e*b 2010 Week 1 Discussion Question and Answer

For: The Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

QUESTION:

Wright opens our course with ideas related to the four echoes of God in the world. Which of these echoes most deeply resonates with you as evidence of God's reality, and how does that particular echo reflect what you believe to be the biblically expressed personality of God?

From here, answer how the four 'echoes' relate to the theology and worldview represented in the worship songs that you have used/sung in the past year? (Seek to be positive in your answers, but also reflective - i.e. this question is meant to engage our theological thinking related to worship songs, not to create a song-bashing session).

Consider the second half of the question less in the light of "what songs am I doing that match these echoes," and more in the light of "how is the contemporary worship song body of work doing at giving voice to these echoes - the celebration of creation, the longing for justice, the magnetism of relationships and the hunger for spiritual reality."

ANSWER:

Justice calls loudest to me. We live in a fallen world that longs for things to be made right. There is so much that doesn’t make sense to our finite minds. The question, “Why” often looms heavy. “It’s not fair.”

Romans talks of creation being “pregnant” with expectancy for deliverance. (Romans 8:22-25, MSG) The echo calls out. It is not left unanswered, however, because God has chosen to reveal Himself, to engage in our world. We have, as Dan Wilt puts it in his eBook, Stumbling Into Mystery, Toward a Theology of Worship, a God who “suffers with, suffers for, suffers among.” (Pg. 4) We have a God who acts. (Pg. 6) We have, in the person of Jesus, the One who came to make things right.

I oversee worship for our Healing Prayer Ministry. Much of what I do is seek to put language on the heart cry of those who come for prayer. I sing over people of God’s faithfulness, goodness, beauty and love, and give voice to the fact that He is worthy to be worshipped simply because He is.

From the songs I’ve been exposed to, many express the cry for justice in the context of our human condition. Many seem to voice the beauty of His creation. I also believe our songs are doing well to express our hunger to know Him more and for Him to make Himself known (spiritual reality). Our relationship to God is covered well, however, I believe we need to better express the echo which calls for community with others.