Real Worship

Though new to me, “More Than Noise” is the third studio album from Pocket Full Of Rocks and is set to release March 2, 2010 on Myrrh Records.

PFOR’s lead singer/songwriter Michael Farren had this to say, “A lot of what I’ve been sharing out on the road deals with losing your religion and finding relationship with an amazing God.”  I personally believe that the message conveyed in these words and the title of the album are critical and vital for the Church at this time.

This seasoned five-piece, worship-focused band clearly have a message that, in my opinion, deserves to be heard.  Listen to what else they had to say:

“Much of our message is that you’ve got to make more than noise.  It’s easy to just walk into a room, sing the songs on the screen and lift your hands; but if you can walk out and not be transformed or see the world around you transformed, then that wasn’t worship.  Real worship comes with change, both in you, and the world around you.  If you encounter a real God in a real setting of worship, you can’t leave the same.“

Musically, PFOR’s style is, for me, reminiscent of Casting Crowns and Michael Farren’s vocal reminded me in places of Tom Petty.  More Than Noise was produced by the more than capable Ed Cash (Chris Tomlin, Leeland, Steven Curtis Chapman, Bebo Norman) and from the opening song, “Alive” – the first single (co-written with Stu G, Delirious) – the album resonates with a vibrancy & passion (captured both musically and lyrically) that stirs your heart, fixes your attention firmly on the love, grace and goodness of God, and inspires and invokes heartfelt worship.

The album contains a number of songs that could easily be sung by congregations in a corporate gathering; songs like the anthemic ballads, “Ever Close To You“, “Wonderful” and “Let It Rain” (the song made popular on Michael W. Smith’s Worship Album – written by PFOR’s Michael Farren); the hymn-like, “Jesus Died My Soul To Save” and “Your Love For Me“; and the driving, “Let Our God Be Praised” and the opener “Alive“.

There are also songs that tell a story; songs like, “Strong“, “When Love Whispers Your Name” (written with Farren’s 14 year old daughter, Madison) and “Come As You Are” (co-written with Chad Cates & Tony Wood) – I love the opening lyric to this song, “He’s not mad at you and He’s not disappointed.  His grace is greater still than all of your wrong choices.“

One of the songs which stands out for me is the final track, “A Worshipper’s Prayer“.  It is a beautiful,  intimate and honest song which brought me to tears when I first heard it; stripped down musically (piano & strings), you can hear the emotion in Farren’s voice as it cracks over the lyric:

“Here I am

And like a thousand times before I sing again

And when all my simple words have found their end

Once again I’m even more amazed

By the beauty and the mystery of your ways

Oh how marvelous to hear You call my name

So when there’s nothing left to bring

And there’s no song left to sing

Here I am.“

Worship was never about the songs we sing.  It is so much more than that.  I think PFOR understand that.

I shall be playing this album for some time to come!

We recorded this song ourselves; Ali wrote it & Adrian put together a video to acompany it:

It’s one of around 8 songs that we recorded at the Academy (hopefully some more will be ready soon).  Let me know what you think…

As a church family, we have been on a tremendous rollercoaster ride over the past few years.  We’ve been rediscovering God’s grace, His passion for His church and His heart for relationships (how we relate to Him & to others).  At the end of his message last Sunday, Mark read out the following statement adapted from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 & Galations 5:22-24 (from The Message translation) as a vision of what church life could be:

Church life never gives up, cares more for others than for self; we don’t want what belongs to others.  We don’t strut and display a swelled head, we don’t force ourselves on others, we are not a “me first” family; we don’t fly off the handle, we don’t keep score of the sins of others, we don’t revel when others grovel, but we take pleasure in the flowering of truth; put up with anything, trust God always, always look for the best, never look back, but keep going to the end.  What is more, we have a growing affection for others, exuberance about life as well as serenity in a mad world.  We have developed a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.  We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.  We know that legalism is helpless in bringing this life about; in fact it only gets in the way.  Because we belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good — crucified.

I’m reminded of the verses in I John 4:19-21 where the writer states that we cannot love the God we can’t see if we don’t love the brother we can see; also in John 13:34-35, Jesus said that our love for one another would be how all men would know that we were His disciples.

