Worship Myths

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

Mike Abendroth here. I have to admit that as I look outside, I see the wonder of God's creation.

It's a New England day today. It's in the middle of October. It's sunny, blue skies, clear, and I see all the evidences of death outside.

That is to say, beautiful yellow leaves, orange leaves, red leaves.

The green leaves still have whatever they have in them. Oh, I wanted to say, because one of my listeners sent in and said

I say, etc. wrongly, et cetera. And so there, I just said it rightly, et cetera.

And I'm not going to drink any milk. I will drink milk today and I'll drink some other things, et cetera.

All right. So, see, there we have it. I mean, this is the problem of growing up in Nebraska. We could probably do a reality show,

Growing Up Nebraska. We could just mutilate grammar, phrases, clauses, et cetera.

All right. I'm going to try my best. It's hard being a radio personality. On my desk, I do have, on my radio desk,

I have a Royal Plush Rational Throw. Someone gave it to me and it's called Incredibly Soft, Warm, and Durable.

And then it is a throw rug made by Northwest Manufacturing or something.

And it's the kind of thing that you need this time of year, et cetera. And it's got a picture of Mary giving a white rose to somebody who has got a hold of her gown, who he is below her.

And then there's also some smaller child with purple, a purple Rational Plush Throw on her spreading out this other robe thing.

I don't know really what this is. It means something. It's got to be some Roman Catholic thing. And so I thought the

Rational Throw must have been some paschal type of thing. It was a Roman Catholic term. So I just looked it up on the internet and Rational has nothing to do with Catholicism at all.

So this is going to be a nice warm blanket here when things get nippy. Since it's all rolled up perfectly, you could put your hands in it.

What do they call those things that you put your hands in to keep them warm? I think Tom Brady, well, he probably should use those, something similar to that.

So I have a Royal Plush Rational Throw. It's a warp knitted thing. I don't know.

Why do they make these things? It's like when you go to the dollar store, the Dollar Tree, dollar store, 99 cent store.

And if you ever want a candle, you go to the candle section and what do you find over there? You get a bunch of,

I don't know what it is, it's almost Haitian Catholic voodoo stuff with weird pictures of Mary.

No, don't get me wrong. I like Mary. She was a blessed woman because God decided to bless her, but it's just kind of funky.

I don't really go for all that kind of stuff. So that's the first thing on my desk today. Second thing is, if you'd like to go to Greece with us, the

No Compromise Trip to Greece, I think we're going to have enough folks to go. April 17th through the 27th, we leave

Boston and you need to have your $300 in and your form, your registration form into Pilgrim Tours, and you need to do that by November 30th.

So you can either write to me at info at nocompromiseradio .com and I'll send you the brochure and the thing that you fill out, registration form that is, etc.

Or you can go to Pilgrim Tours and call them or go on their website and probably find No Compromise Bethlehem Bible Church, something like that.

April 17th through the 27th, we'd love to have you go. I can't wait to go. Lord willing,

I'll go with my daughter as well. And so it'll be Gracie. Gracie's going. Next thing on my list today on No Compromise Radio, The Secret Thoughts of an

Unlikely Convert is the name of the book written by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, an

English professor's journey into Christian faith. I don't know why I'm breathing so hard today.

It's probably the asbestos here in the church. The Asbestos Bible Church. There's no asbestos here, allegedly, etc.

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, an English professor's journey into Christian faith. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.

Carl Truman told me about this book. It's published by Crown and Covenant, and it's said here in the back by Rosaria.

This is her little snippet of the book that the publishers put on the back. Conversion put me in a complicated and comprehensive chaos.

Sometimes wonder when I hear other Christians pray for the salvation of the lost if they realize that this comprehensive chaos is the desired end of such prayers.

Often people ask me to describe the lessons that I learned from this experience. I can't. It was too traumatic.

Sometimes in crisis, we don't really learn lessons. Sometimes the result is simpler and more profound.

Sometimes our character is simply transformed. Well, this particular book,

I don't know how long I'm going to talk about it today. We'll just see how the show goes. I have some other things on my desk. Rosaria was a tenured professor at a large university.

She was an English professor, and here's what it says on the back. She owned two homes with her partner, lesbian partner that is, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world.

