RVC Worship Blog

Coming Back To The Heart Of Worship by Mike Pilavachi

Steve Eller — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 16:49:14 +0000

We were challenged to ask ourselves individually, ‘When I come through the door of the church, what am I bringing as my contribution to the worship?’

With a spanking new building, a congregation wearing combat trousers, a PA system that cost thousands and links with the summer festivals, some might have thought that worship wise, a Church like Soul Survivor Watford had it sussed.

Since it began – meeting in school halls with a PA that packed into the boot of a Cavalier – Soul Survivor Watford has always been given plenty of time over to worshipping through music. Over the years people have poured out their hearts to God through it, and there have been plenty of examples of great things happening as a result. However, in the autumn of ’96 we realised that something was ‘up’ with our worship. At first it was difficult to put our finger on the problem. On the surface everything was just fine; many of the musicians had worked out how to tune their instruments and the sound engineers were getting out of bed on time. Each service contained a block of songs that focused on the cross and gave people the chance to get down to business with God. To make this easier, the music was (nearly) up-to-date, the chairs had disappeared and the lights were low: what better atmosphere for young people to worship God?

Yet, we seemed to have lost the spark. We seemed to be going through the motions but I noticed that although we were singing the songs, our hearts were far from him. Was it Redman’s fault? I listened… he wasn’t singing any more duff notes than usual. Then it clicked; we had become connoisseurs of worship instead of participants of it. In our hearts we were giving the worship marks out of ten: “Not that song again”, “I can’t hear the bass”, “I like the way she sings”…We had made the band the performers of worship and ourselves the audience. We had forgotten that we are ALL the performers of worship and that God is the audience. We had forgotten that sacrifice is central to biblical worship. In the Old Testament, whenever the people of Israel gathered to worship, they sacrificed a lamb or other animal. In 2 Chronicles 7, when King Solomon and the people gathered to dedicate the new temple to the Lord, Solomon sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats. Now that’s what I call a barbecue! The passage says that the glory of the Lord fell on the people and they prostrated themselves on the pavement and worshipped. In fact the presence of God was so tangible that, for a while, even the priests could not perform their duties.

We don’t need to sacrifice sheep and goats today and certainly no sacrifice on our part can earn God’s forgiveness or our salvation; the one perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross has done that for all time. Yet we ARE called to bring sacrifices in worship. We are called to offer our bodies as living sacrifices – this is OUR spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1). We are called to offer our sacrifice of praise.

We were challenged to ask ourselves individually, ‘When I come through the door of the church, what am I bringing as my contribution to the worship?’ The truth came to us: worship is not a spectator sport, it is not a product moulded by the taste of the consumers. It is not about what we can get out of it; it is all about God.

We needed to take drastic action. For a while, in order to truly learn this lesson, we banned the band. We sacked Redman!

Then we sat around in circles and said that if no one brought a sacrifice of praise, we would spend the meeting in silence. At the beginning, we virtually did! It was a very painful process. We were learning again not to rely on the music. After a while we began to have some very sweet times of worship. We all began to bring our prayers, our readings, our prophecies, our thanksgiving, our praises and our songs. Someone would start a song a cappella and we would all join in. Then someone else would take it on to another song. The excitement came back. We were not having Church; we were once again meeting with God. With all the comforts stripped away we worshipped from the heart.

When we had learnt our lesson, we brought the band back. It was at this point that Matt began to sing the song he had written out of this experience. I wept as we sang it for the first time. The words expressed exactly what was going on:

When the music fades,
All is stripped away,
And I simply come.
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless Your heart.

I’ll bring You more than a song.
For a song in itself is not what
You have required.
You search much deeper within,
Through the way things appear;
You’re looking into my heart.

I’m coming back to the heart of worship,
And it’s all about You,
All about You Jesus.
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it.
When it’s all about You.
All about you Jesus.

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve.
Though I’m weak and poor
All I have is Yours,
Every single breath.

