Performance or Worship

I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately concerning this topic.  When leading worship in church, are we performing or are we worshiping?  Now before anyone beat me over the head with the "you have to be worshiping" stick  let me ask you a question, What does God prefer?  Jeremy Armstrong in Worship-leader magazine, points out this question is as old as time.  All the way back to Cain and Able.  That didn't end well. Jesus had a response that of course was spot on. "a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth..."  I think our job as worship leaders, and that by the way is anyone on stage who has any singing role at least, not just the "leader", is to help those in attendance to engage or connect with God.  A well-organized and constructed worship set helps this happen.  It's not just playing or singing well, but choice of songs, what key the song is sung in and whether or not it's evident that you are truly connected and "worshiping" God.  All all of this rolls into a package of how well the set was "performed". 

But it's so much more than just a performance.  It's a performance for an audience of one. Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard states in one of his journals, "Worship is a performance, not for the congregation, but for God.  The worship leaders are prompters of worship, rather like conductors of an orchestra.  The best conducting in the world isn't worth much if the orchestra doesn't play well.  So it is with worship leading.

Along those lines, Mark Roberts writes "our call as worship leaders is not mainly about our own performance.  Nor is it mainly about pleasing those we lead.  Rather, our performance is most of all a matter of leading our people to perform for God with excellence."

While Bible teaching is primarily communicating God's truth to people, leading in worship is helping people communicate with God.  the quality of our "performance" either helps or hinders their communication, which is worship.
 
Here's your chance to sound off... what do you say?  let me know.

May you always play with excellence 
God bless, 
Rob


Just a few "WrightWords"  

The opinions and views expressed here are mine and not necessarily those of Hauser Church.

Scratching the surface

 I’ve been doing a lot of thinking or pondering lately about why or does it really matter?  Does it really help?  Let me explain.

These last couple of years has seen in my eyes anyway more than its fair share of disasters.  It seems every time you turn around another one has struck.  Haiti has a horrific earthquake and has yet to recover from it and they get rained on recently with so much rain wide spread flooding is washing the fragile tent cities away.  All the support and money given to help this country is just scratching the surface.

Over the years Tina (my wife) and I have sponsored kids through various agencies.  Some have just fallen off the radar, others we were notified that due to our donations along with others the village they live in is now thriving and self sustaining.  This is a great thing.  But there are still thousands and thousands of kids going hungry or living in extreme poverty.  All this help has just scratched the surface.

But let’s bring it closer to home.  We’ve got this absolutely wonderful café in town, The Crossroads café that sell lunches to anyone but focused on homeless or low income with $1.50 meals.  Full meals and they are very good.  But we still have many homeless and others going without food in our own backyards.  It helps but is it just scratching the surface?

Recently I was reading an article from The Center for Student Missions and Noel Becchetti former president was talking about effective short term mission trips.  He eventually got to talking about Jesus’ “most significant discourses from Matthew 25:31-40.  “Jesus said to Feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, invite a stranger in, give clothing to the naked, care for the sick and finally visit those in prison.”(paraphrase mine)  It’s what he didn’t say that Noel points out that is very significant and what prompted me to pen this blog.  “Scratching the surface”

He didn’t say “Solve world hunger.  Drill a well so everyone in the world has fresh water.  Build enough homes to house every single homeless person in the world.  Cloth everyone.  Cure all diseases.  And Make it so every one in prison is rehabilitated and released.”  As Noel points out we need to leave the driving to Him.  We are called to do what we can, but He will be the one to solve these issues on a world-wide basis. 

Don’t get down or despair, thinking I’m just scratching the surface.   As long as we’re doing the part God is asking of us He will take care of the bigger picture. If we were each doing the part God gives us, together we would be doing much more than Scratching the surface.

Just a few thoughts from me to you.

Rob

Bury the Hatchet

Have you ever heard the phrase "bury the hatchet"?  Ever thought of where that came from?  Ever thought of what it really means?  Many Native American sayings are really the imagination of Hollywood scriptwriters.  "white man speak with forked tongue" and the ever famous "Kemo Sabe"  However, this one is different.  Hatchets were buried by the chiefs of tribes when they came to a peace agreement.  
 
How awesome that would be today with our world leaders... But let's take this a step closer to home.  How many people do each of us have in our lives that we've "buried the hatchet" with?  If you're anything like me or have a pulse. I'm sure there are a few. But unlike the Peacemakers of the past, how many of us have "marked" where the hatchet is.  We buried it but not too deep.  We may have even logged a GPS coordinate so we make sure we can find it quickly if we need it.  How many of us have buried the hatchet with the Handle sticking out of the ground?  All we need to do is reach down and grab it.  I've got a few of those.  I need to go back and bury them deeper.  I know I've got some handles sticking out by how often these issues resurface.

Something else to remember.  If we're going to reach "down" to grab the handle of our poorly buried hatchet,  how can we look down without looking away from God?  During music worship this weekend at church I lead the song "I life my eyes up"    If we're lifting our eyes to God, how could we possibly find and retrieve that hatchet?  This song was chosen with purpose.  I'm choosing to lift my eyes to God.  

I will cover my handles with prayer and drive them deeper into the dirt, never to be found again. What about you?  Are you with me?  Let's cover the handles and delete the GPS coordinates so we can never bring them back up.  God love us and wants us to love him and all of those around us.

Just a few "WrightWords"  

The opinions and views expressed here are mine and not necessarily those of Hauser Church.



I hope you enjoy the new format.  I'm looking for input on the new blog.  Do you like this or the old email format?  Let me know.  I enjoy hearing from all of you. please keep your comments and opinions "God honoring"  If anything I've posted causes you to want to "drag me through the fire"  Please do so privately.  Please keep your posts about the content of what I've posted.  Not me personally.  If you would like to contact me personally please feel free to do so.


Pastor Rob