It's Not For Them

Yesterday, October 1st marks the first day of our fiscal year and we spent it in prayer at a local church. We are so remarkably blessed to have wonderful artist partners who count it a privilege to come minister with worship.

I attended the break out session with two of the worship leaders, Anthony Evans & Michael Boggs. They opened the session up for Q&A at the beginning. As is often the case in sessions about leading worship, the question came up about how to get your congregation to cross the line from just singing into worship.

I thought their answers were very insightful.

Anthony mentioned meeting the people where they are at, if they like hymns, sing hymns. But above all, you should be authentic & you should be worshiping. He mentioned a few times they've gone into churches to lead worship where it was like "singing to a picture".

Michael echoed the idea of being authentic and that you should be worshiping. He also reminded us that ultimately, it's not about the outward expression, it's about the heart.

Even though I have never led worship from the stage, it is something that has been on my heart and mind often.

I find that this concern comes up often amongst worship leaders, especially here in the PNW. Even concerts here are rather subdued. About the only time a crowd gets really riled up, it seems, is for a 'Hawks game (and I would be interested to know what role alcohol has to play in that dynamic).

To me, it seems that there are a few points to consider when observing congregational worship.

1. What is the Pastor doing?
I had a friend recently share with me about her pastor sharing with the congregation what he had just experienced at church in Africa. He challenged the congregation to worship like that and then went and sat back down without ever demonstrating that kind of worship. At a church I attended recently, the pastor would often duck out of the worship service early to meet with people at the back of the church. It was a good way for him to meet with and pray for people, but I noticed that much of the congregation would filter out shortly after he left. Sometimes, there would be barely half as many folks in the sanctuary at the end of service as there had been at the beginning.

2. How is your service organized?
Many churches have to run on a tight schedule for myriad reasons. Our church right now is meeting in a school building. After service is over, we have to tear down immediately after the last song of the set. I have visited several churches of the liturgical leaning and found that the stand-up-sing-one-song-sit-down flow of service can be rather distracting for the uninitiated. Few churches have the luxury of allowing the Spirit to flow from song to song.

3. Where are you at with Jesus, personally and as a team?
This is the "be authentic" point. If you're not plugged into Jesus, it doesn't matter if you have the most emotionally connecting songs in the world, the congregation isn't going to feel it.

4. Who is your congregation?
If your church is composed up of blue-collar working men, you're not going to get a lot of reaction from them. But that doesn't mean they aren't responding. Those of us who are more expressive in our worship (there's a reason I sit in the back), can tend to be quick to judge if we don't see the same kinds of responses that are invoked in us. You can ask anyone who has sat next to me during a rockin' worship service, I cannot sit still to save my life. But I have learned not to expect that response from my husband, because he does not respond that way. He may sit down, or stand quietly, or even journal. Jesus does not override someone's personality when he works on them. He gave them that personality in the first place, and their response will be in keeping with who they are. If they are an artist, they may feel led to paint a picture when they get home, but you may never know that. Worship God as he has gifted & led you to worship, and trust that he will take care of the rest.

Which brings me to:
5. Who is your worship for?
You cannot force your congregation to enter the throne room. But you can enter yourself. As Michael & Anthony were talking about being authentic & getting to know Jesus for who he is, I was reminded of another conference session my mom gave me the tape for. Tommy Tenney was sharing about Esther and her preparation for meeting the king.

Here is the verse from Esther:

Now when the turn came for each young woman to go into King Ahaserus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with the oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women.

Now, after 12 months of constant bathing in myrrh and other spices, Esther would have had a cloud of perfume around her. Every one who came in contact with her would have been completely blown away. But Tommy points out that this scent is not for them. It is for the king. Esther's time of preparation to meet the king enriched the lives of those around her, but it was not for them. It was for the king.

Thoughts on Corporate Worship (Part the First)

As this is something I have been mulling over for a while, there probably will be more to come on this topic.

It seems to me that there are two main schools of thought about being on a corporate worship team.

1. The first and, I think, most common among Christians and worship teams is exemplified by a conversation I had with a friend of mine a few weeks ago.

My husband and I had just gotten back from a Lincoln Brewster concert (which was amazing, by the way) . I was telling my friend, who plays bass, about Norm Stockton, the bass player who records and travels with Lincoln. Hubby and I had been talking about Norm's playing, and he had compared his playing to Billy Sheahan, who has played bass for Steve Vai.

When I mentioned Steve Vai, my friend face went completely blank like he had no idea what I was talking about. So I tried to explain:

"He's a great shred guitarist who..." "Oh, I don't need to listen to any of that. I'm only ever going to do worship."

2. The second, and less common, view is that if you don't know anything about music, stay off the stage.

Some friends of ours used to live in Nashville and at one of their churches, the music pastor wouldn't allow any one on stage unless they had a major contract or were touring with a major artist.

Hubby and I attended an informational meeting about leading worship at our church. They mentioned that they don't want anyone who doesn't have prior band experience to "audition". The three things they said they are looking for in a band are (1) theological soundness, (2) congregational participation and (3) musical quality/stylistic individuality.

In theory, this is great. In practice, what I have seen is that 3 comes first, then 1. If 2 is considered at all, it seems to be almost an afterthought.

Here is my question then:

Shouldn't we be looking for a balance between the two? As Christians, I believe God deserves the absolute best that we can offer him. However, does this mean that we leave the congregation behind so that our music can reach its creative heights?