Transformed

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2 HCSB

I like the show The Biggest Loser. It features teams of overweight members, competing over a series of weeks to see who can lose the most weight. What I enjoy most is not the competition, but the stories shared about the transformed lives of the team members after their involvement in the show. Most often, the bodies of the participants have been radically altered because of the positive diet and exercise habits they have developed.

As Christians, we should strive for a different form of transformation. The change that we need comes from the daily renewing of our mind. The actions we take, whether positive or negative, are first conceived in our minds. If we want our actions to be more Christlike, our thoughts must be more Christlike. The Holy Spirit certainly helps us, but this renewing process also requires discipline in our thoughts, not accepting anything ungodly, but forcing ourselves to think like Jesus thinks.

Lord, help us to think like You. Help us to renew our minds.

Being a Worshiper

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 HCSB

Recently, I was invited to facilitate a class on living a life of worship. Before the class began, one of the participants nervously raised his hand and asked, “Do I need to be a musician in order to take this class?” I assured him that he did not.

Worship is not about music. It’s not about being contemporary or traditional. It’s not about whether your choir wears robes or if you even have a choir. It’s not even about whether your pastor preaches an expository or topical message.

Worship is not about doing something. Worship is about being someone. We don’t just do worship. We are worshipers. We are worshipers when we commit ourselves to the Lord with all of our hearts. This way of life is a daily choice that we must make in order to totally ascribe worth to Him. When we make that choice, God is pleased.

Lord, we want You to be pleased with us. Help us to daily present ourselves completely to You as an act of worship.

How to Be a Good Worship Leader

The band is ready. The sound check is complete. Visuals are a go. Joe, the worship leader steps out on stage and begins the set. Hundreds, maybe thousands of congregants, either sing along or at least bob their heads to the music. Everything planned is presented flawlessly. However, as the worship team leaves the stage and the pastor brags on the musical presentation, Joe realizes that worship never really took place.

Determined not to have another bad experience, Joe throws himself into the planning and preparation for the next week. He programs the lights, checks and rechecks the lyrics, and broods over his song selection. The next corporate worship time passes with no change and he feels like a failure.

Joe attends a few worship conferences, updates his song list, and learns a few really cool guitar rifts. Sadly, after implementing what he has learned, none of these things help Joe feel successful in his worship leadership.

After a few months, Joe decides that he must not have what it takes to be a good worship leader. He meets with his pastor about his internal struggle, intending to resign at the end of their conversation.

After listening intently, the pastor leans toward Joe and asks, “Are you having the same trouble in your times of personal worship?”

A wave of realization sweeps across Joe’s face as he admits to his pastor and to himself that his personal times of worship have been virtually nonexistent.

“Joe,” said his pastor, “You need to consistently practice the presence of God. There is no other option if you want to be a good worship leader.”

Joe’s pastor is correct. If we are going to be good worship leaders, then we have to be good worshipers. This is more important than our musical ability, than our song repertoire, than our physical appearance, than our knowledge of all things technical, and even more than our personal charisma.

In John 12:26, Jesus said, Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am.

As worship leaders, we are tasked with bringing people into the presence of God. In other words, we are to lead people to where He is.

If we are going to lead people into God’s presence, we must know the way. That means that we have to be worshipers of the Lord personally, when we’re not on stage, when no one else is around, when we’re alone with the Lord, and when someone else is leading worship. We have to be worshiping disciples of Jesus.

We can’t lead people somewhere we haven’t been. There’s no corporate worship GPS system that will guide our congregations of people to encounter and experience God other than us. If we haven’t been in His presence, it doesn’t just affect us. It affects the weekly spiritual walk of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people.

We’ve practiced our instruments. We’ve practiced the songs. Now, let’s practice the presence of God.

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable – if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise-dwell on these things. Philippians 4:8 HCSB

I once heard a comedian say, “Whatever you eat, you’re going to be. If you eat a lot of fat, greasy food, you become a fat, greasy dude.” Over the years, and many hamburgers later, I found that there is wisdom in that statement. The food that we eat doesn’t just provide us with fuel for that day. It stays with us and changes our bodies, sometimes forever.

