The Action of an Attitude

"Boy, I really worshiped God yesterday."

What images immediately come to mind about what actually went on yesterday? What action? What location? What day? What really went on? The most common response is likely that this person was in a Sunday morning worship service, and the music being sung and played was especially moving in some way. And there's nothing particularly wrong with that. But it is probably the image most people envision in response to this statement.

We know well that "worship" is not equivalent to "music." (Even knowing that, we still often use the word "worship" to refer specifically to worship music, and then usually in the context of a Sunday morning gathering.) But even understanding this, though, some would say that although it's not the music, it is the emotions behind the music: the standing, the hand raising ... you know, really feeling it. That's worship - when you really feel it. And some people really feel it much more than others (who apparently, worship God less).

We often confine worship to Sunday morning. We even call it a "worship service." That's not an incorrect term, but then we end up saying odd things like, "Let's begin to worship." We're not worshiping, we're not worshiping, we're not worshiping ... wait for iiiiiiiiitttt ... NOW! Now, we've begun to worship! And then we'd better be "done worshiping" before the Baptists take all the good tables at the restaurants.

Those who don't particularly get into music have to then come up with apologetic excuses, like "I worship God in my own way." Because, you know, I can't seem to do it the right way.

The most common Greek word used in the New Testament that we translate "worship" means "to bow down, to prostrate oneself, to kiss the hand." There are two parts to this: the attitude (humble reverence toward someone) and action (bowing down). Nothing about music, a certain time of the week, or a certain building. Worship is the action of an attitude. Not necessarily a physical bowing down; rather, an attitude that's never just an attitude, but one that ends up in an action that expresses the attitude.

Singing is in fact one of those actions of worship - unless that singing has little to do with the attitude of bowing down to God. In fact, if "worship music" becomes about you having a particular feeling, it's not bowing down to God much at all. Rather, it's bowing down to a feeling. Having intense feelings while truly worshiping God through music is all well and good - I often feel that, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying that feeling. But when the feeling becomes the objective, we've switched what we're bowing down to.

The action of an attitude. Going to work and doing your job because you bow down to God and do your work because it advances His purposes in the world is a form of worship. Going to work to get a paycheck so you can buy things is not worship. Volunteering with Awana because people tell me you're good at it is not a form of worship, but serving in Awana, even enjoying it, because it's a way to bow down to God is. Trying to share something about Christ with your neighbor because of your awe for God is worship; sharing because you're supposed to is not very worshipful.

To say "I worship God" means that I live out an attitude of awe, reverence, respect, and honor. I do in order to demonstrate His great worth. I draw attention to His greatness with singing, learning, teaching, working, serving, helping, loving, and bearing witness. My actions reveal an attitude that God is awesome. "Worshipers of God" doesn't describe singers and it doesn't describe people with right doctrine. It describes people who live out awe.

I hope I will never begin to worship. I would like to think I've already started, and that I'll never stop. And I hope I'll continually get better at it.

I Don't Know How to Make a Disciple

We've talked a lot about "discipleship." So much so that some might be tired of the topic, or even just the word. One of the reasons we've talked so much about it is because of a conviction that we've talked too little about it for far too long. Perhaps we're overcorrecting a bit, but given that discipling others is the thing Jesus told us to be about, it would be disobedient for us to not keep this as our primary activity.

Despite all the talk about discipleship, we still have a nagging question, "But how do I do it?" Where's the step-by-step guide? What does it look like? I agree I should be about it, but I'm not sure what it is I should be about.

The definition of "discipleship" that I like the most is: moving from unbelief to belief in every area of life in light of the Gospel.(1) This definition allows for important ideas: that discipleship begins before someone is born from above, that everyone can be discipled, and that even after believing in Christ there are still areas of unbelief that need to move toward belief. This definition is an ongoing process, not something that we finish after a 12-week study.

Given this definition, it's easy to see why we haven't presented a "how to" manual. The possibilities are endless on how we can help one another move from unbelief to belief in an area of life. It can be a Bible study, it can be working side by side for some cause, it can be while grieving over the loss of a loved one. It can be formal or informal, planned or unplanned, face-to-face or side-by-side. How do we help one another identify our areas of unbelief, and then without judgment, encourage one another to move toward belief?

Therefore, "making disciples" (I prefer "discipling") is not like making widgets. There is a set way to make a widget, and once you've made a widget, it's done. It's a widget or it's not. When we look at making disciples this way, we naturally begin to reduce disciplemaking down to things like doctrine, spiritual disciplines, and behavior. Just get those three things down, and boom ... you're a widget. Agree to the right doctrinal statement, be able to check off your list daily that you read and prayed, and stop doing bad stuff. This is not a "disciple"!!!

The word disciple means student or apprentice. Those words aren't like widgets. They are postures. One is a student if she has the posture of learning. One is an apprentice if he has an ongoing learning-by-example relationship with a journeyman. A disciple is defined by an orientation toward Jesus, not an accumulation of knowledge and behaviors.

Therefore, making a disciple is not like producing a product. Rather, it is helping someone assume certain posture toward Christ. It's not about giving them all the information, but helping them orient toward the Teacher for all things. It's not about learning spiritual disciplines, but adopting habits that orient us toward the Teacher. It's not about better behavior, but living a life of learning how to live from the Teacher. How do you make a student? By helping them adopt the posture of a student, not by grading pop quizzes.

I recently asked some middle school kids if they were able to disciple one another. They all said no. Then I asked them if they could help one another move from unbelief to belief in some areas of life. They all said yes. They certainly can disciple one another! (Just don't call it that.)

