What should the heart of a worshipper be? We could make a list of a few things: willing, serving, humble, delighted in God, and satisfied in God are a few.
Now what should the heart of the worship leader be towards the people? What should his goal and aim be second to glorifying God?
I will venture to say that the aim of the worship leader should be the desire that people enjoy God the same as he or she does; that the people are enraptured by God and not the music.
I challenge you, worship leaders, to be satisfied in God more than a successful practice. I challenge you to be satisfied in God more than the response of the people during worship. I challenge you to make your satisfaction in God rather than in yourself. Lastly, I challenge you to lead the people of your church, Bible study, home group, etc., with the aim of helping them to be satisfied in God just as much and more than you are.
I challenge you, people of God, to be satisfied in God more than the music. I challenge you to be satisfied in God more than the drum fills and guitar solos. I challenge you to be satisfied in God more than yourself.
Worship leaders, there is so much that we can bring to the stage: guitar riffs, drum solos, synth sounds, soft pads, sound effects, videos, lights, etc. But what good is all of this if we aren't satisfied in God? What good is our leading if we are leading by our talents and not our satisfaction, pleasure, hope, and faith in God? How can you expect to lead people in worshipping God when you aren't even focused on God? That's not leading people into worship of God. That's leading people to worship an experience, or even worse, to worship you. Do we lead for a response or to glorify God?
People of God, so much can be and is laid before you during a time of worship. I've said it so much before and I'll continue to say it: don't worship the experience. Be satisfied in God over the music. Worship God and not the music! Church, look and see how despicable of a sin it is to make the central satisfaction of your worship someone or something other than God!
I ask you, worship leader where is your heart when you are leading?
People of God, where are your hearts when being led into worship?
If your hearts aren't focused on God, repent and ask Him to satisfy you with Himself. Worship Him for who He is and what He's done. He is worthy of our praise.
I want to leave you with this last quote from Charles H. Spurgeon. It is taken from a sermon ("The Dumb Shall Sing") on how before we were saved we were unable to speak or sing the praise of God, and how we should now be joyful and praise God for what He's done...
"O! Ye unworthy ones, ye saints that feel your deep natural depravity, and mourn over your ruin by the fall of Adam, lift up your hearts to God! He hath delivered you from all the impediments which Adam cast upon you; your tongue is loosed, it is loose now; Adam had made it dumb, but God hath loosed it; your eyes that were blinded by Adam's fall are opened now; He hath lifted you from the miry clay. What Adam lost for us, Christ hath regained for us; He hath plucked us out of the pit; and 'set us upon a rock, and established our goings, and hath put a new song in our mouth, even praise forevermore.' Yes, 'the tongue of the dumb shall sing.'"
Blessings,
Nick
Monday, April 30, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Two Prayer Requests
Hello my brothers and sisters in Christ,
Please if you would, pray for a brother and a sister in Christ. Both have been diagnosed with cancer.
Brent Yim is married and a father of two young boys. He has been diagnosed twice with an aggressive brain tumor. The second diagnosis revealed that the tumor is non-operable. You can check out his story at Brent Yim Fund.
Daisy Merrick is 7 years old and just had her third cancer diagnosis in as many years. You can follow her journey at Pray for Daisy.
Pray for God's will in their healing, that He will comfort their families, and that our Lord would be glorified above all.
Worship the Lord today as we lift up our brother and sister in Christ.
Blessings,
Nick
Please if you would, pray for a brother and a sister in Christ. Both have been diagnosed with cancer.
Brent Yim is married and a father of two young boys. He has been diagnosed twice with an aggressive brain tumor. The second diagnosis revealed that the tumor is non-operable. You can check out his story at Brent Yim Fund.
Daisy Merrick is 7 years old and just had her third cancer diagnosis in as many years. You can follow her journey at Pray for Daisy.
Pray for God's will in their healing, that He will comfort their families, and that our Lord would be glorified above all.
Worship the Lord today as we lift up our brother and sister in Christ.
Blessings,
Nick
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Stealing Potential Glory from God
Today I'm going to stray a little bit from the norm and write a little more controversial post on a subject that has been in the political and religious spheres for almost 40 years here in America. This subject has been the cause of much turmoil amongst many, whether that be within churches, religious groups, political parties, relationships, and even marriages. This subject is abortion
I could go into all the medical and philosophical reasonings against abortion, but I want to take an alternate route (thanks to John Piper). That route being the glory of God. Every person on the planet lives on this planet either giving glory to God or stealing it from Him. We are either clinging to His salvation and living by faith, or we are living rebelliously in sin worshipping ourselves. Abortion takes away both of these lifestyles from the little person in the womb. To murder a baby in the womb is a sin, but it isn't the greater sin. The greater sin is killing off a human being that could potentially give glory to God here on earth.
