Psalm 47

1 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
(Psalm 47: 1-2, ESV, YouVersion.Com)

It would seem that many Christians would think that this passage didn’t exist. Many of our corporate church gatherings would never have place for “clapping” and “shouting” to God. As another contributor over at YouVersion already posted, “they feel it’s not dignified”. Of course, I love King David’s response to the criticism he received for praising God … “I’ll be even more undignified than this”.

We don’t clap and shout just to do it. This is a response. A response to the greatness of God. To the bigness of a Great Big God, as the Psalmist shows us in verse 2.

You don’t have to be in a Charismatic church to experience this form of praise. Go outside in the woods and do it yourself. Turn up the radio or CD and go for it in the car on your morning commute … it’s not like the people going 60 mph behind you care.  Maybe you could have a special service of praise and worship where you take 3 minutes to read this passage and comment on it and find a way to encourage everyone to try it out!

It may be awkward at first, but go for it and find the freedom in this form of praise. God is good, all the time!

Discussion:
Do you clapping and shouting as outward signs of praise in your corporate gatherings?  Have you experienced this form of praise to God in your own personal life?  How do you feel about it?  Let’s hear from you!  Click below to comment.

A couple of years ago I had the privilege of sitting in the stands and watching the Georgia Bulldogs pull off an incredible upset of their arch rivals, the Florida Gators. After the first touchdown, the entire team ran onto the field and had a major celebration. They were penalized for “excessive celebration” but nobody cared – the momentum changed, the fans were crazy, and that was all she wrote.

I’ve been known to say something around our church … a lot.  I say, “we don’t celebrate the victories enough”.

If you are like me, you may be in a place in ministry or work that is striving for excellence, is full speed, and has little room for error.  You don’t celebrate the victories.

Today I want to invite “excessive celebration”.  I’d like to invite EVERYONE WHO READS THIS BLOG to join me and post a victory comment.  I want you to think of AT LEAST ONE victory that you’ve seen in your church, ministry, family, or business.

Let it rip – and give God the praise.  Enjoy it.  Celebrate it.

Hey Everyone,

This is a busy week as I prepare to get everything in order for not only the re:create conference next week, but for a Women’s Conference that I’ll be leading next weekend as well.  So, rather than type a long post on worship leadership, I’d like to start a discussion today.

This past weekend, guest speaker Tom Tanner shared about corporate prayer.  He discussed times when everyone prays out loud – at the same time.  His point was “you aren’t praying to each other, you are praying to God”.  He also said “if you take turns and go around the circle, and let each person pray, you don’t really get much praying done, but if everyone prays, it’s different”.

Granted, I *LOVE* corporate prayer like that.  I get out of my seat, walk the floor, and go for it.  On the other hand, there are certainly times when it’s appropriate to listen to someone else pray, and agree with them in prayer.

I’d like to take that though process over into the act of singing.  I grew up in the United Methodist Church the first 16 years of my life, then was involved in Charismatic churches from my high school years throughout college and the first dozen years of my professional “full-time” ministry.  Though the church I’m a part of now isn’t necessarily “charismatic”, it’s definitely filled with people who have experienced God’s Holy Spirit in powerful ways and that power is displayed in changed lives every week.

What I call “free worship” is when the congregation has a time to just “sing” out loud … but whatever they want.  It’s the most beautiful “unorganized order” I’ve ever heard.  Have you ever experienced it?  The sound of hundreds  – or thousands of voices, singing out individually in praise to God?  Though there are individual voices, I believe it rises to God as a “corporate” praise.

For some of you, that thought probably makes you very uncomfortable.  For some of you, it’s your favorite place of worship.  We don’t really experience that in my church now, and I miss it.

Take a listen to the first 15 seconds or so of “Hosanna” from the Paul Baloche album, “A Greater Song” … this is an example of what I’m talking about:

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Let the discussion begin!

Hey Everyone,

So I’ve been thinking about a series on worship songs.

Every generation has a treasure chest of songs that are dear to them.  Maybe those songs came from a time period when you really devoted yourself to follow Christ.  Maybe those songs represent a period of great renewal and passion in your faith.

Some songs come, some songs go.  Other songs seem to have that “greatness” that makes them stay around.  They park on CCLI’s Top 20 for decades.  They stay in your treasure chest of songs that you’ll come back to when you are 80 years old.

• What makes a worship song a “great worship song”?
• What are a few of the songs that will be in your treasure chest?

Do tell!

(ps:  for some reason, my “subscribe to comments” option seems to be waaay down at the bottom of the page – so if you’d like to follow the dialog, scroll way down under your comment and check that box before submitting your comment).

Hey Everyone,

My Sunday recap/worship confessional review is still pending … but I hope to have something for you by tomorrow at the latest. I want Sunday’s sermon to be live on our podcast before doing the recap.

There are several things on the radar that I’d like to mention, so this post is a bit of a “quick start” to solicit your help in making a few wonderful things happen. This should only take about 3-4 minutes of your time. To make it very simple, each link should open in a “New Window”, so take care of business, close that window, and this blog window should still be waiting for you to tackle the next step!

#1. Will you help me with my song, “Fix My Eyes” on IndieHeaven.Com? Today, it’s #19 on the FanFaves charts at IndieHeaven.Com. You simply mouse over the 5-stars next to the song and click to vote. You can vote once per day, per IP (computer). For those who will commit to remembering to vote daily, it REALLY HELPS.

(note: Why would I engage in such shameless self promotion? Honestly, I think this song has a message that the church needs to engage with. The top worship songs on this chart are being reviewed for a praise and worship compilation that will be distributed NATION-WIDE. So this is a great opportunity, but I need your help each day.)

#2. My brother, Robert McKinnon, started an engaging blog discussion on this blog called “Marriage and God’s Word”. He’s asked me to put out the word to my blog friends, and would really love your input. Especially you ladies out there .. so far, only men have commented about marriage. So visit his blog and jump in the discussion.

#3.

A relatively new friend online, blogster and twitter-ite, Chad Wright from Austin, TX has launched his new site, “WeTheChurch.Org”. It’s a common place where you can easily submit your prayer requests, praise reports, testimonies, and pray for one another. What an incredible concept. Please support Chad and visit his site, and spread the word – and visit www.wethechurch.org.

Hope this is enough to get your day started in the right direction! As always, my desire is to help bring you resources, discussion, music, and leadership to help us all become more like Christ, and to become worshipers in spirit and truth.

So … how are YOU doing anyway?

For the Kingdom,
Fred