Caught In The Show

As a worship leader, there has been a definite lesson to learn along the way and one that I am still endeavoring to work out in my own life to the point of mastery. It is that of not getting caught up in the performance of the "show".

A team practices songs each week and someone arranges these songs and brings the band and vocals together to make an excellent musical masterpiece to present to God on service day. The trap is the same though for the team as well as the congregation. That trap is to get our focus somewhere other than God. If you are a musician or vocalist, you are playing or singing the songs and you want to present your best to God as well as make no unnecessary distracting bumps in the road for the congregation so that they can enter into His presence uninhibited. It can really get to the point that you find yourself so worried about getting it all right until you get the most important thing wrong. If you hit every not on cue and in tune but miss TRUE worship from your heart, you got it all wrong.

The same is true for the congregation in that the song service has been prepared and is being performed. When the band hits those cool breaks and solos, that is not your cue to think about how much you are enjoying the "show". It is your cue to begin to pour out your heart in an unadulterated fashion, abandoning everything around you, and focusing on His goodness. If you notice how good the band is but miss a true experience of God's presence, then you got it wrong as well.

So what do we do about this scenario? We want to do this in excellence right? We want the congregation to enjoy worship right? Of course we do, but not at the expense of the vision to escort people to God. Here are couple of things that I recommend to keep our focus during a service.

For the Worship Team, here is where skill comes into play. It is very important for each team member to improve their skill on their instrument. You will not be able to focus on Him if you are not able to play or sing without having to give all of your mental attention to your instrument. I believe that is a reason why David was so effective on the harp as a worshipper. He was skilled. I do understand that everyone can not be at an advanced skill level on your instrument, but that is where we have to step back and say, "am I trying to play or sing above my skill level?" This responsibility partially relies on the leader of the team to not "overload" their team members, but it also lies on the member to be honest with themselves to say, I cannot pull this off and keep my focus where it belongs. There are plenty of things that I can "pull off" and make it sound well, but many of those things would require that I sweat mental bullets the whole time I am doing it and have no worship in it. That is the trap. I recommend that at whatever level you are, challenge yourself to get better. Then have the self discipline to worship within that until you can increase yourself. Team leaders, you be disciplined enough to not arrange yourself right out of His presence and into a place of constant attentiveness wondering if you or your band will "pull it off".

Congregation member, develop your participation skills. "Huh?", you may ask. Yes, become better at taking the opportunity to worship God freely from your heart instead of getting wrapped up in how good the music or vocal sounds. It is hard, especially during instrumental solos and breaks, to stay in the realm of a participator instead of picking up the hat of a spectator and placing it on your head. It is a discipline that you have to develop as you mature in worship. The key word here is opportunity. During those breaks, it is your opportunity to forget about trying to sing words from a screen that someone else has written and release your own heart in a raw state that exemplifies your love for an awesome creator. Do not miss that opportunity.

To wrap it all up, I encourage you to all to practice this principle in the weeks to come, and see if you notice a difference in your services and lives. Reach for Him and you will not be disappointed with what you draw back in your hands.

Teach or Unteach part 2

I wanted to follow up on my post from last week. It was mainly a discussion starter to get you all thinking. Since it was mostly a copy and paste from another source (http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/05/13/teaching-on-praise-or-unteaching-on-religion/) , I wanted to come back and give my thoughts now. After pondering this now for a week, I have come to this.
Teach or unteach...
The Word says in John 4 that God seeks worshipers to worship Him in SPIRIT and in truth. There is something here that I have taught for years and believe that it applies especially in this situation. Think about the phrase "worship in spirit". I don't know about you, but the word spirit sticks out to me. Think about the spirit of man. It is the deepest, most profitable part of man. The Bible teaches that we are made of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. The spirit is made perfect when you are born again. The soul (mind, will, and emotions) is a progressive work by the Word of God. The body (referred to as the flesh, where the sinful nature of man is) will not be perfect until the rapture and we get new ones. Now, think about worship as it relates. To worship Him in spirit, you need to get through the flesh and the soulish part. This is where teaching comes in. In the post, it was said that we were created to worship, therefore should just do it naturally. If it were not for the fall of man, that would be true. We were also created to walk with God on a daily basis, but when man fell in the garden it caused us to not do what should have come natural. Now, we have to be taught how to serve and walk with God. I believe that worship is the same. We have to be taught to overcome our flesh and discipline our mind in order to worship Him in spirit. So, yes, I do believe we are to teach people to worship Him.

Now, we also have been taught years of error or even incomplete truth in our religious backgrounds. Many have been taught against any physical expression of worship. Many others have been taught that there is no place for musical instruments in our worship. We have been taught to be reserved and without expression or for that matter, freedom. For these folks, I would strongly agree that they need to be untaught.

