Seth Godin had it right. We are all part of a tribe. You might be a Star Trek geek (trekkie by name) or a muse or hipster or affiliate with any number of various tribes that you relate to. When it comes to faith communities, many of us are the same way- we often relate to a specific tribe that feels like "home" for us. I have had the blessing of visiting a number of faith community "tribes" from Catholic to Methodist to Pentecostal to Baptist (and a few variations thereof) to Charismatic to monastic orders to Vineyard.
I remember the first time I walked into a Vineyard meeting in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada in the summer of 1987. So riveting is that moment in my mind that I can remember the smell of the air from the Frazer Valley, the dense scent of fresh cut grass and the humidity. The session I walked into was being led by worship leader Andy Park, who would later become one the primary mentors that would help me in my worship journey of learning, leadership, and later equipping and resourcing.
Fast forward 25 years. A friend of mine, Dan Wilt, was teaching a class on worship values- a session to identify and refocus our minds and hearts on the core principles we should remember in worship. A couple month's before that, a pastor friend taught a series on the essential truths found in some hymns and songs- he asked me what five songs I would use to teach values in worship. These kinds of questions- highlighting the link between songs and values- are important ones to work through. They are important because, in the hearts and minds of people everywhere, songs have as much influence on the theology and practice of Christians as sermons and teachings.
Since I have been involved in Vineyard churches for over 20 years, I will speak specifically to some distinctives of values found in a small selection of Vineyard songs. While Vineyard has songs which could cover any number of theological points, I'd rather highlight the Vineyard's unique place in the Body of Christ by the gifts and treasures as expressions in song. While working on this article, I decided to take some time to visit various Vineyard congregations in the metro area where I currently live (Phoenix area). In the course of a couple months I have visited about half a dozen different Vineyard churches. Over the years, I've been in dozens of Vineyard churches for various ministry related times. My recent visits to local Vineyard churches helped re-affirm to me the importance of the themes that I was writing for this article.
In one sense, this article is good for the any church to consider- what are your values? How are those values being reflected in the songs you celebrate and worship with? What unique expressions are vital to the part of the Body of Christ that your local church is called to lead in?
In another way, this is a letter of encouragement and exhortation to the Vineyard churches. Everyone is interested in "encouragement", but few people are waiting around for a word of "exhortation". When people see the word "exhortation" some negative connotations can come to mind. Webster's defines "exhort" as: to try to influence (someone) by words or advice : to strongly urge (someone) to do something. This is an apt and clear definition of my intention here.
To my Vineyard friends, pastors, worship leaders, ministers, and pursuers of the in-breaking kingdom of God:
I strongly appeal to you. Remember the things which God did among you. Remember the heart of compassion that beat with your lifeblood of your local church. Remember what John told us as things were transforming from a high-energy, centered-set of growing churches into a broader denomination (I know we don't want to call it that, but we have to admit where we are at this point). John said that we stand on two legs- worship and compassion. We must walk forward, in an ever transforming motion and movement of those two powerful forces.
In the earliest movement of the Vineyard, we strove forward (in large part) on the leg of worship. We may have even been doing a one-legged hop after a while! But soon, through prayer and good leadership, the Vineyard grew up into a church which developed the leg of compassion as well. Reaching into the communities around us, going to the nations through missions, tending to the reality of our cultures, people, languages and needs- we have learned to minister beyond the walls of the local church building. But as we have strived to do this, we've moved forward perhaps not remembering the lessons of the past.
I believe in this time, in this day, God is asking us to walk on two legs. Do not stop the forward motion of compassion. But perhaps it is also time to re-engage with the motion of the Spirit as He ignites the many facets of worship in our midst with a fire once more. Revisit the prayers from the scripture and re-emphasized in the songs from our movement. Stir up the hunger for the presence of God. Have the leadership to wait on the Lord in midst of the people. Invite the Spirit to bring repentance, as well as joy, in the times of corporate worship. Each of these things comes to mind as I have considered, visited, prayed for and ministered in Vineyard churches and events. They are specific points, but come through most clearly as I consider them in the context of songs.
These songs ring true with the specific points I am exhorting you to consider. I am not trying to appeal to nostalgia, but I am saying that our history can speak to us about our future, as it has for every age of the church. In that history is contained some songs that highlight essential themes found in the very fiber of that leg of worship. Themes like repentance, community, spiritual hunger, intimacy, healing and salvation. Let's look at a few songs on these topics.