The same is true regarding our thoughts and actions. What we do and what we think about can change our very natures. Everything impacts everything. If a teenager gives away her virginity for a night of pleasure, everything in her future is impacted. If a dad in a midlife crisis blows his retirement fund at the casino, it changes the financial future of his family. If a minister is overwhelmed with stress and commits adultery for relief, it can literally impact the spiritual walk of thousands of people.

Lord, may You be pleased with our thoughts and actions.

Conform Vs. Transform

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2 HCSB

Make room within in heart, O God, That You may form in me
The image You have shown in Christ, My very life to be.
Bryan Jeffery Leech*

The definition of conform, according to Freedictionary.com is To act or be in accord or agreement. In other words, comply. Living a life of compliance can be extremely draining, especially when you have to spend so much of your time remembering how you are supposed to act.

However, the definition of transform from the same source is To change the nature, function, or condition of. In other words, convert. Transformation means to be changed completely. When I become something, I don’t have to remember to act a certain way. I am a certain way because of what I have become.

Lord, I no longer want to conform to the world. Help me to transform to Your likeness. Help me to renew my mind and continually become like You.

*Make Room Within My Heart, O God

Cesspool of Plasticity

Recently, I attended a worship service at a large church in another city. The
music was very majestic, the message was somewhat moving, the building was reasonably clean, the people were semi-friendly, and many people responded during the decision ministry time. However, by the end of the service, as I met members, leaders, staff, and the pastor of this church, I felt uneasy and a little bit phony. One thought kept coming to my mind…

This place is a cesspool of plasticity.

That afternoon, I shared my thoughts with my friend Steven, who laughed and
asked, “What is that supposed to mean?”

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines plasticity as:

1 : the quality or state of being plastic; especially: capacity for being molded or altered 2 : the ability to retain a shape attained by pressure deformation
3 : the capacity of organisms with the same genotype to vary in developmental pattern, in phenotype, or in behavior according to varying environmental conditions

When I look at the first definition, I shudder just a bit. Ever since my post
secondary education began, I have been afraid of becoming what some people call a cookie cutter Christian, sputtering out memorized phrases that have nothing to do with the way that I feel. After a few semesters at my Christian college, many of the ministry students, in my opinion, seemed to allow themselves to be replicated or altered into inexpensive imitations of some pasty looking and rigid thinking denominational professor.

As I read the second definition, I realize that I have made many mistakes in my life while trying to escape becoming a shape obtained by pressure deformation. I have been running from it since my early college days. There were musical groups and ministry teams that I probably would have enjoyed participating in except that I could not bear to think of myself as a becoming a part of them. They all seemed so fake to me. I sought relief from Christian college plasticity by deciding to attend a different seminary than most of my college classmates. To my dismay, the pressure deformation was even stronger in seminary than it had been in college. I switched degree programs early in my seminary career in order to graduate sooner and I spent a year teaching school in Central Asia, an entire planet away from my perception of the ever present plasticity monster of the organized church in the United States.

I now understand that what I longed for was a strong sense of authenticity in a local body of believers. Authenticity is a word that has been tossed around so much lately that it might actually be losing it’s effectiveness as a word. Remember what happened to the word contemporary a few years ago? It seemed very clear when it first began to be used. Over time, however, it became terribly confusing as to what the word really meant. I really don’t hear many people use the word today, unless their conversation is dated and/or out of touch. To avoid this happening to the word authenticity, let’s explore its definition.

So, what does it really mean to be authentic? According to the Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus, synonyms for the word authentic are:

bona fide, genuine, real, right, and true.

It further defines the word with the following definitions:

1. being exactly as appears or as claimed.
2. following an original exactly.

I suppose it might help to understand authenticity in a deeper way by stating what it is not. The antonyms of authenticity listed in the same source are:

bogus, counterfeit, fake, false, mock, phony, pseudo, sham, spurious, unauthentic,
unreal, artificial, man-made, unnatural, fabricated, manufactured, deceptive,
and might I add my personal favorite, plastic.

But does anything that is the opposite of these adjectives actually exist in today’s postmodern world?

To search for the answer, I did a Google image search on the word authentic.
I was presented with 471,000 images. Here are a few of the text descriptions of my favorite images that appeared:

Authentic Beauty, Authentic Skis, Exciting Authentic Clothing,
Authentic Hawaiian Music, Authentic Looking Cafés,
Authentic Columbian Coffee, Authentic Thai Cuisine, Authentic
Morrocan Dinner, Authentic Greek Food, and An
Authentic Taste of Texas Heritage.

