If you are like me, you have probably felt both the advantages and disadvantages to the age of information that we are now in. Within seconds, you can find the answer to any question that you have. You can look online and figure out how to do just about anything. You can even get a degree or certification without having to get off the couch. While there are still arguably more pros than cons when it comes to the technologically advanced day and age we live in, it seems that this mentality has found its way into the church – and not always for the better.
Worship leaders are tempted to believe if we read the perfect article, if we adopt the perfect plan, if we train the perfect way… then “worship” can be achieved. If the answer to everything else can be so simple, why can’t leading people in worship be?
Here’s the problem:
Biblical worship is not a goal to achieve. It is a lifestyle to be lived.
A lot of us are looking for the nuts and bolts solution. We’re looking for the quick-fix strategy to get our people to sing out. We’re reading blogs and joining groups for all of the tips and tricks to leading worship effectively. (I understand the irony that you’re reading this on a blog that’s been shared to a Facebook group for worship leaders.)
The problem is not in the pursuit of the practical. The problem is when we make the practical the end-all be all.
Worship is not only practical. It is spiritual.
It cannot just be informational. It is transformational.
Paul said in I Corinthians, “I die to myself daily..” In Galatians 2 he said, “I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live; but Christ lives in me.” In Colossians 3, he says, “You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Here’s the reality:
Worship takes work, because true worship happens in the undoing of ourselves.
If we are always comfortable, if we are always doing what we want to do, if we are always where we want to be with whom we want to be with, singing the songs we want to sing… then we are the person on the throne, not Jesus. Worship takes work, because true worship means denying myself, taking up my cross and following Jesus. Worship takes work, because true worship means acknowledging the every moment decision to forsake all and live for Christ. Worship takes work, because true worship goes beyond the 15 minute song service and extends into a lifestyle that is completely focused on Jesus.
If it’s any consolation, the people pursuing Jesus 2,000 years ago weren’t so very different from us. They wanted the quick fix. They wanted the easy answer. But Jesus rarely gave it…
To the rich young ruler, Jesus said, “Sell what you have and give to the poor.” To Nicodemus “You must be born again.” To the woman at the well: “Go get your husband” and, “Salvation is of the Jews.” To the Jews in John 8: “You are a slave if you have sinned.” To the would be follower: “Let the dead bury their dead.”
When the disciples in John 5 asked, “What should we do that we do the works of God?”
Jesus said, “This is the work of God: that you believe on Him that sent me.”
In John 9, when the Pharisees questioned, “Are we blind?” Jesus responded, “If you were blind, you’d have no sin.. but now you say we see therefore your sin remains.”
So, while it would be simple and helpful to say, “Sing these songs, and you will have a worshipful church.” “Use these instruments, and your people will raise their hands to give God glory.” … While that would be easy, it wouldn’t be real. It wouldn’t be genuine or sincere, and it wouldn’t be Biblical.
Instead, would we as leaders recognize the weight of what’s been given to us.
May we stop seeing the song service as a destination, and begin seeing it as a vehicle.
May we recognize the work that it takes to truly BE worshippers. And even in that, would we echo what Paul said in Galatians 2:20: “Yet not I, but through Christ in me.”