That is, gay, transgender, lesbian, homosexual activism.

In her late 30s, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down. The idea that Christianity, a religion that she regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who

God was. So, this is a book that talks about her reflections, what she was thinking when she was the lesbian professor, what her thoughts are now, and then it's amazing to look at this in the back.

It says, a little bit about the author, and it says, the author and her husband, Kent, live in North Carolina with three of their four children, where Kent serves as a pastor in a reformed

Presbyterian church. And I just think of 1 Corinthians chapter 6, don't you?

We don't do anyone any good to tell them that their unrighteous behavior is righteous.

Well, it doesn't work if we tell them their righteous behavior is unrighteous either. But my point is,

God is a great transforming, saving God, and He cleanses sinners.

He imputes His Son's righteousness to sinners. The Bible talks about sexual sin being forgiven in 1

Corinthians chapter 6, and it's amazing to consider. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Now when you see those words, do not be deceived, they're found also in James chapter 1, they're found in 1

Corinthians chapter 15, verse 33, I believe, possibly 34. They are found a variety of different places in Galatians chapter 6, if memory serves me.

And it just means that you could easily be deceived. So in these topics, it's easy to be deceived.

Good company, bad company corrupts good morals in 1 Corinthians 15. When you hang out with people that don't believe in the resurrection of the body, nor Jesus's resurrection body, that'll rub off on you.

Don't be deceived. It's easy to think you're above it all, and you would never be deceived. It's easier to think that you're stronger than what you are.

So in this particular case in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and following, don't be deceived.

It's easy for you to have a family member, mom, dad, brother, sister, daughter, son, friend, who is living an unrighteous life sexually or in any other way, for that matter, and you think, you know, they're nice and they're kind, they're good citizens, they do good things for the community, they pay their taxes, they cut their lawn.

As a matter of fact, their lawn maybe looks better than your lawn. And so it's easy to be deceived. Paul says, though, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

ESV just terms that with one term, there's actually two terms, two different terms for homosexuality in the original, in NES, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

And here's the great thing, and I think of this book with Rosaria, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified.

You're not only washed clean, but you're set apart for God's purposes. You were justified, declared righteous in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And so, if you'd like to order this book,

I would commend this book to you, an English professor's journey into Christian faith called The Secret Thoughts of an

Unlikely Convert. And when you read this book, I think you're going to be very encouraged.

I didn't finish it in one night, but it was probably two nights. And when you walk through this book, you'll say to yourself, it's amazing that God saves the way

He does. And I think it's fascinating that it all started with—I read this a while ago, so I'm just going from memory—someone during the days of the promise keepers wrote in an article, a

Reformed Presbyterian pastor. And I can't remember exactly what he said. He was standing up for Christian faith and maybe differences between the sexes.

And so she read it and thought, well, you know, this guy actually knows what he's talking about.

And it wasn't full of, you know, Christianese and ad hominem stuff and kind of dopey Christianity, in other words.

And anyway, they struck up a friendship, the pastor and his wife, with this lady and had her over for dinner, and the list goes on and on.

And eventually, through the preached word, very kind setting, loving setting, hospitable setting,

God opened her eyes. So I would just commend that to you because I think you would be encouraged, especially if you have a friend enslaved in any kind of sin, whether that's heterosexual, homosexual, or it's not even a sexual sin.

God saves sinners. And out of death, the death of Christ Jesus, comes new life.

Well, what else do we have here on No Compromise Radio? I have in front of me 10 worship -leading myths.

Now, even maybe that topic sounds funny. It's on a WorthilyMagnified .com blog, and it says here, it is written by,

I don't even know who wrote it. That doesn't help me on No Compromise Radio.

Well, I can say this. If you type in 10 worship -leading myths, October 10, 2012, on WorthilyMagnified .com,

all one word except the .com, of course, you will find it. Worship -leading.

Now, see, I don't really like that, worship -leading. The worship leader, of course, is Christ Jesus, and to a secondary extent, the pastor is the worship leader.

It's not the person who sings the peppy songs during the worship service. Minister of worship.

Maybe that's what we could have. We could have ministers of worship, missionary ministers, visionary ministers.

And I just like the way this is set out, the myth style. So you have the opposite, and here we have it.

