As proof of the content of this post, I must add a disclaimer to this before I even get started. This post in no way, shape or form is a testament to Our Rising Sound worship band at Life Connection Church. Our Rising Sound is an amazing group of talented musicians and wonderful servants and this post is not a testimony of experience with this band in particular but a collective observation on life experience in the church and specifically worship bands.

A worship leader always has to be aware and sensitive to the feelings of members of the worship team. There is an emotional connection to this area of service that is quite unique, and much of the time unhealthy, in the body. If you ask those who are cleaning the building to make sure and vacuum the kids room better cause the kids are really messy, I don’t think they’d get offended and leave the church over it. They’d just take the advice and go along with their service. But I’ve seen many musicians/singers leave the church when corrected musically. There is such a strong emotional bond and the road to offense seems like a short walk most of the time.

You’ll commonly hear a few things in defense or at least in explanation of this phenomena.

1. Music is emotional in itself
2. Music is very personally important to people
3. Taste in music is everyone’s own preference and when you correct they take offense because they feel you are saying your idea of music is better than theirs
4. Musical expression in worship is a right a Christian is (re)born with, who is the worship leader to comment on it or correct

I think all of those are factors but I’m beginning to see the most important cause is not amongst those. Let me respond to the above list first:

1. True
2. Some people yes, musicians and singers I would hope so
3. People often confuse music structure/theory with preference. If you play the wrong chord, have no sense of dynamics, have bad time, sing out of key, those have nothing to do with your musical style. You are playing music bad, not different, just bad and making correctable errors.
4. The root of this problem is the improper coupling of music and worship. Everyone is reborn to praise and worship God, that is something we all must do. And of course we are always worshiping, the object of our worship shifts. However, expressing worship through music corporately is not everyone’s right.

Now onto what I really see as the root of the problem. I’ve found an unhealthy relationship between serving on the worship band and creative outlet. God has created us as creative beings, we should seek to glorify God is increasingly creative ways, musical creativity included. I do believe there is a place for a lot of creativity in corporate worship music. Much more than traditionally is expressed. That being said, the worship band and corporate worship should not serve as your creative outlet.

The problem is born when you view worship as a chance to express yourself creatively while worshipping God. Instead of what should be the case, your desire is to worship God and to do that use your body, soul, spirit, mind, all of you, including creativity, in your worship. Another way and perhaps a better way of putting this, is the problem of creativity around our worship instead of fitting inside of worship. This isn’t as nuanced as it seems, it is a very important distinction and makes a huge practical difference. If Sunday is your creative outlet, then when the worship leader asks you not to play or sing on a song, then that can become very hurtful because it seems to you as if the worship leader is turning off your God given creativity and your avenue of worship. The nerve! But if instead your only desire is to worship God and creativity is only a tool in that, then not playing doesn’t matter, because it’s only a tool and not the avenue of worship.

I can’t tell how important it is to get a proper perspective of how creativity fits inside of our expression of worship and not around our worship. This is much too broad a topic for a single blog post, perhaps I’ll split it up into a few posts soon. For now, we’ll leave this as an intro.

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I’ve been really challenging myself in my congregational worship songwriting to bring the same level, hopefully higher, of lyrical creativity that I would when I’d write “secular” songs. I find it quite shameful that we as a church have stopped using that part of our brains in our worship and particularly in our songwriting. I can’t imagine that the psalmist sat down and in just a moment of clarity and streaming consciousness wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalms 42:1Psalms 42:1
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
42 ¹ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God.  

">Psalms 42:1Psalms 42:1
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
42 ¹ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God.  

WP-Bible plugin

). I believe that took devotion and an intense searching of his heart to find the words that captured best what was happening in his spirit at the time. So often we as congregational worship leaders and songwriters, will use an attitude of, “I just want a simple song to praise Jesus” as a musical crutch. But I really think it’s even more than that. I think it’s cheapened our sacrifice in that all we offer is simple phrases which unsurprisingly tends to exercise only the surface areas of our heart, emotions, mind and body. We want total engagement of spirit, heart, strength, mind right?

Don’t get me wrong, I know God is pleased with a simple “I love you Jesus”. That can be very powerful and as long as it is uttered and offered up as truth and not reflex I know God is moved and honored by that. But are we writing “I love you Jesus”, or “You alone or worthy” out of reflex? We’ve sang it so many times, heard it so many times, are we just emulating what we know fits the church and is proven to work?

Shouldn’t we sit in the presence of God, pen in hand, hear what is spoken, then challenge ourselves, how is this best communicated for my church body. We shouldn’t approach it as, how has this best been communicated in the past. Human creativity didn’t stop at Psalms. God is still speaking, moving, and we better learn to capture it and express it with our best in every area. I refuse to settle with any of my lyrics, I have in the past, even very recently. But this has really been driven deep in my heart. No more wasted words, no more reflexively offering up a cheap praise, that’s my religion showing up. I want every part of me engaged in worship of the King of Kings, my creative self has been on vacation and it’s time to return.

It’s been a real struggle these last few weeks of songwriting. This is hard, it goes against every religious bone in my body. To find the balance between creativity, practicality, singability, it’s no easy task. I’ve gotten it wrong in the past and I’m sure I’ll get it wrong again, but one things for certain. All of me will be showing up to write for my God, and in that I know he’s pleased, what else could I desire.

I wanted to include some lyrics from one of today’s lyrical masters Nina Persson of the Cardigans as an example. English isn’t even her first language and she writes some of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard. I encourage you to buy Long Gone Before Daylight, this was the first album she wrote all the lyrics for, it’s unbelievable. Here’s just a couple examples of her genius:

 

“I never really knew how to move you,

so I tried to intrude through the little holes in your veins and I saw You.

But that’s not an invitation that’s all I get, if this is communication, I disconnect.

I’ve seen you I know you but I don’t know how to connect, so I disconnect.”

The following is possibly one of the greatest lyrical intros to a song I’ve ever heard. These are the first few lines of Please Sister:

“With a sampled heartbeat and a stolen sole.

I sung my songs to have my fortunes told.

And it said you should know that love will never die

But see how it kills you in the blink of an eye”

Lyrics like that grab you, take you inside the purpose of the song, and creatively express the passion that is so obviously felt here.

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