Matt Redman
© 1997 Kingsway’s Thankyou Music

Mike Pilavachi serves as pastor of Soul Survivor, Watford, a growing and thriving youth congregation near London, England where Matt Redman is worship leader. In addition Matt and Mike head the leadership team for the Soul Survivor festivals which occur in England and South Africa.
© 1998 Soul Survivor Magazine

Setlist – 3/19

Steve Eller — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:45:12 +0000

Jesus, You Alone – Tim Hughes
Everyday – Joel Houston
You Are So Good To Me - Ben & Robin Pasley and Don Chaffffer
Give Us Clean Hands – Chris Tomlin

Song During Offering:
Show You Love – Jackie Velasquez

Closing Song:
All To You – Lincoln Brewster

Setlist – 3/5/06

Steve Eller — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 15:03:46 +0000

Let The Praises Ring – Lincoln Brewster

Trading My Sorrows – Darrell Evans

You Are The One – Lincoln Brewster

You Are My King – Billy Foote

Come Together – Third Day

Setlist – 2/26/06

Steve Eller — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 20:00:27 +0000

You Are Good – Israel Houghton
Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall
Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble – Martin Smith
How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin

Song During The Offering:
Mistaken – Warren Barfield

Closing Song:
Forever – Chris Tomlin

How To Worship…At Church by Tom Holladay, Saddleback Church

Steve Eller — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 16:47:19 +0000

Taken from experiencingworship.com

We need to learn to worship God in every area of our lives: at home, at work, in our cars… everywhere. In this article, we’re going to let Psalm 95 give us some ideas for learning to better worship God at church. Believe it or not, worship does not happen automatically the moment you walk through the doors of the church each week! There are some choices that you can make that will bring a real difference to your focus on God during worship. As often as we attend services where we are supposed to worship, we spend very little time talking about HOW to worship. Most of us spend more time training on how to work at our computer than how to worship our creator!

For worship to stay both restful and revitalizing we must:

Get the BIG picture right
Do the LITTLE things right

Here are 4 ideas from Psalm 95

I. HOW TO START

“Let us come before him with thanksgiving…” Psalm 95:2 (NIV)

The big idea:

Start your worship like you start your meals: BY OFFERING THANKS

Worship has a starting line… and if you’re ever going to get out of the blocks you must begin with an attitude of thanksgiving. Let’s take this visual of the starting line of a race a little further. Suppose the gun goes off, and you’re still sitting at the starting line – caught up in grumbling about the details. “My shoes hurt… the track doesn’t look right… my shorts are the wrong color…” You never even get into the race!

I’m not saying you should fake it and say everything in your life is perfect… because it isn’t. But if you want to bring the truth about God’s greatness to both the good and the bad in your life… start with thanksgiving. When you put thanks at the top of the list, it tends to put everything else in the right order.

The little things:

1. Tell someone something you’re thankful for.

What are you thankful for? What person, what circumstance, what blessing, what event, what growth, what characteristic of God are you thankful for? Don’t just think it… say it!

2. Reduce your GPH and increase your TPH.

GPH is “Gripes Per Hour… TPH is “Thanks Per Hour

3. Thanksgiving Day once a week: in your QUIET TIME

Why have Thanksgiving just once a year? You might even start a “thanksgiving journal” that you add to each week!

II. HOW TO SING

“Let us… extol him with music and song.” Psalm 95:2 (NIV)

Every once in a while, I talk to someone who doesn’t want any music when we worship at church – just Bible study. But when you study the Bible you see that God clearly tells us to worship Him with music!

I’ve found that usually people who don’t want to sing want a worship for the head and not the heart. Music has the power to speak to our heart!!

The Big Idea: 3 words should mark our singing

Alive – Sing with JOY

Aloud – Sing with ENTHUSIASM

Some people sing like they’re practicing to be ventriloquists. “Look, he´s worshipping and I barely saw his mouth move!”

Aloft – Sing to GOD

You’re not performing, you and I are expressing our hearts together to the God who loves us!

The Little Things:

1. SMILE while you sing!

2. Close your EYES.

When some of us sing, we open our eyes and close our mouths Why not close your eyes and open your mouth!

3. Personalize the WORDS as you sing.

Think about what those words mean to your life, your family, your future.

III. HOW TO FEEL

“Come, let´s worship him and bow down. Let´s kneel before the LORD who made us,” Psalm 95:6 (NCV)

How should you feel when you worship? Should you get goosebumps on your goosebumps? Should you feel like you´re floating on the air?

The Big Idea

HE IS GOD!

The more I sense the truth of those three words, the more I worship! I can’t tell you the exact emotions that go along with that, because it’s different for all of us… and different at different times.

This feeling is expressed in words like “bow down” and “kneel.” It is a sense of awe and humility. He is God. Everything I see, He made it. Every thought I think, He knows it. Every person I meet, He loves them. Every move I make, He is there.