Can we help one another maintain a student posture? Can we help one another develop an apprentice relationship with Jesus? Certainly. Just do that. You'll learn better and better ways as we all move forward in this journey together, but just do that. Just encourage one another to move from unbelief to belief in specific areas of our lives. That, of course, requires authentic relationships.

(1) Caesar Kalinowski

I've Often Not Been on Boats

One of our favorite movies is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - a very clever Tom Stoppard 1990 movie based on his equally clever 1966 stage play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are bit characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet, who appear in just few scenes of Shakespeare, but are the main characters of this story.

In R&GAD, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (or is it Guildenstern and Rosencrantz?) travel through the parts of Hamlet that their characters appear in, all the time trying to determine what the rest of Hamlet is about. They appear in only a few scenes of Hamlet, but from just those scenes as "real characters" caught in the story, they are trying to determine the full story of Hamlet. What they end up with is convoluted and inaccurate, because their characters are never exposed to key parts of the story.

The dialog is clever and quick, including a verbal tennis match. The comedy ranges from simple slapstick to deep irony. They ponder the meaning of life, death, time, and even boats. At one point, there's a play within a play within a play within a play. It's a movie worth seeing several times, because you don't catch every joke, gag, and line the first time around.

Sometimes we do the same thing with life as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. We look at only the scenes in which we appear, and then try to figure out the overall narrative, the "big picture" of life. Based on just the tidbits we personally experience, we try to reconstruct an intelligent play written by a gifted author. And we rarely do a good job of it. We ponder the meaning of life, death, time, and even boats, and conclude something far more convoluted than the actual narrative, because we've not been exposed to key parts of the story.

Rather, we should just read the full play that the author wrote. Only then does the whole story make sense. And only then do our few scenes make sense. The story is not about us, and so we cannot reconstruct the story based only on the scenes that do happen to be about us.

Rosencrantz says,

Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occurred to you that you don't go on forever. Must have been shattering, stamped into one's memory. And yet, I can't remember it. It never occurred to me at all. We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it. Before we know that there are words. Out we come, bloodied and squalling, with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there's only one direction, and time is its only measure.

This unalterable progression of time is a storyline greater than our own, approaching long before we are born and advancing long after we die. Our lives are but one brief paragraph of a great play by a gifted author, rendered overly complex when we try to understand it from the inside out.

Another Thought About Waiting

We recently concluded a short series on "Waiting on the Lord," which was personally challenging for me. Based on conversations I had with several of you, it was a timely topic for many of us. It is one of those topics that is hard to talk about, and even harder to practice. But there's one big point about waiting that I didn't even think of until ten minutes after the series was over, as I was speaking to one of you in the foyer.

I hate it when I do that! But it's an enormous point about waiting that is worth bringing up. I apologize for failing to include it in the series.

One of the big lessons Lynne and I have learned through experience about waiting on the Lord is that sometimes the Lord wants us to wait because He's waiting on us to be ready for His answer. We've seen this in our own lives more than a few times.

One of those instances was a hard period of waiting without knowing exactly what we were waiting for. I had just finished my degree at Talbot School of Theology and was serving part-time on staff at a church in La Mirada, CA. A part-time pastor's salary doesn't pay the rent in LA, so something had to change.

Three years prior, I had halted my career in software in order to go to seminary full-time. We downsized into a little apartment, I worked through all the coursework over those three years, I was serving at this church, and Lynne had been working to support us (but took the last year off in order to take classes, too). But now, with a shiny new diploma, I was ready for God to plant us right into our next assignment. I got my curriculum vitae all polished up, scoured the various sources looking for churches who needed someone a lot like me, and hit the electronic pavement in the hunt.

It was painfully unproductive. Hurdle 1 was finding a church that seemed like a good fit in theology and style. Of all the churches on the lists, about 1 in 20 fit this criteria. Hurdle 2 was finding such a church that would maybe be interested in someone with very little experience, which thinned the list even faster. Hurdle 3 was finding a way to make my paperwork make it as far as initial contact, which cut the remaining list about in half. Hurdle 4 was coming away from the phone interview excited about that fellowship, with a hope that they paid enough to live on. That happened with about one-third of the phone interviews.

Getting past Hurdle 4 was rare. This was not like job-shopping in software, which is what I was used to. It bruises the ego (at best) to know that 99 out of 100 churches don't like you as a pastor.

In the meantime, Lynne was struggling to get an interview, too. The market had dried up soon after she resigned.

After 9 months of this waiting, I decided to start looking again back in the software industry. I call this process "rubbing salt in the wound," because no one would touch someone who had been out of the business for almost four years. Pursuing both fronts, there was a whole lot of waiting and dead ends.

I had set aside a job, a career, and a steady paycheck. God was supposed to honor that, right? What was He waiting for? Because I was sick of waiting. Turns out, He was waiting for me to be ready for His answer.

His answer was a perfect description of what I said I didn't want - to be the solo pastor of a small church far from family in a small town, an hour from any echo of modern life, and two hours from the real deal. But one dead end after another slowly chipped away at the things I was unwilling to do. Every single candidating process that went anywhere served to open me up piece by piece for what God had in store. If God had revealed His answer as I stepped off the platform with my new degree in hand, I would not have been ready.

God waiting more than a year until I was ready for His answer. I waited on the Lord, quite fitfully, as He was at work in me to make me ready for His answer.

Sometimes we have to wait on the Lord because He's patiently waiting on us to be able to receive what He has to give us.