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As part of my research for last month’s worship series I picked up two Vineyard related books on the subject. Originally I was going to review them separately, but the longer I thought about them the more I thought it would work better to lump them together in one post.
Andy Park is a legend in the worship arena of the Vineyard with songs like “In The Secret”, “The River Is Here”, “One Thing I Ask”, “Revive Us Again” and “Have Your Way In Me”. He is also a pastor and church planter who has been with the Vineyard since the beginning.
Accordingly, I was excited to read his thoughts on worship and he didn’t disappoint. The book was a beautiful look how worship influences and involves all areas of our lives. It is not, as some folks like, simply about a half hour of musical instruments and corporate singing on Sunday morning.
One of the best parts of Andy’s book is the way in which he weaves together resources and quotes about worship from all over the place into his own story of following God. The end result is truly a worship journey from beginning to end.
Favorite quote:
“…in our culture of narcissism, we could be lead to believe that intimacy with God is all about feeling loved. It’s as if we believe that if we can get a warm, fuzzy experience in worship then we have been intimate with God. I really enjoy every feeling that comes from worshiping Jesus, but friendship with God is bigger than that.”
 Over the years I have heard various comments about Randy Clark – most of which tended to focus on a small period in Randy’s life.
In 1994 Randy was an average Vineyard pastor in St. Louis when the Lord used him to spark a revival in Toronto that spread throughout the world. Yes, Randy was the guys who preached the first sermon on January 20, 1994 of what would later become known as the “Toronto Blessing.”
Having mixed feelings about the revival and its effect within the Vineyard and throughout Pentecostal/Charismatic circles in general, I was cautiously excited when I saw one of his books inside a box of giveaway item destined for our church’s food pantry/clothing closet. My feelings were even more mixed when I noticed that the book was focused primarily on impartations – i.e. the laying on hands by one person with the purpose of transferring a spiritual anointing to another person.
It should be noted my mixed feeling with such a topic comes having grown up within Pentecostal/Charismatic circles and having heard many a sermon preached about impartations and “mantles” (a reference to Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings 2). Accordingly, I know that there is a biblical and historical precedent for such an impartation, it is just that over the years I have seen people chase after such impartations – going from one revival to another, one pastor superstar to another, chasing a spiritual ‘superpower’ that would allow them to bypass the mundane life on this planet and become a spiritual ‘giant’…..
Yeah, you know the abuse…
So there I was – face to face with a book by a controversial pastor on a controversial topic. And being me, I choose it as a traveling companion on the long ocean flight to the Philippines this past November. 
By now you are wondering what book I am talking about…well the book in question is “There Is More: Reclaiming The Power Of Impartation” published in 2006.
The book itself is split into three main sections looking first at the biblical and historical precedent for impartations before moving into an experiential look at the fruit or outcome of the “Toronto Blessing” and/or other revivals in which Randy prayed over someone to receive an anointing. The third part of the book is about the purpose or goal of such an impartation, which is to spread the word of God throughout the world for the glory of God.
Continue reading Impartations and Randy Clark
“There is a counterintuitive aspect of engaging with the spiritual practices of church. Though spiritual formation is chiefly an inward reality, we often work on our heart, mind and soul through bodily or external practices. This is true of all the spiritual practices of church. But we need to keep in mind that it [...]
I was first introduced to Don Williams through a Vineyard Leadership Institute (VLI) course in 2005/2006. As I listened to him teach that day, I knew that he was one of those (unfortunately) rare individuals with a theologian scholar mind and a practitioner heart of compassion.
Since that day, I have had the pleasure [...]
 When you grow up with something, it is easy to forget about it and for it to become ‘normal’….
The leadership model taught by Tri Robinson at the Vineyard Boise is one such item that became ‘normal’ in my life. I had stopped thinking about it and just did it as it was engrained into my life and became second nature.
Yet as I traveled around the country and talked to different pastors and leaders, I slowly begun to realize that the way I did things, nay, the leadership structure I caught from Tri was different… and, even more amazing, it was a structure that allowed for the shifts in church life promoted by folks in the emerging and missional church.
