Vision Morning; Gathered Worship

Tim Dobson sharing some Vision with the leaders, ahead of them church planting Woodlands East

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah, like I said, um we're gonna have a coffee break at half past, so we've got 20 minutes on this one, is that okay? So the first one was probably the uh the kind of crucial one. So um yeah, what does um what's what's the sun worship going to look like on a Sunday? So if we think about, we welcome people in, what's gonna be their sun uh their experience? And I suppose the question of kind of why do we have sun worship in our gatherings? Um particularly with the Woodlands Church family, uh, sun worship is is actually a crucial part of our Sunday gatherings. Um and for for me, I suppose, why do we worship actually it's part of something that we were made to do, and actually part of something that God's looking for when Jesus talks to um uh the largest woman in the Bible. Do you know who the largest woman in the Bible? The woman of Samaria. No, no, uh, and John chapter four. It's getting worse, sorry. Um He says this, John chapter four, um yeah, a time is coming, has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they're the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and truth. So so that's that that's something that God is looking for. Now, is it because God is needy? God needs his self-esteem being slightly massaged, and he needs people to say, Oh God, you're wonderful, God, you're great. No. Actually, worship is something that connects us with God, that allows us to love him and him to love us in return. So, in some ways, making space, not just to sing songs, but to worship on a Sunday is uh is part of that. Now, now, in that, um, for me, I think sung worship does three things. If I'm thinking kind of quite functionally, uh, sung worship does three things. The first thing is some of the songs that we sing are declaration songs. So there's songs that say things about God. God, your tower of strength, God, your uh the Lord's my shepherd. Um, there's things that we that we that we sing where the the focus is declaration. We tell God who he is. Now, God doesn't need reminding, God already knows that he's great, he's powerful, he's lord, he's he's king. But actually, what happens when we declare things? Actually, our faith starts to rise. So we may arrive on a Sunday morning and we've had all the problems of the week and the difficulties, we sit down and we start singing a song, and the song is God focused, it's it's God will. And as we worship God and we declare who he is, actually something changes inside us, and our faith starts to build up. Oh yes, this problem seems so intense, so so strong, but God, you're bigger than that. I seem to have kind of lost my way, but God, you're so much greater, you're so much more loving, you're so much caring. And actually, our declaration and some of the songs that we sing about God rather than to God are things that build our faith up. So we expect on Sunday that we, as we as we declare who God is and what God's like and how he works, that we expect people's faith and trust, dependency of God to increase. The second thing is I think that um uh when we sing, actually, we some of the songs we sing are not declaring who God is, actually are retelling our stories. Um I don't know if any of you watching the the um uh the rugby, the last few weekends. Actually, when when you see them kind of hollering out their national anthems, of whether it's in Welsh, uh Matt could tell you what it's like, kind of, or whether it's in uh Ireland, Ireland, or whether it's the Scottish saying, Do you know what we've got to give those English and John a good bashing? Kind of, what they're doing is they're telling their story. They're saying, actually, this is our story. And some of the things that the songs that we sing kind of um go through. Yeah, the world was in trouble. Jesus came, he died, he rose again. You think, well, who needs reminding of that? Does God need reminding? Does Jesus need reminding? We need reminding. Actually, some of the songs that we sing are a bit like we're together here and we're retelling our story. And actually, there's all kinds of people that will tell you a different story. You can go on social media, you can watch the soaps, you can be in the workplace. Actually, you come here on Sunday and you've been told all kinds of other stories. You should live this way, you should live that way, you should have this priority, this is important. And when we're here, we remind ourselves actually, there's a bigger story. And that story is a story of rescue, of salvation, of love and hope. And and some of those songs are actually songs that are um uh songs that uh retell our story. And what it does is it refocuses us, it reminds us, we are the people of God. This is our story, we're living out of this story. It was interesting talking to someone the other day about the mental health crisis, and and one of the things that they