The Importance of Christian Meditation

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

When you hear the word meditation what do you immediately think of? A fat little bald man? How about peaceful monks sitting Indian style humming and focusing their minds? Meditation is something that is commonly misunderstood in the Christian world and preconceived notions and false ideas have colored our vision into what it really is. It’s absolutely true that some types of ‘meditation’ are not helpful to the Christian. Do not confuse these ideas with true Christian meditation. The religions of the East fall into this category. Even some forms of meditation that are taught by Christian groups are not really helpful. One teaching on meditation tells you to clear your mind, sit comfortably and repeat particular phrases or patterns of sounds until you feel at some sort of inner peace. Personally, I don’t understand the benefit of it because it neither promotes the repentance and fellowship with the Spirit that God enjoys. In this blog post we will explore the idea of Christian meditation and the affect it can have on your personal spiritual health and life.

Scripture meditation is something that I have done and taken very seriously since last semester when I was blessed to be able to take a “Personal Spiritual Disciplines” course at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I have seen obvious life change with intentional and deliberate meditation on God’s Word everyday. I believe that Scripture meditation is perhaps one of the most neglected disciplines in the Christian life these days. I believe that very few Christians have been taught how important it is to pay close attention to what they think about on an everyday basis. We have all heard the statement, “You are what you eat.” You may wonder how that ties in, but I believe we can put it this way, “You are what you think about.” What we think about is an accurate and personal portrayal of who we really are. You see, today we as believers have become really good at putting on masks or appearing one way when the truth is entirely different. In Matthew Jesus makes it very clear when talking to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law that outward appearances mean nothing when they are false representations of who we really are on the inside. Jesus had this to say in Matthew 23:25-28:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

What a shocking statement Jesus makes here. For the longest time I even fooled myself into thinking that if I appeared to have it “all together” then I must really have everything together!

The Pharisees to us are an obvious case of hypocrisy. But do you really think that they intentionally became hypocrites or do you think that they slipped little by little? You see the Pharisees spent all of their time making sure that they obeyed the law perfectly from the time they were children. From the outside, it appeared that they were keeping God’s law perfectly and were therefore righteous men. But guess what…

In spite of all our outward work God is not impressed with what we appear to be!

But what God is really interested in is what we are like on the inside. He wishes to change us from the inside out. His goal is to make us clean on the inside so that we would naturally be clean on the outside.

I have said all of this to frame the conversation for meditation. To meditate means to engage in contemplation or reflection, or pondering, or to focus one’s thoughts on. To ponder is to weigh in the mind, to think about, and to reflect upon. Meditation is a function of both the mind and the heart. You cannot disconnect either the mind or the heart and still be meditating on Scripture. They go hand-in-hand.

Whether we realize it or not, we all spend a large portion of our time in some form of meditation. The thing is, what we meditate on may or may not be worth our time. In fact, what we habitually think about is could be unhealthy for our growth as Christians. Often it is simply unproductive or sinful. Psalm 19:14 says, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 104:34 says, “May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD.” Paul even urges the Philippians to meditate on the things and ways of the Lord in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” Lastly, in Romans 12 we are urged to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” so that we can better do God’s will.

In the end, we all have to ask ourselves… What do I meditate on daily?

  • Money?
  • Hobbies?
  • Work/ Success?
  • Relationships?
  • Technology or the newest gadget?
  • Sinful behavior?
  • The pressures and stresses of everyday life?

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea… Those things aren’t Jesus.

Meditation is intentional and a lifestyle. It won’t happen on accident. I have learned that meditation can be done at all times of the day. It requires a bit of planning and extra effort to keep focused because it is work. It is also foreign to the natural state of our hearts, which are naturally depraved and sinful. Meditation is something that we MUST choose to do.

Do you want to hear from God? Seek Him through Scripture meditation and prayer.

Brothers and Sisters, we have briefly thought upon the importance of Christian Scripture meditation, so I will leave you with the words of Joshua 1:8,

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

Intentionality is Key

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

The Merriam-Webster defines intentional or intentionality as something done with intention or on purpose. How often do we do things purposefully? When we act with intentionality towards someone or something we are giving them or it perceived worth in our eyes. That’s huge. To whom or what do you give worth?

