My husband and I had the chance to take a short get away this past weekend and it’s always nice to be able to have time without the interruption of a television going all the time or the general “noise” that you have going on around you all the time. It’s usually a great time for us to talk about things that are on our mind and sort of “brainstorm” about things we’ve been thinking about. There’s also time to just sit in silence and listen to praise and worship music or preaching that’s on the radio.
Have you ever really just sat and LISTENED to the words of the song that you’re hearing on the radio? It’s amazing that we can sing along to a bunch of songs and never really THINK about the words that are coming out of our mouth.
I had that experience on the way home. I’ve sung this one particular song several times as a worship leader and I will sheepishly admit that I haven’t taken the words to heart every time I’ve sung it. The song is “The Heart of Worship.”
The verse says this: “When the music fades and ALL is stripped away and I simply come; longing just to sing something that’s of worth, that will bless your heart; I’ll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have required; you search much deeper within to the way things appear – you’re looking into my heart”
Then the chorus goes on to say, “I’m comin’ back to the heart of worship and it’s all about you, all about you Jesus. I’m sorry Lord for the “thing” I’ve made it when it’s all about, ALL ABOUT YOU JESUS.”
My “journey” as a worship leader started back in the early 1990’s and I can honestly say that for the most part I’ve taken the responsibility of leading worship very seriously and weighed out my choice of music and the time I spent preparing for service as a priority. I’ve always approached any service I’ve led with fear and trembling because I DO NOT want to get up in front of God and His people unprepared musically or spiritually. I want to make sure that EVERY WORD that comes out of my mouth is carefully chosen, never crass and ALWAYS pointing people our Father.
Let’s look at the words in the song I mentioned above: “When the music fades and ALL is STRIPPED WAY and I simply come….” wow – there it is. We need to come before the Father stripped away of our own agendas, our own thoughts about worship and seek HIM for what we should do each service. Coming to Him with a clear mind, focused on Him and stripped away of our ego, our aspirations, etc. There you are in His presence kneeling before him.
“Longing just to bring something that’s of worth, that will bless your heart” – is that our motive? Do we come before God when we’re leading worship with the idea of bringing god something of worth that will bless HIS heart? Or are we bringing forth something that will tickle peoples ears? Something that will “draw in the crowd”?
It goes on “I’ll bring you more than a song, for song in itself is not what you have required, you search much deeper within, to the way things appear, you’re looking into MY heart…” I see that as me in a dark room with a spot light on me, me on my knees, head bowed and God taking a look at me, what’s in my heart, what my motives are, clutter and all, trying to sift through the things that have taken priority over HIM and for Him to look at my heart condition – and seeing just what type of condition my heart really is in.
“I’m comin’ back to the heart of worship and it’s all about YOU, it’s ALL ABOUT YOU JESUS.” Are we really making our worship and sermons ALL ABOUT JESUS? Or is it about showing off what we can DO for Jesus or for God? Is it about how loud we can preach? How many people get Holy Ghost goosebumps from our sermon? How great we can sing? What kind of stage presence we have? How awesome a song list we’ve put together timed just right with the lights and our singers humming at the right time behind us?
Do we spend every Sunday looking for some outward manifestation of a move of God that operates what we gauge our “success-o-meter” on? How many people raised their hands during worship? How many spoke in tongues out loud? How many people clapped during the fast song (because if they didn’t we should probably take it off our list – it’s a dud.) Oh and yes of course, how many compliments did we receive on a ‘great service today”.
I’ve learned a few things – FIRST and foremost there is NOT ONE PART OF THE SERVICE THAT IS EVER OR SHOULD EVER BE ABOUT ME. If the “ME” factor is a factor, then there’s a BIG problem. God forgive us of pride and arrogance and showmanship in the church.
Secondly – worship and every single word of every single song had better be about God the Father and Jesus and pointing people to HIM and NEVER to us, our talents, our abilities, how great we preach, how cool our outfit is or how awesome we need to hear we are at leading worship.
In short, it’s called “DYING TO SELF.” God help me and forgive me if one inch of “self” is ever in the worship I do. Now yes I am a perfectionist and I want things to sound good, I want things to flow, I like smooth transitions between songs. I want people to enter into worship but more than any of that I want God to be honored, to be blessed and to be glorified before ANYTHING ELSE. The rest is “fluff”.
I want to come back to the “heart of worship” and what worship is truly about. We’ve lost sight of that in so many of our churches these days. We base the success of our service by the response to the songs we sang that are in the top 20 on the radio that we hear, we base the success of our sermons on how much we can get people going, on how much we can “stir ’em up”. Well it’s not our job to “stir ’em up” – we aren’t the Holy Spirit. I DO believe it’s our job to lead them into worship and to teach them the Word because those two things together produce a hunger in people. Teaching them to sit at the feet of Jesus during worship and to sit and listen to the Word and letting it speak to their heart and into their life – that’s what the goal should ALWAYS be.
“I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it” – we’ve made it a show; we’ve made it about us; we’ve made it about what WE want to put on in front of people. WHY? Don’t we understand that before God’s nostrils it stinks?
I’ve shared this before – I’ve heard so many Pastors say in exasperation how their young worship leaders have used their churches as stepping stones to “hit the big time” and that week after week it’s been “John so and so IN CONCERT” instead of John so and so leading God’s people in worship. They’re looking for those with a true heart of worship. Those who’ve died so much to themselves that NOTHING is left.
It took time to get there I’ll admit – and I still have times when I may come down hard on myself if the list didn’t flow the way I wanted it to or if I didn’t see the response I was expecting and then I stop myself and say, “What are you thinking? WHO is worship for?” and then I realize that there’s still MORE of my “self” that needs to die.
So when you’re prepping worship or your sermon, when you’re in front of the people that God has entrusted to you, stay in FOCUS on what your real responsibility is. Don’t let ANY of your “self” creep in and then you will see the hand of God move, you’ll see lives changed and you’ll know that you’ve done your best for God – with or without an outward manifestation because when we bring our best to God, He ALWAYS honors it.
From the Inside of Church 