Riding the new winds of worship

“What would Jesus do with the whole ‘I am famous’ thing?” asks Chris Tomlin in one of his many interesting discussions in The Way I was Made: Words and Music for an Unusual Life. When a book is written by a famous musician, there is a tendency to suspect that it may be no more than a vehicle for cashing in on that fame, a type of merchandise like T-shirts, designed to bolster profits from CD sales. However, this book by Chris Tomlin, one of the most respected Christian songwriters and worship leaders of the current generation, is well written and filled with interesting and challenging insights.

Where did the music that’s changing our generation come from? What kind of event is so popular that university-aged people form a queue several city blocks long many hours before the event starts? What does “worship as a way of life” mean? Do we have any idea of what seeing and hearing God first hand would actually be like? What would our lives look like if we set out each day to truly live in wonder of him? The book addresses these questions and many more, drawing on well-told stories from Chris’s life and experience.

The book is filled with wisdom about how to become more like Jesus: “Lord, make me obscure;” “First to serve, last to eat;” “Faithful in little things.” It talks about clashes in worship styles, and tells a hilarious anecdote about the “steward of the human ear.” It talks about the role of the worship leader as a servant, and it talks about how to discover the passion or unique ability that has God’s signature on it in each person’s life. Highly recommended.