September 11 2009
5 ways worship music can be like bad hotel art – Part 1
Tagged Under : bad-hotel-art, leadership, theology, Top 5, worship
As I was sitting in my hotel room in Boulder CO this week I noticed the just awful art hanging on the walls. It got me thinking why on earth would the hotel put this kind of art up knowing full well how appalling it is? As I thought about it, I realized the reasons were exactly the same reasons why much of worship music can so easily become “bad art.” I want to dive into those reasons and like any average blogger I’ve divided those reasons up into 5 separate posts. First way worship music can become like bad hotel art…
1. Uninspired
The art in this hotel came from no deep well of desire or conviction, no sense of calling, honor or worship to anything great. It’s just something to get the job done efficiently and fill wall space.
As worship leaders very often in our own song writing or leadership we operate not from an overflow of the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts, but from a desert and dependence on our flesh and we end up filling space just the same. We fill that space in our hearts with idols and we fill space in worship sets with things that satisfy the flesh. We can end up doing nothing out of a holy spirit inspired conviction, thirst and desire to see Jesus glorified, but more to see that the obligation is met and that people are satisfied.
When leading worship becomes an obligation instead of an honor, we’ve likely either forgotten what Jesus has done or we hold the ultimate prideful, sin infested position that what he’s done is not enough to warrant anything better from us. Romans 12:1
“Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Maybe we’ve lost view of God’s mercy, maybe God’s grace is no longer sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9) and something else is now inspiring us and motivating us. Idolatrous inspiration has a lot of deadly fruit, the least of which being bad art. If the gospel isn’t motivating and inspiring us, then our works are useless, they’re death to ourselves and at the least, quite harmful to others.
Inspiration and motivation is a heart issue, don’t fill space with idols, let Jesus ruin you and the gospel inspire and motivate all you do.
Podcast - 
Facebook
Twitter
Soundcloud
Stumbleupon
Linked In
Vimeo
You Tube
Contact
Loading ...
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ben Worcester and Jeff T Caldwell. Ben Worcester said: RT @kcampos: New blog post: 5 ways worship music can be like bad hotel art – Part 1 http://bit.ly/Bmwv2 [...]
Great post (looking forward to the others). I like the honor vs. obligation.
One other thing to be mindful of as WLs. It's more than just a Sunday gig:
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1
Thanks again!
[...] Part 1was worship music can be uninspired and is well worth a read [...]
The last statement, “Inspiration and motivation is a heart issue, don’t fill space with idols, let Jesus ruin you and the gospel inspire and motivate all you do.”…..is the use of the word “ruin” intentional here or should it be “run”. If it is indeed “ruin”, can the author please elaborate? The rest of that statement is great….I’m just a little confused with the word “ruin”.