Many times doctors tell expecting mothers that their babies may or do have signs of physical or mental diseases and advise that the pregnancy be terminated. Let me ask the question, who are we to decide whether or not a person can or can't give glory to God with such conditions? Who are we to decide that God can't use a person with disabilities to glorify His name and further His Gospel? Who are we to decide whose quality of life isn't worth living because they won't be "normal"? Your baby is a special gift from God to be cherished and nurtured for His glory.
Many soon-to-be mothers become pregnant unintentionally and don't have the means to take care of a baby, and definitely don't want their child to go into the care of the State. Don't kill a child for this reason. There are many Christian people who would love to adopt a baby to care for as their own. There are many Christian couples who can't have children and would jump at the chance to love and care for a child, even if it's not biologically theirs. Don't think you don't have a choice. Pro-choice means you choose what's best for your baby over yourself.
Many soon-to-be mothers who accidentally become pregnant don't want a baby. She would rather deal without a child, or she is ashamed and doesn't want the world to know she got pregnant. Abortion is viewed as their savior in these situations. What a perfect way out of a stressful life, right? Wrong. Killing a child because he or she might make your life stressful (as a parent or because you're afraid that people will judge you) is still stealing that potential glory from God. You're destroying a possible instrument that God can use for His glory. Be pro-life and give your child the best life possible, even of that means giving your child up for adoption to a good Christian family who will raise your child with love and cherish him or her.
If you have aborted a child, you may be filled with guilt, shame, and depression. The Bible calls taking the life of an innocent person murder. Even beyond that you stole from God the chance for your baby to glorify Him. The Bible says "Do not be deceived!...Murderers will not inherit the kingdom of God..." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). God views life so precious that He wrote into His law that murder is wrong (6th Commandment). Jesus explained this law of God even further in the Gospel of Matthew saying, "If you call anyone 'Raca!' (idiot or moron), you are in danger of hell." The Bible says later in 1 John that if you hate someone, you are a murderer. How many times have you said something spiteful or hated someone? That is murder in God's eyes also. Sin goes beyond just murder and hate. Have you ever lied, stolen, looked with lust had sex outside of marriage, or had an extramarital affair? These are all sins against God too. God is a just Judge who will judge you according to your sins, and being just doesn't mean weighing your sins against the good things you've done. It means punishing you for the bad things you've done. How many times have you sinned against God? If you are honest, you've sinned more times than you could count.
We (I include myself) are sinful beings. We deserve to be punished in hell for eternity for infinitely breaking God's laws daily. But God is rich, unimaginably rich, in love and full of mercy. He is so full of mercy that He became a man in the person of Jesus, lived a life perfect without sin, and died on a cross to take the punishment of your sin and my sin upon Himself in our place, and three days later He rose from the dead proving that the price of sin was paid for and that death had been beaten.
If you will turn away from yourself to God, trust in Jesus' payment for sin upon the cross in your place, believe that He rose from the dead, and believe that there is nothing you can do apart from Jesus' work to be forgiven, your sin will be washed away forever! It's like this: salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone for His righteousness alone apart from any deeds of your own for the glory of God alone.
Do you understand what that means? It means that if you place your trust in Christ to pay for your sins, He took the punishment in your place for you killing your baby or even babies. He took the punishment for every lie you've told. He took the punishment for everything you've stolen, every time you hated someone, lusted sexually after someone, fornicated, and cheated on your spouse. He took the punishment for every single sin you have ever committed or will commit.
Beloved sister, until you trust in Christ you are an enemy of God and your sins are great. But God who is rich in love died for us while we were still sinners. Jesus who was perfect became our imperfection for us on the cross so that we might become the perfection of God in God's eyes through Him.
If you have trusted Christ today for His righteousness in place of your unrighteousness, rejoice! Your sins are forgiven! Your slate is clean! Now go live your life for God in the shadow of His grace and mercy, reading and following the Bible, giving Him all the praise and glory until your last breath.
Please take the time to watch 180 Movie. It's only 33 minutes long and it will change your view of abortion forever.
Worship Him today.
Blessings,
Nick
P.S. Please, if you would, read through my blogs. I pray they are an encouragement to you and help your walk with the Lord.
