Worship is Wounded (And I Helped) Part II

If worship is to be what God wants it to be (and I’m hoping that is our goal!) then who is going to show us what to do and how to do it?

John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 14:16 Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever…..

…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything…”

16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth”

Jesus seemed to intend that a Spirit, and not necessarily a person will help us and teach us and guide us. After Jesus left this earth, the disciples hid in a room until the Spirit came and then……..everything changed. Just read the rest of the book of Acts. It’s miraculous what was accomplished when people allowed themselves to be led by the Spirit of Christ- and not their own wits and knowledge. We marvel at the courage and faithfulness that these early Christ followers uncharacteristically portrayed as they fanned the flames of Christ over an immense area in a relatively short amount of time. The Holy Spirit is a powerful motivator and ally.

However, doesn’t following the leading of something you cannot necessarily see or feel or hear sound kind of scary? After all, we place a high value in being “in control” in our culture.

Have you ever been to a service or mass where every detail has been pinned down and nothing left to chance?

Could we perhaps be afraid of losing control of our church services to the Holy Spirit? I mean, who knows what that might look like in the first place? What would we lose? What would we gain? Are we afraid of the unknown and why?

Perhaps the level of control we wield over our weekend services is indeed, based on fear and not faith. I tell you this: church leaders throughout Christian history have discovered that yielding their control to the Holy Spirit’s leadership is quite intimidating. And, understandably so.

In light of the above, when we pick our worship team members are we using the right criteria? In asking this, I understand that most church communities are small and lacking in mega-church resources. Often, all they have to rely on is a slightly-gifted musician on a middle school cafeteria stage with a hand-me-down guitar. Truly, that shouldn’t matter as long as we are attempting to use Spiritual criteria and not worldly criteria in picking our worship teams.

A related question is, are we using worldly criteria in designing our worship services themselves?

A friend of mine and I were talking about this the other day. We were discussing and comparing the merits of creating a worship service that used worldly characteristics designed to attract the unchurched- to creating a service that had deep spiritual depth. Should we be casting our net wide or casting it deep? Or should worship be used to cast any kind of net?

But, for the moment, let's look at the idea of wide or deep. Which do you think is more important? Can both be achieved? It’s possible, but in my experience, I feel that if you create an atmosphere that the Spirit can freely move in and be tangibly manifested, you may attract (even though you are not necessarily "casting") all sorts of people from all walks of life……and keep them there. Worship artist Jeremy Riddle calls it “hosting His presence.” On the contrary, if you are riding the more recent church trend of creating a weekly concert environment in order to attract, you may find yourself constantly changing and modifying your “show” in order to keep people’s attention. That can be expensive, as you find yourself constantly updating technical equipment and props on your “stage.” It can also burn up a lot of energy, as you constantly tap into the creative brains of your production team in order to fix what you feel is lacking in your worship sets. And, despite your best efforts, parishioners may still leave in order to (1) seek out a worship experience that has more depth, or (2) seek out a better “concert”.

Really ask yourself this question: When people come to your church to see and hear your wonderful concert-like worship set, are they really getting Jesus in Spirit? If we believe that all people are, on some level, really seeking God, will they find God when they enter your doors? Will they feel the deep, thick, tangible presence of the Holy Spirit that has become imbedded in the DNA of your church gathering place from hours of prayer and singing and chanting and conversing with God back and forth, from earth to Heaven and back again? Have you ever been in one of THOSE buildings?

One of the main contributing factors to this issue is that very few worship leaders differentiate between a worship band and a worship CONCERT band. This might be where a lot of our problems originate.

The difference is simple. A worship band is one which comes together each week at a church hall in order to create music which aides and inspires the community gathered to worship the creator and (hopefully) to stir up and interact with the Holy Spirit (hosting the Presence).

A worship concert band gathers to perform worship music for the same reasons that a church worship band does. However, they are also selling recordings, creating revenue and, if they are successful in these two, creating a huge fan base. The always record live albums in huge halls with highly energized fans. In order to deliver the best event possible, the environment they create is exactly the same as a highly successful rock band. I was actually in a hall during a recording of a live worship album a few years ago.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not critical of what a worship concert band does. In fact, I love attending these events. The first time I noticed the disconnect was when I attended a church service where a well known Christian rock star was also the worship leader. I had seen this artist in concert form and I wanted to now see him lead worship in his own church. It was quite disappointing from the “deep” perspective. The parishioners loved him, but the set was much more concert-like than worshipful. It really opened my eyes.

I have never been to a church that could successfully recreate the Worship Concert Experience every, or even ANY Sunday. This is the source of frustration for many a poor, misguided church worship leader.