Having noticed this difference, and having fairly recently become a senior pastor, I decided to go back and re-read Tri’s book leadership book, “Revolutionary Leadership.” In doing so I realized the main differences in Tri’s leadership structure:
“I realized that the church is truly a living body that wants to mature, but in order to do so it must be in a constant state of change. I learned that healthy church growth requires a structure that will continually facilitate transition. It requires a senior pastor who is willing to continually facilitate transition. It requires a senior pastor who is willing to give up the controlling entrepreneurial spirit and give away authority and responsibility to competent, willing people.”
As you have probably realized, the above principle of creating a church structure to “continually facilitate transition” is a tough one. Yet it is one that I believe can be implanted into a church through an ongoing Synergy Cycle comprising of three main principles:
Continue reading Revolutionary Leadership by Tri Robinson
 Published in 1998 by Vineyard Music, the small booklet “All About Worship: Insights and Perspectives on Worship” is a treasure trove of worship related information. The seventeen articles included in the booklet are written by fifteen passionate worships whose heart burns with the desire to share their love of God with others.
The articles themselves cover a wide range of information – from the theology of worship to practical steps in setting up a band to evangelizing the community through public worship.
- “The Life-Changing Power of Worship” by John Wimber
- “Worship: Out Highest Priority” by Rich Nathan
- “Humility, the Key to Serving in Worship” by Terry Butler
- “Putting God First” by Brian T. Anderson
- “Calling Women to Lead Worship” by Andy Park
- “Purity (A Woman’s Perspective)” by Cindy Rethmeier
- “Maintaining Purity While Working With The Opposite Sex (A Man’s Perspective)” by Andy Park
- “The Call to Worship the Father” by Brian Doerksen
- “What is Full-Time Worship Ministry?” By John Barnett
- “Performance: An Attitude of the Heart” by Danny Daniels
- “Worship Evangelism” by Mark McCoy
- “Worship Leaders from a Pastor’s Perspective” by Lloyd Rankin
- “Leaning to Lead Worship: A Beginners Guide” by Brent Helming
- “Leading Worship in a Small Group” by Brent Helming
- “Leading Worship in a Smaller Church” by Larry Myers
- “Ministry Time Worship: A Practical Point of View” by Scott Underwood
- “Serving Through Sound” by Marianne Kleine
As you can see from the above titles, having such a wide range of worship topics, it is hard to summarize this booklet in general… as such, I am going to leave you all with some selected quotes that I found particularly compelling:
Continue reading All About Worship
“Sitting around the living room having coffee and cold drinks with Christian friends, the conversation turned to a favorite topic: church bashing. Almost all criticism of church – “All I do is look at the back of other people’s heads”; “The music is out of date”; “The preaching is boring”; The pastors are selfish and manipulative”; “The staff is clueless or hypocritical” – assume that church means what happens on Sunday morning. Think about it: when have you ever heard criticisms of how the dispersed church practices its faith – expect when there is a major moral scandal of a famous Christian? It seems to me that 98 percent of church criticism has to do with one hour of the weekend.
“What if we could shift from seeing church as doing our weekend duty to seeing the historic elements of church as spiritual practices – as a springboard for a way, an order, a practice or a structure for spiritual life?”
So begins the introduction for the newest book I’m reading, “Giving Church Another Chance: Finding New Meaning in Spiritual Practices” by Todd Hunter.
Wow, such a powerful statement – that that should remind us that the hour or two when folks get together on Sunday morning is NOT the end all. Todd describes it this way in chapter one,
“Most every human activity has meetings associated with it. Corporate marketing teams meets, sports team meet, surgical teams meet, teachers meet – but none of them confuse the meetings with the real task. Meetings exist to facilitate the actual work.
“…Like most human endeavors, the church has meetings associated with it. Unfortunately, while most people do not confuse meeting with their work (the game or show), churchgoers often do.”
