Do we lead worship to impress or engage people to life change? Leading worship is actually part of any pastor’s heart if we look at it that way.

As worship leaders we provide a safe place to meet God. We design experiences that are based biblically on truth, decoding the culture while engaging people in drawing nearer to God.

What do you think: is worship leading pastoring or something else?

This is a repost from here…

Ten things that damage a worship ministry and hamper worship in a church

1. Church politics: not everyone can or will be “pleased” by the style of worship at a church, no matter how many services, styles, video venues or times for worship. Pleasing people in general is a bad idea, right?
2. Biblical illiteracy: a worship ministry that does not commit to biblically presenting a complete Jesus or filter song choice or content biblically will risk teaching the congregation a lessor picture of Jesus.
3. Utility over Artistry: a demand to see music, and other expressions of worship as utility and not understand art hurts the ability to actually authentically express. It makes worship a means to something rather than the end.
4. Church politics: not everyone has gifts to lead or can be in front all the time. The goal in worship leadership is to serve the church, not your own desire to be leading upfront or showcasing talent. When personalities clamor for the stage, it hurts our worship expression.
5. Not letting the kids take over: keeping worship for my generation and not giving the younger mentorship, exposure and leadership opportunities in worship means the church loses the future. Remember, they are not the church of the future, they are the church.
6. Worshiping excellence: pushing the worship team to be so non-inclusive that only a small elite become the musicians, singers and tech might hurt the church since losing one of these individuals means a huge hole and loss of excellence.
7. Lack of Excellence: if music, lighting, speaking and whatever is available is not done well, the church loses gifted people who would rather not subjugate their gifting to poor planning, execution or leadership. (So, with 6 & 7 there is a sweet spot each church has to find–value doing your best, while not making it a club!)
8. Christian subculture: when music selection is limited to only a small group of writers from a couple publishers and there is one radio station in town your veteran church members listen to, we live in a ghetto. The goal is not to keep our worship expression in a bubble but to reach the world. Make worship style indigenous to reach and reflect your community, not the choice of Christian publishers marketing to veteran Christians.
9. Church politics: song selection, use of drums, volume, personalities, who gets to play, friends, complaint cards…
10. Me, myself and I: the trinity of selfishness perhaps is the root cause of all of these. Worship in a local church is “us” worshiping our God. Even when we feel our personal need to worship is important, gathering with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of worshipers is something special and not about me or you in that moment.

Which of these is the worst offender, you think?

Amos 5:23-24
Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Matthew 25:44-45
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

It may seem like an open and shut case that “social justice” is what worship is. I would concur that if we as believers do not act as such there is obviously consequences we surely do not want to face in the after-life. Also, it is clear that worship without justice is meaningless and empty. But, is it worship? Is social justice our focus of worship? No.

The danger here is losing the centrality of Jesus in our worship by simply focusing almost in a pantheism-Jesus-is-the-poor mindset and miss that they are not Jesus. Jesus is Jesus. Jesus is our focus. By gazing at Jesus in worship the obvious sign of our love for him is poured out in being filled with justice and righteousness.

The real judgement I think is in the loss of our focus on the supremacy of Christ as our object of worship. We can turn to idols even the good things. Here is the premise I want to hear from you about: Good works are a result of worship. Not the other way around.

Yes, at times we are caught of guard and our worship music suffers. Here are some signs your music is in trouble:

1. Singer says at beginning of service: “God gave me this song…”
2. You see your worship team as a cover band rather than artists who create
3. Guitarist says: “I forgot my capo…”
4. The pastor starts or changes the tempo of songs from the front row (true story!)
5. Asked in a worship planning meeting: “Have you heard the song ‘Pass It On’?”
6. Any discussion about using bagpipes in a worship service!
7. Your audio tech complains: “The electric guitar…its..its..distorting!”
8. The worship leader tags endlessly on the first song…well, any song.
9. There is NO COFFEE available in the worship team green room before service
10. The pastor or the pastor’s wife lives in the sound booth!