So, back to the question: are we trying to recreate a worship concert music experience instead of creating an atmosphere of gathering that encourages participation and not just listening and singing along?

When we are ready to end our attempts at creating a rock concert every week how do we wean our flock away from the worship milk and on to the worship MEAT?

The short answer brings us back to the beginning:

“I don’t know. Ask the Holy Spirit, HE knows.”

We all know it’s not always easy to hear or feel the Spirit’s lead. If you are willing to hand over the reigns of your church’s worship you may go through periods of trial and error before you start to feel the flock aching to go deeper. The question is…

….can we handle experimentation that may lead us away from our comfort zone?

Sooo, let’s say I’m a worship leader and I don’t know where I am in this. Have I fallen for the concert trap? How do I know? Here are a few questions that may be worth asking:

What exactly is your criteria for picking music? Picking out your clothing? Styles of music?

How much attention do you pay to the appearance of the band and band setting?

What and how much spiritual preparation do you and your bands go through before you go out on the worship platform?

Do you find ourselves referring to the congregation as “the audience” or the “crowd”?

Do you find yourselves referring to the worship platform as “the stage”?

Should we even be on a “stage”?!

Do you have the heart of a shepherd?

Do you work to keep all of your egos in check, especially your own? How are you held accountable in this?

In regards to how we would prefer the congregation react to the worship portion of the weekend program, what is our biblical precedent or reference? (I’ll let you in on a secret. My favorite worship moment in the bible is Jesus’ entry in Jerusalem. We are reminded that all creation sings God’s praise and we are challenged to outworship the rocks and stones)

If you are blessed to have more than one musician in your team, are you striving to create among them a thriving community with accountability and spiritual growth? (Do not underestimate the importance of this!)

I’ve whipped through this quite quickly and there are lots of questions here, to be sure. Some may apply to your situation, or maybe all of them apply. I pray that in the asking they may lead you to some serious soul searching which in turn would lead you to a deeper worship experience with tangible Spiritual results. Remember: where the Spirit is on fire, there is freedom, healing, transformation, inspiration and no foothold for the enemy!

WE HAVE NO WHERE TO GO BUT UP!

Worship is Wounded (And I Helped) Part 1

Worship is wounded (And I helped)

When I was a scrubby little kid I dreamed of being a rock star. I would get together with my buddies and we would play air guitar and drums in our living rooms before we were big enough to own real instruments. As I got older, I would attend concerts and watch the musicians perform for adoring fans and wished that I could be just like them. And I wasn’t alone. I mean, what red-blooded kid wouldn’t want to tour with a hot band and experience that kind of fame? The rock and roll dream has been around since most of us can remember.  

I eventually learned how to play a real guitar and over a period of time able to reach a (very) moderate level of success. I’ve been blessed with the experience of playing for some medium to larger sized crowds in some modest to not-so-modest venues. My amp has tossed a few power chords out there and I’ve been able to hone in on a few hearts from time to time depending on the time and place. All in all, I’m lucky to have actually tasted a small sampling of the rock ‘n roll dream. It’s tempting, it’s inviting and it’s intoxicating. I understand.

But what does that have to do with musical worship in the contemporary church?

There has been a lot of talk lately in the larger worship community about the state of modern worship in the common church model. On one hand, we’ve managed to accomplish much in creating a worship experience that keeps the attention of a common churchgoer dealing with a steadily deteriorating attention span. We have creative light schemes and high level music with decibels to match. We’ve crafted creative songs and lyrics with a multitude of styles. Pair those things with good musicians and you might have a very compelling reason to get to church before the worship set begins.

The buzz, however, is all about the worship culture we’ve created and the problems that have emerged in it. The big question that’s being asked is: “Are we really worshiping, or are we merely entertaining? It is a great question and I’m wondering if enough leaders are really asking it about their product. If they’re not, I understand why, truly, but there is no excuse for dodging this question if we are sincere with the gifts we’ve been given. The truth is: many church pastors and church weekend participators are “satisfied” with the music they are seeing and hearing from church platforms, and the reaction that their perspective worship programs are getting.

But is God being worshipped in Spirit and in Truth? Are we musicians experiencing a sacrifice of praise or a just a display of talent? Are we leading sing-alongs or are our congregations truly pouring out their love to the creator?

From what I’ve seen and experienced in my own city and around the country, it has becoming apparent that we might have blurred the above distinctions and perhaps we may not be aware of our complicity. Perhaps the reason for this is….

….. it’s not so easy to get away from the rock and roll dream that many of us still harbor in our subconscious.

