A recent article on Kingdom Rain caught my attention. Part way through it the author (Brent Helming) said:

I think that a case is easily made that God’s gift of music, has an incredible and powerful ability to touch us at the deepest level of our being. Music stirs the heart and emotions like nothing else. It also embodies the ability to motivate the behavior of those listening. This is not by accident. God intended for music to have the ability to touch us deeply. However, in our brokenness and humanness, we can easily misplace the deep affections and emotions that music (even worship music) stirs in us. When this occurs during worship, we often end up focused on objects other than God; namely the worship leader, the worship band, and/or the engaging melodies of our favorite songs. It is this type of misdirected attention that nurtures a “consumeristic worship” mindset by creating the impression that the time of worship is simply an enjoyable music event (the “show”) instead of a life giving interaction with Creator God.

Can you see the awesome responsibility that God has given to those of us who create, play and lead others with music? We have an incredibly powerful tool at our disposal. One that is capable of deeply affecting those who hear it. Worship Leader/Songwriter David Ruis, has termed this responsibility the “Sacred Trust” of leading worship. We as worship leaders and musicians have been entrusted with the precious gift of music and it is our commission to wield this gift responsibly.

and for those who are interested, he’s not just some random guy-on-the-streeet, his bio makes it clear that he knows something about what he’s saying:

Brent Helming has been involved in Pastoral and Worship Ministry for over 16 years. He has traveled both nationally and internationally leading worship and teaching at Churches and conferences. He has written numerous worship songs such as “Your Beloved”, Jesus Lead On” and “God of All Splendor”, along with a helpful interactive work book titled “Hot Tips for Worship Leaders”. Brent is currently developing a Coaching and Consulting Ministry for Worship Leaders and lives with his son, Brian, in Escondido, CA.

It struck me in this piece of writing what it is about certain worship activities that doesnt sit well internally with me.

I was talking with a friend who described artists who paint during a worship service. They are inspired by the music, about the presence of God that they are feeling, and they paint as a way to express this. There are other churches where people wave flags and banners as a form of worship. Neither activity sits well with me and I think I have understood why.

Helming’s article talked about a “misdirected attention“, saying “in our brokenness and humanness, we can easily misplace the deep affections and emotions that music (even worship music) stirs in us. When this occurs during worship, we often end up focused on objects other than God”

It seems to me that flow of emotions that the music stirred up is being diverted from flowing along it’s correct channel (to God) every day. I know that on a bad day I’ll listen to a stirring piece of music and squander the “lift” it brings, simply reveling in how I feel; a self directed, humanistic experience where I allow my own emotional state to become the end-point of the experience. Other days I’ll drive with worship music on and I’ll let the music lift me into an awareness of the presence of God and focus on Him, on prayer and praising my Creator. I’m a mixed bag of worship and idolatry just like the next man. All that is preface to saying that I feel that painting when the music lifts the spirit internally and an artist feels suddenly “inspired” is directing the flow and allowing the canvas to be the end-point and not God. Someone swept up in the musical worship should seek to give God their intellect as well as their emotion, give him all parts of themselves.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that the chief end of man is “to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever” and that “The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.” This requires the use of intellect. You’ve debased worship when you direct the mind from fruitful meditation on the words of the worship songs into a meaningless/mindless waving of a flag to and fro. This would squander not only the emotional lift (being directed toward a flag, not God) but also the giving of the intellect to Him.

I guess at the end of the day I can boil it down to something fairly simple: if I ever end up in a position of leading a church, neither painting during worship nor flag/banner waving will be practiced by my congregation!

I did one of the online personality tests:

Absolutely no surprise - roughly borderline on introvert / extrovert (like, I am extrovert in this test by only 8%, unlike others where I have landed exactly on the middle line), and all the others are as expected.

I ran across this, while reading the website for Christianity Today:

Where then did Job’s three friends go wrong? They reduced all evil to “retributive suffering,” which is caused by sin and disobedience to God. But there are seven other types of suffering mentioned in the Bible: educational or disciplinary suffering as in Proverbs 3:11 or Hebrews 12:5-6; vicarious suffering, as in the case of our Lord’s death on the cross; empathetic suffering, where one person’s grief affects many others, as Isaiah 63:9 illustrates; evidential or testimonial suffering, as in the first two chapters of Job; doxological suffering for the glory of God, as in the man born blind in John 9; revelational suffering, as in the case of the prophet Hosea’s wife abandoning him; and apocalyptic or eschatological suffering that will come at the end of this age.

While we cannot deny that the issue of suffering in the lives of God’s people, such as Job, still contains a good deal of mystery, it is just as much a horrible misconception to declare that suffering is God’s normal route for every believer as it is to declare that God’s goodness means life will always result in prosperity and riches for those who serve the Lord.

Our decision must be to follow God and trust his justice, wisdom, and goodness whether we are in the throes of suffering or enjoying good health and blessing. Such a decision would surely cut the ground out from under Satan in the spiritual warfare of our day and age. Thus, the law of God does not contradict the Psalms, the historical writings, prophets, or the wisdom books. Believers will continue to suffer, but it will always be under the permission or direction of a merciful and wise heavenly Father who works for our good in the way of the truth and fairness of the gospel.

— Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.

The full article talks about the difference between wisdom literature on the bible, how it basically splits along the 80/20 rule. Most of the time (80) simple proverbial wisdom will suffice as a rule to live by. When proverbial wisdom fails (20), you find discourses like the book of Job, far more lengthy, and tackling the tough times head on.