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BCMC JOURNAL 2005
Breakout Session: The
Powerful Impact of Missions on Local Church Worship
By Joe Crider
The
impact of missions on Second Baptist Church would be
difficult to describe in any amount of time, let alone
the 50 minutes we will spend in this room together. In
fact, as we speak, a publishing company is finalizing a
book written by our pastor, Dr. John Marshall about what
we call the "Missions Revival" at Second Baptist
Church. To God be the glory for the things He has
done…because much of what has happened over the past 8
years can not be explained by human endeavor, but by the
power of God.
For
our church and certainly our worship and music ministry,
that has not always been the case. Being "on mission"
was simply giving to Annie and Lottie so someone else
could go, or praying that someone else could go --
until, we as a church, began to see an incredible and
transformational truth unfold in Scripture. And it was
in the form of this question:
Why does God want the people of the world to know Him?
Because God's purpose is that all people should
worship Him.
That
phrase and the following quote by John Piper changed my
heart forever. And since discovering those truths, our
church has never been the same:
"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church.
Worship is. Missions exists because worship
doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God
is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the
countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces
before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It
is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever."
What
we began to realize is that missions and worship are
vitally connected. And I'm beginning to realize that
the word "connected" probably isn't a great descriptor…I
believe worship and missions are married to one another.
So,
in this wedding between worship and missions, what is
the significant impact on us? Here are just a few of
them:
Personalization - If you look at the accounts of the
Great Commission given by Christ in the Gospels and in
Acts 1:8, it is clear that Jesus is talking not only to
mission agencies like the IMB, He's also speaking to
local churches -- and even more importantly, He is
speaking to you and me personally. The Great Commission,
in all it's fullness, is a charge and a challenge and
command to every believer. I was literally shocked eight
years ago when our pastor and administrator began to use
this phrase as the new mantra for our church: "Missions
is not just something we do, it is who we are!" For me
to live and minister authentically under that banner, I
knew I either had to leave, or God had to change my
heart. God changed my heart.
Here
is the beauty of personalization: when someone responds
in obedience to any of Christ's commands, I believe that
is an act of worship. Almost any definition of worship
that's worth its salt has in it somewhere that worship
is "our response to God." Louis Giglio's basic
definition of worship is this: "Your response to what
you value most." [1] One of my favorite definitions is
Warren Wiersbe's: "Worship is the natural, heartfelt,
genuine, emotional response to the character, the works,
and the grace of God." [2] As
our people have been obedient in responding to His call
to go, they have drawn closer to the heart of God in a
very personal way. Beth Moore describes the
corporate results in a most wonderful way:
"We can never learn
intimacy in even the most anointed corporate worship.
We discover divine love in the inexplicable freedom of
solitary confinement with God. We then bring it without
so much as a deliberate thought into the great
assembly. It simply cannot stay home."
[3]
We
tell all of our people that private worship and daily
connection with Jesus must happen prior to and on the
mission field, if it doesn't, then the trip is a
sight-seeing adventure at best. But when it does, they
see God work, and when they come home, it bubbles forth,
as Beth Moore says, in the "great assembly."
United Vision - I remember Bill Hybels telling a
story a long time ago about his daughter and a friend of
hers who was visiting their home during a college
break. The daughter's friend had been active in the
youth ministry at Willow Creek but during her college
years moved on to another church. Bill didn't know that
she had left Willow and asked her a question about how
much she was enjoying Willow and the college
ministry. The young lady replied that she no longer went
there and that she loved the youth ministry but never
got "plugged in" to the college ministry. As Hybels
tells the story he said he realized that Willow Creek
had become a bunch of separate departments and entities
all doing their own thing -- that there was nothing
really connecting them at the core.
For
us at Second, missions -- and knowing that missions was
not just something we did, but it was who we had become
-- put our whole staff and all of our ministries on the
same page because we were finally as a church living on
the pages of Scripture, the Great Commission. Being on
mission with God, whether it is in your own back yard,
across the street or around the world puts you on the
same page with God, and there is no more wonderful place
in the world to be than in the center of His will.
Missions clarified and united our vision as a church.
Serving Our Congregation -
The first two areas we've talked about have focused on
the church-wide impact of missions, which obviously have
had an enormous impact on our worship. But this area,
"serving our congregation," has made a huge impact in
the philosophy and practice of our worship ministry.
The
most important aspect of any type of evangelism is the
authentic demonstration of the servant-love of Jesus.
In Matthew 22:26, Jesus says, "…the one who is the
greatest among you must become like the youngest, and
the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the
one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is
it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among
you as the one who serves."
Michael Card in his book, Scribbling in the Sand,
discusses at length the role and purpose of Christian
art. And in the book he makes this statement: "art that
does not serve is frivolous art." Through the past eight
years, a truth of resounding clarity has been impressed
on the hearts of the people in our worship ministry. We,
the choir and the orchestra, have the responsibility of
facilitating corporate worship. In order to do that
effectively, we feel we must have two primary concerns:
1.