I could go into all the medical and philosophical reasonings against abortion, but I want to take an alternate route (thanks to John Piper). That route being the glory of God. Every person on the planet lives on this planet either giving glory to God or stealing it from Him. We are either clinging to His salvation and living by faith, or we are living rebelliously in sin worshipping ourselves. Abortion takes away both of these lifestyles from the little person in the womb. To murder a baby in the womb is a sin, but it isn't the greater sin. The greater sin is killing off a human being that could potentially give glory to God here on earth.
Many times doctors tell expecting mothers that their babies may or do have signs of physical or mental diseases and advise that the pregnancy be terminated. Let me ask the question, who are we to decide whether or not a person can or can't give glory to God with such conditions? Who are we to decide that God can't use a person with disabilities to glorify His name and further His Gospel? Who are we to decide whose quality of life isn't worth living because they won't be "normal"? Your baby is a special gift from God to be cherished and nurtured for His glory.
Many soon-to-be mothers become pregnant unintentionally and don't have the means to take care of a baby, and definitely don't want their child to go into the care of the State. Don't kill a child for this reason. There are many Christian people who would love to adopt a baby to care for as their own. There are many Christian couples who can't have children and would jump at the chance to love and care for a child, even if it's not biologically theirs. Don't think you don't have a choice. Pro-choice means you choose what's best for your baby over yourself.
Many soon-to-be mothers who accidentally become pregnant don't want a baby. She would rather deal without a child, or she is ashamed and doesn't want the world to know she got pregnant. Abortion is viewed as their savior in these situations. What a perfect way out of a stressful life, right? Wrong. Killing a child because he or she might make your life stressful (as a parent or because you're afraid that people will judge you) is still stealing that potential glory from God. You're destroying a possible instrument that God can use for His glory. Be pro-life and give your child the best life possible, even of that means giving your child up for adoption to a good Christian family who will raise your child with love and cherish him or her.
If you have aborted a child, you may be filled with guilt, shame, and depression. The Bible calls taking the life of an innocent person murder. Even beyond that you stole from God the chance for your baby to glorify Him. The Bible says "Do not be deceived!...Murderers will not inherit the kingdom of God..." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). God views life so precious that He wrote into His law that murder is wrong (6th Commandment). Jesus explained this law of God even further in the Gospel of Matthew saying, "If you call anyone 'Raca!' (idiot or moron), you are in danger of hell." The Bible says later in 1 John that if you hate someone, you are a murderer. How many times have you said something spiteful or hated someone? That is murder in God's eyes also. Sin goes beyond just murder and hate. Have you ever lied, stolen, looked with lust had sex outside of marriage, or had an extramarital affair? These are all sins against God too. God is a just Judge who will judge you according to your sins, and being just doesn't mean weighing your sins against the good things you've done. It means punishing you for the bad things you've done. How many times have you sinned against God? If you are honest, you've sinned more times than you could count.
We (I include myself) are sinful beings. We deserve to be punished in hell for eternity for infinitely breaking God's laws daily. But God is rich, unimaginably rich, in love and full of mercy. He is so full of mercy that He became a man in the person of Jesus, lived a life perfect without sin, and died on a cross to take the punishment of your sin and my sin upon Himself in our place, and three days later He rose from the dead proving that the price of sin was paid for and that death had been beaten.
If you will turn away from yourself to God, trust in Jesus' payment for sin upon the cross in your place, believe that He rose from the dead, and believe that there is nothing you can do apart from Jesus' work to be forgiven, your sin will be washed away forever! It's like this: salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone for His righteousness alone apart from any deeds of your own for the glory of God alone.
Do you understand what that means? It means that if you place your trust in Christ to pay for your sins, He took the punishment in your place for you killing your baby or even babies. He took the punishment for every lie you've told. He took the punishment for everything you've stolen, every time you hated someone, lusted sexually after someone, fornicated, and cheated on your spouse. He took the punishment for every single sin you have ever committed or will commit.
Beloved sister, until you trust in Christ you are an enemy of God and your sins are great. But God who is rich in love died for us while we were still sinners. Jesus who was perfect became our imperfection for us on the cross so that we might become the perfection of God in God's eyes through Him.
If you have trusted Christ today for His righteousness in place of your unrighteousness, rejoice! Your sins are forgiven! Your slate is clean! Now go live your life for God in the shadow of His grace and mercy, reading and following the Bible, giving Him all the praise and glory until your last breath.
Please take the time to watch 180 Movie. It's only 33 minutes long and it will change your view of abortion forever.
Worship Him today.
