24 Carat Leadership

Psalm 66:8 (NRSV) Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard.

Psalm 66 is for the leaders, and as we ordain and install our leaders – elders and deacons – this song speaks to the central concern in our church – worship – how is God calling us to offer God our worship, which is God’s due? Will we continue to offer two different services, and be two worshipping bodies in one congregation? Will we worship together in a way that brings in the best of both and tries to meet in the middle? How is God calling us to worship?

We are challenged by this to be 24 carat leaders. Psalm 66:10 (NRSV) For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. Discerning the way God is calling us to worship will chart the course for the future of our church. It will consume our impurities and refine what remains. It won’t be easy. It will be worth it, because God is worthy of our praise.

While I was in Western PA, I learned about the refining process in terms of making steel. There’s a lot of heat required to remove the impurities. “Ore” sounds a lot more glamorous than “dirt,” but we dig “ore” out of the ground; it’s “dirt,” but after it is melted at high temperature, the impurities can be skimmed off, and the result is high quality steel, or 24 carat silver.

Gold and silver’s quality is measured in carats, but it’s only part of the equation when it comes to diamonds. When we’re shopping for diamonds, we look for the 4 C’s – Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat weight, 24 carat leaders look for 3 C’s – Conduct, Content and Context.

We’re talking a lot about music, what we will sing and how we will sing it, but worship is more than music. Worship is what we offer to God, because God is worthy of our praise. To help us in the words of the Great Ends of the Church “maintain divine worship,” we’re going to “come and see” and “come and hear” so that we can offer God and God’s people 24 carat leadership.

COME AND SEE

Psalm 66:5 (NRSV) Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.

Worship is about God; it’s not about us. Worship is for God; it’s not for us. Worship is what we offer; God is the one who receives our worship. God is the one who is served in our “worship service.”

George Buttrick, the great preacher and teacher of preachers, said that every sermon should communicate the idea – the most wonderful thing has happened. “Come and see what God has done.”

Well, how can folks “see what God has done?” They see “what God has done” in what we do and the way we do it; the way we conduct ourselves. Everything they experience from the moment they arrive – Were all the close parking spots taken? Did we say “hello?” Did we introduce ourselves? Did we help them figure out which hymnal we were using? Is it too hot? Is it too cold? Is the light from the windows shining in their eyes? Did we welcome them the way God in Christ has welcomed us? Is what we do consistent with “what God has done?”

Elders and deacons, be 24 carat leaders! Help us remove our impurities and refine our worship. God deserves our best. Lead us in giving it so that the world will see “what God has done.”

COME AND HEAR

Psalm 66:16 (NRSV) Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.

So how do we determine what is our best?

“What God has done” is the content of our worship. We tell the story – that’s what we do in worship; that’s why we do what we do in worship. It’s easy to get caught up in the details of worship planning and lose sight of the purpose of worship; it’s easy to substitute style for substance; but the content of worship is “what God has done,” and even more amazingly, “what God has done for me”: Created the heavens and the earth – for us; called Abram and Sarai and formed a people, formed us; called Moses, Miriam, and Aaron to tell old Pharaoh, “let my people (let us!) go.” From Exodus to Promised Land, through prophets, priests, and kings, God led his people (God led us), until the right time, the right place, of all places Bethlehem of Judea???, and God gave God’s Son, Jesus of Nazareth, to live, to teach, to suffer, to die, so that we could take our place in the story, and through the glory of resurrection, we know that this story goes on and on and on, and so shall we.

Meanwhile, we are called to sing the Lord’s song in this increasingly strange land. We gather to worship as particular people in a particular place at a particular time. When we tell the story of “what God has done for me,” we create an intersection between the story and our context. Eternity steps into our time and helps us find our way and make sense of it all.

God deserves our best, so how do we determine what is our best? 24 carat leadership looks beyond the details to the 3 C’s: Here at Pennside: How are we conducting ourselves? Is the content front and center, or are we putting style ahead of substance? Is it more important to us to worship “our way,” whichever way that may be, than it is to worship God any way?

Worship is about God, not us. God is the audience. God is the One who receives our worship. We participate by telling the story and singing God’s praise.

Pray for our leaders. We have a lot to consider. God is at work at Pennside. God is testing us. God is trying us. God is refining us like the precious metal we are. It won’t be easy. It will be worth it, because God is worthy of our praise.

Elders and deacons, God deserves our best. Lead us in giving it so that the world will see, the world will hear “what God has done.” Be 24 carat leaders! Amen.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.