped her overcome an abusive past.

“This generation doesn’t believe in truth,” she says. “They need to see Christians radically believing and living out their beliefs in their day-to-day lives.”

Hillsong’s members start within their own communities. Hillsong City Care (formerly Hillsong Emerge) works to reduce unemployment, crime, and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Hillsong helps people launch small businesses. Raelene was trying to provide for her three children alone, and Rachel, an experienced architect, wanted a career change. Both Raelene and Rachel were unemployed. Hillsong helped them to start a fashion business, Redfern, connecting them with professional designers.

Redfern has since coordinated numerous successful fashion events and has won $15,000 from the Social Ventures Australia “Big Boost” awards. They continue to expand their product line. Such individuals benefit from Hillsong’s social initiatives and, Houston believes, attend Hillsong as a result.

The Hillsong Foundation includes many different outreach initiatives, including some that focus on eradicating poverty in developing nations like Rwanda and Uganda. Hillsong is the largest single sponsor of Compassion International children, with more than 3,000 supported. Hillsong also works closely with Samaritan’s Purse, Watoto in Uganda, and Joyce Meyer Ministries.

Working with Compassion has become personal for Darlene and Mark Zschech, who visited Rwanda for the first time in April 2004. They were overwhelmed by the great needs they saw. As they prepared to fly out of Rwanda, Mark Zschech heard a question resound in his mind: “What are you going to do about it?”

It was a difficult question, one that would change them. “It just breaks you,” Darlene says softly when speaking of her time in Rwanda. Out of that experience came the idea for Hope Rwanda, which includes education and building programs, among other projects, and the sponsoring of 1,000 Rwandan children. Beginning in April 2006, it lasted for 100 days—the same length of time as the 1994 genocide.

“For the rest of our lives, we’ll be in Rwanda,” Darlene says. “I don’t want to be involved in anything that’s not about that.” The renowned worship leader speaks of caring for the poor as worship. Loving people in a practical way. “People don’t want to let me serve anymore,” she says. “I tell them I need to.”

Most of Hillsong Conference Europe is focused around helping the poor. On the first evening, 40 minutes into the conference, Gary Clarke, senior pastor of Hillsong London, belabors the offering. The next day, while waiting for the train to the Excel Center, conference attendees complain about the ten or fifteen minutes spent on raising the offering. They may or may not forgive him. But the money will go toward providing clean water to a village in Uganda.

Bobbie Houston, co-pastor with her husband, Brian, remarks that the purpose of the conference “is not to feed our ego. It’s about empowering you to go home and be amazing.” And the message is clear: Being amazing at home entails an outward focus on others.

Houston believes the goal is for the “church to reach beyond its own walls, help the poor, and start making a serious difference.” Caine wants to make sure people understand that “helping the poor is not the latest Hillsong fad.” It is an essential part of the gospel.

The Young Europeans

Garreth Symmonds is a 17-year-old attending Hillsong Conference Europe with his father, David. It was Garreth’s idea to attend the conference. He’s also hoping to attend Hillsong’s International Leadership College in Sydney when he finishes high school.

His father approves. “He’s converted me,” David says. “I now have Hillsong and Delirious? on my iPod and run to them at the gym.” The two attend the contemporary worship service at their small Anglican church. As with many churches, the Symmonds’ church has an earlier, traditional service and a later, contemporary one that caters to a younger crowd. “Where I used to enjoy the hymns, I now find some of them a bit drab,” David remarks.

Joel Edwards, general director of the Evangelical Alliance U.K., speaks about the new cultural realities facing the European church. “Europe is a continent in search of its soul,” he says. “If Christians pretend that we live in a Christian continent, we make a gross mistake in terms of how we do missions. But if we recognize that Europe is a continent in search of itself, then the church is in an excellent position, and we’ll begin to do missions and church in ways increasingly relevant to the culture around us.”

In Edwards’s view, Hillsong is succeeding in terms of its relevance to the European cultural landscape.

