Chapter 5
Worship and repentance
A close friend of mine, who had attended the Vineyard during the early 80s when the church still held its services in the gymnasium of Canyon High School, once told me that the early days of the Vineyard Movement were characterized by repentance, obedience and brokenness. It's out of such character of heart that Vineyard worship originated.
Hardness of heart
The greatest problem in the world today is hardness of heart. Jesus warned us that the love of many would grow cold as this present evil age draws to its close (Matthew 24:12). He even stated the reason this would happen:
"because lawlessness will be increased."
Lawlessness is man's rejection of God's way of living and insistence on "doing your own thing" and rejecting all authority. In chapter 3 of his letter to Titus, Paul reminds us to be gentle, courteous and submissive to governing authorities (verses 1-2). He then goes on to describe in the next verse what people in the world around him were like by describing first what he was like before God saved him:
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
Hating and being hated, a phrase that characterizes what much of the world around us is like today.
And unfortunately also much of the church. Jealousy and selfish ambition are rampant in the music industry, and gifted worship leaders and songwriters are not immune from such behaviors.
But this is really nothing new.
Phony worship
Ungodly, self-centred worship was the norm in the days when Amos prophesied against Israel (see Amos 5:21,23):
I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies…
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
Jesus echoed this judgment in Matthew 15:8-9 when he quoted from the prophet Isaiah:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines
the commandments of men.
I believe that Scripture passages like these express how God feels about much of the worship in the church today. In other words, He hates it.
Our friends Rick and Sharon recently moved to Texas and started visiting churches to find one they could join. After attending services at a number of different churches, he texted me saying that with only a couple of exceptions "every church we go to seems to have substituted a rock concert and light show with smoke machines for real worship." This may seem like an extreme example, but worship as performance and entertainment is actually more the norm in the church today than the exception. And that should trouble us.
In the previously mentioned Summer 1993 issue of Equipping The Saints magazine where Wimber explained how we should make worship our highest priority, he also warned against false, man-made worship:
Jubilation is that heart swell within us in which we want to exalt him… [But] I have been in some congregations where people try to create the jubilation level without doing the works of God, especially the works of salvation and restoration. But inevitably they fall short of true jubilation, because God's works elicit the jubilation. The former worship expression is fabricated, the latter genuine. If we do not exalt God in our private lives, jubilation becomes a phony exercise in corporate worship.
Phony worship. Fabricated worship. Is that what worship ministry is like in our churches today?
The way it was
Housegroups were a key priority in the early years of the Vineyard. These small groups, which were called kinships, were places where people learned to love one another, and where the "body of Christ" became an experiential reality instead of merely a theological belief. In an episode of his television program Healing for Today which aired in 1984 on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Wimber emphasized the critical importance of small groups for churches by saying [Note #20: See https://vineyarddigital.org/item/john-wimber-healing/ (requires a membership to Vineyard Digital)]:
I think that probably the most crucial missing element in the church today is what we've been teaching on today: learning how to love. Learning how to really, generously care for other human beings, in very practical and pragmatic ways. Giving ourselves in care of and in love. And you can't do it in large churches and large situations. We have several thousand people that gather on Sunday in our fellowship. And you know, you're not gonna learn to love somebody you don't know who's sitting next to you. You've gotta do it in small housegroups. That's why we're so committed in our fellowship that every member should be in a small housegroup—where you can learn to love people that otherwise you wouldn't even like.
Wimber also taught that housegroups are the seeds from which churches can be planted and grow. In his book The Quest for the Radical Middle, Bill Jackson recounts how Wimber and Bob Fulton put on the very first seminar for teaching would-be church-planters how to start a Vineyard church [note #21: See page 128 of The Quest for the Radical Middle by Bill Jackson (Vineyard International Publishing, 1999)]:
The main approach was to move to a city, get a job (the Vineyard offered help with moving expenses) and share the gospel via power evangelism. When people got saved, they were to be gathered into small groups. As previously stated, when two or three kinship groups were gathered, a Sunday night service was started. When that service reached 50-100 adults, it was time to move to Sunday mornings.
In a series of articles describing Vineyard worship during the early years, well-known Vineyard songwriter and worship leader Carl Tuttle adds a critically important insight to the mix concerning this issue [Note #22: See Vineyard Worship – The Early Years – Part 2 found online at https://www.carltuttle.com/wimber-years/2009/1/28/vineyard-worship-the-early-years-part-2.html]:
During the early years of what was then Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda, a meeting was rarely held that didn't commence with worship. All our small groups had worship leaders, so lots of people had to be trained. As a result, I began what I called "Worship Leader Fellowships." Those who participated in these fellowships would bring their guitars and we would all play the songs together. Getting everyone in tune with each other was a trip.