Any I missed on my list? Add your thoughts.

This is a followup from this post. After teaching two workshops on Worship Mythbusters this week I have to share some practical things in regards to the focus of leading worship for a response versus a reaction.

The question posed is this: “What three months from now or a year from now will be measurable as far as a desired response in worship?”

When I posed that to the workshop, it was at first hard for our group to clarify the wins. Too often, we worship leaders, focus on the platform moment without regard to the wake that moment in time has over the long haul. Yes, we want people to experience a closeness to God, but the mountain top is not the reality we strive to live in each day it is a point of reference for the daily norm of the valley.

So, how do we measure the lasting impact of what we do? The following questions, are a start in evaluating the “response factor” for a worship service for us worship leaders.

• What will people be humming all week long? Is that music rich enough to enrich their lives and stick with people?
• Is the content of our lyric and attitude projected clearly biblical?
• Are the songs meaningful or relevant to where your people are at? Do they tell their stories and express their hearts with words they can and should say?
• What stories of life-change can be tracked back to the musical time of worship? Are people hearing from God? Are they encouraged, challenged beyond just being moved?
• What do we expect spiritually from our congregation during the worship time?

The idea here is to continually focus not on the hairs-standing-up-on-the-neck effect but also on how people are formed to be like Jesus through our musical worship leadership. What other questions should we ask about our worship time?

The myth of leading worship for a reaction rather than a response…

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 2 Corinthians 2:2-3

Instead of programming for a reaction in worship, I believe it is better to lead to a response. Reaction implies manipulation to get your people in a worship service to behave a certain way in the moment. Response means you lead the congregation to make a choice that hopefully extends beyond the moment. It is a choice made with both inspiration as well as thought. The idea of reaction is that people simple live in that moment, with no thought that they are being led to make a choice that has impact on the trajectory of their lives.

The issues about volume, worship style and other programming elements often look the same in the conversation. However, the goals are quite divergent. Where one does not take responsibility for the lasting impact the other owns a piece in the discipleship process of real people.

Yes, in a large group it is not an entirely adequate space in time to disciple people. Jesus spoke to large and small groups and to his friends. Worship leading is like this, too. Whether with a friend at the coffee shop, discussing faith at a small group study or singing with them from the platform the goal is to lead. Real leadership and discipleship will carry over to every venue, even if your gifting is not equally strong in each respectfully.

What this means is that just because you can get a reaction from the platform it does not mean you can claim anything but a reaction if the results for your ministry over time do not have the end in mind to help see people move closer to the image of Jesus. Yes, the craft of guitar tone, vocal technique, worship flow and production all matter. But, are they the goals or the tools?

Manipulation occurs when charisma is divorced from character. A magnificent orator can wow a crowd, but does the effect bring lasting life-change or a momentary goose bumps? Our worship leadership is indeed valued too often for the hairs on the back of the neck, but is that all there is? And, is that the evaluation we are happy to proclaim?

Often it is a sacrifice to even put on a decent worship set for your local church. But, does that mean we should sell our efforts short by settling for the isolation of the platform? What is better is to see how what we do in public is important. The other extreme is to not value public leadership gifts.

Often when people say “worship is not about you” they love to remind the worship leader that with that loaded statement it means his or her gifting is not important. Well, it is important. The platform gifting simply must be put into context. Balance is a goal, not to deride those who God gifts to be in the spotlight.

With that being said, lets not let the spotlight be the goal. It would be better to leave a legacy of lives moved to greater love of Jesus than simply a worship song hitting the top 25 CCLI charts or for a worship CD to be widely played and loved.

The resume of our leadership as worship leaders has to be that of Paul’s. Is the work of God through us engraved on hearts of real people or is it in bragging rights about our worship band?

Worship Mythbusters is a series of posts or conversations and this is a reworked post from a couple years ago. I thought some new readers would love to engage in this conversation:

The myth of a painless offering of worship

If pain is also defined not just as punishment but “trouble, care, or effort taken to accomplish something” then how is our liturgy or worship to provide no effort, care, etc.?

