I don’t really understand people who say things like, “The worship isn’t very good at my church,” or, “Our worship pastor doesn’t remove enough distractions for me to worship.” Man, this is America’s consumerism mentality at its worst. Since when does worship depend on a musical performance? Worship is not an event for 20 minutes on a Sunday morning, it’s a lifestyle of attributing worth to God in everything we say and do. Although worship includes singing, it also includes prayer, loving God, living blamelessly, sharing Christ with others, spending time in the Word, sacrificially serving those around us and more. We don’t go to church to worship, we go to church already worshiping. It can take place in a big church with a professional band and lighting, alone in the quietness of a closet or deep in the jungle of Africa. Worship is a week-long process, a lifestyle, not solely a Sunday morning activity. Sure, certain environments may promote an atmosphere of worship better than others, but worship never hinges upon such factors.
So if someone tells me they can’t worship at their church, who’s fault is that? True worship is not dependent on anyone or anything else other than ourselves and our heart’s attitude toward God.
Posted on September 18, 2006
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Wow! I really appreciate this blog! Recently I have been thinking about how I get distracted while trying to worship while trying to play in our worship band on Sunday mornings. I know deep down that worship isn’t the 20 minutes of singing songs on Sundays, that it is a daily process, but I don’t always think about constantly worshiping God. This week I will strive to be in a constant state of worship, along with praying with out ceasing.
Thanks, Tim, for your blessing!
Right on the money Tim! I couldn’t agree with you more. In fact, music itself isn’t a requirement for any worship service. I think it is a natural expression of our love for God. Yes, we will plan on having music, and even will choose the number of fast songs/slow songs, but we should never let our choices or even the songs themselves determine for us wether or not we have worshiped.
Do we sing because we are inspired and singing about things we love or believe? Or do we sing because we love singing and hearing our own voices? I think this is part of the difficulty we have in our modern era of worship music. Just because you can sing or play, doesn’t mean you can give the best in worship. A heart inclined toward God makes the most beautiful music.
Yup, very sad. The guy who leads worship gets this a lot: “I really enjoyed your worship this morning.” He usually says, “I’m sorry.” Meaning that they couldn’t join in it. Where is the US going?
[...] There is one thing that has gone on for years and it bugs me to no end. Why is it, during the first song performed at church every sunday, people decide it’s the perfect time to come up and talk to me about things they need or ask questions about something. With my family obligations and the physical location of my house, I can no longer make the morning warm up sessions at church, so that first minute is crucial to fixing any levels that have changed since practice. It never fails though. Every sunday, someone will come up and start talking to me. Do they not realize that they should be going to their seat and I dont know, maybe sing?? That is what we are doing at the moment. I feel bad, but I have to ignore them (which makes them ask even louder). This last sunday, I had Jessica write a sign for me and tape it to the sound booth that asks them to wait until after church. You would think that this is a no brainer, but I guess it’s not. While reading a friend’s blog entry about the worship mentality of many church goers, he points out that it’s not just the 20 minutes during a sunday morning service. And I started to wonder when was the last time I have ever worshiped in church itself. From the second I get the look from the pastor that he is going to invoke the service to the time the sermon begins, I am at work. I have to focus on 3 to 6 intruments, their volume, eq and gain structure and their players, 3-5 singers and their volume and gain structure, the pastors mic and level, the master feed to the computer system, the feeds for the hearing impaired, nursury plus cry room, monitor mixes and other factors like punching singers in and out of reverb, bumping up banter levels, watching for solos, etc… I think that is why I am more critical of the worship at our church than others. Because I am seperated mentally from everyone else in church during that 20 minutes, I hear all the mistakes, lack of practice, singers off key, singing too quite and then too loud and then the wrong verse. Of course, I miss my mark too, when I don’t unmute quick enough or I miss a cue (usually coming back from meet and greet time) It’s hard not to be critical. I think in my position, you want the best out of everyone and yourself, because you want the best for the congregation. Running the sound during a great worship session is exhilarating. Blending the levels of each person so that it creates a song and moment. I miss the days when people would get so into worship, I could lower the levels and hear a sanctuary full of just the congregation singing and then bringing the levels back up when the song builds again. You wanna see me tear up, look at me during one of those moments. I think thats why I love the Paul Baloche album “A Greater Song” In almost every song, he leads the song, brings the people to that place and then drops everything to just them singing at the top of their lungs and then comes back in and leads them out. It’s that raw moment of just people worshiping and maybe one instrument to carry the chord transitions that I love. Leading people in worship is no easy task, I am not saying that it is. Its easy to deconstruct all of this and say to leave it up to the holy spirit, but we have all of these human introduced factors in play. It’s these factors that can help create an enviornemt where people feel comfortable enough to publicly worship and let the Holy Spirit move them. It’s also these factors that can put that barrier back up. While reading the blog of one of the video/sound engineers of Prestonwood Baptist, he made the point that no one notices the things we (Sound video people) notice, but man, they will notice if there is a typo on the powerpoint. (not an exact quote) [...]
Seth,
While reading through your comment I couldn’t help but to keep on thinking that you’ve got a great way to worship through serving the whole time during the service. God has put you in an important role in the service. Remember to do it all for Christ’s glory.
[...] from: http://www.studentministry.org/2006/09/18/short-rant-on-attitudes-toward-church-worship/ I don’t really understand people who say things like, “The worship isn’t very good at my [...]