Beyond Worship Wars : A Call to Dialogue & Honesty

By Lyndon C. Stratton

A 4500-year-old lost city is excavated • A writer reluctantly returns to the scene of a childhood trauma • A criminal mastermind kidnaps women and children consigning them to a life of slavery In Captives of Minara Josh Radley travels to Pakistan to write about archaeological discoveries that may unravel a mystery concerning the Indus civilization. While there he struggles to restore intimacy to his marriage and put to rest nightmares reaching back to his childhood as a missionary kid. Josh, along with his daughter Janice and wife, Stephanie, expect heat and dust... but are unprepared to deal with sabotage, theft, kidnapping, and murder.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Jan 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781770697157

Book preview

Lyndon Stratton is ideally suited to address the crucial topic of worship, and its vibrant, unified expression in the life of the local church. Lyndon’s vision of worship flows from both the stream of the pastor’s heart, and the stream of the worship leader’s heart. Decades of experience have helped him to tease apart the subtle tensions that come from contrasting visions of worship’s meaning and practice. This book, especially written to serve those who guide and direct worship in the local church, is artful, to say the least. As a pastor and as a worship leader, I am grateful for this book – and you will be too.

Dan Wilt, M.Min.

Founder, WorshipTraining.com

Director, The Worship & Arts Institute

Beyond worship wars

Copyright © 2012 by Lyndon C. Stratton

All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Scripture quotations from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

EPUB Version ISBN: 978-1-77069-715-7

Word Alive Press

131 Cordite Road, Winnipeg, MB R3W 1S1

www.wordalivepress.ca

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Stratton, Lyndon, 1966-

Beyond worship wars : a call to dialogue / Lyndon Stratton.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-77069-558-0

1. Public worship. 2. Christian leadership. I. Title.

BV15.S77 2012 264 C2012-903075-9

It is with love and gratitude that I dedicate this book to…

Lori

&

Lawrence, Lyndsay, Lucas and Leighton

Together, we have built a home where each of us is free to flourish as we follow our dreams.

table

of Contents

About the Author

Introduction: Understanding the Need

Chapter One: Understanding the Issue

Chapter Two: Understanding Leadership

Chapter Three: Understanding Your Team

Chapter Four: Understanding God’s People

Conclusion

Endnotes

Selected Bibliography

about

The Author

Throughout my years of ministry as musician and leader I have had the privilege of serving the local church in my fellowship as a Worship Pastor, Lead Pastor, Teacher and Administrator. An area of ministry close to my heart is that of lovingly guiding churches and leaders to authentic, relevant corporate worship expressions. It would be naïve to think that I do not view this issue through the lens with which I view life and the church; yet, my goal in writing this work is to help the church flourish as we wrestle through contemporary worship issues.

One of the interesting thoughts in The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle is the idea that in the great emergence—this new becoming of the church as it wrestles with changing times and changing expressions—there are believers whose role will be to keep the church steady.

The great emergence of the church (herein described as a ship) brings with it violent seas, hidden shoals and uncharted waters. For some Christians, the changing of the seasons brings with it crosswinds of change. These are the tensions of moving forward into what is next.

Phyllis Tickle says that these people who desire to keep the church steady could be identified as re-actionists or purists. They are individuals, groups, or even denominations who would work to reverse movement toward a new, emerging faith expression. Some might see this as a negative, in that these people are those who ignore the realities of the contemporary church. Others view it as a steadying force or a check and balance. Tickle says, No ship, even a tethered one, can stay afloat and in place unless it has some ballast to hold its course against those of the rocky sea it sits in.1 She goes on to say that, In the Great Emergence, reactioning Christians are the ballast. 2

This is important for leaders because creative leaders tend to launch the church into new expressions, broader thinking and deeper experiences. While this is happening, we must be mindful of the ballast principle. While creative leaders are eager to move ahead, being open to that which is fresh, real and inspired—or even at times merely trendy—we would do well to value the ballasts in our world.

Phyllis Tickle states her case. If the boat is not to tip and swamp, the ballast that forestalls too hasty a set of movements in a stormy sea must be there.3 What a healthy perspective! Sometimes the Lord of the church puts people into our lives as leaders to be our ballasts. They are not meant to be anchors that keep us stuck in one place. Rather, they are to be ballasts that contribute to our steadiness as we go. While some ballast people can indeed be obstinate, unmoving, critical and inhibiting, many sincerely aim for balance and security. There is indeed something to be said for holding to what we value while embracing the emerging vision. Ballast believers help us keep this perspective. My goal in this writing is simply to be a ballast believer.

—Lyndon C. Stratton B.R.E., M. Min

Introduction

Understanding the Need

I.1 The Issue at Hand

Elmer Towns, in his book on the topic of the worship wars that have impacted the church historically, has said,

The church has had centuries of battles. It has fought theological battles, and those who lost were martyred, such a Servetus, who was burned at the stake by John Calvin. It has had turf wars when denominations fought over the right to evangelize the islands of the South Seas. It has had conquest wars, such as the Crusades to capture Jerusalem. It has had ‘blood and guts’ battles such as the 1531 battle in which Christian