Here are a few things within our ministries that we as worship leaders should approach with intentionality and allow God to in turn use for His glory:

Your Personal Relationship with Christ

This may seem like a given, but it is far too easy to get in the flow or into a routine and to become a full-time worship leader and a part-time follower of Christ. We as human beings are very good at faking things by becoming “excellent” at what we do without even thinking about why we do it. We all have the church or spiritual mask that we can put on to make people believe we have it all together even if we don’t. Sometimes I myself can be so “task-driven” or goal oriented that I forget to be intentional with Christ. Improving our ministries and getting things done isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but if we do those things while sacrificing personal devotion then what are we really working for? I lead worship a lot… but I hope that I can be a personal worshipper of Christ even more. Let’s decide right now to never become more focused on the things that we do and how we do them than the REASON behind what we do. Take time to spend with Jesus… your congregations will thank you.

Your Communication

Communication is key! Be intentional to communicate among your leadership and your ministry. I have found that the leadership in any church loves to take time in order to find out what is happening within the body. Fill them in! We don’t have to do this alone.

This also can have another side to it. As worship pastors we are really good at spending time to create structures and worship services and then keeping our reasoning to ourselves! Let people know why you choose the songs you do and place them at certain parts of a service. Some people are better at putting the pieces together than others and I personally am very poor at providing them with all the pieces on a weekly basis.

Your Time

Think back to the last time someone or something had a problem that they approached you with right before rehearsal or a service… if it wasn’t sometime in this last week I am thoroughly surprised. It would be hard for an outsider to understand the amount of stress and last minute emergencies that we as worship leaders deal with on a weekly basis. I have just come to accept them as a part of leading within a body of believers. I also know, from personal experience, how easy it is to stay busy and yet get nothing done. Our time as ministers is limited and often times we are stretched in every direction, but in order to serve our congregations with Godly excellence we must work to be intentional with our time. It’s far too easy to get overwhelmed by all the last minute things that come up, but if we are careful about scheduling in advance and thinking ahead not only will we get more done, but we will free up more time to be intentional in other areas that are on this list. We should strive to never treat our ministries like a list of tasks or jobs that we have to get done every week, and one way to do that effectively is to have a schedule!

Your Relationships

 Jesus was intentional about building relationships with His followers. We should follow that example in order to disciple and mentor those around us. As “Worship Pastors” we need to be acting like a pastor, and that requires more than just singing or playing an instrument. Being intentional within a relationship is essential in establishing influence and developing those around us into productive disciples who can, in return, spend their lives mentoring others. Jesus walked, talked, and ate alongside His disciples. They experienced life together. It was in that way that they were able to be ministered to.

Chip Bell says, “Effective mentors are like friends in that their goal is to create a safe context for growth. They are also like family in that their focus is to offer unconditional, faithful acceptance.” There can be no discipleship without relationship… and relationships are intentional.

Making a conversation out of our Worship

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

How do you view worship? How does your congregation view worship? When we sing “ Lord, I will follow you” or “You give and take away” we are making serious statements to God. Do we treat our worship as a ritual that we do because we are told to or do we see it as a serious conversation between ourselves, our congregations, and God? Hopefully we can say we treat it as the latter.

Believe it or not the order of our songs can tend to lead us into conversation through our worship more than anything else we can plan to do. There is really no set way to plan a service or worship set… we can have general plans or ways of doing things but in the end the choice of certain songs is unique to each congregation. In worship planning there are really no right or wrong songs to use… different songs are useful for different things and while one song might provide incredible insight into God’s character and majesty another may provide simplistic but meaningful conversation about our reliance on the Lord. In the end, some songs are written “about” God and are filled with statements about His character (many hymns are written about God). Other songs make statements “to” God, as if in a conversation.

My suggestion is to sequence the songs in a revelation to response method by placing the ones that reveal things about or talk about the ways or attributes of God closer to the beginning of the service as the congregation is preparing themselves and getting in the frame of mind that congregational worship demands. When we provide revelation first it allows the people within our congregation to think and sing about God and it moves them into the mindset of desiring a conversation with the One that they know and hold dear. The method here is much like a gathering or party. Right at the outset of the party typically people aren’t willing to open up and share the personal parts of their lives with each other. Instead we start with “ice-breaker” and casual conversations… we learn about each other (jobs, relationship statuses, hobbies, attributes, etc). Conversations usually become more personal as defenses fall and authentic communication can be accomplished. Therefore, we need to do the same thing with our designed worship experiences… we first learn about God ad meditate on Him and then we can begin to open up and respond to Him through conversation.

