Overview of 70 years of church worship – So where to from here?

I was born in the ’50s.  My father and father-in-law were pastors… so over my years, I’m happy to say that I’ve participated in almost every spiritual movement.  I’ve been in almost all the styles of church services, from high church, liturgical and evangelical to charismatic, pentecostal and fringe.   I’ve observed staid and stoic worship and experienced the wild and bazaar.  At this point in life, I’m pretty much OK with all of it IF people’s hearts are truly engaged with God as they’re worshiping… which is the main point, after all.

There has been an undeniable evolution of worship content and worship experience during my lifetime.  So I’ve used my perspective to create a little graphic to help explain what I’ve observed over the last 65+ years.

Disclaimer: Obviously, there were many exceptions to this… and this is a perspective derived largely from our Western paradigm.

Click on pic for full resolution

Before the 60s we either sang theology intense wordy hymns… or we sang dreamy folksy Gospel songs about going to Heaven someday in the sweet bye and bye.  Our song lyrics magnified the great ‘gulf’ of separation between us and God, but we at least had a genuine longing for Heaven.  Then in the 60s we began to get ‘nearer’ to God in our lyrics and it felt like we had more access to Him.  Some of the strong proponents of this came through the influence of the FGBMFI, Jesus People and Charismatic Renewal movements.  Those were some awesome times of spiritual awakening.  In our awareness of ‘proximity’ to God, it’s almost like we sang ourselves closer to Him.  Of course, in the big picture, it was God who was drawing us up to Himself… but at least we were following.

This progression continued through the Scripture in Song songs in the 70s and the spontaneous ‘spiritual songs’ in the 80s.  We felt so close to God that we changed many of our lyrics from 3rd person to 1st person perspective… e.g. from “He is good” to “You are good.”  This continued through several movements until somewhere around 2000 it seems like we plateaued in our progress into His Presence.  Holy Spirit’s moving in average church meetings became more sparse.  For whatever reasons – maybe insecurity had something to do with it – we began trading into surfacy temporal things.  When we lost the poignancy of Presence in our worship, trendy things may have been an easy antidote or solace for the loss.

A few of the temporal trends and styles we traded into…

Multimedia, lasers, smoke, animated screens
Professional hired musicians
Exact copy the big-name versions / like on the CD
Many of our songs are the same as a YouTube experience
Same rote song format, arrangements/sounds…
Band driven experience yields a concert atmosphere
which creates spectators in the audience
which leads to boredom for everyone
Leaders are pressed to try the trendy ‘next thing’
gotta stay current, you know
Hip hop, ethnic, rap, etc

Note:  I am NOT saying that any of these by themselves is wrong!!  They each can serve a helpful function.  But as a steady diet… and if the net result of employing these ‘trades’, ends up sacrificing His Presence, then… well, you get the idea.

We thank God for some notable torch-bearers in the last 20 years; Hillsong, Bethel Music and IHOP-KC, to name a few.  Then in the last few years, we saw God shine His light on some new Presence seekers; like Housefires, Worship Mob, Upper Room and United Pursuit, etc.  Hungry hearts who wanted Encounter, had a place to go.

Then in 2020, Covid and politics created a huge upset… but God decided to use it as a reset.  Externally, everything went berserk, but God is so masterful that He can trump evil and make it work for good.  We were admonished to do church online… something we were always told would never suffice for ‘real’ church, before.  So the Church got shaken.  But many people found a new reality in personal worship on the very organic level.  Those people began ‘digging new wells’ and thriving through this unstable time.  Sadly, there are some casualties, too.  We must remember that God promised that everything that could be shaken would be shaken (Hag 2:7, Heb 12:27)… and boy, did it get shaken!

Many ‘social’ churches with a shallow worship experience will have serious struggles to survive.  O, there will always be some churches whose worship will thrive, because much of Jesus’ bride is still in those churches.  And He still loves them very dearly, no matter where they are in their growth continuum!

