Just WHO is our church service all about?

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.

On With the Show….

This is sure to strike some reaction so I’ll brace myself now but here goes….

WHAT happened to the days when we walked into church and church LOOKED like a church? The sense of reverence and awe of God’s presence was all ready there even before we walked in the door. You know, a cross in the front (not that it’s mandatory), a plain but decent looking altar area.  Now what we see when we walk into churches is a theater style backdrop, lights, props, all kinds of what I’m going to call very frankly “DISTRACTIONS.”  As the music starts, the lights grow dimmer, colored lights start to flash, strobe lights activate and the “concert” begins.

Music begins to build and a spotlight hits the worship leader. Lights swivel back and forth on an all ready  timed out to the second script that’s been handed to the media team.  “Switch to lights at 10:20.11” “Dim lights, activate smoke machine 10:35.21” “Singers exit stage right at 11:01.08”  “Pastor enters through stage left at 11:02;00”

Can I ask this simple one word question – WHY?

“Well, we do it because we want to draw in the younger crowd.” “Other churches are doing it and it looks really cool.” “I want to get away from the stuffy church image” “We don’t want to do church like everyone used to.”  Ok so those are great excuses…..

If a person walks through the door of your church it’s NOT because they’re seeking great music and a concert venue type atmosphere – most of the time they’re seeking out what’s MISSING in their lives.  All the rest of it is nice and sure they may think, “Wow church has changed since I was a kid.”  But what are we presenting on Sundays?

I’ve been a worship leader for 18 years and I’ve seen trends come and go. I grew up in church, a pastor’s kid.   I’ve been through the interpretive dance/flags/banners trend, the Jewish music trend, the Toronto blessing trend, you name it, I’ve pretty much seen it all in churches. It roars in and fizzles out. None of it lasting. Once they’ve tired of it, they move on to the next wind blowing.

Kind of sad actually.  The Bible is very specific on worship and to WHOM worship should geared and to the reason WHY we worship. NOT ONCE in the Bible do you see lights, smoke machines, special effects, and pumping up of the crowds. EVER. Again – let me repeat EVER.

The Holy Spirit was there in the midst of God’s people because they were HUNGRY for HIS presence.  They sat on dusyt roads, on hillsides, through good and bad weather, through scorching heat because they wanted to be in the presence of the Messiah. They wanted to hear the word of God.  You don’t see Peter getting up there prepping the crowd. You don’t see the disciples standing there with all kinds of things to enhance the Gospel.  It was SIMPLE WITHOUT DISTRACTION.

We’ve adapted the mindset that we have to have all these things to “appeal” to the world today. Again I’ll ask, “WHY?”   We’ve got it stuck in our heads that if we sing songs older than the last 2-3 years that people won’t like it and we’ll be labeled “old fashion.”  So in the mean time let me just say you’ve now totally NEGATED AN ENTIRE GENERATION of faithful church goers who are subjected to music that is ok but that they’re also not familiar with. “So tell them to turn on the christian radio station and listen to it.” I’ve heard a couple people say. Do YOU listen to music that doesn’t appeal to you when you’re in your car or at home? NO. You’re going to listen to something that you like.  Something that means something to you. SO WHY can’t this be done in churches these days?

FIRST – look at the demographics of your current congregation.  Are they made up of mostly of those under the age of 40? What is their cultural/race background? Are they over the age of 40? Are they over the age of 50? Is so then THAT is what you gear at least HALF of your worship set to.

Worship leaders & Pastors – don’t be afraid to look at the words of the songs you’re singing and ask yourself “WHO is this pointing us to?”  “Are we misleading people?” “Are we singing empty songs?” I look at the words of the songs I sing before I introduce them to a congregation. I make sure that it’s pointing them to God or into a direction of holiness or Godliness.  I don’t sing “selfish, whiny songs.”  I don’t because worship should ALWAYS be about God and NOT about me and my short comings and any of my past mistakes,  God’s love is unconditional and my sins have been forgiven and so has my past.  If I have to sings songs that make the congregation think that they have to strive to get God’s love and that God’s love is a reward then I’ve missed it.  God’s love is AN UNCONDITIONAL GIFT given because HE LOVES ME AND SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR ME.  It has NOTHING to do with being works driven like some of the newer songs of today are saying.

Let’s talk about the DISTRACTIONS now – is it REALLY necessary to have it all? If you’re shallow enough to think that blinking, flowing lights invokes God’s presence then it’s time to re-evaluate.  If you think billowing figures flowing on the platform like those you see outside a car dealership (yes I’ve visited a church in my hometown that used those almost every service along with shredded pieces of material that looked like flames) is going to make the Holy Spirit say, “Hey, that’s pretty cool.  I’ll go hang out with them this morning” then you don’t know your Bible very well.

God seeks after those who seek HIS presence. Those who are HUNGRY for HIM.  He can meet you in a church or he’ll meet with you in bathroom, a hotel room or your car.  God could care less about all the other stuff – He cares about YOU.

When we enter into worship it should ALWAYS be focused on HIM.  We should steer away from songs that are self centered which so many of the newer worship songs are now these days. Many are gearing themselves towards “audience participation.” REALLY?  We need to do that?

We’re gearing our sermons to NOT offend people.  We skim over topics, avoid talking about the blood of Jesus, about sin that’s active in homes these days and in peoples lives, about ways to disciple people and stir them to want a deeper walk with God.  We’re leaving that up to the “life groups” “Cell groups” “Home Groups” “Bible Studies” or mid -week services.  OR we just leave that out all together because WE WANT OUR NUMBERS.  After all, how great does it make “me” look to my fellow pastors if my church is big?  (Excuse me but I would rather be in a church full of HEALTHY believers than a bunch of people who only come for the show and don’t WANT to change their lives.  Yes the church is a hospital – so that means we spur them TOWARDS health.)

We’re appealing to flesh. We’re appealing to worldly desires.  “Stimulate me” “Entertain me” “Give me the flavored coffees” “Talk about what I WANT to hear but don’t get too intense”.  That’s what our sermon focus has become. AND unfortunately some gauge the success of their services on how much emotion was shown that day.  REALLY? WHO ARE YOU to judge by outward appearance what the Holy Spirit is doing INSIDE of someone just because they don’t “fall out” “break down in a pile of tears” or wail at the altar?  While these are all honest and true things that happen in church and I DO believe that it’s ok to have this in the service, I don’t believe we should ever gauge worship or message response to what the people do out in the congregation.  I grew up pentecostal.  I’ve been a card carrying member of Assemblies of God churches too and I attend a Church of God so I’m NOT anti reaction by any stretch of the imagination.

I guess what I’m saying is or actually PLEADING with you is this – DON’T fall into the trap of distractions.  DON’T jump on the band wagon.  Take a true, deep heart searching/soul searching look at your services.  What’s your motivation? What’s your focus?

Thank you for reading this blog.  It’s not meant to offend you but it IS meant to provoke some thought and maybe even some change if you feel it’s necessary.

Let’s go back to the basics……