Blessings,
Nick
P.S. Please, if you would, read through my blogs. I pray they are an encouragement to you and help your walk with the Lord.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Worship is Not Entertainment
"Be my everything! -Tim Hughes
Much of the time after a hard day's work, a stressful day of taking care of the kids, or maybe just a tiring day of school and homework we like to unwind and relax, entertain ourselves with thoughtless things: TV, movies, or games. We all look forward to the weekend and our days off when we can relax and do nothing, after all our chores, of course. When tuning out our brains to the things of this world like work and responsibilities of the week with entertainment, we often tune ourselves out to the things of God, and in turn, tune ourselves out in church. Church is supposed to be one of the most engaging times of the week where we get to learn about God and His character, worship Him in song, and serve our brothers and sister in fellowship.
Worship is not a time for entertainment to empty our minds and relax. Worship is engaging wholeheartedly with the Holy Spirit, singing songs of great doctrine, praise, and thanksgiving! Yes, we empty our minds of the things of this world, but then we fill them full with the things of God.
To the Leaders
To the leaders and lead worshippers, don't just give people songs to sing and hope they engage in them. Teach them the songs. Teach them the doctrine of the songs through Scripture. Encourage them to engage and not be disengaged from worshipping our great God! Remember to not be tuned out yourself. All too often I catch myself disengaged and going with the flow. How foolish of me that I would neglect the praise and worship of my God! Worship is not entertainment.
To the People
To the people, make the effort to praise God. If you don't know how or don't have the heart to worship, pray. Ask God to give you a heart and mind focused on worshipping Him. Don't disengage yourself from worship to daydream, to think about what's for lunch after church, to people watch, or to sleep. Don't entertain yourself with distractions that in turn make you not think about the time of worship. Engage yourself, put your engine of worship into drive, and praise your God!
Personal Time
Even more so than in times of musical worship in church is your time of worship by yourself. To both leaders and followers, don't thoughtlessly entertain yourself day to day. David wrote in the Psalm 1, "Blessed is the man...who delights in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night." Don't miss this! Brothers and sisters, please get this! Blessed, happy, are you when you delight in the Word of God, when you meditate on it day and night! We weren't designed to thoughtlessly entertain ourselves. We were designed to mentally engage in the Scriptures and the things of God. So grab your Bible, a book by Spurgeon or Edwards, or talk with a Christian brother or sister and engage in the things of the Lord. Find a ministry to serve in instead of being served. This is where it all starts. This is where you begin to engage in worship.
Commune with your God day to day, seeking Him first. He is not a God of thoughtless entertainment. He is a vastly deep God with no limit of understanding, no limit of glory, no limit of holiness. Commune with Him. Make your delight in Him. Make it your aim to get to know Him. Don't put Him off six days of the week thinking you can come to church on the seventh day and have a wonderful time praising and glorifying Him. You will never enjoy worship like you could if you neglect Him like that. No wonder you lead worshippers lose focus and just go with the flow! No wonder you stand so statuesque during worship, people of God! I beg you, don't let yourself become apathetic in your day to day walk with the Lord that your personal worship is forgotten and worship in church becomes thoughtless entertainment.
Pray with me today. Ask God to give us a heart and mind that is delighted in Him above everything else, that we wouldn't become apathetic in our relationship with Him, and that worshipping Him would become so natural to us that it flows out from us.
Blessings,
Nick
Much of the time after a hard day's work, a stressful day of taking care of the kids, or maybe just a tiring day of school and homework we like to unwind and relax, entertain ourselves with thoughtless things: TV, movies, or games. We all look forward to the weekend and our days off when we can relax and do nothing, after all our chores, of course. When tuning out our brains to the things of this world like work and responsibilities of the week with entertainment, we often tune ourselves out to the things of God, and in turn, tune ourselves out in church. Church is supposed to be one of the most engaging times of the week where we get to learn about God and His character, worship Him in song, and serve our brothers and sister in fellowship.
Worship is not a time for entertainment to empty our minds and relax. Worship is engaging wholeheartedly with the Holy Spirit, singing songs of great doctrine, praise, and thanksgiving! Yes, we empty our minds of the things of this world, but then we fill them full with the things of God.
To the Leaders
To the leaders and lead worshippers, don't just give people songs to sing and hope they engage in them. Teach them the songs. Teach them the doctrine of the songs through Scripture. Encourage them to engage and not be disengaged from worshipping our great God! Remember to not be tuned out yourself. All too often I catch myself disengaged and going with the flow. How foolish of me that I would neglect the praise and worship of my God! Worship is not entertainment.
