Over the past several years, there's been a trend toward approaching worship "vertically." We're told as worship leaders to lead people in direct, first-person worship of God; to sing songs to God rather than songs about God. But that, by itself, affirms an individualistic attitude that should be foreign to the body of Christ. For we are one body, members of one another, with a single head, who is Christ (Ephesians 4). And we should encourage one another, stimulating each other to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10).
I'm challenged to find and to write songs that aim towards this horizontal encouragement. One needs both the vertical (which is of course greater) and the horizontal to make a cross. Putting both together completes the sacrifice of worship.
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3 comments:
Hey David, I would like to hear more of your thoughts on this subject.
Amen.
David,
I found your blog from the iMonk comments. I also read Alan Knox's blog. I, too, am concerned about the almost exclusive "vertical" aspect of many churches today. If you read the Hebrews 10 passage carefully, you may notice that the phrase "not neglecting the assembling" in NOT a command, but encouraging one another and stimulating each other are.
I think we Americans have become so zealous for the first great commandment in church that we neglect the second, loving our neighbors as ourselves.
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