“I think it’s an exciting model of church that is attempting to be both a professional and a contemporary community in the 21st century. I’m increasingly grateful that Hillsong is beginning to look outward.”

Most Hillsong London members are next gen—young professionals who have recently made a Christian commitment. I spoke with Christian Fontana, who stood at the door of the Excel Center wearing a red Hillsong T-shirt to show he was part of the welcoming team.

Christian has been attending Hillsong London for two months. An aspiring musician, he had been working at an investment bank when a girl with whom he worked invited him to Hillsong.

“I was lost,” he says. “I was spiritually aware even though my family wasn’t religious at all. I was always searching but nothing was fulfilling.” Christian says he was attracted to the people at Hillsong. “I had never met such warm, friendly people in all of my life.” When he stepped into the Dominion Theater and the service started, he burst into tears. He understood that the things he was afraid to let go of—drugs, women, friends who weren’t really friends—were just “chains around my legs.” Christian began attending a mid-week study where he could ask questions and get connected. He has since quit his job at the bank to pursue music. “I have an album out that I’m promoting,” he says, giving the CT reporter his card, “but back to God. …”

Hillsong Church is taking its music and message out of the church and into the lives of those in need.

No, the Sunday services at the Dominion Theater in London are not Queen’s musical, but the people attending might leave singing to the world: “We will rock you.”

Cassandra Zinchini is finishing postgraduate work at the University of London and teaching at Geneva College.

Source : Christian Today

[tags : sembah worship hillsong london]

To the worshipper…

So I wonder what springs to mind for you when you think of “worship”?

To Worshippers… Allow me to preface this message to you with the comment that what I have prepared for you today is a few thoughts that have come out of my own life’s journey of seeking to understand worship and desiring to know God. I am not coming to you as someone who is qualified with all the answers on worship, just someone with a big heart!

I know that for me, straight away I think of our own church home and I can see a crowd of people before me with their hands raised and singing to God- that’s my context for church worship- it’s loud and it’s passionate and it’s about people who really love God!

When I think of worship though, I also think of the songs of the Vineyard movement that were so much a part of forming my worship to God when I was first saved. I don’t know if you would remember songs like “Refiners Fire” and “Awesome God” and “Purify My Heart”- they were like gold to me! I remember sitting in my room just sensing God’s presence so strongly as I listened to these songs on cassette- they taught me about God and managed to somehow draw worship out of me even when it was as though I didn’t know what I was doing.

This year, my family and I had an incredible opportunity to visit Papua New Guinea with a team from our church. I grew up in Papua New Guinea- which for those of you who don’t know is a country that’s positioned at the top of Australia near Malaysia- it’s a very hot country with a huge proportion of the population living in tribal situations. The actual worship meetings that we were a part of were incredible- there were up to 100,000 people just dancing and singing before God! I can remember just looking out from the stage and seeing dust just rising everywhere as these people so freely worshipped God even when many of their situations are so poor and needy in so many ways.

On the Sunday that we were in PNG, my wife and I went to a little family church up in the hills- we drove for about an hour on these bumpy roads to get there and finally arrived… dripping with sweat cause there’s no air conditioning and it’s just so hot! The actual church was just a concrete floor and their were no walls, just a couple of wooden benches to sit on. The worship in this church was lead by some men playing their guitars (it was very raw!) who didn’t stand out the front of the church but played on the front row. The church was full of dark skinned beautiful people who sang in harmonies to God with their eyes closed and their hands raised. When I got up to play a song, again just me and my guitar, they kept wanting just “one more song”- hungry for God and longing to worship Him.

Worship is described as: “The activity of glorifying God in His presence with our voices and hearts”.

A. W. Tozer said that “we are saved to worship God”.

John Stott said “Worship is the highest and most noblest activity of which man, by the grace of God, is capable”.

