Can you make authentic worship?Growing up in a small Baptist church helped me learn something at an early age: Our gatherings as the Church tend toward formula. There are lots of reasons for it. It’s easier. It’s comfortable. It’s predictable. It fits inside of our “boxes.” It’s replicable. It allows us to attempt to recapture meaningful moments of the past.
But—like in all relationships—our encounters with God are meant to be progressive, not repetitive. That’s why I think I was so excited about the movement of a fresh approach to worship that was coming out of people like Martin Smith and Matt Redman in England in the early '90s and things like the Passion Movement here in the U.S. It wasn’t simply a stylistic change. It was something fresh in the expectation of the movement of God.
But now, 15 years and thousands of songs later, there seems to be a new homogeny throughout our churches and our worship gatherings. We’ve gotten to the point where we have made what was fresh into a formula once again.
A familiar formula
Tell me if this sounds familiar for a worship song as played by the band at your church:
Loud intro. Come down for verse one. Hit it hard for the chorus. Keep it going hard up til the bridge. Drop out for the bridge. Build back into a loud bridge section. Come down for an ending chorus. Vamp low on the end (with some occasional builds).
This type of song formula takes people dynamically up for two minutes, down for one minute, back up, back down. It’s a constant roller coaster for the duration of the set.
There’s nothing wrong with this song structure, but it might point to a greater issue: Perhaps we’re relying on musical dynamics to elicit an emotional response more than we are pleading for the Holy Spirit to engage us in the spiritual realm.Obviously, the solution to what seems to be our new habitual formula is not another formula. But we should be aware of how songs really do affect us emotionally and how we can engage with God in different ways through a range of dynamics. It might help to think through what we think of as a time of “worship.” Are there times of celebration with the Lord as well as times of rest? Do we dwell on the joy of celebration and the peace of rest, or are those moments fleeting?
Who is worship for?
Ultimately, worship leaders are there to help foster moments where individuals can connect with God. And our goal as worshipers is to use that time to connect with God.
Sometimes, I think we get into the mindset that the worship is for the band—that we are present to allow the band to do what it wants or to help us hit an emotional high. There’s a time for high notes and guitar prowess, but it’s a matter of the chicken and the egg. Because those moments aren't all the time. It’s a continual balance of asking, “What is this moment calling for, and what will take us deeper?”
Music seems to be this strange thing that serves as a bridge between the natural and the supernatural. Because of that, our conversations about how to do what we do best involves both the earthly and the spiritual. It means not getting stale in what we think of as “worship.” But it also means fighting the temptation to judge whether or not the worship was “good” by criteria like, “They sang well” or, “That band was awesome.”
But the most important thing about worship is that it allows us to engage with God. It matters a lot less if everyone hits the right note, or if the band hits the right solo at exactly the right time or even if the particular song is the one you want to sing. What matters is if worship is providing you a space to connect with God—it’s not a formula or a series of easy answers. It’s letting God work through each of us to connect with Him both as individuals and as the Church.
Relevant Magazine: http://m.relevantmagazine.com/god/worship/features/24146-breaking-out-of-the-worship-formula
I'm always back and forth on this issue.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, yes, we need to get out of the box of "worship." One of my biggest pet peeves as a worship leader is when people interchange the words "worship" and "music." They are not, nor have they ever been synonyms. However, another one of my pet peeves is when people start talking about how we need to "get over the emotions" and "just worship."
Here's why. We are human beings. We are created the way we are by God. Emotions are what we live off of. If we're happy, we're happy. If we're sad, we're sad. We can no remove emotion from a response. Yes, there are more emotions that go in to worship than "happy" and "somber," which seem to be what the writer has in mind when describing the typical worship song flow. However, part of my job as a worship leader is to lead my people into a genuine encounter with the Holy Spirit, and when that happens, there will be emotions that are accompanied with it.
Take Isaiah 6. Isaiah enters the Throne Room of God- the goal of every worshiper. His reaction is to be emotionally overwhelmed and fall face down, crying out that he is unclean and comes from an unclean people. Emotional response to entering the presence of God.
Look at David dancing in the streets upon the returning of the Arc of the Covenant. Emotional response to seeing the power of God move- an emotional response that gets him in trouble with his wife.
I won't go on. All I want to say is that when there is genuine encounter with God, there is emotional response. And finding and encountering God is something we should never tire of or try and change.
And, lastly, there is, in my opinion, a tie between excellence in presentation of worship and encountering God. It goes as far back as Cain and Abel. Whether that excellence is within the heart of the worshiper or in the outward expression, such as music or drama or preaching, that's not for me to say. But the fact is, God calls us to bring our best. And if I'm not bringing my best- if I'm not prayed up and practiced up before I get up to lead worship in any way, I'm hindering the Spirit of God. And that's something worship leaders need to think about very seriously, more than whether we should rethink a guitar solo on the bridge or not.
-Dave