Church for post-Mormons?

Looking for a place where you can explore a new and rational faith after leaving the LDS church?   Live in the Boise, Idaho area?  Be sure to check out a new non-denominational church plant at…

http://www.BoiseChristianFellowship.org

A simple observation…

I’ve somehow become a huge fan of worship music. That surprises me, because as a musician, I’m usually drawn to showcases of musicianship… tricky time signatures, close harmonies, unusual rhythms, feats of musicianship and songwriting. There really is none of that in worship music. It’s all written very simply. That way your average guitar player can play it and your average congregation can figure it out and sing along.

But I think the real reason I like it so much just occured to me today.

This is probably over-generalized, but here it is. Traditional hymns generally sing about God. Contemporary worship music generally sings to God. A subtle difference that makes all the difference to me. It’s like the difference between sitting around with friends talking about what you’re planning to say to God and actually getting on your knees and praying to Him.

My favorite so far has been this simple song…

Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes, let me see
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You

Here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God
You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days, oh so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
humbly You came to the earth you created
All for love’s sake became poor

I’ll never know how much it cost, to see my sin upon that cross

Music

I’ll go ahead and get started with something that’s been on my mind today. The church we have started attending has a very different view of music than the LDS church does. Of all the changes in the way I was going to be worshipping, I actually feared this one the most… which is kind of dumb since I’m a musician.

Coming from a church where playing a guitar in Sacrament Meeting can be viewed as a sin by some, listening to a full band with drums, bass, acoustic guitars, keyboards, and backup singers was going to be really strange.

“How could worship truly be directed toward the Lord if there’s a band on stage performing? Won’t all the attention be on them?”

“How could I be expected to feel the Spirit with a drumset playing in the room?”

“How could contemporary music, being played on the radio today, be something God would appreciate as a form of worship to Him?”

It was all a completely foreign idea to me, and I found myself wishing it wasn’t so, because nearly everything else about that particular church fit what we were looking for. So we went. And it was profound. And it was completely appropriate. Here was a room full of people, in a modest “onion shed” (that’s what they call their newly constructed auditorium because, well, it looks like an onion shed), all bringing their hearts and voices before God to praise him. The band made no attempts to bring glory to themselves, there was no applause, they were simply there to make the most beautiful worship that they could and lead the congregation in singing. And talk about singing! Everyone sang… man, woman, and child. Many sang in their own harmonies, some adding alternative melodies and such, and it was amazing. Somehow none of it was self-aggrandizing at all, like I thought it would be. These humble people had no desire to be discovered for their singing talent. But they had every desire to sing to their Lord and praise Him. I tried to sing along, but a combination of choking back tears and not being familiar with the music left me simply basking in the experience.

I had a chance to ponder this following the service. Who gave man their ability to invent and create? God did that. He inspired man to invent the car, the washing machine, the pez dispenser, the whoopie cushion (okay, maybe not that one), and the drumset. Without God, we would not have the power or faculty to create or invent anything. Does it make sense that God would inspire man to invent, innovate, improve, and become talented on an instrument like the drums or a guitar, and then find that man’s offering back to Him offensive? Would God truly say to us that he would have appreciated the singing, but wasn’t listening because of the drums, or the fact that it was a newer song than he preferred? I have gone from wishing that this new church didn’t do music the way they do, to wishing they would do more of it, for longer, and more often. The Spirit speaks so powerfully through music. And it turns out He’s an appreciator of all kinds of music. God’s CD collection would have a variety we can’t even imagine. But it would all have one thing in common… the only thing it needs… the intention to glorify Him, rather than the person writing or performing it.