If "the way in is the way on" as Wimber was fond of saying, then reorienting the priorities of our worship ministry along the lines of what Carl describes may be the solution to the shallowness and self-centeredness that afflicts much of the church's worship today.
Setting priorities
Many churches try to make their Sunday worship times powerful and exciting. They usually do this to attract the younger crowd, but also to give members an opportunity to get "recharged" so they can face the challenges of the coming week.
I believe this kind of thinking is wrong. Worship ministry shouldn't be focused on prioritizing the Sunday worship experience. It should be aimed instead at making worship an essential part of each and every individual member's daily life. What are some ways we could change the focus of our worship ministry to achieve this? Let's look at three areas where our priorities may need alteration.
Sunday worship
In the music world when an artist or band is going to perform, there first has to be practices and sound checks to make sure everything is perfect. Some professional studio musicians may also be hired to fill out the sound. But worship isn't performance, and worship ministry isn't a profession. Carl's description of his worship team in the early years and how they "prepared" for Sunday worship times startles us today with its simplicity [Note #23: See Vineyard Worship – The Early Years – Part 1 found online at https://www.carltuttle.com/wimber-years/2009/1/31/vineyard-worship-the-early-years-part-1.html]:
In May of 1977 we gathered for our first church service as Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda. That morning was the first morning we had a “worship team.” I led the worship on my acoustic guitar, John Wimber played the Rhoades keyboard, and Dick Heying played drums. We did about six songs. Again we had no list, no practice, no overheads or songbooks. I just hit the first chord and went from there. That night Jerry Davis joined us on bass and this comprised our team for a couple of years… John, Dick, Jerry, and I were the worship team every Sunday morning and night service from May of 1977 to May of 1983. On Sunday mornings we did about 30 minutes of worship and Sunday nights about 45 minutes… Our approach didn't vary during this time; we would get together and tune our instruments, pray and then I would simply start a song and the guys would follow. In all that time we never rehearsed, never had a set list, never had any monitors and never provided lyrics for the congregation. The songs were all so simple back then and our repertoire was only about 30 songs, so if you stuck around you learned them pretty quickly.
I believe that if we would simply focus less on making our Sunday worship sound professional and focus more on just worshipping the Lord and helping the people in our congregations worship Him, we will start to see change happening in our churches. As we learn, or learn again, how to worship, hunger for God will grow among us and the kingdom of God will advance.
Housegroup worship
Instead of making the Sunday worship team our priority, or developing a second worship team, worship leaders should focus instead on recruiting, equipping and nurturing individuals who can lead worship in housegroups. In his article Carl provides some valuable insight relating to this matter by describing how and why John Wimber guided the development of the Vineyard's worship ministry [Note #24: See Vineyard Worship – The Early Years – Part 1 found online at https://www.carltuttle.com/wimber-years/2009/1/31/vineyard-worship-the-early-years-part-1.html]:
As time went on, it was clear that John did have some ideas about all of this. He knew if our worship music was going to be transferable that it needed to be accessible to the majority of churches, which are represented by small congregations. He knew keeping it simple would help accomplish this and he supported this. I think it's one of the reasons he was so supportive of me; with me leading, it was going to be simple. I am not trying to sound humble here. I’m just looking at myself accurately. I was always the least skilled member on our worship team, but the effect certainly was to make it accessible to a broader spectrum of people. The running joke, which I hear to this day, is if you could play three chords G, C and D you could play these songs. That wasn’t quite true, but it was close and there was no doubt it was directed towards me. We had many talented and gifted musicians coming to our church at this time, but John had no interest in having them become a part of the worship team, or replacing me, at least not during the time of the development of our worship style.
Carol Wimber says something similar concerning John's worship ministry priorities in her book [Note #25: See page 33 of John Wimber: The Way it Was by Carol Wimber (Hodder & Stoughton, 1999)]:
He [John] was the ultimate pragmatic artist, and because he was such a fine musician himself, he couldn't be fooled or intimidated by anyone's great talent. He fought to keep it simple, and I think he did a pretty good job.