I want us to look today at a couple of things that I believe are fundamental to our worship- I’ll begin by saying that at the heart of our worship is God Himself. There is a quote by Martin Luther that captures the essence of what I want to share with you today and it is this: “To know God is to worship Him”. For us to truly worship God, two fundamental elements are needed: 1) Revelation- whereby God reveals himself to us and 2) Response- whereby we respond freely and uninhibitedly to God in awe and wonder.

1) Revelation

God makes Himself known to us in a number of ways- our worship will depend on our revelation of God. Our revelation of God is our understanding of who He is and how great God is- it’s the knowledge of God or by definition “theology”. And when we know God, we know how He wants to be worshipped.

I have a little boy who’s name is Jones Berlin- he is 16 months old and my greatest hero! When he was born, I remember feeling so disappointed in the fact that he just couldn’t communicate with us- he would cry and cry and we had no idea what the matter was! We would chat with him and make jokes, but he just didn’t get it! But now that we have had over a year together and Jones is learning to talk, he manages to communicate so much and he understands so much of what we say to him.

The strange thing I find about my son is that the more time I spend with him, the more need I have to spend time with him and the more time I have for him, the more love I seem to find in my heart for him. I am getting to know him. And whilst I don’t worship my son (!!!), my revelation of Jones has come out of my understanding of who he is and how great he is… it’s caused me to understand him and what he loves and needs and the person that he is.

So what are the ways that God makes Himself known/ reveals Himself to us?

I. Firstly, through His works in creation.
Psalm 19: 1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of his hands”

Have you ever looked an overwhelmingly huge mountain or the raging seas or a sunset that leaves you speechless and thought “how could anyone say that there isn’t a God in Heaven?” I have heard a story of a guy who was out surfing in the ocean and the sun was going down- he was so amazed by the beauty of what he saw around him that something inside of him said there just has to be more… it was out of this experience that he found himself in church and became a Christian and is serving in church today.

C.S. Lewis said: “The book of nature has three leaves- heaven, earth and the sea- of which heaven is the first and most glorious and by it’s aid we are able to see the beauties of the other two. He who begins to read creation by studying the stars begins the book at the right place.”

Take time out to look at creation- take a walk, go away for the weekend or find some incredible view that could only cause you to be amazed by God. God reveals Himself to us through His creation.

II. Secondly, God reveals Himself to us through the written Word/ the Bible
Psalm 19:7 “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.”

God’s Word is whole- it is complete and it is perfect. The Bible is more than someone’s comment on what God has to say, it is what God has to say! There is no substitute for the Word of God- it brings freedom, joy and liberty.

Statistics say that 30% of the world’s population have had virtually no exposure to the gospel message- that’s approximately 2 billion people that have not heard the gospel.

The Word of God is precious.

Augustine of Hippo said “The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home”.

Emile Caillet said “The Bible is not only a book which I can understand, it is a book which understands me.”

Billy Graham said “The Bible easily qualifies as the only book in which is God’s revelation.”

Let me put out the challenge to us today- what will you do with the Bible- the book in which you’ll find God’s revelation? Do you even value and prioritize God’s word enough that you would spend time reading it?

Of the world’s 7,291 languages, just under half (3,572) have either/ all Bible portions… you and not only have heard the gospel but we have the Bible in our own languages- God will reveal Himself to us through His Word when we open it and read it and value and devour it!

III. Thirdly, God reveals Himself to us through Jesus Christ
John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.”

When Jesus died on the cross, He made a way for you and I to know God. The result of the cross was a revolution in itself from what the people of Old Testament times formerly knew of God- it was a revolution in both religious experience and theological understanding.

John 15 tells us that we can know a relation with Christ that is “intimate and organic” (5)- where Jesus says ‘Make your home in me just as I do in you” (4).

The Message Bible puts it like this:

“The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish. -Jn1:14

IV. Finally, God reveals Himself to us through the Holy Spirit
Jn 16:13 “But when he, the spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

Dwight L. Moody said “There is not a better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit.”