Change My Heart O God (Eddie Espinosa) - psalmic repentance... the Vineyard was one of the only voices that basically used contemporary idiom music to voice the prayers of the psalms, specifically the repentance nuances of those. There is none more powerful an example than this song. Similar would be Refiner's Fire. What was unique about Vineyard in this respect is that we developed a repentance song repertoire without developing "worm theology". This recently missing aspect of repentance in song, I believe, is a pivotal regression in Vineyard worship, since repentance is a fountainhead from which so many other things spring up- forgiveness, mercy, healing, God's presence, community and more. Out of the well of deep prayers comes the resultant answers from God's heart. The answers (forgiveness, mercy, healing, etc) are glorious, but it is the digging of the wells of repentance that opens up the heart as a reservoir into which the rain of God's presence brings His more full kingdom. Paradoxically, repentance cannot come from a rote inclusion in a theological document, teaching or even a song. It must flow up out of a desperation of soul- the kind of soul which cries out for God's rescue from our moral, emotional, physical, spiritual and community morass of sin.
We Welcome You (Danny Daniels) - community gathering... the Vineyard had some great "us" songs that said "we" are here for You, God. These call-to-worship songs that used community language focused on embracing the welcoming of God's Spirit established a powerful sense of our tribe in our midst. Not as an exclusive club, rather an open family whom all were welcome to join, but knowing we we all there for Him, not our own agendas.
Come And Fill Me Up (Brian Doerksen) - spiritual hunger and invocations for the Presence of God.... another strong distinctive of our movement has been direct prayerful (again psalmic based often) entreaties for God's Spirit. No couched language or misunderstood requests- we made direct requests for the very presence of God in our midst. This could sometimes have been interpreted as selfish or inward, but theologically we were bounded by John Wimber's constant practical direction to "give it away". Without this admission of need and reliance on the Holy Spirit, though, we would not have developed as the Vineyard. Other songs like this are numerous, but old ones such as "Come Holy Spirit", "Hungry" and others come to mind. Interestingly many of our songs shy away from this direct language now, while other groups are stepping into this reality-- like the recent song "Holy Spirit You Are Welcome Here" (by Jesus Culture/Torwalts) -- which is why those songs feel very "at home" in the Vineyard.
Father I Want You To Hold Me (Brian Doerksen) - intimacy with the Father.. another distinctive that made Vineyard worship embody an important part of our early theology was the amount of songs that focused on the love of the Father, his faithfulness, and our freedom now to approach him as children in intimacy. Literally no other musical church tradition in the 80's-90's pioneered this more than the Vineyard. This was the one that we took the most heat for too. John Wimber was very strong about this being one of our core values in worship, but I find it is now the one most lacking from our modern song writing. Other songs like Draw Me Close, In The Secret and others do this well.
I Believe In Jesus (Marc Nelson) - healing and salvation. The last one I will explore is healing within the theological context of salvation. We have songs on healing and many of them assume that there is a broader context of spiritual, soul, emotional and body healing that embrace the healing paradigm. This particular song, I think, not only sums up good theology of what our orthodox salvation teaching is (I believe in Jesus, I believe he is the Son of God, I believe he died and rose again, I believe he paid for us all)- it does it in perhaps one of the best synoptic choruses that is melodic and singable I have ever heard. On par with Lord I Lift Your Name On High, in my opinion (in that respect). But very nicely included in this song is the reliance on the manifest presence of God and his healing agency (And I believe that You're here now, standing in our midst, here with the power to heal now). Healing, however, is not left alone, but instead embodied within the greater gift of grace (and the grace to forgive).
I chose primarily older songs to do this reflection, but I could have picked newer ones perhaps in some cases. Most of these songs are much easier typically to learn and do than more recent songs, and they had a much broader impact because they were so much more easily adopted by the wider church.
This list of songs was not meant to be a well-rounded general theology sketch- it was meant as a reminder of important Vineyard distinctives in the contribution of worship. Vineyard distinctives that both reflect our founding values and can remind us of important parts of the Vineyard DNA that we must continue to carry forward.
Sincerely, your fellow servant in Christ,
Kim Anthony Gentes
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