The Little Things:

1. Do some “warm up” exercises

Try listening to a worship CD on the way to church, or praying as you drive on to the church property each week, or taking just a few seconds as you sit down in the worship center to think, “God is bigger than anything I’m facing!”

You and I have a GREAT responsibility for what happens in worship. The way you prepare yourself makes an incredible difference!! Don’t just come in and expect the leader to WOW you into worship… why not wow them sometime.

Remember, worship is a witness. Worship in a way that lets the people around you know that God is real!

2. Talk to God THROUGHOUT THE WORSHIP SERVICE.

No, not out loud! If He’s the one we’re here to worship, but we just talk about Him and never to Him… we’ve missed it.

3. Focus your thoughts to God’s GREATNESS.

If you’re going to worship, you can’t just let your thoughts drift! Have you noticed that they don’t always drift towards God’s greatness! Those who have learned to worship God in refreshing and new ways have learned the need to intentionally focus their thoughts on God.

IV. HOW TO LISTEN

“If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” Psalm 95:7-8 (NIV)

The Big Idea: Have a SOFT HEART What would happen if this next week you came saying, “Lord, I´m really going to be listening to you today – and whatever you tell me to do I will do my best to do. I trust that You will only ask me to do what You know is best for me.” That’s having a soft heart.

The Little Things:

1. Take NOTES

There is something about writing the truths of God’s Word down that allows you to begin to see them as personal and real.

2. Put significant verses or truths on cards – place them where you’ll easily see them.

3. Make a TO DO list based on God’s message to you.

Before you leave, write one thing God’s told you to do at the bottom of the outline, a way to take the truth and make it real. In fact, you can practice that right now by writing down one new thing you’re going to do this week as you worship God at church.

Setlist 2/19/06

Steve Eller — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:11:23 +0000

Romans 12:1 – Todd Agnew
King of Majesty – Lincoln Brewster
Majesty – Martin Smith (Delirious)
I Lay Me Down – Darrell Evans

Song During Offering:
You Are My Portion – Darrell Evans

God Of Wonders by Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd

Steve Eller — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 23:57:45 +0000

God of Wonders: The Story Behind The Song
By Melissa Hambrick

“This song needs to be big.”

The first time that songwriter Steve Hindalong heard the chord progression brought to him by friend and co-writer Marc Byrd, he felt where “God of Wonders” was leading. Hindalong had been assigned to produce a project that was to express the feeling of community in the church, but at this point it was still untitled, and the notes of the first song weren’t yet recorded.The song was simultaneously number one on three of Christian radio’s charts-adult contemporary (AC), inspirational, and Christian hit radio (CHR)-ordinarily three vastly different musical formats. When Steve Hindalong originally imagined how big this song needed to be, he had no
idea what was in store, and just how expansive the moving music and powerful lyrics could be.A founding member of popular ’80s Christian alternative/modern rock band The Choir, Hindalong knew he was taking a different turn with “God
of Wonders,” although he notes that fans of the band wouldn’t be that surprised at it’s content.”People that followed The Choir know that we had some pretty intensely spiritual themes. Typically the type of music that I come from is more
alternative and tends to be aimed at more of the young adult audience. It’s very introspective, whereas worship music tends to be really broad
and focused more on God and who He is,” says Hindalong.”When Marc played the chord progression and melody, it felt really big. I kind of got a chill-I got goose bumps on my arms. I just thought, ‘This song needs to be big, with really vast language.’ So ‘God of wonders beyond our galaxy’ was as big as I could think.”

Having attended an Episcopal church for the last few years, Hindalong has been introduced to a new inspiration for his songwriting. “The
liturgy, the old words, is kind of new to me. I flipped through The Book of Common Prayer, and I remember ‘Lord of all creation, water,
earth and sky.’ That became the first line of the song.”

Lord of all creation
Of water, earth and sky
The heavens are your tabernacle
Glory to the Lord on high

God of wonders beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares Your majesty
You are holy, holy
Lord of heaven and earth
Lord of heaven and earth

But it isn’t the vastness of the song that seems to really impact people, relates Hindalong. “People have sent me emails about the song
and referred to the second verse. I think the real power of the song is there, when all of the sudden it gets intimate. It says ‘When I stumble
in the darkness, I will call Your name by night.’ This God that is the God of not only our earth, but of all the worlds, that is so big-but
when I’m afraid, when I’m alone, when I sin, when I’m in trouble, He comes close enough that I can call His name. It’s the truth that’s
powerful, not the song. It is that particular truth that is so moving.”