In leading,
we are responding to God in spirit and truth, and our
focus is on Him, the Author and Perfector of our faith.
2. Our
goal is to wash the feet of our people -- to serve them
in and out of the loft, and to be models of Christ and
His servant-leadership.
The
line between ministry and performance is often fuzzy for
our people. The often-times messy work of missions has
a way of separating the performers from the
servants. And what is even more wonderful, missions has
a way of transforming a performer into a worshiper.
How
has this mission emphasis been worked out functionally
for our worship and music ministry?
Let's
look at Acts 1:8: "…you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
even to the remotest part of the earth."
For
us, our Jerusalem is Springfield, Missouri. Judea is
Missouri. Samaria is the United States, and the remotest
part of the earth is anyplace outside the US.
Here
are just a few of the types of mission and ministry
opportunities the Lord has allowed us to be a part of:
Springfield (Jerusalem)
For
several years our choir and orchestra partnered with
several other church choirs in town by sponsoring a
praise night to benefit the local rescue mission.
We
sponsored Jubilant Sikes and Steve Amerson as guest
artists with the Springfield Symphony and then invited
the symphony patrons to hear the artists sing with us on
Sunday.
The
Springfield Symphony hosts the public school children's
concerts in our worship center each fall. Five thousand
fifth graders come to our building to hear the symphony
perform.
For
the last five years, four times a year, our choir and
orchestra Bible study groups host special holiday and
educational parties for the third- grade classrooms at
York Elementary School. York is the lowest-income
elementary school in the Springfield Public School
system.
Missouri (Judea)
God
provided partnerships with several churches for revivals
and outreach events that utilized scores of our people
from the music ministry.
Four
out of the last six years, our choir and orchestra have
provided the evening worship for the Missouri Evangelism
Conference.
We've
had the joy of sharing the mission "bug" with many
Missouri churches by providing music resources, people,
training, equipment and strategies for effective music
missions.
USA (Samaria)
Our
choir and orchestra have partnered on several occasions
with Evening Star Baptist church on the south side of
Chicago. The predominantly African American church has
come and worked with us by singing in our worship and
canvassing neighborhoods and distributing the Jesus
Film in Springfield. We have gone there and helped
construct new rooms for their church and partnered with
them in a recording project of their choir to distribute
in their neighborhood.
Several small vocal and instrumental ensembles have been
all over the country helping NAMB church starts with
worship development, equipment, music, and instruments.
On
Thursday morning, my family and I will travel North of
here to a campground where we will provide music,
childcare, Bible teaching and food service for a Russian
church start of Russian and Belarus immigrants here in
Atlanta.
International (remote parts of the earth)
As we
speak, fifteen women from our choir are in Manzanillo,
Mexico developing and teaching neighborhood cultural
clubs. Music, drama, ESL (English as a Second Language)
and Bible stories are all a part of this mission. They
are partnering with our own Second Baptist missionaries
who live in Manzanillo.
In
just a few weeks, our Director of Creative Arts will be
going to Guatemala to lead worship for the International
Mission Board annual field meeting for Middle America
Region South.
For
several years, we have had the joy of leading our
missionaries in worship in the Middle America Region
during their annual field meetings. For the first time
in months, and for some of them years, they were able to
sing and worship in their heart language. As we spent
time with them there, in Middle America, and at Second
when they came for our Global Impact Conferences, we
wanted to get an idea of how we could best help
them. They indicated to us that a recording of current
American worship songs with split tracks for
instrumental only would be a help. So we made a CD for
them with fourteen current worship songs with and
without vocals. Our missionaries were then able to use
them in their own private worship and also translate the
words and use the instrumental-only tracks for worship
times out in the field.
Next
summer, our orchestra will travel to Manzanillo to lead
the cultural clubs and perform some concerts in the
park.
Those
are just a few examples of the specific ways our music
and worship ministries have been involved in
missions. And I think it is important to note that not
all of them focused completely around music. In fact in
the definition we discussed earlier about worship, music
was not mentioned at all. Worship is not contingent upon
music, and there are plenty of Biblical examples to back
that up. But when people respond to God's call in
obedience, worship cannot help but pour forth from the
heart and soul of a believer. Being on mission with God
focuses the heart of a worshiper. I know because my
heart and my life have been changed.
[1] Giglio, Louis. The
Air I Breathe: Worship as a Way of Life. Sisters:
Multmomah, 2003.
[2] Wiersbe, Warren. Real
Worship. Eastbourne: Kingsway, 1986. Paraphrase from
p. 27.
[3] Moore,
Beth. When Godly People Do
UngodlyThings. Nashville: Broadman and Holman
Publishers, 2002.
Joe Crider is
Minister of Music, Second Baptist Church, Springfield,
Missouri.
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