Podcast Episode #281
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Louie Giglio joins us to discuss the wedding of worship and theology and how the Passion movement has made that a cornerstone of its existence for the past two decades.
Passion is an annual gathering of 18-25 year olds. The next event will take place January 2-4, 2017, in Atlanta, GA, at the Georgia Dome, with more than 60,000 college students expected to fill up the dome and raise the banner of Jesus. Also, this week is a big price break registration deadline—prices go up December 1 so college students and their leaders need to register by Wednesday, November 30 this week to get the best prices. As a bonus to our listeners, if you want to save $20 off of the current price, use the rate code SAVE$20 at checkout.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- “Worship is our response to who God is and what He has done for us.”
- “A life lived best is a life lived for what matters most.”
- “The gospel is the engine of worship. Without the gospel, there is no worship.”
- “The biggest competitor to worship is a shortsightedness to the gospel.”
- “There’s a new generation coming and someone has to be there to point them to Jesus.”
- “We didn’t set out to make Passion worship albums. We set out as a theological movement with a theological core.”
- “The greatest thing in time, space, and eternity is the fame, the name, and the glory of Jesus Christ.”
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Since its beginning in the late 90’s I have always appreciated the Passion Movement’s worship. They have been the most regular source for the worship repertoire that I’ve used. Generally, but not always, their theology has been good. Some songs have been exceptionally solid, theologically. I also appreciate Giglio’s theology of worship that it is a life response to what God has done.
But there is an inherent weakness in American contemporary worship and understanding worship simply as “our response to what God has done.” As a culture, our DNA is individualistic and we quickly move to that posture even when we think it is otherwise. One of the early songs of the Movement was Paul Oakley’s “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” I really like the song. The words seemed to express what Giglio was talking about:
Jesus lover of my soul
All consuming fire is in Your gaze
Jesus I want You to know
I will follow You all my days
For no one else in history is like You
And history itself belongs to You
Alpha and Omega You have loved me
And I will share eternity with You
It’s all about You Jesus
And all this is for You
For Your glory and Your fame
It’s not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God
And I surrender to Your ways.
The song seems to say that “it is all about you, Jesus” but in truth, it is all about MY RESPONSE to Jesus. This may seem to be “nit-picky” but this is an important nuance. Notice how many personal pronouns are in the lyrics (“I,” “me”). If you look critically at the text, it really is more about me than Jesus. And then, when this worship music moves out to local congregations it really becomes about me and my preferences. Is it a song I like? Is the band good? Is this song too old? And on and on… You know the issues.
God should not only be the OBJECT of our worship but also the SUBJECT. Our corporate worship should “do the full story of God.” That’s why Scripture, prayer, the Lord’s Table, and the proclamation of the Word is so very important to corporate worship. We need to be formed in God’s Story rather than pervasively focus on my story in relation to God. There is a place for our story in worship. But with our individualistic bent, we seem to always err in making worship about us.
Our response to God is an essential element in biblical worship. There should always be the revelation/response equation present in true worship. But we need to be wise in honestly analyzing what we do and resisting our natural bent towards ourselves.
I still love Passion’s music and will frequently turn to them as a regular source. But it is important to be sure that worship is truly all about God rather than such an intense focus on my response.