The mixture of voices on the original recording is another aspect that Hindalong sees as powerful. “When people sing a song and interpret it a
certain way, a song comes alive. The contrast of Mac Powell and Cliff Young trading off, and with Danielle, really communicated that corporate community thing that was really the goal of City On A Hill. They were the perfect blend of voices.”

The groundwork for “God of Wonders” was laid nearly 10 years ago, when Steve Hindalong produced the first two albums for Common Children, Marc Byrd’s band. Ten years his senior, Steve became a mentor to Marc, and is amazed by how far the two have come.

“Marc is a real screamer and comes from an intense rock background, and I come from this whole folk thing, although I’ve had lots of variety,”
he describes. “So for Marc to get into worship music is really a change, and I think he’s found a lot of joy and peace in it. He’s very natural at it. Writing a song like ‘God of Wonders’ was new ground and opened a whole floodgate of creativity for him.”

Byrd has written a number of well-known songs, including Third Day’s “Show Me Your Glory,” co-written with Mark Lee. Steve and Marc teamed
again for “Holy Is Your Name,” performed on by Bebo Norman and Caedmon’s Call, as well “Sing Alleluia,” both from the third City On A Hill project, as well as the number one Rebecca St. James cut “I Thank You.”

“I think of ‘God of Wonders’ as an offering,” says Hindalong. “It’s an offering to people. The words are to God, the prayer is to God, but as far as the song, that’s for people, to the body of believers. It’s an offering—a humble offering.”

Blessed Be Your Name – by Matt & Beth Redman

Steve Eller — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:47:27 +0000

A few weeks after 9/11, we wrote the worship song ´Blessed be Your Name´. It wasn´t written consciously in response to those dark events, but no doubt being immersed in the spiritual and emotional climate of those days was an important factor in birthing it. Many people ask if there was a particular life event which triggered off the writing of this song, and in all truth the answer is no. It´s really a song born out of the whole of ´life´, a realisation that we will all face seasons of pain or unease. And in these seasons we will need to find our voice before God. The church (and indeed the world) needs its songs of lament.

The people of God have always had their laments. The Psalms are filled with a whole host of intense emotions and expressions towards God. So many of them were birthed in times of suffering and struggle. Psalm 3 was written as King David fled for his life from his own son Absalom. Psalm 56 was inspired when the Philistines seized him in Gath. In Psalm 57 he´s on the run again, this time from King Saul, and wrote the song whilst hiding in a cave. These are songs formed in the fire of affliction. They are the desperate cries of a worshipper on the road marked with suffering. In fact, Eugene Peterson estimates that around 70% of content in the Psalms is lament-based.

Clearly therefore, songs of lament are a very biblical thing to sing in worship. Yet they are also a relevant thing to sing, for we live in a world full of anguish and heartache. As Christians, yes we live in victory, but in paradox we also exist as strangers in a foreign land, aching for home, and knowing deep within us that the world we see before is not as it should be. So the question is this: if songs of lament are firstly thoroughly biblical, and secondly extremely relevant, then why on earth are there not more songs to help us voice these heart-cries? As Frederich W. Schmidt Jr writes, these Psalms do three things:

´They give us permission to ask our own questions about suffering. They model the capacity to ask questions we might otherwise suppress, but can never escape. And they model how those questions might be asked without fear of compromising our relationship with God or with other people.´

This Week’s Setlist – 2/12/06

Steve Eller — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 20:00:12 +0000

Everyday – Joel Houston
Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall
You Are So Good To Me – Ben And Robin Pasley Don Chaffer
You Alone – David Crowder
Song During Offering:
I Can Only Imagine – Mercy Me
Closing Song:
Blessed Be Your Name – Matt Redman

Passion ’05 – Various Artists

Steve Eller — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 17:05:20 +0000

Passion 05:
Capturing the cry of over 11,000 college students, the new LIVE recording from Passion 05 is just that..Passionate – It’s about declaring God’s fame, His Glory and His word. Led by the artist-worshippers – Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall and David Crowder Band this new recording brings you songs from the church both present and future. With new songs by David Crowder Band and Matt Redman along with some of this year’s instant classics – Indescribable, How Great Is Our God. You will be singing along and joining in on your journey into God’s presence to worship Him, the famous one.