My final thought is that for the new believer, we should teach them how to worship. Then for the believer with a background of wrong or incomplete teaching, we should unteach. I guess to sum it all up, we should be all things to all men.

Teach or Unteach

Hey everybody. I was reading someone elses' blog today (http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/05/13/teaching-on-praise-or-unteaching-on-religion/) and saw this. I want to pose this to you all and get your feedback.

To teach or unteach …

That’s what I’m wondering today. I was speaking a while back with some folks about the desperate need we have to educate and teach our congregations on authentic worship. For example, the seven words for “praise”, what they look like, and how we express them. The specifics on physical demonstrations and expressions of worship, such as kneeling, raising hands, bowing, and corporate singing.

Then, I couldn’t help but think … if God created us to do these things, shouldn’t they be natural? If, as the Chris Tomlin song declares “you and I were made to worship …”, is true - shouldn’t it be something we just “do”?

If so, maybe we need to spend more time “un-teaching” the religious junk we’ve learned in years of church. But then again, seekers who were never exposed to “religion” and “church” don’t necessarily come in and freely express themselves in praise and worship to God. Or do they?

So do we teach or unteach? How would you do it?

Let's get some feedback going on this one.

Praise or Worship PART 2

Here we are again. The last time we began talking about the difference in praise and worship. We established a good sense of what praise is all about. Now, let's talk about worship.

Easton's Bible Dictionary defines the word worship as: Homage rendered to God which it is sinful (idolatry) to render to any created being (Exodus 34:14; Isaiah 2:8). That is a very generic definition of the attitude of the heart generally speaking. It does not get into any specifics of acts of worship or any context of worship as it relates to Praise and Worship in music and song, so let's dig a bit deeper.

The principal word translated from in the Old Testament means: depress, bow down, prostrate. This gets a bit different now because we see that we are speaking more of our actions expressed as a result of our hearts. Other words include working and laboring in service and falling down before. The Old Testament idea is therefore the reverential attitude of mind or body or both, combined with the more generic notions of religions adoration, obedience, service.

There is much to say concerning the new testament and different Greek words used, but let's just suffice to say that the most prominent one used means to "kiss (the hand or the ground) toward,". Wow.

All of this starts to put some perspective on the difference between praise and worship. Worship would be much deeper and intimate. It would be more of an act directed TO God rather than ABOUT God. I have heard some say it this way. Praise is more horizontal, and worship is more vertical. In other words, I can praise God by talking to someone else, but I worship God in my words and actions to Him. Don't you find it odd that you can praise people for a job well done, but it is sin and idolatry to worship anyone but God. That alone should draw a great comparison between the two.

Last week, I talked briefly about the layout of the temple in the Old Testament. You had to go through the outer courts (praise) to get anywhere else. Well, now you go to the inner courts which included sacrifice, cleansing, and other acts of deeper, more meaningful and intimate worship. You could not skip this and go straight to the holy of holies where the manifest presence was.

Worship requires a bit more of a realization of depth in relationship with God. It is now not just about God and His works and how great you think He is. It is about how much you deeply love God and want to experience His intimate presence and hear His heart beat. It is more of a giving of yourself rather than just mere words. When you fall prostrate (which is the literal translation in the Bible) it is almost as if you are saying, "OK God, I am presenting myself as a sacrifice at your feet. Do with me what you will. I am Yours."

Now, when you sing songs in praise and worship, you will begin to see that tempo or speed has nothing to do with whether you are praising, or worshiping. It is the heart behind the words.

Let me encourage you in this as well. Praise and worship are equally as important and both are a necessity. You must go through one to have the other. Then you must go through the one to experience the fullness of God and hear His heart. There are no short cuts.

John 24:23 says, "But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers." He wants your worship and you must get there by praise.

Praise Or Worship

Today, I will start a series of blogs covering the difference between praise and worship. I have heard many many different sermons on this topic, not many of which really seem to satisfy a wanting for good biblical support, but rather opinion and experience. I will attempt to give good biblical principle here as well as my views. I believe that it is very important to know the difference in the two, because it is such a vital part of our relationship with God as well as our church going experience.

Let's start with praise. Here is a brief excerpt from a word study I did on praise. In the bible, here are the meanings of some of the words that are translated into our english word "praise": psalm, praise, confession thanksgiving, to praise glorify, to stretch out the hand, confess
The word comes from a Latin word which means price, or value, and may be defined generally as an ascription of value or worth. True praise consists in a sincere acknowledgment of a real conviction of worth.