Let’s look at what the “heart of worship” has become:

Step through the lobby of most churches of size and into a typical worship set and you will find rock music, rock lighting, rock sound systems, rock fans in our pews, rock clothing, rock personas, rock anthems, rock bands and even rock stage effects. I mean, it may be a church, but with relatively little effort, those of us on the “stage” can actually live the rock and roll dream, more or less, in our very own churches! I know. I’ve done my small part to keep this status quo moving along. I confess, I’ve had to pinch myself from time to time while playing “on stage” as the realization dawned on me that we were living the “dream” on that stage! The congregation loves us, the hall is packed, the music is wonderful and fun to play (and loud to boot). Even some of the music we choose has little substance for worship purposes, but we can’t help ourselves! It’s just too FUN to play this song, with this band, for this “audience”- to pass it up. I mean c’mon, we’re only going to put one of these rocking cool songs in the set that’s fun to perform. One every week won’t hurt. Just one. Well, maybe two at the most. I mean, the first song is a “throw away” song anyway, right? The audiences love these wake up songs just as much as we do! They look pretty attentive to me! Maybe they’re not really worshiping God in Spirit and Truth, but we’ve gone to wits end to make the whole place erupt with worship and although it doesn’t exactly feel the same as at the worship conferences, at least they’re enjoying the music! They tell us all the time –“great music today! Great worship, guys.!” We’re happy, the pastor is happy, the audience (hmmm...why do I keep calling them the “audience”?) is happy. It’s a win, win, win, right? If we put our heart into it God can do His thing no matter how bad our efforts are, right? Even if, deep, down inside we have to admit that many times we’re simply indulging ourselves and covering it up with a myriad of rationalizations, God can work through our sin, right? I don’t see God’s name on my paycheck, anyway!

But then we find ourselves, eventually- dismayed that we can’t get the parishioners to go crazy for God. We’ve done everything we can to replicate the world’s success in here with our music and technology. But, as frustrating as this is, we do seem to be keeping attendance at a steady level over the years, and the collections are (hopefully) there. Sure, we lose a musician from time to time, but usually someone else steps up eventually. No one is complaining too much. We’re having fun. And the pastor doesn’t question the substance of our worship. So, if it ain’t broke, why should we fix it?

Well, that’s another good question, to be sure. And here are some more challenging questions to consider:

-If we are truly attempting to stir up the Holy Spirit in our church, just what does it take to create the best atmosphere conducive to experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit, and should we look to the world for the answer?

-Do we really think these matters are important in the first place? Just how important? Important enough to start digging in our spiritual pantries for answers?

-And just where do we go for answers? The world can show us how to put on a good show, but if we want to move away from that trap, who is going to show us the way?

I want to explore this more in part 2...

When Our Dreams Push God Aside

God’s bigger picture...

I remember when the choir teacher passed out the different singing parts and we started to break them down and rehearse them. The song was “I’ll be home for Christmas” and I was singing bass. When the director got around to the basses and played the part we would be singing I was perplexed. (“This doesn’t sound like the song!”) In fact, I observed, neither did the alto and soprano part. We were all singing a strange form of the melody and putting words in odd places in the phrase. It just didn’t sound right. I was a little frustrated, because I always wanted to sing beautiful melodies. I wanted to sing songs like the singers I heard on the radio. I fancied myself a pretty good vocalist and now, I was having to sing these strange parts of this perfectly good song.

I can’t help but think this is often the low elevation way we regard our world and our individual part in it. At a young age we start to get an idea of what we’d like to be or do in this world and our dreams are seldom modest in scope. Little do we know that not only is life going to sidetrack us and throw obstacles in our way, but it will turn out to be something totally different than we expected. And it’s a rare thing to end up playing a part as grand as our youthful vision had in mind.

As it turned out, when at last our choir teacher had rehearsed all the different parts of the song with the different sections, and we all put it together, the combination sounded wonderful. The harmonies blended into a whole that none of us envisioned when we started out. The experience of adding your part to a whole and creating something beautiful, complicated and worthy is humbling and exhilarating.

God is like a brilliant composer. He has a great and lengthy vision for this world and our lives and parts in it. Only He can see past the horizon to what lies ahead. You can see this in the relationship between what we call the Old Testament and the New Testament. We are like ants in Time Square dreaming huge dreams of conquest. If we would just teach ourselves to quiet our world and listen to the Spirit and allow ourselves to be led by Him, we might find our small part fills a great need in the greater picture. Our culture tells us that we can be whatever we set our hearts and minds to. That sounds wonderful at first. But in the process of “dreaming” if we ignore God and turn our backs on His design and great plan, we risk working against Him. Indeed, most of the problems we face in this world are a result of us trying to blaze our own trail instead of seeking God’s direction. We are then as sheep who ignore our shepherd and leave the fields to find our own way. That can be frustrating at best and deadly at worst.  

Only in God is my soul at rest. Ps 62