A Better Vintage - Scotty Smith
A good friend once told me, "There are
some things which require a good bit of time, like the cultivation of a wise heart. Not that time alone brings wisdom, because there're a lot of old fools running around, but there are very few really young wise people." My good friend is a
wise friend.
The same can be said of a church, a mission, or a ministry like
Worship Leader magazine. For something to gain the status of "vintage" presupposes time, refining, more time, and more refining. Time alone will most certainly bring wrinkles, but not necessarily bring one bit of maturity. That's why I'm thankful to witness, and be a part of, the vintage that's emerging at
Worship Leader magazine, perhaps best captured by the timely theme of New Song.
In a season when the business of music, even worship music, is greatly challenged and ever changing, it's so encouraging to know for WL, it's
never been just about the music-just about the songs. Rather, the focus and passion have been for God's worship-for the raising up of lead worshipers and for the equipping of worship leaders, for the local church and from the nations of the world. After all, it's called Worship
Leader magazine, not Worship
Music magazine.
A Worthy GoalNow, with this recent edition of WL, and with this year's National Worship Leader Conferences, the bud of this ministry is more fully blooming, and the bloom is suggesting the aroma of a bouquet. I'm excited about the New Song emphasis for several reasons:
First, the theme of New Song highlights the vital connection between God's worship and God's
mission. There are two things that God has "signed on for" which define the history of the world as we know it-God's commitment to be glorified through redeeming His people from the nations and by his commitment to make all things new through Jesus Christ. As John Piper has well said, "Missions exists because worship does not." By this, Dr. Piper is reminding us that the goal of the history of redemption is for "the glory of God to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea"-that is, the transformation of God's broken people and God's broken world. We are to live with a view towards the Day when God will be worshiped perfectly by His gathered and glorified people in the magnificent world of the new heaven and new earth. New Song will not let us divorce God's worship from God's mission. This is a fresh heartbeat at
Worship Leader.
Pointing OutwardSecondly, the theme of New Song calls us into a new dialogue about worship arts and our various callings as worship leaders. There is no such thing as a non-missional calling, and there is no such thing as a calling which does not make God's worship pre-eminent. What are the implications of this for how we want to invest the rest of our lives as worship leaders? Imagine this, and pray for it: Over the course of the next few years a new breed of worship leaders who will become doxological missionaries in the heart of big cities, in our broken communities, in cross-cultural settings-anywhere God will send us, not caring who gets the credit, all for God's glory! New Song will not let us turn God's worship into an ingrown "kum-ba-ya fest."
Thirdly, New Song connects us with the lyric, the music, and the dance of the gospel. As we have seen throughout this issue, New Song is
not an altogether new song, nor simply a novel or nuanced version of an old tired song. New Song is the unfolding story of every glorious and grace-full thing God is doing through the person and work of His Jesus-the good news we call
the gospel. Like every great song, the gospel has a lyric to be understood, music to be enjoyed, and a dance to be learned.
The more fully we understand the gospel of God's grace, and the more fully its music is sung into every broken and sinful place in our hearts, the quicker we will join the younger brother on the dance floor of the Father's love (Luke 15), and the more readily we will follow Jesus wherever He leads us-living as conduits of the grace and truth, of which He is full.
There's only one song worth living and dying for, the New Song. Let's join
Worship Leader in making it the main song we all cherish and the main song by which we live.
Scotty served as Senior Pastor at Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN, for its first 20 years. He invests much of his time now in world missions, speaking, writing, coaching church planters and serving as adjunct professor at Covenant Theological Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.