We need to “rethink the purpose of the meetings” – we need to change the reason we meet together as a corporate body. Instead of coming together to GET something OUT of the meetings, I believe we should come together for two main purposes:
Continue reading Confusing the Meetings with the Real Task
 A lot of our preaching and teaching focuses on how to get saved – or, if you prefer different words, about the rescuing hand of Jesus who has come to deliver us from sin and death.
When we do talk about life in the Kingdom of God it is usually with the goal of getting something through applying biblical principles that are suppose to produce certain results. Or, in some streams, we talk about maintaining a ‘holy’ life full of rules designed to keep us from being polluted by the sins of the world.
It seems that very little time is given to walking with Jesus and doing what He is doing.
In his book “Christianity Beyond Belief” Todd Hunter seeks to teach us how to walk with Jesus beyond our time of rescue. It is a book that looks at the gospel of Jesus, the role of the church and our own lives with new eyes – trying to see what life would be like if we knew that we would be living tomorrow.
In one of his best quotes, Todd describes the life of a Christian accordingly:
“The Christian life is life in the kingdom, living as ambassadors of the kingdom. It is being the cooperate friends of Jesus, living in creative goodness for the sake of others through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Followers of Jesus are both friends with Jesus and ambassadors of Jesus, joining with Him to tell the world about Him through His power.
Continue reading “Christianity Beyond Belief” by Todd Hunter
 The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth are full of radical and controversial concepts. Yet none of them are as controversial and unpracticed as His words to love your neighbor as yourself.
Volumes have been written throughout the course of history detailing who is and is not one’s neighbor. Or to use different words, who do I need to be nice too? And who can I hate and belittle as an enemy and still make it into heaven?
We want to know – we want to have firm rules that help peg people into nice little boxes. Boxes of friends, co-workers, family, folks-to-be-nice-too, jerks, those-who-I-wish-was-dead, and so-on-and-so-on.
Yet across this us-versus-them desire runs the clear words of Jesus:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” –Matthew 5:43-48
Clear words….we are to love and bless both those who love us and those who hate us; those who do us good and those who harm us; those who like us and those who do not.
It is this heart – the heart to love and bless people – that motivated Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis to set out on a journey across the Middle East to meet with “some unique and influential personalities who most in the United States, including the government, think of as enemies who belong on Most Wanted list.”
Continue reading “Tea With Hezbollah” by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis
 A few years ago I was sitting in a class room when the visiting professor threw out a challenge – the winner of which would receive a free book. Having a bad case of bibliophilism, I took up the challenge and ultimately won it – after chasing the professor out to his car where he was getting ready to leave (I told you, I have a very, very bad case of bibliophilism!).
The book he gave me that day in the parking lot ended up (along with some other factors) changing the way I talk, the way I view others, and basically shifted both my life and Emily’s life. This book was Carl Medearis’ first book, “Muslims, Christians, and Jesus.”
It is no wonder then that I snatched up Carl’s newest book within a week of it being published.
I was not disappointed.
“Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not-Evangelism” is a phenomenal book that calls Christians back to their first love, Jesus of Nazareth. It is a call back to the person of Jesus rather than the idea/beliefs of Christianity or the doctrines of the Church.
Here an example: What is the Gospel?
Seriously, stop for a moment and answer the question, “what is the Gospel?”
Continue reading Speaking of Jesus by Carl Medearis
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Who Writes This Mess? My name is Joshua Hopping and I am a Son of the Most High journeying through a foreign land following the Wild Goose (i.e. the Holy Spirit) one step at a time.
As I journey along the Way, I have the privilege of serving as the bi-vocational pastor of the Payette River Vineyard Christian Fellowship. I am also a voracious reader who loves studying church history, theology, and world missions.
This blog, "Requisite Danger", is a record of what God is teaching and showing me as I try to follow Him wherever He leads as well as occasional random thoughts. I pray that you will join me in this journey through online/offline interaction as this life is lived in community.
May His grace and peace be upon you.
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“The Worship Journey: A Quest of Heart, Mind and Strength” by Andy Park
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