When Is Worship Not Really Worship?

I recently joined an online Christian community of worship leaders and musicians called Worship the Rock. Very cool place.

Among other things, WTR also has a forum where questions and issues get posted and discussed. Mostly, I stay out of it. But the other day, I saw the following comment about worship in our congregations:

Have you found that the more we polish the worship team, the worship trend becomes more performance minded rather than worship? I have watched worship leaders parade across the platform interacting with the congregation and members of the team as if it is a performance at a concert or a show. I am finding myself hunting for the true worship in this. What ever happened to the simple, meaningful, heartfelt worship…How do we get back to the true heart of worship?

As you’ve probably guessed, I just had to reply to this one. And my reply seemed like a good piece for today’s devotion.

Here’s what I had to say:

I feel you, Bill. I struggle with the same thing.

As a musician and songwriter, and also as a worship leader in our church, I struggle with the issue of "entertainment", not only in our P&W service, but in Christian music in general.

Is being entertained wrong? Probably not.

Is it a waste of God's time? Again, probably not, but not exactly the most pressing of His desires for us, I would guess.

It's cool to be entertained. And excited. And emotional. And all that. God created us as emotional beings, and our emotions (very much so, through music), help pave the pathway to communion with Him. There's nothing wrong with a good song.

Remember though, we don’t NEED our emotions to commune with God. Just like we don’t NEED a diving board to dive into the pool. The diving board is a vehicle that helps facilitate the process. God doesn’t need us to need a diving board to dive into Him.

We just jump because we choose to.

But it does help us overcome a lot of our human shortcomings, and circumvent a lot of the self-imposed barriers that we have when it comes to entering into His presence…so to speak.

At the end of the day, I think we have to determine where we (and God) draw the line between "ushering in" the presence of God and simply rockin' out.

In my opinion, I'm not a huge fan of the current worship climate. I love the fact that people are openly and excitably worshiping the Lord, I dig the crowds, I’m all about the guitars and drum solos and amazing harmonies.

But when it takes a top ten worship tune to wake the congregation up, while a simple rendition of “I Surrender All”, puts them to sleep...something's wrong.

When we base our ability and willingness to worship and honor our Holy and deserving God and King, upon the popular acceptance and statistical success of a certain song...when we ignore the truth and simplicity of the lyrics and gravitate only to clever twists of a phrase...when we say we can’t “get into” worshipping because a particular song isn’t “working”…something is very wrong.

Since when do we NEED a song to worship God?

Did you NEED to get a present, in order to thank your parents? While most of us would PREFER it that way, that answer is still “no”. Neither do you need a gift or a word or a miracle or a certain style of song, to worship God.

Maybe you’ll say “But some songs are just anointed by God.” And I agree.

But don’t you realize, the anointing isn’t some coat of paint that God applies here and there, that we have no part in at all? The anointing, is upon you. Upon us. Upon God’s people. Through the sacrifice and redemptive power of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need an anointed song in order to worship our Father…any more than we need a certain brand of shoe or shirt before we can get dressed.

I don't want to squash the freedom of P&W in our churches. But we MUST NOT compromise the holiness of God, for the pleasure of the moment. We can (and should) passionately worship God, with or without our Praise Teams.

-------------------------------------------------------


Prayer: Father, please help me to remember that my worship is most pleasing to you when it comes from a heart of gratitude and love, not through the artificial stimulation of something outside of You. Outside of me. I will promise You to not let my worship be controlled by my circumstances, my surrounding or my worldly influences. But I will praise You, regardless, no matter what may happen around us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


Scripture: Psalm 34:1 - I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.


Think About It: The Lord our God not only desires our heartfelt praise, but requires it. Would God require something of you and then not provide a means for that thing to happen? So if our best praises requires the company of a great and anointed song, are we to disobey God when the music stops?