To the People
To the people, make the effort to praise God. If you don't know how or don't have the heart to worship, pray. Ask God to give you a heart and mind focused on worshipping Him. Don't disengage yourself from worship to daydream, to think about what's for lunch after church, to people watch, or to sleep. Don't entertain yourself with distractions that in turn make you not think about the time of worship. Engage yourself, put your engine of worship into drive, and praise your God!
Personal Time
Even more so than in times of musical worship in church is your time of worship by yourself. To both leaders and followers, don't thoughtlessly entertain yourself day to day. David wrote in the Psalm 1, "Blessed is the man...who delights in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night." Don't miss this! Brothers and sisters, please get this! Blessed, happy, are you when you delight in the Word of God, when you meditate on it day and night! We weren't designed to thoughtlessly entertain ourselves. We were designed to mentally engage in the Scriptures and the things of God. So grab your Bible, a book by Spurgeon or Edwards, or talk with a Christian brother or sister and engage in the things of the Lord. Find a ministry to serve in instead of being served. This is where it all starts. This is where you begin to engage in worship.
Commune with your God day to day, seeking Him first. He is not a God of thoughtless entertainment. He is a vastly deep God with no limit of understanding, no limit of glory, no limit of holiness. Commune with Him. Make your delight in Him. Make it your aim to get to know Him. Don't put Him off six days of the week thinking you can come to church on the seventh day and have a wonderful time praising and glorifying Him. You will never enjoy worship like you could if you neglect Him like that. No wonder you lead worshippers lose focus and just go with the flow! No wonder you stand so statuesque during worship, people of God! I beg you, don't let yourself become apathetic in your day to day walk with the Lord that your personal worship is forgotten and worship in church becomes thoughtless entertainment.
Pray with me today. Ask God to give us a heart and mind that is delighted in Him above everything else, that we wouldn't become apathetic in our relationship with Him, and that worshipping Him would become so natural to us that it flows out from us.
Blessings,
Nick
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Worship is Not a Concert
Help me get back to the reason I sing for you. -Jimmy Needham
I want to expound a little bit on something I said in my last post. I know there are many who would disagree with me on what I'm about to say, and that's fine. But I also want to clarify that my view of the atmosphere of worship is not the only correct view of worship. These are just my convictions, but I do hope we all agree that the heart of the lead worshipper should be able to focus on God while leading His people in songs of praise and adoration.
I would like to speak to two different people. First to the leaders, and then to the followers.
Worship Leaders
You are not leading a concert. Concerts are designed to focus upon the musician. That is not the design of worship, nor is it the heart of worship. It can be summed up into this: are you giving people an atmosphere to worship an experience or God?
Concerts are for musicians to engage with the people to effort a response, whether that be internal or external. Internal responses would be something like "Wow! This guy is good! I could listen to him all day! He's so cool! He's so handsome! He's so talented!" External responses would be something like screaming (just think of the Beatles concerts, and if you're too young for that, think of the Jonas Brothers or the Backstreet Boys), fainting, reaching out to you, being star-struck, etc. Both of these categories of responses are focused on the musician. As Christian musicians we are most likely to only get that internal response, but that doesn't change the fact that our pride firmly grasps onto these things when we have the mentality of how worship should be a concert-like atmosphere.
We all have watched those Hillsong videos and aspire for our times of worship to be just like theirs: to have everyone raising their hands singing and praising God while having awesome vocals and musical sounds. In response to these videos we try to copy their every movement, every guitar solo, every laser light, and fog thickness thinking "If our worship only looked and sounded like that!" All I can say is let me encourage you to be yourself when you lead. Don't copy someone else's worshipping or the atmosphere in which they conduct their worship. You yourself worship God in your own way and let the people see that, not a Xeroxed version of someone else. God works through you, not your imitation of a YouTube video.
What I'm Not Saying
Now I'm not saying we should go to acapella-only worship, organs and hymns only, no drums, or no lights and fog machines. Certain people have different styles of music they relate to most. I can say that I probably wouldn't be akin to country worship music, but other people are. Just because someone doesn't like one style of worshipping doesn't make that style wrong or a sin. Please don't forget that. This is something I've had to come to terms with in myself. Pride and arrogance is damaging to yourself, your relationships, and your ministry.
