Live in Concert

For the next 4 weeks we are going to discuss worship. 

And we're going to worship.

Together.

Each and every Sunday we come together to to be an encouragement to each other, and to be encouraged. To learn something about God and to sing songs that remind us of Who God is, who we are and what He is up to in us and in the world. These are things that followers of Jesus and seekers of truth have done for millennia, together, in concert. Our unified celebration of God and the life He gives is one of our distinctive marks as His community. So, over the next few weeks, we will discuss things like our singing, how remarkably subversive the worship of Christ is, the transformation of our minds and the celebration of communion.

You may also want to view this video as you begin!

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Discussion Guide, Live In Concert Part I

Thaw

• What is your all time favorite song? Why?
  
• What's an example of a song that's tied to a personal experience so much that, when you hear it, it stirs you emotionally? Tell about that.
  
• Was there anything that stuck with you from the message Sunday?
• How does the idea that music is something God has wired humans for shape (change, enhance)  your image of Him?
  

Leader note: help your members think about a music-making and music-loving God. We so often think of Him generically as "Creator", without actually thinking about Him taking joy in creating specific aesthetic things like tiny purple flowers, laughter and installing music-making/appreciation software in our heads.

• When we sing in church together, is that more for us, or for God? Explain your response.

Leader note: On week three, we will come back to this idea of God wanting singing for Himself, egocentrically. For now, explore how singing seems to be for us more, as we are wired to do it, recognize it, appreciate it and benefit from it. You may also note that the Bible portrays singing as done by a community, leaning on each other and toward God. So, it's a unifier, with God as the object so that we can, as a community celebrate God's power, rather than our own. Without God, we would have no one but ourselves to sing about. By God drawing our praises from us toward Him, it helps us to grow in selfless trust and confidence that the story is bigger than right here, right now.

• Is there a hymn or worship song that brings you back to particular experience with God? What was it?

Read

• Psalm 113-118

Leader Note: This section is the "Hallel" or the "Praise" section of the Psalms, sang for thousands of years by Jews and Christians ( especially right after Passover Dinner). In Hebrew, "Hallelujah" means Praise the Lord (Hallel-u-Yah). This is most likely what Jesus and the disciples sang moments before Jesus' arrest, and subsequent crucifixion. It's also likely that Paul and the others sang from this section while imprisoned (Acts 16).  This may take 7 or 8 minutes to read aloud, at the most. Before reading, prepare your group to listen to the kinds of things being said and remember the few phrases that stand out the most. Knowing our Lord sang this before His death may make some phrases pop out all the more.

Discuss

• What are some things that really stood out?
  
• What kinds of thoughts or questions or "aha moments" arise when you consider jesus singing this before his prophesied death, burial and resurrection?
  
• Have you ever sang in the midst of crisis, fear or even hopelessness? Share the experience?
  
• What does singing and praising God say to the circumstances ( and even the people causing them) around us?

Leader note: It's interesting that when we're afraid and stressed, our breathing becomes irregular, our heart rate increases, we're tense and our whole body becomes rigid. Singing illustrates rhythm, beauty and regularity in the midst of chaos, as well as having actual, measurable physiological benefits.

Read

• Colossians 3:5-16
  
• First thoughts?
  
• What does singing have to do with celebrating our transformed life in Christ?
  
• Why would Paul, a grown, educated man- tell other adults to sing about the most important things in the Universe?
  
• What are the hindrances for us singing?
  
• How can they be removed or ignored?
  
• How can this group take these ideas further, together, over the next 4 week?

Additional insights:

The following New Testament texts are interesting for two reasons: One, they are huge in what they contain and say about the nature of Christ and our faith. Two, they are believed by numerous scholars to be early Christian hymns contained within the letters, as a way of communicating the deepest truths in songs everyone was familiar with. You amy or may not want to review a few of these as a group to both read these important texts, as well as drill down deeper on the idea that we serve a God that wants the most important things to be put to a catchy tune!

Ephesians 5:14, Phil 2:6-11,Col 1:15-20, 1 Tim 3:16, 1 Tim 15b-16, 2 Tim 2:11-13, Heb 1:3