WORSHIPPING MISSION
“Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in His sanctuary: praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts: praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet: praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance: praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD” (Psalm 150:1-6).
Although the Lord has allowed me many opportunities to be a part of a worship team over the years, it was not until ministering in Scammon Bay that I actually really learned how to lead worship; not just be a part of worship, nor merely being a part of facilitating worship for the congregation; and not just teaching the congregation what true spiritual worship is all about, but leading the local body in worshipping our Lord.
After the first year in Scammon Bay, the Lord had raised several men that took part in leading worship, or filled in when no one else was available to lead and facilitate worship for the congregation.
The opportunity for the body of Christ to worship together is an incredibly wonderful thing. Corporate worship in the local congregation is that one time when we, as individual members of the body of Christ when, though through our weaknesses and imperfections, we have the opportunity to be of one mind, in one accord, lifting one voice in praises unto God. It’s what the Hebrew Scriptures calls Qol Echad (Exodus 24:3).
When someone from outside the local congregation comes in to lead worship, in spirit and truth, another spiritual dynamic takes place. By inserting a member from another local body into the corporate worship, that body also experiences the very real truth of the connectedness and communion of the invisible and universal church.
Although there are more aspects to worship, and more advantages and insights gained through participation in this kind of ministry, those things are taught in a series covering worship and won’t be covered here (CLICK HERE to go to Teaching Mission page).
Musical Instruments…
A controversy over worship styles or the use of musical instruments can very often keep me from being invited to a congregation. “We’re traditional.” “We’re contemporary.” “We’re blended.” I find it interesting that those kinds of words are often used to describe a local church’s worship of the Almighty.
First, with regard to the use of musical accompaniment: musical instruments can help to facilitate our singing in one accord, with one voice, because the instrument, keeping a metrical tune, allows us to sing in unison. Certainly, because of the weakness and imperfections of the best of our worship, the musical accompaniment may prove to be unhelpful, even diminishing our corporate worship.
Because of that, some congregations choose to sing without musical accompaniment altogether. If the congregation does so by choice, that is something we would very much honor.
There are also congregations that only worship with organ or piano accompaniment. My family and I enjoy worshipping accompanied by the organ or piano. Most congregations in the Alaskan bush use acoustic guitars, and although guitars were not around in the early centuries of the church, neither were organs of pianos.
Vayahiy Worship Ministry can bring worship to the local congregation through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; utilizing any one of the three or any combination, however the spirit leads or with that which is most suited for the particular congregation.
Psalms…
The Scottish Psalter was written anonymously in 1635 and published and appointed for use in worship by the Church of Scotland in 1650. Scripture paraphrases were added in 1781. The Scottish Psalter and Paraphrases was the primary hymnal used by the Church of Scotland through the 19th century. The Scottish Psalter was originally contained in one volume. When the Scripture paraphrases were added in the 18th century, its addition expanded the singular volume.
My family and I enjoy singing God’s Word with or without guitar accompaniment and would love to lead your congregation in worshipping with ancient Israel’s hymnal and singing such psalms as Psalm 1, Psalm 23, Psalm 100, and Psalm 122 to name a few.
The Scottish Psalter is in the Public Domain and Vayahiy Publications as made the Psalter available, parsed by the five divisions of the Psalms. CLICK HERE to download the Psalter booklets in PDF or CLICK HERE to download the booklets in MS Word.
[Additionally, often as a package with the Hebrew Perspectives in our teaching series, singing some of Hebrew Psalms or Messianic arrangements may be included]
Hymns…
Our morning and evening worship in Scammon Bay consisted of traditional hymns from three different hymnals. We sang hymns such as “Love Lifted Me”, “Sweet By and By”, “The Old Rugged Cross”, “The Lily of the Valley”, “I Know Whom I Have Believed” and “Nothing But the Blood.” Hymn writers such as Fanny Crosby, William Cowper and Robert Lowry and Frances Havergal were familiar names to our congregation.
Typically, if we were invited to your congregation to lead worship, we would pick hymns from your hymnal... or we would provide handouts to the congregation, or possibly utilize the slides on PowerPoint.
It would be an honor and blessed privilege to lead your congregation in these beloved, traditional hymns. CLICK HERE to check out some of our favorite/most requested hymns.
Spiritual Songs…
In Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 “spiritual songs” is translated from the Greek words oodais pnuematikais. Oodais (songs) is where we get our English word “ode.” Although there are some that would not agree with me, I suggest that this may be what we can call contemporary worship.
Now, before you shut down this page and write me off as a heretic, let me just say that there is a lot of contemporary worship that I will not sing, publicly or privately. Frankly, we can find more inspiration in the ingredients on the back of a cereal box than in some of these “worship songs” written today. My wife and daughters can tell you that if we are visiting a church and the worship team is singing a contemporary worship song that I don’t know, I won’t sing it unless I’ve been able to read through it completely.
Yet, to say that all contemporary worship is bad would be an untruth. I’ve had a preacher tell me once, “I only like the old traditional hymns; and I think God likes them best too.”
I said, “You know, in the 18th Century, when William Cowper wrote ‘There is a Fountain’ and John Newton wrote ‘Amazing Grace’, both of those hymns were contemporary and didn’t become ‘traditional’ for a few hundred years.”
When the Lord saved me, some of the brethren introduced me to the worship of Keith Green. Over three decades later, hymns like “There is a Redeemer” and “Make My Life a Prayer” have as much impact on our family worship as the hymns by Bonar, Hawks and Sankey.
Our children and youth in Scammon Bay loved the hymns, however, they enjoyed some of the newer worship songs too. There are some hymn writers today that seem to be taking the Word of God and placing it to metrical tune. We don’t have a lot of them, yet, we have compiled a few that we enjoy and are not theologically offensive. CLICK HERE to for a list of our favorite/most requested contemporary worship songs.