“Oh God, let the worship I bring be an authentic expression of the love you gave to me; and let that same love flow freely from me to those around me.”

Stevenage (am)

Wow, what an awesome morning!  Mark stood up to pray at the start of the service; the band began to improvise around the chords of A & D; everyone joined in – praying, worshiping (in English, in tongues), singing – a beautiful, harmonious symphony; and that’s where we stayed for the next 30 minutes or so.

There was an ebb & flow of worship, prayer & prophecy; crescendos that were powerful & passionate followed by times of beautiful, quiet intimacy – all interspersed with words of prophecy and encouragements from scripture (4 or 5 different people sharing what God was saying to them).  We would worship, God would say something to us, we would respond & then worship some more… (& so it continued).

There was no script; we communed with God.  Of course, the set list was “thrown out of the window”; of the six songs originally planned, the only one we sang was:

• Mighty To Save (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan) Mike

Lyrically, the song fitted with the prophetic words that were brought and with parts of the teaching from Mark (though it wasn’t planned that way).

The teaching will probably become the first part of a new series called, “Real Life, Real Church”.  Starting with Jesus’ mandate in John 10:10 to bring us “…life… to the full”, we looked at what He meant when He said “life” (as opposed to our definition); then contrasted John 12:23-26, where Jesus warned against holding on to & loving our own (selfish) lives & how that destroys us compared to living His (selfless) life.

Exeter (pm)

We began with some improvised, “free” worship in the key of E which led straight into the first song:

• You Are Good (Israel Houghton)

We ended the song with a “big finish”; the band holding the last chord while everyone cried out, “You Are Good!” – applauding God, declaring His greatness and shouting His praise.  At the end of the crescendo, I started playing the intro to the next song (which we played in the key of A – making for a smooth transition between the 2 songs):

• For Who You Are (Marty Sampson)

It was a high energy start to the service and people were most definitely engaging.

Wile we were singing this song, a line from the verse stood out to me:

Waiting here patiently

Just to hear Your still small voice again

We quietened the music and I felt impressed to say that God wanted to speak with us and that we needed to spend some time listening – which we did.

Sandra shared a picture she saw; it was of a little child, running care-free through a field, holding her father’s hand; describing the sense of excitement the child felt.  We spent some time in that space.  We sang of our desire to run to Him & hold His hand; He spoke to us about wanting to remove the chains & heavy burdens that hindered us.

We sang two more songs:

• King Of Glory (Brad Avery, David Carr, Mac Powell, Mark Lee, Tai Anderson)
• Your Love Is Like (Rick Pino)

It was funny that after spending time singing about us running to God, the first  line of the next song to sing was:

Who is this King of Glory

That pursues me with His love

The last song was a beautifully intimate response, reveling in His love as we sang:

Your love is like the ocean

I’m drowning in Your presence

Getting lost in the gaze of Your eyes

Getting lost in the warmth of Your smile

Links:

This post can also be found in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com

Writing a Sunday Set List post has got me thinking about the criteria I use for gauging the “success” (or not) of a particular worship service.  Of course, any evaluation is going to be subjective; but, why is it that on one occassion, I can say, “That was good, we met with God today” and on another, “It didn’t go well this week”?  What measuring stick am I using?  Against what am I comparing?

I then began to think about the perspectives of  others, how they might differ.  So, I thought I would ask the question; I’m curious.  What does a successful worship service look like – for you?  What specifically has to happen in order for you to meet together with a group of believers & come away knowing you’ve encountered God?

There is a whole raft of possible criteria.  Is it conneted to the style of the service itself e.g. open & participatory, or led from the front?  Does the tempo or the style of music have a bearing on your definition?  Perhaps more or fewer songs, or liturgy…  or is it something else entirely.  You get the picture.

I’m also intrigued to discover whether there is any correlation between a person’s role or function during worship & their perception of its’ success or their criteria for measuring it.

So, when you leave a comment giving your definition of a successful worship service, please state what role or function you fulfill during worship (these will vary according to your style of service) i.e. whether you play/lead in the band, read scripture etc., or perhaps, you have no specific function.