“THe Holy Spirit is not a blessing from God, He is God”. -Colin Urquhart

The Word used for ‘Spirit’ in John is described like the wind, being invisible, immaterial, and powerful. In John chapter 16, the personality of the Holy Spirit is emphasized with the Spirit being referred to as ‘His’. The Holy Spirit was connected with the birth of Jesus, His life, His baptism, His death, His operations in the world, in the church, His operations in us and in the local church. Jesus is active today in us and through us- it is called the work of the Holy Spirit.

Eugene Peterson writes: “Spirit is the scriptural word for God sharing his life in our lives. It means that God is not an anonymous somebody “out there” or an idea explained in a book, but a living presence whom I experience in the life I live day by day. God gives himself to me. I receive God into myself. Spirit is God’s gift of Himself in my experience.”

Romans 8:11 in the Message says: “When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from the dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!”

2) Response

The second fundamental aspect of worship after Revelation is Response. Our awe- stricken response to God… Martin Luther insisted that worship is the essential symptom or expression of knowing God.

Like any living relationship, our response to God must be real and true and in keeping with who we are. As children we are taught what an appropriate response is for various situations such as saying “thank you” or referring to an adult as “Mr or Mrs so and so” or not whining when we don’t get what we want. In a similar way, the Bible teaches us what are appropriate ways in which to respond to God. If however, when I married my wife (the woman that I am passionate about), I filled our relationship with the “right” responses and nothing that came from my heart/ gut, we would end up with a pretty shallow kind of relationship!

Responding to God- worshipping Him- can only come out of knowing Him and having had Him revealed to us. I love my wife and am able to tell her the reason why I love her when I know her and am in a daily relationship with her. Our response to God is an overflow from our heart that loves Him for who He is and what He has done.

“God is not moved or impressed with our worship until our hearts are moved and impressed by Him” - Kelly Sparks

The Bible tells us that God alone is to be worshipped (Ex 20:1-3). He is to be served with our whole being (Dt 6:5, 10:27)- the very nature of God is overwhelming in all that He is… it demands everything of us of to join in worship to our creator! The two most important words for worship in the New Testament have the combined meaning of service or worship- the implication is that Christian Worship and service are essentially one.

The Bible tells us that David danced before the Lord. The people sang songs of praise to God as see through out the Psalms. In the New Testament, a costly jar of perfume was broken over Jesus feet in worship of the Lord. Paul worshipped Christ with a life well spent.

The overflow of a heart that is in love with Jesus Christ is worship- worship that involves every part of who we are… worship that sings and shouts and dances, worship that serves and gives and loves generously, worship that responds to God with all that it has for all that He is!

Source

[tags : sembah worship hillsong reubanmorgan]

Inspired by the psalmist who describes God’s ongoing work as provoking new beginnings, award-winning singer/songwriter Chris Tomlin releases “See The Morning.” After 15 years of writing songs for the church, Tomlin’s new 11-track album shows joy remains possible even in the messiness of life. Praise to God is not just for life’s prosperous seasons-it’s a constant way of living with hope.

“See The Morning expresses the idea that God’s as faithful as the rising sun,” explains Tomlin. “Though your life may be shifting all around you and it may be dark, there is hope.” Chris cites empowering Biblical stories from Psalms, Exodus, Lamentations, Joshua, Isaiah and some accounts of Jesus’ miracles in the gospels to draw a resolute conclusion. “From these stories I’m inspired to notice morning as an incredible symbol in Scripture. Morning is brand new. It’s fresh. It’s new life. That while the darkness came and was for a while, light is breaking through into morning.”

“Thats the hope I want to help people grab with this album,” Tomlin says.

See The Morning started to emerge following the far-reaching success of Tomlins 2004 sixstepsrecords/ Sparrow Records release Arriving. That record delivered a call to the Christian church to pursue life-renewing worship, and it indelibly reinforced Tomlins distinction as the voice of todays modern expression of Christian worship. The songs breathed vitality into both corporate and devotional worship music, creating a ripple effect like nothing Tomlin had previously experienced.

