“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”
“The Heart of Worship” — Matt Redman
After a number of years, my personal role in ministry has been defined off the pulpit and outside the four walls of the church through prayerful discernment, as God calls each person to minister, not just on Sunday and not just from the altar.
That past and present experience within the staff, the body, and the congregation of the Christian church molds the rest of this piece, just to forewarn you.
Those of you still reading, thanks for not tuning out simply due to a religious tone to this piece. I promise those of any faith and those whose faith journey can best be described as agnostic or even “anti-church” will find redeeming words in what is to come.
A recent church service included the above song, leading to questions from my children as the worship leader played alone on his guitar and sang without additional voices, often backing away from the microphone to allow the congregation to carry the vocals on the well-known worship tune without his lead at the mic.
Matt Redman’s fingerprints are all over the praise and worship music industry, both in songs he performed and those he wrote for other artists.
However, he continues coming back to “The Heart of Worship” as a song that has the most meaning for him because of the story behind the song.
Redman’s church in Watford, England, was at the forefront of the worship movement in the late 1990s, which was continually adding to the music experience within the church’s walls, with more instrumentation, more lights, LED displays, etc..
Many, however, had begun showing up for the introductory music and walking out during the message of the service, or had begun referring to the Sunday service as a “concert” rather than worship.
That led Redman’s pastor, Mike Pilavachi, to do something drastic.
“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” Redman recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and the band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”
The Christian church joins together Sunday to remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the founder and creator of the church, but so often the question lingers, how would Jesus view the current church?
How would Jesus view modern-day Easter?
The focus of Jesus’ ministry on Earth was finding those who were broken and offering them a step up in their lives. His ministry focused on the homeless, the desolate, those in need - across racial and societal boundaries of His time.
In modern Christianity, the death and resurrection of a Middle Eastern man has been portrayed so frequently by a blue-eyed white man that many of similar physical characteristics feel part of the crowd there on Palm Sunday.
On Maundy Thursday. Good Friday.
Then, celebrating with Him on Easter morning.
Except someone with those physical characteristics in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death, would have been a Roman, and likely one who was extremely wealthy to be present in Jerusalem as many “Roman” soldiers were locals, paid by the Roman government. In other words, part of the group that actively pursued executing Jesus, not following Him.
A crucifier, not a disciple.
Recent movies and television series about Christ’s life have continued to portray this white-washed Jesus and disciple image, and religious leaders have responded that it is inaccurate, up to and including the papacy.
We have similar white-washing going on with history right now. My own Indigenous children have learned plenty about their state at this point in their elementary education, but when asked about Indigenous history in the state recently, they were hard-pressed to come up with an example of any, negative OR positive.
They read “Little House on the Prairie” in elementary school and see comments like “the only good Indian is a dead Indian” but an elementary school in another state recently had to remove “When We Were Alone” by David A. Robertson and Julie Flett (a great story for any child, Indigenous or not) because the story discusses the grandmother’s forced attendance of a residential school, and a law in that state allowed for removal of any book that made a child feel “ashamed of his/her racial background.”
Do you think anyone suggested removing the “Little House” series?
Francis Chan’s recently published “Until Unity” book discusses the divisions within the church and how this is not what Christ intended.
Two challenges that Chan asserts within the book are, first, that to approach unity as a body of Christ, Christians need to seek unity on the mission of the church, which should return to that of Jesus - to help anyone in need, whether that be in emotional, physical, financial, or spiritual need, regardless of race, orientation, status, etc.
The second challenge is that the church needs to embrace its mistakes and missteps along the way in excluding some groups as part of the church in our pursuit to find (and sometimes create) differences among us and rather celebrate our unity within Christ moving forward.
Bunnies and eggs are fun and can be an interesting sidebar to Easter, but they shouldn’t be the focus of the day.
The church can use its own “Heart of Worship” moment around serving the community, united as a Christian whole, this year rather than worrying about who makes the best egg bake for the sunrise service.