I must be wrong for it seems that we are completely surrounded by some form or fashion of authenticity.

The other evening, as I sat in an authentic Mexican restaurant, my wife Kathy and
I had a conversation with our friends about the difference between an authentic Mexican restaurant and a Tex-Mex restaurant. The argument is that authentic Mexican restaurants serve food that is much less Americanized in its taste and presentation. Later that night, as I lay in bed and reflected upon the wonderful authentic Mexican meal that I had devoured, I realized that we Americans have taken the word authentic, compartmentalized it, and turned it into a style that we can understand and reproduce quickly. Just think, you can now go into malls and department stores and purchase strategically damaged faded blue jeans with pre-frayed hems that can be worn with specifically over-faded t-shirts with pre-cracked lettering and dirt encrusted Chuck Taylor high top (or low top) tennis shoes. Surely this can’t be the extent of true authenticity.

Are we, as the 21st century worship leaders of the Christian church, following the
same pattern of making authenticity a stylistic choice? Have we turned the word authentic into a word that we won’t be able to stand hearing in a few years? Do we
think that being authentic simply means coming to church in our worn out jeans, raggedy t-shirts and dirty high tops, lighting soft white candles in dark cavernous worship centers, and singing Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, or Jesus Culture songs? Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I prefer jeans and t-shirts and high tops to other types of clothing. I think candles and symbolic icons are great for use in worship. I absolutely love Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, and Jesus Culture worship songs. But clothing, shoes, candles, and popular songs cannot and do not inherently exhibit true authenticity. They are simply forms of expression.

Authenticity is about the heart. The heart does not concern itself with clothes,
music or candles. The heart reveals what is inside a person. In Matthew 12:34, Jesus
told the Pharisees,

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

Earlier in Matthew 5:8, as Jesus sat with His disciples on a mountainside, He told them,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say that our music, candles or clothes should be pure, but that our hearts should be pure in order for us to see God. He didn’t say that we had to accomplish great things, have a hit worship song, or even be successful in order to see Him. He said that we had to be pure in heart.

Perhaps authenticity should be equated with being pure in heart. Samuel spoke
of just such a pure hearted person as he was rebuking Saul in 1 Samuel 13:14 when he
said to him,

But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after
his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have
not kept the Lord’s command.

David was the man he was speaking of, a man after God’s own heart.

In Psalm 139:23-24, David wrote,

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious
thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting.

David made mistakes in his lifetime. For some reason, knowing
this makes me feel better. It’s not because he made mistakes, but because I make
mistakes. For example, knowing that he had anxious thoughts helps me get over my
anxious thoughts. If a man with so many faults and problems can be considered by God
as a man after His own heart, then maybe I might have a chance to be a person of
authenticity, someone after God’s own heart.

This is where the third definition of plasticity comes in:

3 : the capacity of organisms with the same genotype to vary in developmental pattern, in phenotype, or in behavior according to varying environmental conditions.

Somehow, David, even with all of his faults, managed to vary enough from the
plasticity of his day to be a truly authentic person. The only form of plasticity or pressure deformation that he experienced was becoming more like his Heavenly Father. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, The Lord Almighty, Invisible, Immortal, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, He is the only One who is truly authentic, the only One truly free from the cesspool of plasticity. I want to be like Him. I want to be totally authentic.

From ancient times no one has heard, no one has listened, no eye has seen any God except You, who acts on behalf of the one who waits for Him. Isaiah 64:4 HCSB

It’s amazing to me that God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, the Author of salvation, and the Designer of life and light, would care about what happens in our lives. It blows me away that a Supreme Being who lowered Himself to become human in order to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins would be merciful to us as we come before Him covered with the stains of iniquity. It’s surprising, in a certain way of thinking, that the Lord chooses not to destroy us right here, right now for our rebellion.

This God, who is all-powerful and is the great King of everything, chooses to act on our behalf. If He is willing to work for our good, we should be willing to wait for that good to happen and to worship Him wholeheartedly in the meantime.

God, I am honored that You would be willing to act on my behalf. You alone deserve my worship and my praise.