CompassionArt - Get It

Our fearless leader here at ninetyandnine recently gave me a cd for review (which will shortly be up on the home page) entitled CompasssionArt: Creating Freedom from Poverty. You can read all the details in the forthcoming review. Admittedly I'm not one to rush out and buy the latest Christian worship album to come down the pike. But I'd buy this one over and over. Yes, I was pretty impressed with the songs and the singers (the likes if Israel Houghton, Steven Curtis Chapman (who in my opinion OWNS the rights to "best written songs EVER"), Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, CeCe Winans, Kirk Franklin, and other well-knowns. But it was the subject of the CD that really caught my attention. I'll admit that I had one of those jaw-dropping moments of pure joy when I read the following quote by Israel Houghton, stating, “It’s impossible to call ourselves worshipers and not be so moved in the area of justice.”

What is worship?

You see, I think we have a real problem in the fact that we don't know what WORSHIP means. we try to separate the terms "praise" and "worship" thinking that the mood each term evokes has something to do with it, when in reality "mood" has nothing at ALL to do with it! A working definition I came up with was this: worship is the God-centered, self-denying act of the faithful Christian life in which we encounter and respond to God, with mind, body and soul, in all of life, with the singular goal of glorifying God. Yes, I know it's kinda long, but worship is complex, thus the many commas!
Last semester I took Theology and Pracitce of Worship at UGST where I have to admit that every notion I ever had about worship was turned completely inside-out by Dr. James Littles' capable teaching. One text for required reading for the class was "The Message In The Music" by Woods and Walrath - a book I STONGLY recommend for all music ministers/worship leaders. Each chapter examined 77 current p/w songs from the CCLI list. They were examined from many angles, such as did they express the nature of God, were they overly "sexualized," meaning did they use language too personal or that evoked questionable images, were they musically excellent - melody, harmony, rhythm easy to sing congregationally, etc, did they encompass all facets of worship - corporate, us to God, us to each other, us to the world. One chapter that really stood out was the chapter examining whether or not our worship songs addressed the needs of social justice and those less fortunate. I had NEVER considered that! But the more I formulated my worship definition, the more I realized we had made our worship music too self-centered when it was never meant to be.

Right purpose = right use

Worship is not about us. It's purpose was never meant to make us feel good. As Dr. Littles said so many times in class, when someone states that they "didn't get anything out of that service," the reply should be, "well, I didn't know we were worshiping you." So, I said all that to say, if we really get the purpose of our worship music right, then we will address more than our own felt needs. That's why I loved CompasionArt so much. Someone (or several someones) finally got together and displayed a facet of worship music that is rarely seen.

Now, go buy this CD (on January 27) for two reasons: the songs are AMAZING and ALL the proceeds go to beneft several poverty projects worldwide for as long as the CD is sold.