Without going into too much more depth of boring details, the language of the explanations I read of the word praise, was that of more outward expression of thanksgiving and exaltation. It seems more celebratory in nature. It is usually expressed vocally as well as bodily in things as dancing and such. It is the picture you get when you think of a congregation singing, jumping, clapping and shouting, "you are awesome God!" It focuses much on his works and goodness. Praise of God can even be expressed from person to person. You find this in songs that are written in third person. Also, something interesting that I find is that praise can be expressed by more than just people. The bible states that all creation praises God. It talks about the trees and angels, and all sorts of things praising Him. That to me says that praise is much more superficial if you will than worship. Even still, it is a command of God that we give Him the praise due His name. When I study the word praise, and then think of praise and worship, I get strong since that true praise of God sort of sets you up for worship and is a precurser for something deeper. If you look at the temple in the old testament, it even bares this out. The outer courts was a place of praise and thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, the Bible says in Psalms, "I will enter your gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter Your courts with praise". The interesting thing is that you had to go through that outer court to get to the inner court or holy of holies. The temple is a type and shadow of our relating to God on a personal level. It is amazing to me how people want to take worship and leave praise alone. Really though, they come as a package, and in order to experience God to the fullest, you must become comfortable with both.

As I have said before, our mission statement of our Praise Team is: to escort all listeners to God’s throne by engaging and instructing them in vibrant praise and worship.

Today, I want to touch on that word vibrant. Websters defines vibrant as: pulsating with life, vigor, or activity. Think about your worship from two different angles. First, think about it on a personal level away from church. Is that a picture of what you practice during the week? Then think about it from the angle of a leader at a church service. Is that what you project as an example of worship when on stage? I believe that as worship leaders, sometimes we focus on the heart so much so that we discount our outward physical actions. Don't get me wrong. We need to focus on our hearts and make sure that is right first and foremost. We don't however need to abandon the concept of our outward display. If you are a leader, that means people need to be able to follow. They can only follow what they see. If with their eyes, they look and see a picture of someone who is merly standing with no action that portraits vibrancy, that is what they have to follow. It is our duty and calling as worship leaders that when folks look up to the stage, they see visible signs from us that we are vibrantly worshipping our God with passion.

I want to encourage you today to ask yourself the question, "what picture do I project physically while I am on stage". We can instruct the people with our mouths all day, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Worship Instructions (to the worshipper)

Instruction in worship is a vital part of the worship service. When you do anything corporately (in a group), you must have instruction. This week's topic is written from two different perspectives. It is written to the worship leaders, and then it is written to the worshippers. For this reason, I will make two posts today. This one will be to the actual worshipper who is standing in the congregation. The next post (the one below) takes this topic to the worship leader.

I have heard people say, "I don't like it when the worship leader tells me to lift my hands or to clap". We have to understand that in any given service, there are people from various mindsets, backgrounds, and knowledge levels. There will be people who are trained in worship who will just go with the worship team as they are escorted. There will be people who will be uncomfortable with the people around them who are clapping, shouting and lifting their hands, and there will be people who will watch and think, "hey that was a cool guitar lick" as they enjoy their concert experience and get no deeper. We recognize this in the preaching of sermons, but we have somehow neglected this train of thought when it comes to worship. People need instruction. What this must create in the worshipper is an awareness that he or she is not alone. You are in a corporate (group) setting. If you do not need that, just know that there are people there who do. How many times have you been sitting in a service and listening to someone preach and think, "I wonder who he is talking to right now". You know he is talking to someone even if it may not be you. We as worship leaders have taught that we should forget about everyone around us and abandon it all to worship. This is true when it comes to allowing people to distract you, but we also must realize that there is someone next to us who may need encouragement or instruction in worship. So, when you hear from the stage, "come on, clap your hands". Either, #1 lap your hands if you are not. The Word of God tells you to do this when you worship. Or #2 know that there are people out there that the worship leaders are looking at that need to get on board, and he/she is encouraging them to.

Then there are those who just do not want anyone to tell them how to worship because that is between them and God. Well, to that person I would say that there is a deeper issue here than worship. There is an issue here of spiritual authority. Understand that whoever is conducting worship for that 30 - 45 minute time frame before the Pastor gets up to preach the sermon is the one who is carrying the authority in the service. I am not saying that that authority superceeds that of the Pastor. I am merely saying that within those bounds of what the Pastor has given him/her, they are the current appointed authority. Noone has an issue with the Pastor telling them how they should live, worship, think, etc. This is all part of instruction. We recognize that God has given that Pastor a Word for that day to speak to the congregation to move them from point A to point B. As the authority of the church, we listen to that man of God and accept what he has to speak into our lives. Why should this be any different with worship? As a Worship Pastor God has given a direction to go and a destination if you will. In that, the leader must give instruction on how to get there. It is in your best interest to follow that in order to get to that destination. I believe that a big part of why the children of Israel were stranded in the dessert for so long is because they had issues with authority. Examine your heart, and let nothing hinder you from entering in to true worship.