In order to establish a contrast, I’ll quote a popular song heard on a popular Christian Music radio program.  The lyrics are: “I’m begging you please on bended knee to help me.”  Did you notice any distance between the singer and God?  I know it sounds humble, respectable and religiously acceptable… and to be fair, that is the usual starting sentiment for all prodigals.  But as we grow, those lyrics should never come out of the lips of maturing saints, because our understanding of our Father’s magnanimous love for us drives out all fear.  No need to beg for His attention… EVER!  When fear is dispelled, we begin to believe Him when He tells us of our elevated status with Him… that we’re “seated with Him in Heavenly places” (Eph 2:6).  There’s no need to live afar off… we’re “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).  How could we ever have a bad hair day with this kind of reality?!

Shallow worship leaders and shallow worship times will always keep us at a distance from God… which makes us feel the need to beg for everything that is already ours.

So if we’re going to get back into the overall upward trend of the last 60+ years, I think we’ll find that God is inviting us to recommit to Presence Worship and follow His Presence ‘above the line’ into the Heavenlies.  This time, not just in theology or dreamy lyrics, but in experiential reality.  We’re being invited into partnership with God.  No more plaintiff songs/prayers.  No more beggar songs… no more ‘woe is me’ songs.  The Grace of God has worked a wonderfully transformational work in the way we think of and perceive ourselves… and God.  A large door has been opened to discover our true identity and inheritance.

So, no more songs that make us live back in yesterday!  We’re exchanging yesterday’s mindsets that we were just poor humans singing pitiful songs begging a God who was far away, for a morsel or two… we’re trading those songs for songs with lyrics proclaiming confidence in our Father’s love, our Heavenly citizenship (Phil 3:20), our new creation identity (II Cor 5:17), and our co-rulership with Christ (Rms 5:17).

Our worship is beginning to see powerful lyrics that declare Heavenly realities as ours… now!   We won’t have to wait to go to Heaven to experience Heavenly realities.  We’ll sing of our inheritance realized, rather than somewhere afar off in the future.  We will learn how to declare the truth of our status with God rather than begging Him for a breakthrough.  Instead of distance from God, we’ll confidently proclaim our oneness with God (Eph 2:13) and the benefits of it (Ps 103:2).

Wise church fathers have appealed to the prophetic songwriters, “Do you desire for God’s people to live in powerful new revelatory realities five years from now… then give them songs with lyrics that declare that revelation, now.”

So may our new songs be revelatory and equipping… like a Heavenly treasure map.  May our songs be heralds of a new era in God… ‘above the line.’  We call forth songwriters who are like the “Sons of Issachar who knew the times and the seasons and were able to tell Israel what to do” (II Chron 12:32).

Let the new revelatory, new creation, heavenly realities songs come forth!!  Can you feel it?  It’s happening!  We’re moving on up to our High Places. 

–MLH

Advertisement

What did you do with 2020?

How did 2020 treat you?  Or maybe the better question is, “How did you treat 2020… in other words, what did you make out of it?”  Now I don’t want to minimize some of the major impositions that were experienced by our country, and of course, there were some outright tragedies, including loss of precious lives!  Taking them all into serious consideration, could I draw our attention to how I think God wants to help us extract ‘gold’ out of a difficult year? 

Jesus obviously knew that this world would give us grief and plenty of troubles.  Experiencing trouble in this world is no surprise or anything unusual.

 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” – Jn 16:34

Let’s settle something, the troubles of 2020 were NOT from God.  But, He can always work something good out of anything… even evil!  Consider Joseph’s comments to his brothers.

It’s a new day!!  Who needs crutches!?

“You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good…” – Gen 50:20

So what kind of good did God desire for us to extract out of 2020?  Here are a few thoughts.

I believe that 2020 was a major agent for weaning… weaning many from their ‘crutches’.  For some, this was very disorienting.  We had considered our crutches as integral to our identity.  In fact, we didn’t know they were crutches.  And now that they’re gone, what on earth will we ever do without our crutches?!  What we didn’t know was that with just a little desperation, determination, activation and the grace of God, we could walk without crutches.  It’s kind of like the old saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  When we realized we were on our own, we activated some new muscles.