Pragmatism
Sadly, today the mentality of many churches is more equals success. More people attending or respones means we're doing something right, but less people or responses means we're doing something wrong. Pragmatism is sin because it is dependence upon man-made efforts instead of God-given grace. If your focus as a lead worshipper is to get more people into a church service by making the time of worship to look like a concert, then you might want to take a step back and see exactly how much you're relying upon God. Even worse, if your focus is to get more people to come see you and your band by making the time of worship look like a concert, maybe it's time you took a sabbatical to reassess your theology of how God won't share His glory, let alonenwhy you're even leading worship on a stage in the first place. Penning words by Jimmy Needham, "maybe our success is measured best by nothing less than our obedience." Numbers don't equal success. If that were so, then God would be a failure because Jesus said of salvation, "road is narrow, and few there be that find it."
Tech Teams
To the technical and A/V teams, make your effort to not "put the spotlight" on the musicians but on God. Reduce the thick haze of fog, turn the lights off of their seizure-inducing rotations and flashings, and make the lyrics on the screens not flashy and distracting. These aspects of the atmosphere around the people being led into worship are just as distracting or even more distracting than the band itself. Remember it is your aim to give God all the fame and glory.
To the People
Worship isn't about you either. It is not the lead worshipper's job to cater to your fancies of how you would like to be entertained. If you make any time of worship about you, you are just as guilty of reserving glory for yourself. This can be anything like worshipping the experience, getting overly upset when the leader doesn't sing a song you love, purposely singing loud so everyone can hear you, or doing anything else to get people to notice you (raising your hands, swaying, dancing, or even shouting out stuff). Worship is not about you. It's not a concert for you to attend in order to be entertained.
A time of worship is for you to offer songs of praise, prayer, supplication, adoration, and thanksgiving to God. It is a time to commune with the Holy Spirit. It is a time for you to prepare your heart to receive the Word of the Lord from the sermon being preached. It is a time to give God glory and fame due to His name. This is not a time about you...
Well that wasn't brutal [insert sarcasm], but I believe it needs to be said. All too often the time of musical worship before church is viewed as that little concert or routine before the sermon. All too often people think that it's okay of they miss the worship because the sermon is the real part of church. Don't fall prey to this false notion of musical worship being non-essential or of little importance! It is a special, reverent time before the Lord. It is intimate, loving, humbling, and satisfying to the soul to sing praises to God! Don't diminish it to a concert or distraction. It's not a concert.. It's communion.
Pray with me today and ask our God to help us make worship less about us and more about Him. Worship the Lord with all your heart, mind, should, and strength today and you humbly walk before Him.
Blessings,
Nick
I want to expound a little bit on something I said in my last post. I know there are many who would disagree with me on what I'm about to say, and that's fine. But I also want to clarify that my view of the atmosphere of worship is not the only correct view of worship. These are just my convictions, but I do hope we all agree that the heart of the lead worshipper should be able to focus on God while leading His people in songs of praise and adoration.
I would like to speak to two different people. First to the leaders, and then to the followers.
Worship Leaders
You are not leading a concert. Concerts are designed to focus upon the musician. That is not the design of worship, nor is it the heart of worship. It can be summed up into this: are you giving people an atmosphere to worship an experience or God?
Concerts are for musicians to engage with the people to effort a response, whether that be internal or external. Internal responses would be something like "Wow! This guy is good! I could listen to him all day! He's so cool! He's so handsome! He's so talented!" External responses would be something like screaming (just think of the Beatles concerts, and if you're too young for that, think of the Jonas Brothers or the Backstreet Boys), fainting, reaching out to you, being star-struck, etc. Both of these categories of responses are focused on the musician. As Christian musicians we are most likely to only get that internal response, but that doesn't change the fact that our pride firmly grasps onto these things when we have the mentality of how worship should be a concert-like atmosphere.
We all have watched those Hillsong videos and aspire for our times of worship to be just like theirs: to have everyone raising their hands singing and praising God while having awesome vocals and musical sounds. In response to these videos we try to copy their every movement, every guitar solo, every laser light, and fog thickness thinking "If our worship only looked and sounded like that!" All I can say is let me encourage you to be yourself when you lead. Don't copy someone else's worshipping or the atmosphere in which they conduct their worship. You yourself worship God in your own way and let the people see that, not a Xeroxed version of someone else. God works through you, not your imitation of a YouTube video.
What I'm Not Saying
Now I'm not saying we should go to acapella-only worship, organs and hymns only, no drums, or no lights and fog machines. Certain people have different styles of music they relate to most. I can say that I probably wouldn't be akin to country worship music, but other people are. Just because someone doesn't like one style of worshipping doesn't make that style wrong or a sin. Please don't forget that. This is something I've had to come to terms with in myself. Pride and arrogance is damaging to yourself, your relationships, and your ministry.
