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.
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.
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