Worship or my expression of worship is NOT…

• in three easy payments
• something I take but something I give
• about feeling good or pleasant all the time
• without cost in time, resources or skill
• all my favorite songs or music
• without using my brain or thoughts
• always convenient
• usually about my preferences
• something for me but from me

Anything else we can add to the list?

This was originally posted in May of 2008 and since I am at a conference, I thought sharing a favorite from the past would be due. This is part of a series of posts: here

MYTH: Worship leading is not performing.

This is a myth! What is better said is that worship leaders lead in the act of performing worship.

Many in our churches like to use the word “performance” and make it another projectile at the worship team. They enjoy the fact that they can say a worship leader should not be performing, but worshiping as he leads as if the two are mutually exclusive. It means that his preparation is devalued and the attempt at beauty and form are discouraged. Worship expression or liturgy to many is simply a means, not and end. Really, it is an act to be performed.

FACT: Worship is an act that is performed. It is not random, it is
intentional. It is a choice. So, worship leaders perform an act that
leads people into this act. Yes, you are performing when you worship!

FACT: Worship leadership needs preparation. Many think that a good
heart, or good intentions means good worship leadership. Wrong.
Become good at guitar, sing in tune and work on your craft. Any
preacher worth his salt work on communication. He or she does not
assume his desire to communicate is enough. The effective preacher
prepares.

FACT: Beauty and form help lead people in worship. Yes, the look of
your room, the sound of your music and the overall atmosphere matter.
You tell a story beyond the lyrics or sermon through everything that
touches the senses. Leaders know this and address this. Thank God for
good architects who understand how to design a room. Form is
important. Without structure, we lose any sense of taking people
somewhere in worship. Form has a story, meaning and application.

An entertainer uses his or her skills to intentionally engage people in
a performance of music or comedy. A worship leader is similar, even though the performance is worship through music or other forms. The worship leader is like a performer–intentionality, preparation, and execution of form
and beauty are all part of leading worship.

Merry Christmas (or Bah Humbug if you feel grumpy)… I thought I would leak out the naughty list for those who attend Christmas Eve services this year. (Tongue in cheek guys).

• Suzie I-get-up-and-have-to-go-pee-three-times-during-the-service is getting 1 lbs. of coal
• Jimmy my-kid’s-screaming-is-not-heard-by-anyone-around-me is getting 1.7 lbs. of coal
• Bob I-can-save-seats-I-really-don’t-need-for-people-who-will-come-very-late gets 2.4 lbs. of coal
• Julie I-will-sing-as-loudly-out-of-tune-as-possible-to-get-noticed is getting 1 oz. of coal
• Julie’s Mom who smiles with pride and encourages the obnoxious singing gets .5 oz. of coal
• The kid who is thinking about burning the lady’s hair in the row in front of him with his candle–SANTA CAN SEE YOU KID!

Merry Christmas and hope to see you at our Christmas Eve worship tonight if you are in the Temecula-Murrieta Valley: Sunridge site OR Facebook Event link with info here!

Christmas is a good time to bring up the idea of sentimentality and its pull on us with any tradition. Christmas carols being sung in this season surely bring up warm feelings and many pictures of the past. However, how much value do we place on having our sentiment massaged over giving an offering in worship?

The Incarnation of Jesus is one of the pillars of our faith. It is a rare time in modern culture that we can openly sing lyrics “Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace, hail the Sun of Righteousness.” For that, I love this time of year. But do we emphasize the warm fuzzies over the realities of who Jesus really is and how he desires to be worshipped?

This idea of sentiment is an issue in worship music all year round. It could be missing a favorite singer or musician who cannot be scheduled as often as we like. Or, it could mean newer songs that do not have the rich context of the many years of a life lived walking with Jesus.

To overcome sentimentality we need to embrace the new. Sing a new song! We need to reach new cultures, new people and allow the freedom from our sentimental side to be celebrated instead of mourned.

So, where are you at with all of this? Do you think sentimentality is an issue over giving an offering this season?