Arriving gave Tomlin his first RIAA-certified gold record and made radio history by producing three No. 1 singles and three songs in the R&R AC Top 30 simultaneously (two of those in the Top 10). Tomlin led all artists this spring with 10 GMA Music Award nominations, capping off the Christian music industrys April ceremony with five statuettes, including standout awards for Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and Song of the Year. The recording also caused the church to sing, with How Great Is Our God and Holy Is The Lord landing in the top 15 of the most sung CCLI songs, and bringing his total CCLI charting songs to 17 being sung by tens of millions of worshipers around the world. This season also successfully perpetuated Tomlins celebrated participation in the popular, college-focused Passion conferences.

Grateful for these opportunities, the accolades also bring Tomlin the added weight of responsibility and concern for the human condition.

The more I live, the more I see that life is not fair, the Austin, Texas-based musician says. Around the world, Ive been exposed to much poverty and sickness. I hear about what people are going through, and I realize that some are not as blessed as others. The world is full of discouragement. I think God wants to give us all great compassion for those…so I want to use my voice to write songs that serve as a reminder to people that Jesus life provides hope for us all. Not just in the good times, but in the bad times, as well.

Hebrews says, Therefore through Jesus let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that praise his name and do not forget to do good and serve others, for which such things God is pleased, Tomlin continues. I hope this music serves others. With worship music there is a revival. The spirit of God grows in peoples hearts. To worship him is not only to sing our hearts out to God but also to love and serve people and to meet people where they are. Hopefully I can give voice to some songs that help people do just that.

Combining the artists strong signature hooks and accessible choruses with the production expertise of the award-winning Ed Cash, who also produced Arriving, See The Morning is imbued with a community spirit, as evidenced by the number of contributing songwriters. Tomin is joined by Cash and Matt Redman in the opening track that anchors the theme of hope, How Can I Keep From Singing, a rendition of the 1860 hymn by Robert Lowry:

How can I keep from singing your praise/ How can I ever say enough/ How amazing is your love

How can I keep from shouting your name/ I know I am loved by the King/ And it makes my heart want to sing

Hope also resonates vigorously on Rejoice (the track from which the albums title is drawn), as well as on the beautiful first radio single Made To Worship. Producer Cash, who encouraged Tomlin to record what became his first No. 1 radio hit, Indescribable, brought Tomlin the chorus that he and Stephen Sharp had written for Made To Worship. Tomlin finished writing the song and audiences nationwide are responding, as it has already become a national radio hit.

The album further features the high-energy Let God Arise as a rowdy, rambunctious track inspired by Psalm 68:1 and affirming that death does not get the final word over humanity.

You cannot play something titled Let God Arise as a ballad at 75 beats a minute, Tomlin laughs. We, as a band [Jesse Reeves (bass), Daniel Carson (guitar) and Travis Nunn (drums)] love to play loud and get people going. This is our rock and roll song. Often testing new songs like that one on the road and in churches before deciding to record them, Everlasting God, written by Brenton Brown and inspired by Isaiah 40, is already a staple chorus at Austin Stone Community Church, which Tomlin co-founded in 2002.

Closing the album is Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), a new rendition of the classic hymn. I wasnt sure I wanted to mess with the most recognized hymn ever, Tomlin admits. But after researching the song, he discovered the famous John Newton hymn has withstood previous editors. Reviving an original verse that had lost popular favor over the years, combined with a new chorus co-written with Passion founder/director Louie Giglio, Tomlin rekindles a church standard for a new generation of worshipers.

My chains are gone/ Ive been set free/My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns/ Unending love, Amazing grace!

As millions of people around the world are already singing his songs every week at collegiate gatherings, worship services, concert settings and as they sing along with radio, perhaps like the famous hymn from Newton, the songs of Chris Tomlin will live on in the hearts and through the voices of worshipers for generations.