10 common worship -leading myths that come to mind. One, every week you have to be more creative than the last.

Now, when you get up and give a speech to someone, one shot and you're done. You just let her rip.

You can pull out all the stops. You can bring in every possible cliche, etc. You can do whatever you'd like.

You don't have to speak to them again. But when you have to get up and preach to the same people 25 years,

Sunday morning, Sunday night, sometimes on Wednesday night, you have to ask yourself the question, now what am

I going to do? Second time, third time, fourth time, fifth time. It becomes much more difficult. But for worship -leading or for preaching, our job is not creativity.

That doesn't mean that pastors have to introduce the sermon the exact same way every single time.

They have to have the same kind of outline. That's not what I'm talking about. But here in this worship -leading myth blog, the author goes on to say every week you get to point people to Jesus again.

That's what you do. That's exactly right. Whether it's preaching or singing songs, the issue is not for the steward creativity, novelness, newness.

It is what? You've heard me say this many, many times. Faithfulness. Stewards are to be found faithful.

1 Corinthians chapter 4 talks about this a lot. We have a trust from the

Lord Jesus Christ, and we are to be faithful. And so you don't have to say to yourself if you lead the singing portion of the worship.

Notice the singing isn't the worship. It's a portion of the worship where we're worshiping God through singing.

You have popular music that you just listen to and you can sing along with, maybe in the car.

You have, oh, music that is very classical music that you listen to and you say, okay, that is a performance music.

And then you have a folk music, F -O -L -K, Volkswagen. And this ties communities together.

You have songs that are sung, football games, and it binds the crowd together, rugby games, cricket games,

European soccer, that is, football. So they bind the people together.

And as the church gets together and she sings songs about the Lord Jesus Christ, we're after faithfulness.

That does not mean you can't pick new songs, sing a new song about God's faithfulness in our generation.

But you don't have to think to yourself, creativity. So I like that one. Number two, top 10 or top common worship leading myths.

Number two, don't waste too much time thinking, praying about songs for Sunday. Well, the way this is written, you should think about those songs.

You should think about what haven't we sung about for a while?

How does this relate to the sermon? How does the last hymn relate to the sermon?

What have we been focusing upon lately in the songs? And let's make sure that we have some songs that aren't always upbeat, but that have more of a lament form to them because some songs are for those exact occasions.

Number three, you need a great voice. That would be a myth. If you were a worship leader, well, maybe that will help you in terms of leading.

But that's not really what we're after, at least this author is not after in particular. And I think of singing in general.

People say, well, I don't really like to sing because I don't have a great voice. Now let's just think about that for a second.

Let me talk to you directly if you're a person who goes to a church service and you don't sing.

You do the mumbles, especially if you're a dad and you've got the kids. No wonder your 18 -year -old, 15 -year -old, 12 -year -old, they do the mumbles too.

No, we sing. We sing. And so as I was listening a while ago to the

White Horse Sin when it comes to T. David Gordon and Johnny Can't Sing Hymns, he was talking about getting together for a family birthday party.

And when you go to grandpa's house and sing him happy birthday, you don't say, well, let's just let the people who have the best voices sing.

No, all together you sing. God has given you the voice you have. Now you can go to training and you can try to sing better.

I think everybody could probably learn to sing better, but you are to sing with the voice God has given you.

You say, well, if I sing too loud, everybody's going to hear how off key I am. Well, maybe they will.

I'm not saying you have to shout it, but I think you should sing robustly. I think you should sing like Sinclair Ferguson has taught me, like you're holding the hymnal with Jesus.

And I think you should make your children sing. It's not an option in our family. We sing.

Everybody sings. That's just what we do, and you're not going to get out of it. You are going to sing.

Dad sings. Mom sings. Everybody sings. And so we are singing to the

Lord with the voice He has given us. And so if you don't know the tune, maybe the first stanza, you don't sing really too loudly because you don't know what you're trying to listen.

I understand all those things, but I want you, when you're singing, to sing with the voice that God has given you and sing like you're forgiven.

Sing like you care what Jesus did for you. Number four, you have to stay up to date with all the new stuff.

