Comments on: Performance Art by Kevan Breitinger http://blog.cmcentral.com/performance-art-by-kevan-breitinger RealMusic. RealArtists. RealLife. Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:24:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3 By: Jimmy Wilson http://blog.cmcentral.com/performance-art-by-kevan-breitinger#comment-468 Jimmy Wilson Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:15:30 +0000 http://blog.cmcentral.com/performance-art-by-kevan-breitinger#comment-468 As a worship leader I too have experienced this phenomenon. I wondered also whether they were applauding my team or God. Being as my team and I are not too polished or professional I assumed it was God. While reading Kevan's blog I thought of a third possibility. They are possibly applauding the song, or rather the way the song makes them feel. It almost sounds good doesn't it. Except that when I think about it,is that the purpose of worship? To make us feel good ? Worship isn't about anything to do with us. Worship is not supposed to take you someplace, it's not supposed to prepare you for anything, worship is an end in itself. Worship is about God !Worship is for God? Drawing near of the heart to God means the coming alive of our feelings for God. Worship is an affair of the heart. It is an affair of feeling and of emotion. Says John Piper in a sermon from 1981.He went on to say, Jesus said, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Therefore, even though worship can refer to a form of activity in which the heart is distant, yet true worship which delights God is the drawing near of the heart to God, or, to put it another way, the quickening of the heart with genuine feelings in response to God's glory. Such feelings are never performances of will power calculated to accomplish other ends. They are ends in themselves. Therefore, since they constitute the heart of genuine worship, worship is an end in itself. So in summary, are we any closer to the answer? Is this applause for God? I am sure that much of it is given by those whose hearts are far from God, but perhaps one person connected with the heart of God, and the emotions overflowed into an expression of that joy that became an honor of applause. The rest only joined out of a type of contagious applause started by the one. And God heard that one loud and clear over the emptiness of the others. I am the eternal optimist. Praise God. ( Clap, Clap!!) As a worship leader I too have experienced this phenomenon. I wondered also whether they were applauding my team or God. Being as my team and I are not too polished or professional I assumed it was God. While reading Kevan’s blog I thought of a third possibility. They are possibly applauding the song, or rather the way the song makes them feel. It almost sounds good doesn’t it. Except that when I think about it,is that the purpose of worship? To make us feel good ? Worship isn’t about anything to do with us. Worship is not supposed to take you someplace, it’s not supposed to prepare you for anything, worship is an end in itself. Worship is about God !Worship is for God? Drawing near of the heart to God means the coming alive of our feelings for God. Worship is an affair of the heart. It is an affair of feeling and of emotion. Says John Piper in a sermon from 1981.He went on to say, Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Therefore, even though worship can refer to a form of activity in which the heart is distant, yet true worship which delights God is the drawing near of the heart to God, or, to put it another way, the quickening of the heart with genuine feelings in response to God’s glory. Such feelings are never performances of will power calculated to accomplish other ends. They are ends in themselves. Therefore, since they constitute the heart of genuine worship, worship is an end in itself.
So in summary, are we any closer to the answer? Is this applause for God? I am sure that much of it is given by those whose hearts are far from God, but perhaps one person connected with the heart of God, and the emotions overflowed into an expression of that joy that became an honor of applause. The rest only joined out of a type of contagious applause started by the one. And God heard that one loud and clear over the emptiness of the others. I am the eternal optimist. Praise God. ( Clap, Clap!!)

]]> By: kevan http://blog.cmcentral.com/performance-art-by-kevan-breitinger#comment-579 kevan Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:36:39 +0000 http://blog.cmcentral.com/performance-art-by-kevan-breitinger#comment-579 Yes, you ARE an optimist. I think it all started, oh, I'd say, maybe about April of 2006? GIVE ME MY SOUL BACK! Yes, you ARE an optimist. I think it all started, oh, I’d say, maybe about April of 2006? GIVE ME MY SOUL BACK!

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