were saying is that um uh that people who are kind of the Gen Z and Gen Alphas actually that there's there's no story that they're part of because it's so much become you define your own reality, you define your own truth, you define your own kind of um yeah, who you want to be, that there's no bigger story. And actually, what's happened is this this they're all at sea, and and actually we need to say there is a story. As we've seen some worship, sometimes we remind ourselves there is a story behind life, and that story is of a loving God, that story is of a broken world, that story is of Jesus coming, that's a story of uh Him dying uh restoration, it's a story of resurrection, it's a story of Jesus' return, it's a story of hope. And actually, when we worship, some of it is about story. But of course, some of it is adoration, some of the songs are love songs to God, and actually, in those moments, we're not just declaring who God is, we're not retelling our story, but actually there are moments of encounter. And on our in our Sunday gatherings, we actually really want those moments of encounter too. Of whether it is I love you, Lord, I lift my voice, whether there's just just something that's just saying, I'm I'm expressing something of my love for you, my adoration for you. And I suppose for me, those would be the three things as we gather on Sundays. Are there some songs that help you declare who God is, increase your faith? And there's some songs that help us retell our story, and people are drawn into that story as we we sing those songs, remind us of biblical truth, the biblical story. And there are times where there's moments of quietness and encounter. And of course, how do we express how to express that? How are we going to express that on a Sunday? Well, we will express that through through singing. Uh singing has always been a part of worship. I mean, it's more in the Old Testament. Um do we see Jesus doing sun worship maybe once after the Last Supper, they sang a hymn together. Um, do we see a lot of sung worship in the Acts of the Apostles? Well, as they were fasting and worshiping, they sent out Paul and Barnabas and in the Philippine prison, they're praising God. But actually, and bring a hymn, a psalm, a spiritual songs, you gather together. Um so so there is kind of singing that's that's part of the deal. Actually, sometimes it's it's words, and and sometimes as we gather, it might be someone gives a little prayer and and and it it's it's without music, but it's it's genuine uh worship as we use our words to pray. Praise God. Um actually, body postures and and and movements, again, through the Bible, we see worship is expressed not just through our mouths but with our our bodies, of whether it's dance or whether it's kneeling, prostrating ourselves, raising our hands. Actually, there's something how do you get worship from in here, out here? And sometimes uh using our body is very appropriate. Um it's great. Uh some of you are musicians, it'd be great to have you serving us with musicality. And sometimes, I know for me, there's times where uh we're not singing, nobody's talking, but just as the musicians are playing, somehow there's even through the music, sometimes there's a worshipfulness that helps bring encounter. Um and obviously the big deal is it's lifestyle, isn't it? That that our worship doesn't just stop when the guitarist puts their guitar down, actually worship carries on because it's our even some things we just talked about in the first session, actually worship is a lifestyle. Um I urge you, brothers and sisters, the view of God's mercy, offer your borders and live sacrifice, holy and peace to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Um if anyone says, Oh, I love God, I love you, but it's my voice, oh but that person over there kind of actually doesn't work. If anyone says they love God and yet hates their brother or sister, he's a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. Worship. So we have ten minutes before coffee break and maybe a fraction of a croissant. I think there's three there's three left, so it's gonna be like the loads of the fishes. Um as we sing about as we sing as we talk about sung worship and about sung worship here on Sundays, we've all got our own preferences, kind of all got our own musical styles, whether it's kind of um Brittany or McFly or the Beatles or whatever. We've all got our own little kind of flavours. Um how do we perceive together when we meet together as a party? So here's here's three questions. Ten minutes. Choose one of them. What would you uh what could the worship time look like for us as we gather? How could that involve children? And how do we welcome diversity within our worship? Okay, maybe just we've got ten minutes, maybe just kind of pick up one of those and uh I'll bring around some more paper so we'll we'll have a second piece of paper. Is that okay? But uh um, yeah. Ten minutes or so, have a go with that. That would be great.

unknown 9:44

Thank you.