ZoeBlog

Chapter 25: In this chapter, Kauflin talks about being skilled and authentic. I like that he says God wants us to pursue both skill and heart. It is important to have balance with these two. Sometimes we can get over whelmed by huge churches with full orchestras and choirs, but God just wants us to be authentic. This does not mean we shouldn’t be concerned about how we play. It is important to play well because God commend musical excellence. But this can sometimes get taken too far and worship ends up being a concert to show off your piano or guitar skills. I think this is important because we shouldn’t completely forget about how we play or our level of playing, but instead we should play for God and be genuine in our worship. We should keep a balanced lifestyle with being skilled and authentic. Chapter 26: This chapter focuses on “for the church and for the unbelievers.” Kauflin says that it is our responsibility to take car of each other in the church, no matter what. H...

Chapter 23:  In this chapter, Kauflin talks about planned and spontaneous worship. It is important to be planned and prepares, but we should not be so planned that we do everything precisely. That would defeat the purpose of worshiping God. We need to be open to new ideas and interests at any time. I can apply this to my life because just the other day we were faced with a challenge. The speaker we were going to have for chapel got sick and we had chosen specific songs for this chapel. Instead of doing those songs we chose to do different ones so we could save them for the chapel next week. This was an example of spontaneous worship and I think it went very well and smoothly. Chapter 24:   This chapter is about being routed and relevant. When Kauflin talks about being rooted, he means that we should be educated and interested in what has happened before us. That the Bible has been studied for many, many years. Next, Kauflin talks about the rights of relevance. This is ...

Chapter 21:         In this chapter, Kauflin talks about expression in worship. He gives us an example of this girl named "Susie." People say that Susie is a "real worshiper" because she shows expressiveness. But Kauflin says that there are several possible explanations to this. She might just be looking for attention and comes from an extroverted family. This can be a mask to her worshiping that fools others. What we need to really remember is to truly worship God. We need to remember that people worship God in different ways. Not everybody is going to put their arms up and sing loudly during worship. Keeping this in mind, it is laos important to be expressive when leading worship.         I can apply this to my life by remembering to be expressive. This is really hard for me because it is not something I am very comfortable with. I am a very introverted person when I am not with people I know, so worshiping with expressiveness is something I ...

Chapter 19: The first thing Kauflin talks about in chapter 19 is reverence. He says it is important to be reverent to show respect to God and honor Him. He also says that reverence is essential to worship. I partially agree with this. He says that worship is better when it is formal and every word is carefully chosen and devotedly said, and that casual worship makes us loose sight of who God is. I think that there should be a balance between formality and being casual. I think that being too formal is to restrictive for us to be able to worship God the way we feel is best. But it is also important to keep our respect for God while we worship. He also talks about God not only being transcendent, but also immanent, which means he is near to us. I can apply this to my life by remembering who God really is and keeping respect for Him. But I should also not feel to constricted to not worship Him the way I choose. Chapter 20: In this chapter Kauflin talks about Head and Heart. Fi...

        Part 3 of Bob Kauflin's "worship Matters" focuses on healthy tensions. Chapter 18, the first part of this section is named "Guiding Principles." Firstly, he says that we can easily get into a pattern in worshiping God. This pattern can result in us doing things, like worshiping God blandly. Kauflin states that God does not give us a strict schedule of worshiping, so instead of always doing the same thing, we should broaden how we worship Him. Kauflin gives his readers 3 principles for ordering our services: 1. Do what God clearly commands, 2. Don't do what God clearly forbids, 3. Use scriptural wisdom for everything else. As you can see, these are pretty broad standards for service. This should give us the freedom of being creative in our worshiping, the way God wants us to.         I can apply this to my life by trying to add some of these principles to the way I spend my time. I often get bored of something if it is always the same....

In this chapter, Kauflin talks about living for God's glory. Even though it is impossible to be perfect, we should strive to be like Jesus. We should commit our lives to live like Jesus did. Firstly, Kauflin says that worshiping God should make us humble. This is important because we should use our opportunity to provide others worship as a humbling action, not one to take pride in. Next, worshiping God should make us secure because our security ultimately rests in God's love. Kauflin goes on to talk about other things worshiping should make us and I think the most important is that it should make us loving. I really agree with Kauflin when he says that when we gather for worship, God himself should capture our attention. I think that it is hard for some people to just think about God when worshiping because many worries can come to mind. For example, we can be to scared to raise up our hands, or sing out loud with all our heart. But at the end of the day we are worshiping G...

In this chapter, Kauflin focuses his attention on God's presence. It is sometimes hard to understand God and the way He works. Even when we don't feel him there, we should keep in mind that he is always there. But, there is another side to this: even if He is present at all times, he sometimes chooses to "localize his presence." Kauflin says that as a worship leader it is especially important to be prepared for an encounter with God. This is very important because it shows an example to others on how to receive God's presence.