For those of us who have been leading worship for quite a while, it’s healthy to look back and see what we are leaving in our wake.
Because there’s a generation behind us that is observing, learning, and picking up what we’re putting down.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been immersed in many viewpoints when it comes to corporate worship:
- It’s all about flow.
- It’s about structure.
- It’s about excellence.
- It’s about the Spirit.
- It’s about good songs.
- It’s about spontaneous songs.
- It’s not about songs.
- It’s about trendy.
- It’s about hymns.
At one point we were all concerned if clicks and loops would hinder the moving of the Spirit.
I don’t think we’re in danger of not using enough click tracks and loops. The danger now is an over-dependence on them. It’s too easy for us to pull off songs with tight execution and call it done.
And that concerns me. It worries me what values, discipline, and culture we are passing down to the next generation of worship leaders.
The Ease of Excellence
To be honest, excellence has become easier. We can hide behind our clicks, loops, and well crafted songs and call it done.
We can “pull off” Sunday after Sunday with the same 4 song template. It’s comfortable.
But we don’t know the voice of the Holy Spirit anymore. We’ve forgotten how to go deep. We’ve lost our ability to linger. We have a generation of worship leaders who don’t know how to war in the Spirit. We We don’t know how to use songs as weapons against the enemy. We’ve lost our ability to encounter.
We’re satisfied with a strong performance when we should be longing for a touch of Heaven.
What do we need in this next generation of worship leaders? What do our churches need? Leaders who know God. They know his voice. They aren’t bored with going deep. They aren’t just satisfied with well-crafted, Sunday songs.
We need to get back to the Worship Leader as a spiritual leader.
Spiritual Leadership
I love how J. Oswald Sanders says it in his book Spiritual Leadership:
There is no such thing as a self-made spiritual leader. A true leader influences others spiritually only because the Spirit works in and through him to a greater degree than in those he leads.”
Are you pursuing this level of intensity?
Of course, encountering God doesn’t need to be relegated to the unplanned and spontaneous, the wild and charismatic. God moves in the liturgical plodding, the quiet reflection.
But this isn’t about style. This isn’t about leading more like Bethel or leaning into more Anglican tradition. It’s not about a more intense band or stripping it back. It’s about leading from a deep knowledge of God. It’s leaning into relationship with Jesus and leading out of that flame.
Spiritual leadership.
If you’re a young leader, pursue this. If you’re developing others – raising up the next generation – teach them this:
- Study God’s Word again.
- Listen and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.
- Learn how to lead an engaging prayer meeting.
- Go deep with God.
Of course, developing your skills is helpful. Playing to a click, expanding your pedal board, and learning best practices is important.
But we can’t stop there. We need to pass on a desperation for God – a depth of discipleship.
Are you with me?
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
The epitaph of the Boomer generation will be that too many of Christ’s followers knew and relied on Roberts Rules of Order more than they did the Scriptures. The end result was weakness of discipleship and spiritual infancy handed down to the generations that now “want to be spiritual but not religious”. https://openhandspublications.com/2018/07/10/declining-main-line-churches-find-a-new-savior/
The epitaph of our 20 to 40 crowd will read, “Here lies flash in the pan”. The biblical illiteracy of the Boomers is nothing compared to this group who feel good but think poorly. If the Boomers relied on worldly knowledge and organized ritualistic chatter, this generation will avoid the scriptures and sound doctrine with even greater fervor because doing so will mean holding on to all the feel-good toys, trinkets, praise me bands, phony titles, (worship pastor–worship leader) and pretentious, ego-driven showmanship—all presented as real worship. Just read nearly any blog they publish and discover the haunting absence of the bible and the overt presence of sentimental, often desperate, discussions around pedal boards, set-lists and manipulative techniques to get the audience as hyped up and excited about their performance (I mean worshipping Jesus) as the musicians.
As long as we (in Evangelicalism) insist on having a stage and stage performances
We will have a fearless, but self-defeating platform for all things benign. What we call “worship” will defeat the very instinct it pretends to gratify.
Warren Wiersbe was the man who prophetically reminded us:
“What will it take to motivate us to worship God? What will have to happen before we dismantle our shabby religious sideshows and build once again an altar to the Lord? The greatest judgement God could pass on the churches today would be to take His hands off and let them go right on doing what they are doing. We have been living on substitutes for so long that if a revival worship did come, many of God’s people would see it as a threat to the Gospel! (CCM money market)
I’m in agreement here, no matter what anybody says or thinks things like Hillsong and Bethel are performance driven. Do we think God is impressed? “Wow I’d better stop keeping all creation going just to check out this new album by “insert name” and watch the amazing light show”. Don’t think so. The focus of our worship has shifted. Remember the days of Vineyard Touching The Father’s Heart? It would say the worship leaders name in small letters on the back sleeve somewhere, nobody knew what they looked like, what gear they used etc. Now? well you know what I’m saying. Don’t get me wrong, In amongst all the filler one phrase proclamation songs there are some gems but how many will we be singing in a couple of years time?
I found an old Kevin Prosch conference talk on evangelistic worship on you tube and I urge anybody who has anything to do with worship ministry to listen to it, it may be 20 odd years old but it’s more relevant today than ever, spirit of performance anyone?