This old man gets caught up in the moment and realizes that those crutches that were a part of his identity were holding him back from freedom… they weren’t necessary anymore.  🙂

But the process of letting go of our crutches can be unnerving for first-timers.  We ask, “Is there life without crutches?”  When our leaders imposed the Corona social distancing restrictions, we wondered if there is life without my church, my fellowship, my group, my job, my family?  But the one thing no one could distance us from, was God… unless we allowed it.  Social distancing restrictions actually gave us more time to get more familiar with our Father’s heart.  O, there are some who frittered their golden 2020 opportunity away, but many people are walking testimonies of exercising their hearts into fresh new territories in their walk with God.  So really, it was incumbent upon each of us to make the most out of what we were given.

For me, last year has been a most wonderful year in almost every way.  I’ve grown more, expanded more, and feel more alive in God than ever in my life.  I feel like my unique DNA is more activated and suited for this time in history.  It’s actually been one of the most rewarding years of enjoyable spiritual growth in my life. 

So, I’d like to hold out to all who can dare to believe; God always has a strategy to maximize His graces in us, no matter the circumstances.  Nothing takes Him by surprise.  Enter into His perspective… activate a new ‘muscle’ that you’ve never used before… it’s quite likely that you’re more equipped, ready and empowered than you ever imagined.  A new frontier… a new breakthrough is waiting for you.  You are well able to ‘go up and take the country.’

— MLH

Father travels with Holy Spirit to pray for son

Stories to Inspire

It is my happy conviction that God has opened up a great ‘door’ of revelation to help transport us into our rightful and Biblical place ‘in the Heavenlies’… not merely as a theology, but as an experiential reality.  Plenty could be said to validate that truth in Scripture… but I suggest that you read some of my past blog posts, here.

A new level of liberation is taking place.  We are getting freed up from being merely ‘terra-firm-ites’… earthlings.  Our greater reality is our Heavenly likeness, Heavenly location, Heavenly citizenship, etc.  Check this out!  Stupendous! 

See yourselves co-raised with Christ!  Now ponder with persuasion the consequence of your co-inclusion in him.  Relocate yourselves mentally!  Engage your thoughts with throne room realities where you are co-seated with Christ in the executive authority of God’s right hand. – Col 3:1 Mirror Bible Translation

My confidence is that as we learn to “live and move and have our being” IN Him and IN the Heavenlies, we will find our 1) spirit man acknowledged and liberated… our 2) soul man inspired and empowered… and our 3) body experiencing super-natural things we never ever imagined… not to mention, being 4) more effective as men and women of God. 

Just one of those avenues leading toward more effectiveness will be in prayer.  As we find our place in the Heavens, we’ll not posture or perceive ourselves as weak plaintiff humans, but rather, as righteous and highly favored sons who are actually partnering with God in co-rulership.  Think of it: not praying TO God… but WITH God. 

Try it out sometime… like my good friend did.  I’ll keep him anonymous in the following story.
____________________________________

 

Father travels with Holy Spirit to pray for son

Recently I got a phone call from a very good and longtime friend.  He’s heard some of the stories of our Ascended Life Community experiences. 

Years ago one of his adult sons separated himself from family and friends.  Internal struggles led him to drug addiction, homelessness, and living on the street in his car.  No phone, no address and a drifting lifestyle made it impossible to be contacted.  So, the last time my friend was able to talk with his son was nearly 2 ½ years ago. 

A few days ago, my friend’s heart was especially moved with compassion and tender care for his son.  In prayer, he said, “I’m going to do that thing that Mark does where he goes with the Holy Spirit to the place where he is praying for… and then he prays in that place.”  So in prayer, my friend activated his mind and heart to go with Holy Spirit to his son.  After engaging in this mode for a time, he fell asleep… and woke up later, without experiencing anything unusual.

But, a couple of days later he received a phone call and the operator asked if he would accept a collect call from his son.  Of course, he said, “Yes.”  My friend, his wife and their son had a cordial conversation.  It was a relief to their hearts to hear in his voice that he was doing better than the last time they had talked with him. 

I have followed this story with my friend and prayed into this story for many years.  So when he called to tell me the latest in his story, my tears quickly flowed.  My father heart joined with his father-heart as we both rejoiced that they had at least talked… but we still felt the pain of his son’s separation and brokenness.  Your prayers are appreciated. 

By the way: He attributes the call from his son to a more effective way of praying for his son.

–MLH