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