Pragmatism
Sadly, today the mentality of many churches is more equals success. More people attending or respones means we're doing something right, but less people or responses means we're doing something wrong. Pragmatism is sin because it is dependence upon man-made efforts instead of God-given grace. If your focus as a lead worshipper is to get more people into a church service by making the time of worship to look like a concert, then you might want to take a step back and see exactly how much you're relying upon God. Even worse, if your focus is to get more people to come see you and your band by making the time of worship look like a concert, maybe it's time you took a sabbatical to reassess your theology of how God won't share His glory, let alonenwhy you're even leading worship on a stage in the first place. Penning words by Jimmy Needham, "maybe our success is measured best by nothing less than our obedience." Numbers don't equal success. If that were so, then God would be a failure because Jesus said of salvation, "road is narrow, and few there be that find it."
Tech Teams
To the technical and A/V teams, make your effort to not "put the spotlight" on the musicians but on God. Reduce the thick haze of fog, turn the lights off of their seizure-inducing rotations and flashings, and make the lyrics on the screens not flashy and distracting. These aspects of the atmosphere around the people being led into worship are just as distracting or even more distracting than the band itself. Remember it is your aim to give God all the fame and glory.
To the People
Worship isn't about you either. It is not the lead worshipper's job to cater to your fancies of how you would like to be entertained. If you make any time of worship about you, you are just as guilty of reserving glory for yourself. This can be anything like worshipping the experience, getting overly upset when the leader doesn't sing a song you love, purposely singing loud so everyone can hear you, or doing anything else to get people to notice you (raising your hands, swaying, dancing, or even shouting out stuff). Worship is not about you. It's not a concert for you to attend in order to be entertained.
A time of worship is for you to offer songs of praise, prayer, supplication, adoration, and thanksgiving to God. It is a time to commune with the Holy Spirit. It is a time for you to prepare your heart to receive the Word of the Lord from the sermon being preached. It is a time to give God glory and fame due to His name. This is not a time about you...
Well that wasn't brutal [insert sarcasm], but I believe it needs to be said. All too often the time of musical worship before church is viewed as that little concert or routine before the sermon. All too often people think that it's okay of they miss the worship because the sermon is the real part of church. Don't fall prey to this false notion of musical worship being non-essential or of little importance! It is a special, reverent time before the Lord. It is intimate, loving, humbling, and satisfying to the soul to sing praises to God! Don't diminish it to a concert or distraction. It's not a concert.. It's communion.
Pray with me today and ask our God to help us make worship less about us and more about Him. Worship the Lord with all your heart, mind, should, and strength today and you humbly walk before Him.
Blessings,
Nick
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Worship is Not About You
Worshipping God is not about you and it's not about the people.. Period.
If it were, it would not be worship. It would be idolatry. Too many people leading worship are caught up in making worship appealing to those being led rather than appealing to God to whom we direct our worship. This is not to say that we bring in a leader who has no skill leading and see what happens. There should be skill, planning, and effort put into worship, but not at the expense of the reduction of giving God glory He rightly deserves. This is very repetitious in my blogs, but very essential. Here are a few ways to keep the eyes of the people off of you and on God, not to mention your eyes off of yourself..
Worship
You yourself should be worshipping too. If you have so much going on on the stage that you can't focus on worshipping, how can you expect to lead the people into worship? Cut back on a few things that will make it easier for you to worship. Put the team on rotations so they have a chance to engage in worship apart from being on stage (believe me when I say that this is more essential than we could ever understand). Even put yourself on a rotation if there is someone else like-minded in worship theology that can rotate leading with you. All this to say that it so so important for you to be engaged in worship on and off the stage.
Simplicity
This one goes out to both the band, sound guy, and A/V team. Reduce excessive physical stimuli on the stage and around the room. We all have seen the Hillsong videos where countless adults and teens are raising their hands to God worshipping, and we think to ourselves "Wow! If only we do that song and have lights like that, we could make our congregation have the set response!", but in the end we learn we have failed miserably. Our focus was on ourselves leading people to a response, our atmosphere was too cluttered with laser lights and fog, our drums were too loud, the synth was going crazy, there was only supposed to be one person with a guitar solo, the singers were trying to sing parts they were never predestined to sing (little Calvinist joke there, haha!), and the congregation is doing one of three things: worshipping, entertained, distracted, or thinking "What in the world was that?" Make worship simple, or at least sound simple. If you're going to have lights and fog, make it flow together without being distracting. Also, don't make the music so loud people cant focus or hear themselves sing. Remember that this a concert and you aren't Hillsong.
