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!