When seeking individuals who can lead worship in housegroups, we should look for those who have a heart for worship, who love the Lord and love to worship Him, and who also are committed to regular fellowship in a small group. You don't need someone with a lot of musical ability to lead worship in a small group—as Carl says, you only need someone who can play three chords on a guitar. [Note #26: Well, maybe about a dozen or so easy chords will do. If you examine the songs in the first Vineyard songbook shown earlier in Figure 1, you'll find that nineteen of them are in the key of C, fifteen in D, thirteen in G, eleven in E, and four in A. So if you know how to play C, D, D7, Dsus, E E7, Em, Em7, F, F#m7, G, G7, A, A7, Am, Am7, B7, Bm7 you're cool.] And sing on-key of course.
As a worship leader you might be tempted to have the musicians from your Sunday worship team(s) lead worship in the homegroups they attend during the week. I would advise against this however. Worship team members should be attending homegroup to worship, not to lead others in worship. The reason I suggest this is because musicians need a break from playing so they can focus their hearts on God instead of having their minds constantly focused on their instruments. [Note #27: For example, when I was on the worship team at Surrey Vineyard, I had three keyboards in front of me: a Korg synth, a Roland electric piano, and an old Yamaha DX-7. You can imagine how focused my mind had to be on the technical aspect as I played these keyboards, which made it difficult for me to worship myself on Sundays.] It's also a test of character because if they find it hard to worship when a novice guitarist is leading, then where is their heart?
Leading by example
Finally, your mission as a worship leader should be to create a hunger for God and a love of worship throughout your whole congregation. The way to do this is to lead by example—and this means more than just maintaining your own personal worship life and modelling for others how one should worship. It also means giving all your dreams and aspirations as a musician and songwriter to God.
Wimber, a professional musician and arranger who was well on his way to success when he met Jesus, provides us with the example we should follow as Carol describes here in her book [Note #28: See pages 65-67 of John Wimber: The Way it Was by Carol Wimber (Hodder & Stoughton, 1999)]:
A few weeks before, Gunner had taught on the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field. Afterwards, John told him that he knew of a guy that could only do one thing well and he made his living doing it. Would God require that man to give up his career to become a follower of Jesus? A pregnant silence followed, accompanied by the piercing gaze, and Gunner answered, "I don't know what God would require of that man, but I believe he would have to be willing to give it all up."
"That's what I thought," John quietly murmured.
It wasn't very long until the Lord did speak to John about laying down his career... In the next few weeks, John sold all his horns except one that he traded for a painting he knew I wanted. It was a sad, hard time in our new life as baby Christians.
We had a station wagon in those days and John loaded up the entire vehicle with boxes of music and records and arrangements. His whole lifetime of the work that he loved went into those cartons, and on up to the city dump, where he pushed them out of the back of the station wagon and onto the piles of garbage and other discarded items. It made my heart ache to see him do that. He was totally silent the whole time.
I looked at what he was doing and I thought of the corn of wheat that has to die to bring forth much fruit, and I prayed that someday, one day, God would do something beautiful through John.
And look what God did do through John, releasing a wave of beautiful worship that has swept through churches all over the world.
Best of all
Let me end with a short personal note.
Many years ago I was on the worship team at Surrey Vineyard in BC, Canada, first with Andy Park leading us and then with a young man he trained to take over leading our team. I played keyboards every Sunday in church for several years, and also at some workshops and conferences. My goal in doing this was always to provide strong musical support for the other musicians in the band, and also to serve the congregation by enabling them enter into worship more fully.
It was a good experience, I enjoyed it!
I've also led worship with guitar in many home fellowships over the years. My guitar playing is pretty crappy, but our worship times were usually great and God sometimes showed up in even more powerful ways than we've seen happen in Sunday church services or at conferences.
That was even better!
Then there are those many, many times when I've just worshipped God when I am alone. One such occasion in particular stands out clearly in my mind.
A long time ago I used to teach high-school Physics, and in June when examinations are held, classes are cancelled. Being alone in my classroom, I picked up my guitar one lunchtime and began worshipping the Lord with some new worship songs I had written. As I started singing one of my songs [Note #29: See Song 10 in the Appendix] I suddenly saw the Lord in front of me, reclining on a couch. Realizing I was singing and playing for my King alone, I sang my heart out. All he did was lie on his side with his elbow on the couch and hand supporting his head, listening and looking reflective. Then after some time had elapsed, suddenly he was gone.
That was best of all.
That was worship.
Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise
Thou mine inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only first in my heart
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art [Note #30: From the hymn Be Thou My Vision]
That's the heart of a true worship leader.
Be one today.