I want to write songs that last more than a few weeks on the radio, Tomlin reflects. I feel like Gods given me a gift to write songs for the average person that help them communicate their feelings to God. And For See The Morning, and really all my songs, I hope they will be ones that bring people closer to God, so much so that they are sung long after I’m gone.

Source - Featured Worship Leader on WorshipTogether

[tags : sembah worship christomlin ]

For starters, consider the early history of the biggest rock band in the world. The year is 1982, and U2 is touring the U.S. in support of its second album, “October” (Island). Thanks to faith-evident songs such as “Gloria,” “With a Shout,” “Tomorrow” and “Rejoice,” music journalists are starting to confront the band with a loaded question: “What are you, a bunch of Christians or something?”

“It’s time to talk about it,” U2’s 19-year-old guitarist, The Edge, tells CCM Magazine’s Terry Mattingly during an interview at the time. “We realize the band … is at a crossing point. For a long time, we haven’t talked with interviewers about the fact we’re Christians, because it’s so easy for people to misunderstand. It’s easy for people who are not Christians, especially writers who do not understand, to take what we say and misinterpret it.”

As Mattingly writes in his CCM article (“U2: Rockers Finally Speak Out About Their Rumored Faith,” August, 1982), “The four members of U2 … are all scared of being stereotyped.”

Regardless, as Bono, the band’s 20-year-old singer and principal lyricist, explains to Mattingly, if critics want U2 to stop singing about the big subject or going after the deep emotion, they can forget about it. And if another group of folks wants the band to go after the “safe Christian subjects” and the “safe Christian crowd,” they can forget that, too.

Sound familiar? Here we are 25 years later and such sentiments are still being expressed – not just by U2, but also by The Fray, Switchfoot, Sufjan Stevens, Underoath, Mindy Smith, Flyleaf and a host of others.

So, how much has changed?

In today’s urban scene, artists like Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin and Smokie Norful are bridging the gap from gospel music to mainstream R&B. Rock acts such as Decyfer Down and Disciple are having their songs used by major media vehicles like the NFL. Major Christian artists such as tobyMac are seeing more than half of their total sales happening through mainstream retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Established Christian market acts such as Switchfoot and Relient K have moved from Christian labels to major mainstream labels, while other artists of faith like As I Lay Dying, The Fray, Sufjan Stevens and Thrice are not affiliated with the Christian market at all.

From major names to unknowns and indies, artists are stretching the definitions and challenging the preconceptions of what it means to be a “Christian artist” as they impact our mainstream culture more than ever before. It seems an alternate reality is developing for artists of faith – one beyond the binary “Christian or Secular” options of the past. “It’s time to move on,” according to Relient K’s Matt Thiessen. “It’s time for Christian music to bleed into everything else.”

Who We Are Instead

During a recent interview for essentialrecords.com, INO recording artist Derek Webb asked Jars of Clay’s Dan Haseltine the following:

“Do you feel that it’s useful – or even accurate – to be called a ‘Christian’ band these days? How might your feelings have changed over the years regarding a band being considered a ‘ministry’ verses a band making excellent and engaging art that simply represents their view of the world? Or are these categories really necessary at all?”

Suffice it to say, Haseltine’s responses to these and other related questions are thought-provoking. Check out the interview by visiting the “Artists” section at essentialrecords.com and selecting “Jars of Clay.”

[tags : sembah worship hillsong lyrics chords]

On New Year’s Eve, Atlanta’s Philips Arena throbbed with the music of Widespread Panic. A few days later, the faint smell of marijuana still lingered as a different crowd gathered for its fourth day of loud, demonstrative worship. At center stage, Matt Redman struck up a new song for the nearly 20,000 college students who packed the arena. At least 3,000 more students in an adjacent venue watched the same image of Redman that Philips Arena projected on 12 screens. But this concert wasn’t about Redman. Unlike other concerts, this event also projected lyrics. The words guided an animated throng to behold something bigger than the musicians on stage, something bigger than themselves.

[tags : sembah worship passion LouieGigli ChrisTomlin]