Join the discussion!

Being “real” has always been a desire in my life.  What I mean by that is having integrity in the sense of being open and honest; not pretending or putting up a front, or wearing a mask.  I love the innocence of youth; the beauty of being unashamed and unafraid to say what you think or feel.  Of course, over time I have learned to be selective about whom I allow myself to be real with.  The sad truth is that I have even learned to not be real with myself. (Neither of which is necessarily good.)

While the desire for reality in this sense is perhaps, a noble (though at times, possibly unwise) one; reality (in the sense of what we experience) is, in fact, subjective.  What is real for me my not be real for someone else.  If, for example, someone were to grow up being constantly told that they weren’t good at a particular activity or skill (say: sports, art or music), then they would ultimately believe what they were told; even if it were not actually true – and especially if it were an influential person in their lives that was telling them.  A gifted young artist may never grow to exhibit her creations if, inside she believes that  they aren’t of any worth or value (even though they may be the finest, most exquisite pictures ever painted).  My point is this: our thinking defines our reality.

“What  on earth has this to do with worship?” you may ask.  Well, if our thinking defines our reality, then what we think about God will define the reality of our relationship with Him and will ultimately determine how we experience Him.  If we believe that He is a distant, austere deity then we are unlikely to want to share our deepest, most intimate thoughts and feelings with Him.

Jn 8:32 says, ” You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”; and in Jn 14:6 Jesus says of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”.  Truth is more than mere doctrine or theology.  Many wars have been faught over such things.  Many factions and splits have occurred in the church over differences of opinion about how to interpret both.  Truth is a person.  That person is Jesus; and we have been called into a glorious, vibrant, passionate, vital relationship  with Him.

As with all relationships, our relationship with God is meant to grow, develop, mature… change over time.  As we get to know Him more, our thinking (at a heart level) is changed; and as our thinking changes & grows, so does our experience of God.

Iam not advocating relativism; there are some absolutes (especially where God is concerned).  Mal 3:6 says, “I am the Lord and I do not change”; Heb 13:8 says that Jesus is “…the same yesterday, today and forever”.  For example, we can count on the fact that God is Love (1 Jn 4:8,16), and that He is for us and nothing can separte us from His love (Rom 8:31-39).

So, let’s not look to our reality (our experiences) to define God, but rather let Him define our reality.  Yes, our experience of Him changes & grows as our thinking does in the context of our relationship with Him; this is the transformation process that Paul spoke about in Rom 12:2 – changing the way we think.  We are on a journey; an adventure, a voyage of discovery together with God and each other; a journey that reaches beyond this time and space – into eternity.  We’re in this for the long-haul.  Let’s enjoy it!

During a prayer meeting in Stevenage this week, one of the Pastors brought a prophetic word about us “going digital”.  The point being made was about us being able to instantly receive God’s broadcast signal (hear fom God) with clarity, as opposed  to spending a while trying to “tune in” and then filter out the interference, as with an analogue receiver.

Without taking the analogy too far, the following comparison was made (which I thought was pretty cool -  and accurate):

With some old aerials, you may remember that you would have to bend and move them whilst standing in various positions in order to try and receive the best possible signal.  Well, religion will have you do just that.  It will have you jump through hoops, bending this way and that, performing various rituals in order to hear from God.  It will tie you up in knots!

The truth is this.  God is always broadcasting in digital high definition – there’s nothing wrong with His transmitter.  I believe that part of what God is doing at this time is bringing clarity, understanding and vision to the Church.  He’s opening our eyes to see things from His perspective; to be consumed with His purpose and His kingdom.

As a Church, both in Exeter and Stevenage, we’ve been spending the last few months seeking after God, asking this very thing; as in the words of the song by Paul Baloche, “Open the eyes of my heart Lord…I want to see You“.

It was also interesting that earlier in this meeting, I felt God have me sing “releasing the sound of heaven on the earth”.  I believe that this is part of the Church’s mandate, as ambassadors of His kingdom – to impact this world.

Have Your way God.  Increase our bandwidth.  Awaken Your Church to See You as You really are.  Your kingdom come, Your will be done.  Amen!