Still 'fine-tuning' our process. You can get to the original article HERE
NOTE: THIS ARTICLE is a reprint from the blog of reverend Kevin Rogers of New Song Church in Windsor, Ontario and is reproduced here for your convenience. You can visit the his blog called "The Orphan Age" HERE.
Maybe you’ve heard the idiom ‘preaching to the choir’. It
means:
To (pointlessly) try to convince a person or group to
accept an opinion that they already agree with… ‘Preaching to the choir’
originated in the USA in the 1970s. It is a variant of the earlier ‘preaching
to the converted’, which dates from England in the late 1800s and has the same
meaning.[1]
One of my personal pet peeves, is when I hear preaching that
is an echo chamber of what we already know to be true. It’s good to be
reminded, but I hunger for the Spirit’s voice illuminating the Word of God in
ways that stir me to repent and believe with fervency. It is a sad reality when
a church is known for its beautiful sanctuary that comfortably sleeps three
hundred people. May the Sunday nap only ever be on your own time at home.
People will go to sleep if they only hear the lull of a
preacher’s voice and the drone of a worship band without hearing the call of
God to something higher. This can happen when we try to convince people
repetitiously of what they already agree with.
Let me ask a personal question. Have you been lulled to
sleep by hearing the same old, same old? Have you taken a spiritual nap when
you would be better off taking a spiritual walk? Hear your high calling in
Christ Jesus!
Hebrews 5:
11 We
have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you
no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time
you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths
of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone
who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching
about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who
by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
The call and response ideas are musical ones. It’s the
gospel singer who belts out a line of truth and the choir echoes back in a
heartfelt way to restate that important truth. If the responders are
half-hearted and off key, the director may need to go back to rehearse that
number again until the choir owns it.
In this regard, preaching to the choir is not pointlessly
trying to convince the team of what they already know. There is another
preaching to the choir where direction is given to help them own the song for
themselves. Not just hiding in the baritone section, but consciously embodying
the truth being sung.
If God is the director, he hands out a few solos and a
larger number of part singers and responders.