Prophetic Song / Spontaneous Worship, etc.

[DeanZF]

Trying again. First round went off into cyberdeath.



Hi Moe!



First on the shofar. I play (low brass player in high school and in college) the shofar and own several of them. I usually play what is considered to be the standard shofar call for Feast of Trumpets and/or Tabernacles. There are others that are coming into use, but I honestly don't know much about them. More about that on a different thread. hofar:



Second, on prophetic worship. This is one of several terms that has come into common vocabulary in the last 15 years or so, but it's also one of those terms that does not have a common, cohesive definition. Some folks use it for those spontaneous expressions to or about God that happen between songs in a worship or praise set. One other phrase that has been used to label that expression is "singing in the spirit," which of course was probably not politically correct for our baptistic, non-charismatic brothers and sisters (we need a smilie with its tongue in its cheek!!) So another phrase is born or appropriated, right or wrong. Others call it "free worship," and others still call it "spontaneous praise." (Or worship, depending on the definitions that folks hold for those two terms, worship and praise.) Some refer to it as a "selah time". I really have no quibbles with any of the phrases, just sometimes hard to tell what folks are asking.



Some folks see "prophetic worship" as something larger than just what H&D call "singing in the spirit." Helena alluded to that in her response. I guess I'm in that group. Guys seem to be really into putting labels on things, classifying them in ways that women don't. Sometimes it causes the ladies to roll their eyes, y'know? Women do the same thing with colors, and guys roll their eyes. :doh:



First, worship (as I personally understand and pursue it) is, in and of itself, "prophetic". It strives to agree with what God is saying about Himself in and through the Word. Forthtelling. That's a vital point. Most of the rest of what I have to say hinges on that point.



For me, "prophetic" in this case is a style descriptor, not just the bit of singing over chords between or instead of choruses and songs. "Extravagant" is a descriptor that we (D&H) use when talking about worship style, too. You could include "liturgical" as a style, too. And of course, the inevitable "other" category where one could find evangelistic and some baptistic styles. Within those broad categories you could subdivide into "throne-focused" worship where the songs and the intention is to or toward the throne (Lord, YOU are...) and other stuff that is not throne-focused. In that other category, you'll find worship in evangelistic services that most often is educational, much as were hymns in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They teach us about Who He is, what He's like, and that we need salvation. Those are not bad things, but most--I'm careful to not say all--evangelistic music in their worship services avoid talking TO Him. Instead of encouraging that communication and communion, it's taught by music that we should really avoid it and just talk to ourselves and tell ourselves what a wonderful God He is. Not a bad thing, but how much better to educate believers on how they can actually enter into conversation with Him, love on Him, and expect Him to respond to us in some fashion? There is what we used to call the Vineyard model where most of the music is in first person, is often rather casual about language and sometimes just flat inaccurate about our relationships with Him. Some of the Vineyard stuff is very "I" centered. More talking about what I will or won't do for or toward God, than actually just exalting Him. There's a LOT of it in contemporary music as well, especially the stuff that has crept into the church as music for our services. Lots of puff and fluff. Lots of "I".



Off the soapbox for now and back to prophetic worship, both in the way you use the phrase and in the way we would use it.



There is absolutely nothing wrong with singing in the spirit. I LOVE it! This is often the only time when folks are encouraged to love on the Lord and to sing their own words of adoration and appreciation, or to sing in tongues in charismatic circles. These are all good things. My one concern is that lots of gatherings don't stay there long enough for it to really develop. A few seconds and the energy fizzles, the songs droop, and on we go to whatever's next. Again, not everyone is guilty of this, but lots and lots of times we've seen it when we knew it should have pressed on. What might have happened had we pressed in? Probably our loss, sadly.



One teacher of ours used the analogy of a steam engine. Most congregations seemed to view singing in the spirit as the steam engine. The energy stopped and so did the train! His point was no, that was backward. WE're the engine and singing in the spirit is the steam!!! If we will rehearse this as a congregation, and if we'll press in, that singing in the spirit will cause the engine to move more than a couple of inches in pursuit of spiritual things. Father has a destination for us further down the tracks; we just need to fuel the engine and keep it chugging!



At our church's worship teams retreat a few weeks ago, we had a wonderful time in morning worship (Friday, maybe Saturday morning, but definitely not Sunday morning). There was an extended time of singing in the spirit (SITS) and His presence was breathtaking. How did that happen?? It was not merely the extended time of SITS. There had been a number of songs, prayer, scripture, and an extended prophetic song by our retreat master prior to all of us joining in and just singing our songs to him. All told it was maybe 45 minutes of intense worship by folks who had come prepared to worship. No "spiritual warm-up", no throw-away songs, but straight into His presence. At the end of that experience, the retreat master spoke pretty bluntly to the group of adults in the room, most of whom are or were married, a couple of 20-somethings that are about to be married. [Dean's paraphrase:] "Are you aware of what happened here this morning? That deeply satisfying presence of our Lord? You know that doesn't just happen, right? And you probably noticed that it wasn't a 'quickie'. We took our time and worked at being in His presence, honoring Him and expressing our love to Him, exalting Him. He responds when we enter in the right way!" The bluntness caught some of the folks by surprise, but it got their attention, and it impacted them. Most of them had experienced such depth at various points in their walks, but not for a while. It renewed a holy hunger for deeper encounters with our loving God!



I hope that this ramble recaptured the important parts of what I had written and lost, and I hope that I've offered something that will help further the dialog about prophetic worship, both as a definer and as a worship device. Did it make any sense to you, Moe? Did it speak to the things that you were hoping would be spoken to??