That would be a worship -leading myth. Well, I guess if you have to stay up to date with all the new stuff, then you'll buy into the

Hillsong stuff, and you'll buy into the Signs and Wonders stuff, Vineyard stuff, and whatever the next big deal is.

I don't think you have to do that. Sometimes new is not necessarily good. Sometimes it is good.

Number five, you've really arrived when you get famous. Wrong, the blog says.

The church needs servants, not celebrities. I'm not really sure how many people, short of Coughlin, have gotten famous for leading worship songs.

Now, I don't know who leads the songs at 10th Press. I do know who leads the songs at Grace Community Church, where John MacArthur is a pastor.

Clayton Erb, I want to guess he's been there almost as long as MacArthur, 30, 40 years, something like that.

But Clayton's not after celebrityism, and so neither should you be. Some Christians, when

I get on the internet and watch Perry Noble's what they call church worship service, the other day

I was watching their version of the first song for worship from Kiss, I Want to Rock and Roll All Night and Party Every Day.

And the problem is, A, it has nothing to do with worship. And so it's vile and disgusting and blasphemous.

But B, they do it poorly. You know, here's what I think of half of these people.

They can't get famous through regular means of Nashville in the secular way.

So let's get as famous as we can as Christians. So when I went to Saddleback Church many times, you watch the worship band there and you think, you know what, it's pretty tight, camera people and all that.

But it's just not to the professional level. But the problem is, they're wanting it to be.

They want to be the superstar celebrity professionals from the way it's wound up.

Now you say, well, you can't look at their motives, you can't see their heart. Well, I know that's obvious, but it sure seems like to me that's what's happening.

When you watch Perry Noble's group, the same thing's happening. When you go to Elevate Church with the

Stephen Furtick folks, that's what it seems like they're doing. But they're just a day late and a dollar short.

All right, what do we do next? Number six, if people aren't into it, then something's wrong with your leading.

Now I don't know what into it would be. I don't know how that reflects itself. Clapping. If you clap every song you sing,

I think there's a problem. If you go to, you say, well, clapping's in the psalms. Well, it certainly is.

Is it in every psalm? Every psalm. In precatory psalms, you clap?

Well, maybe you do. But I don't think there's clapping in every psalm. Matter of fact,

I can't remember. Peter Masters wrote a book on clapping, hand raising, all that stuff.

I don't know. Do a little word search. Five, ten psalms out of 150 have clapping in them.

So I don't care if you clap. That's not the point. I think—here's a pet peeve of mine, though. If somebody does something and then you clap afterwards,

I don't prefer it, but it's not that big a deal. It just kind of means performance, way to go, and we're clapping for your performance.

So I don't really like that. That's not my preference. But my hate is, my pet peeve is, my anti -passion, et cetera, is this.

When people say, whoever's up there, let's give a round of applause to the Lord. Oh, I think

I'd rather have you clap after special music. And by the way, people clap after special music or clap after a hymn, but so far in all my life,

I have never heard someone clap after Scripture reading, which is the purest form of worship, and I've never really heard anybody clap after I got done preaching.

Well, maybe I was a guest someplace and they were, you know, some high school deal or something,

I don't know. But people usually don't clap when I get done preaching. No, I'm clapping inside.

Yeah, that's awesome. Sadly, sometimes that sinful behavior is true. But the whole clapping thing,

I just don't get. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. What are the other myths here? Anyone with a willing heart should serve on the worship team.

Wrong. Look at heart and giftedness, and we'll have to talk about that another time. Holy Spirit only shows up on the fourth song.

I don't know what that means, but some people I do know think this. They think that it's a very powerful, spiritual,

Holy Spirit -driving song if the bass guitar is loud enough and you can kind of feel that.

And what they think they're feeling is the Holy Spirit, but in fact, they are feeling the bass drum.

You watch hands that go up in the air at churches that have hands go up regularly, and they don't go up for the sacred head now wounded.

They go up for, you know, He is exalted on high or whatever. You'd be happier at another church, you should speak before every song, and that's the top ten.

So today, Mike Abendroth, we talked about Rosaria Butterfield's book, The Secret Thoughts of an

Unlikely Convert. We talked about worship -leading myths, and we said that if you want to email us at info at No Compromise Radio, I'd be glad to respond to you, or Ray would respond, and we'd love to have you go to Greece with us.