Our revelations about God should call us and our congregations to respond. 

Hopefully with this loose structure in mind we can begin to more effectively plan and organize services that have a way of moving people into genuine conversation and worship of God. The ball is ultimately in each individuals court, but we should be good stewards of the leadership that we have been given.

What is hindering our congregations from Worshipping

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Every worship leader has had a moment where they really felt the Spirit moving through the words of a given song only to open their eyes and see the congregation staring back at them with the “deer caught in headlights” look. Isn’t it frustrating and confusing? Sometimes it can seem like the more we pour ourselves out into leading our congregations in God exalting worship the more blank stares we receive. It’s almost like the connection is lost in the moment, or like our congregations just don’t get it.

First off, I want to make it very clear that we need to be careful not to judge the effectiveness or the “level” of our congregations worship by the people’s outward response. Because, a response is something that is very unique to every individual… I may respond to a particular situation entirely different than you do. My response being different than yours makes it no less of a response. If our worship is truly as it is called to be then it will bring about new revelations about our Savior and require a response from each and every individual. As I said in my last blog post, “The Bible tells us that worship is not just to engage the audience, but to have them change as a result of it.” I say all of that as a preface to this blog or list to make it clear that just because we don’t see a physical or outward response during our corporate worship doesn’t mean that something is wrong with us our congregations… sometimes God is working behind the scenes of a stone cold face.

That being said, we do have the desire to do all we can to invite authentic worship during our gatherings. Often times that may mean reevaluating the things that we are doing… if you feel your congregation is struggling to worship on Sunday take a look at these things and see if anything we are doing as leaders is fostering a difficult corporate worship environment.

1) Are we providing a context to our worship?

People lead busy lives and sometimes church becomes just another thing on our schedules. When we gather on Sundays are we providing a proper context to our worship or are we just “diving in” and hoping that people follow? I’m not saying that we must always go to a traditional “call to worship” but I am saying that we need to provide an environment that focuses our worship from the beginning. As worship pastors we must be just that… we must pastor and lead our people to the throne room of Christ each and every time we come together. Without context our congregations will struggle to worship every time.

2) Are we leading worship or performing?

Excellence is something that I strive for and I believe we all should… but sometimes we can lose focus of the heart of our worship in the pursuit of excellence. Our excellence is absolutely important, but if it’s not balanced with genuine worship then we have missed the mark and we have done nothing more than perform for an innocent captive audience. The idea of leading worship is entirely different than that of a performance because it requires us to lay our own preferences aside in order to better serve our congregations. If I play the newest songs to perfection with a click track and all original loops but sing them to high for my congregation to sing along then how have I served them? I don’t want my congregation to go into Sunday morning like a crowd heading into a concert…

I want my people encounter God through their worship on Sunday and be changed because of it!

3) Are we singing songs that our congregations know?

Just from reading the title to this point some people will say, “We can’t always stick with what is familiar!” To that point I would have to agree, but we don’t have to force feed new material to our congregations each and every week. When a song isn’t immediately familiar, people listen. It doesn’t mean they’re not worshiping and trying to sing along, it just means that they’re watching the screen trying to figure it out. If we play a new song each and every week and never allow our congregations time to learn the songs that we sing then we create a congregation of screen watchers and eliminate any freedom they had to worship without being glued into a staring match with the screen. When our congregations begin to learn and remember the words to the songs that we sing then they can begin to carry those songs around with them on a daily basis within their hearts and minds and allow the words to soak in and affect them to their very being. By allowing them to learn and enjoy familiar songs we create an environment of expectancy when we gather to worship. People look forward to singing to God the song that has been on their heart and mind all week.

4) Are we connecting with our congregations?

How well do you know your congregation? Are you honed into the pulse of your people? Are you singing songs that reflect the environment within your body of believers? Or are we settling for the “trendy” or “traditional” thing to do? At any given time our churches might not be worshiping because they simply aren’t connecting with us. This connection can take time and concentrated effort to establish… but once we have tapped into that pulse then we can work to truly meet our people where they are and serve them better through our choices and what we do.

As a worship leader we must be mindful of the things we do and environments we create when we cone together to worship corporately. A fellow blogger put it best by saying that we must, “become students of who we lead. We must pastor them, love them, pray for them, and pour into them.