Musical Prayer, Supplication, Thanksgiving, Praise, and Adoration
Leading the people in song is a time of prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, praise, and adoration. It's not a time for you to show off your skills. It's not the time for you to be a distraction. Let the people respond to their God, not the band. David poured his heart out to God through song so let the people pour their hearts out to God. Respect that time for them.
It's not your job to make the people respond but to give them the opportunity to respond in a controlled atmosphere free from as much distraction as possible. It is your job to humble yourself before the Lord and present yourself and the time given to you in leading worship to be a sacrifice, laying down your pride and self-satisfying eagerness, and be a worshipper yourself so you can lead the people of God into adoration of their most wonderful God.
Blessings,
Nick
If it were, it would not be worship. It would be idolatry. Too many people leading worship are caught up in making worship appealing to those being led rather than appealing to God to whom we direct our worship. This is not to say that we bring in a leader who has no skill leading and see what happens. There should be skill, planning, and effort put into worship, but not at the expense of the reduction of giving God glory He rightly deserves. This is very repetitious in my blogs, but very essential. Here are a few ways to keep the eyes of the people off of you and on God, not to mention your eyes off of yourself..
Worship
You yourself should be worshipping too. If you have so much going on on the stage that you can't focus on worshipping, how can you expect to lead the people into worship? Cut back on a few things that will make it easier for you to worship. Put the team on rotations so they have a chance to engage in worship apart from being on stage (believe me when I say that this is more essential than we could ever understand). Even put yourself on a rotation if there is someone else like-minded in worship theology that can rotate leading with you. All this to say that it so so important for you to be engaged in worship on and off the stage.
Simplicity
This one goes out to both the band, sound guy, and A/V team. Reduce excessive physical stimuli on the stage and around the room. We all have seen the Hillsong videos where countless adults and teens are raising their hands to God worshipping, and we think to ourselves "Wow! If only we do that song and have lights like that, we could make our congregation have the set response!", but in the end we learn we have failed miserably. Our focus was on ourselves leading people to a response, our atmosphere was too cluttered with laser lights and fog, our drums were too loud, the synth was going crazy, there was only supposed to be one person with a guitar solo, the singers were trying to sing parts they were never predestined to sing (little Calvinist joke there, haha!), and the congregation is doing one of three things: worshipping, entertained, distracted, or thinking "What in the world was that?" Make worship simple, or at least sound simple. If you're going to have lights and fog, make it flow together without being distracting. Also, don't make the music so loud people cant focus or hear themselves sing. Remember that this a concert and you aren't Hillsong.
Musical Prayer, Supplication, Thanksgiving, Praise, and Adoration
Leading the people in song is a time of prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, praise, and adoration. It's not a time for you to show off your skills. It's not the time for you to be a distraction. Let the people respond to their God, not the band. David poured his heart out to God through song so let the people pour their hearts out to God. Respect that time for them.
It's not your job to make the people respond but to give them the opportunity to respond in a controlled atmosphere free from as much distraction as possible. It is your job to humble yourself before the Lord and present yourself and the time given to you in leading worship to be a sacrifice, laying down your pride and self-satisfying eagerness, and be a worshipper yourself so you can lead the people of God into adoration of their most wonderful God.
Blessings,
Nick
Monday, April 9, 2012
Worship is Not...
I'll be starting a new series on the topic of what worship is not. It is highly important that as lead worshippers we don't fall into the lies of what worship is not, eventually taking glory and attention from the people that rightly belongs to God. So I ask that you take these next few blog posts as warnings to your leading and alerts to the pitfalls ahead of you.
Please follow me as we tackle the important behind-the-scenes issues of the lead worshipper's heart. Please be open to the fact that there might be some things you need to confess and repent of, as will I. Let us ask God to search our hearts and expose any evil thing in them, especially when it comes to leading His people into worship.
I leave you with these two verses:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 'I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.'" -Jeremiah 17:9-10
"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" -Psalms 139:23-24
Blessings,
Nick
Please follow me as we tackle the important behind-the-scenes issues of the lead worshipper's heart. Please be open to the fact that there might be some things you need to confess and repent of, as will I. Let us ask God to search our hearts and expose any evil thing in them, especially when it comes to leading His people into worship.
I leave you with these two verses:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 'I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.'" -Jeremiah 17:9-10
"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" -Psalms 139:23-24
Blessings,
Nick
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