Astonishing Grace: Studies in Gospel Centered Worship Leadership

This week our worship team is beginning a year long study on “Astonishing Grace, Studies on Gospel Centered Worship Leadership”, and I am going to post our weekly studies here for our teams (and anyone else in cyberspace) to study and interact with. This study will help us explore what it means to be 'gospel centered' in all we do, and especially in our worship leading. Are you wondering what it means to be 'gospel centered'? Read on.

Astonishing Grace

Studies on Gospel Centered Worship Leadership

INTRODUCTION WEEK 1: What is the Gospel?

READ:
John 3:16-21, Ephesians 2:4-10

ASK:
1. This week we are beginning our year long study on ‘Gospel Centered/Driven worship leadership’ and we begin with a very simple question: if someone stopped you on the street and asked you: “what is the gospel?” what would you say?

2. How does our passage from John define “the gospel?”

3. What does it mean to be ‘gospel centered and driven’ in our lives and in our worship leading? Are we naturally ‘gospel centered/driven’ as Christians and as Christian leaders?

My definition of what it means to be “gospel centered”:

Being “gospel centered” means being defined, founded, and driven by the ‘good news’ or gospel: that God has created us in His image, and loves us though we are sinful and fallen; that God sent his only son, Jesus, to save the world and give us new life in Him, through love and sacrifice, by bearing our sins on a cross and rising on the third day to new life; that we are given the Holy Spirit to guide us, confirm us as God’s adopted children, to help us live in Grace and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That we have a new mission to live as God’s ambassadors on this earth, not as a way to heaven, but as a response to GRACE, giving as we have been given and sharing the astonishing grace of God with others in word and deed, whether it be sharing the story of Christ with friend, working with a ministry to stop sexual slavery, or helping dig a well to provide clean water in Africa. Our response to grace is to freely give grace and to infect our society and world with graceful actions and agreements.

REFLECT:
When I think of what it means to be ‘gospel centered/driven’ I always go back to Ephesians 2:4-10:

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

At the very center of the gospel is a God who instigates rescues and saves, a God who comes as Jesus Christ and gives us a gift through the power of the Holy Spirit that we don’t deserve….GRACE.

Grace can sometimes be a hard concept to understand, so here is a helpful way to understand the difference between Justice, Mercy, and Grace: Justice is getting what you deserve. For example, if a policeman pulls you over because you are speeding, it is justice that you get a ticket. Mercy though is not getting what you deserve. So in our scenario, the policeman would show you mercy by not giving you a ticket, though you deserved it. GRACE then is different than both justice and mercy. Grace is a GIFT you don’t deserve. So if the policeman gave you grace, He would forgive you for speeding, though you don’t deserve it, then also decide to give you a million dollars, just because he wanted to. And this is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ: the God of JUSTICE, has shown us MERCY by coming down to save us and GRACE by saving us from our sins and giving us new life, adoption as children of God, freedom from sin and death, new hope, new vision, the help of the Holy Spirit, etc…. the ‘incomparable riches of God’s grace’ that Ephesians talks about. And the most amazing gift of GRACE is that God has given us himself, a gift we could never deserve and so much more than we could ever think to ask for. And this gift begins to change everything in our lives once we begin to accept it and live in it.

We sing the song “Your Grace Is Enough” often in worship, but do we really believe it? Does it reflect in our lives and in our worship leading? So often as worshippers and worship leaders we preach a message either implicitly or explicitly that grace is NOT enough. It is grace plus an amazing stage, amazing equipment, an amazing image, amazing programs, amazing works. We preach sometimes without words that if our churches aren’t full, we aren’t yet fully blessed. That if our lives aren’t perfect or we struggle with depression or addiction, we have missed the blessing. We sometimes even preach that through God loves us, we still need to do something, feel something, or act in a certain way to earn God’s grace.

Yet the astonishing message of Grace is that you are accepted. Christ has died for your past present, and future. All you need to do is say YES. Grace is enough and everything else is a response to grace; all of our striving to follow God, all of our worship. And grace changes everything: it changes the way we look at ourselves, others, and our relationship with God.

Over the next year we are going to focus on what the good news of astonishing grace means for us as worship leaders and how we both inhabit and impart a message that God’s Grace is enough for us and our church.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE READINGS(to read throughout the week):
Jeremiah 29:11, Zephaniah 3:17, John 1:14-18, Romans 5:15-17, 2 Timothy 1:8-12