I’ve said previously on this blog that as a worship leader you are most likely the second most popular reason people leave the church, behind the pastor. You may be the first, depending on how lucky you are. I’ve also said that fact is the thing I dislike most about being a worship leader. It comes with the territory of being in ministry but it doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable.

My first experience in this was when I was leading worship at a Vineyard my dad pastored. I was probably only 15 at the time and I wore a hat backwards on this particular day(lame I know). The couple approached my father and relayed how offended they were that I’d were a hat in service and vowed never to return. 15 years later and hearing people leave because of me, my music, or my expression still hurts. I hate hearing it.

Now I’m an elder and worship pastor at a Reformed Charismatic church in the A29 network and I get to hear this from both sides. We are probably the most expressive in our worship of the A29 churches in Phoenix. Lots of hands lifted, tears, clapping, shouting, people on their knees, that kind of thing. We play long and loud worship sets with the lights down. So you’d think this would be fine for Charismatic types right? Well we sing about the cross a lot, we re-arrange hymns, we try and make sure everything is Christ centered and doctrinally sound. We don’t play Jesus is my boyfriend songs and we don’t let people run around crazy with banners and shouting in tongues. So for a lot of Charismatic types, they think we don’t “operate in our gifting” or that we stifle the gifts somehow.

Then the reformed guys that look us up on the A29 site come and see our club looking building, hear the really loud music, see the emotional expressiveness and they get uncomfortable really fast. We haven’t really had one of those A29 families stick in our church and it’s primarily due to me and the music. They love the preaching and teaching, they hear the gospel, but the music just pushes them to a level of uncomfortableness that they just can’t get past.

The temptation for me here is to grow callous and have a “this is the way it is, take it or leave it” attitude. And while I believe that is true to an extent(I’ll explain that below), I want my heart to be soft and my tactics malleable. In practice that means I am constantly evaluating why we do music the way we do, listening to the critique and searching scripture and praying for direction in how we worship musically. There is however some truth to this “being the way it is” and all I mean by that is, God has gifted me and our band in certain ways, gave us a conviction and sent us on mission. We didn’t arrive at that by taking a community poll, but rather by praying to Jesus and having him reveal it. So at some level, yes, this is who we are and I know it won’t appeal to everyone, maybe not even most. But I also know I and the church are still growing in many areas and we have a lot to learn. So when people leave and point to me, I want that to sting, I want to take it to Jesus and see if there’s anything I could have done differently or better.

Recently though a family visited who had found us through A29 and after meeting with the family the father said this to me(paraphrasing), “I loved that the gospel was preached and we felt at home right when we walked in, everyone was so kind. But honestly the worship made me very uncomfortable.” At this point I’m thinking, oh no, I know how this is going to end. But then he surprised me and said, “But I felt comfortable in my uncomfortableness, because it was all Christ centered. I want to thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone.” To be honest I’ve never heard that kind of encouragement from traditional reformed that visit our church. I was so blessed and humbled by this family’s example of love for Jesus and the gospel that all they needed was for it to be Christ centered and they were comfortable amidst a musical style and degree of expressiveness that made them uncomfortable.

I pray that God would keep me humble and sensitive to His direction in how we worship musically. And that God would protect my heart from bitterness and pride when I hear critique or people leave the church because of me. Not easy or fun stuff, by I’m thankful for it.

Worship leaders, how are you effected and how do you process someone walking out the door with their finger pointed at you?

Balanced corporate worship combines two components: spiritual and practical. It is easy and even enticing to over emphasis one to the detriment of the other. In order to insure God is our only object of worship while doing it in a unified, excellent, spirit filled manner we have to walk in balance of these two components. I’ll discuss what happens when we go out of balance on these two points, what the definition of worship and successful worship is in each scenario. This post primarily addresses two extremes as commonly demonstrated in the charismatic church or churches that participate in the larger charismatic worship tradition.

Lean to Practical

Churches that over emphasize practical measures tend to produce a great musical product and a great overall experience but a poor example of God glorifying, spirit filled corporate worship that continues after the music stops. This tends to be very experience based whether participatory or observational and people leave glorifying and remembering more about the production than God. Because of this there’s a feeling that worship can’t occur without the band, in other words the band has become a required mediator in their worship and that is what we call idolatry.

• Worship = What the band does on Sunday mornings and whatever can be consumed by the ears and eyes.
• Successful Worship = How well the band played, if you liked the songs they chose and how cool the videos were. How memorable of an experience it was. Successful worship now becomes a floating target as the bar of excellence and amazing production is continually increased.

Lean to Spiritual

When the spiritual component is over emphasized the quality and musical excellence tends to suffer since the attitude is, “who cares what we sound like as long as God is moving.” While that seems like an admirable thought the reality is what you sound like can be a barrier, distraction and hindrance. So we can’t let that attitude undermine the importance of excellence. If this is your attitude then the question really becomes, why are you playing music at all? If God doesn’t require your excellent music to move then he sure doesn’t require your crappy music to move. The swing is so far away from music mediation that the band absolves themselves of any responsibility. There’s an issue of first fruits and sacrificial worship that stems here but we’ll save that for another day. Sets in this environment start becoming very disorganized and difficult for the congregation to follow and be united in. A lot of spontaneous choruses are sung, which requires a lot of repetition and songs in turn start taking 10 minutes+. These types of sets tend not to fortify the importance of corporate unified worship but instead promote individualistic worship while in the presence of others.

• Worship = Whatever you feel and express through postures: dancing, singing, clapping, crying, raising your hands, kneeling, etc…
• Successful Worship = If room was given for people to express whatever God was doing in them and there was a response emotionally and physically through postures.

How do we find balance between these extremes?

We must realize as worship leaders, both are important. First on the practical side, musical excellence and organization is important. We are to be the instrument of unity in the church’s gathered worship, so yes we have practical responsibilities that are important to the success of gathered, corporate worship. Worship is continuing all week long without your musical assistance, but when the body gathers to meet we do as Colossians 3:16 instructs we lead in the singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Your physical gifting matters, it’s important, so use it, maintain it and improve it.

Secondly, realize the notes are dead without the Holy Spirit. The only thing that makes our gathered worship worthwhile is the presence of the Holy Spirit. So we should have much reverence, thankfulness and humility because we’ve come together to glorify our Creator, Father, Savior Jesus. So it’s the inevitable outcome that upon viewing God’s mercy and grace that we respond in spirit and truth. There will be dancing, singing, clapping, crying, a full array of emotional response because quite simply the living God is amongst us. That’s an intense emotional experience I’d say. But don’t mistake the fruit as the source, continue to worship the source. This is the great deception that has a foothold in the charismatic church and must be confronted and dealt with candidly in our church bodies.

What does the result look like?

A balanced approach to worship would be a leader grounded in truth, completely reliant upon God’s grace, mercy and Holy Spirit, offering his best sacrifice of praise and leading his team and congregation in unified, redeemed worship of Jesus Christ. A worship leader should work continuously at improving his craft, making sure he’s leading not just songs in excellence but leading the congregation. You have to teach on worship, it’s an absolute must! Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if you’re off balance.

1. What circumstances, environments or tools does your congregation need to worship? Correct lighting, just the right combination of songs, etc…
2. In what areas does your congregation engage in worship? Spirit, mind, body, soul?
3. What determines a successful worship service?
4. What role does a successful worship service play in a life of worship?
5. Has our worship service become a consumption experience?

In the coming days I will post on how to use this balanced approach in set selection and music. I welcome your comments, disagreements and confessions of unbalance.