The image of the “yes-man” in our society is not a good one. The fawning second in command is regularly caricatured in New Yorker magazine cartoons and Hollywood movies. So strong is our abhorrence of this conniving flatterer that almost any kind of obedience or submission is looked down on as unbecoming a real mall or a modern woman.
In a Marlboro-man world, our individual freedom to respond to that “something deep inside you” (which may tell you to quit your job and start a charter fishing boat business) is one of the most cherished values of American civil religion. To give up that independence by willingly or unwillingly submitting to another person rankles us.
The roots of this independence are deep. The frontier image of cheating starvation and death by doing everything for oneself still thrives as a cultural archetype. The all-men-are-created-equal assurances of our constitution have been stretched far beyond their original intent as broad guidelines for lawmakers and have become almost eternal verities themselves.
Democracy, once intended to be a community-oriented way of discovering the best way for the most people, has been turned into demon-cracy where the same individual pride and self-reliance that drove Satan out of heaven has been turned into a national way of life.
To be sure, this skepticism of the yes-man mentality has advantages. No man is worthy of noncritical, total allegiance, whether dictators in government, autocrats in business, or cult leaders in religion.
But something very important suffers at the other end of the spectrum-our capacity for whole-hearted worship. It’s extraordinarily difficult to spend most of our days in a world dedicated to self-advancement and then suddenly on Sunday morning follow the pastor’s heaven-pointing finger and say with sincerity, “Blessed is the perfect Lamb of God.” To worship God, we must put a new program in our mind’s computer, and too often we forget to switch the discs.
It doesn’t seem to help much that we intellectually know God is worthy of our worship. For some reason, the difference between knowing this truth and consistently doing something about it is difficult. And it’s what we do about it that makes worship genuine.
Since we spend most of our time observing and imitating the models our world presents us, we simply are not practiced enough in knowing how to behave without self-interest, uncritically, in the presence of a sinless, perfect Creator God.
All this ran through our minds as we put together this issue of LEADERSHIP. We have never approached any theme with more fear and trembling. Worship is something you must get right. To fail, our Lord tells us in Matthew 15:8, is to be a hypocrite: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”
Most teaching on worship is little more than rules taught by men. Much of that teaching is very good. But there is a difference between the techniques of worship and the faith true worship represents. Long ago, Cicero, in one of his treatises on oratory, noted the difference between teaching by example and teaching by testimony: “By example we clarify the nature of our statement. By testimony we establish its truth.”
The articles in this issue contain many clarifications, examples, and techniques relating to worship. But as we gathered and edited these articles, we also sensed the testimony of true worshipers. It’s the testimony that validates the technique.
God is indeed worthy of our worship. May he give us the strength to humble ourselves and wholeheartedly give ourselves to his praise.
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We are pleased to announce the addition of a new staff member, Kevin Miller, as associate editor. He comes to us from the David C. Cook Publishing Co. where he served as editor of new product development.
Kevin is a graduate of Wheaton (Illinois) College where he majored in biblical studies and Christian education. He and his wife, Karen, with one-year-old son Andrew, attend Faith Lutheran Church in Geneva, Illinois.
He has already taken the editorial staff of LEADERSHIP to new heights. At 6’4″, he towers over Shelley (5’9″), Berkley (5’8″), and Muck (5’5″). We look forward (or perhaps upward?) to the fine contributions Kevin will make to the pages of our journal.
I’m also pleased to announce the promotion of Marshall Shelley from senior editor to managing editor of LEADERSHIP. Marshall’s new responsibilities include the day-to-day operations of the journal and staff.
In his four years with us, Marshall has proven himself an excellent journalist and editor. His commitment to the ministry of local church leaders is evident in all his work and each issue of LEADERSHIP.
Terry C. Muck is editor of LEADERSHIP.
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