What is it that really constitutes a great worship experience?
To me, the word “experience” doesn’t do justice to our gatherings.
When I think of experience, I think of my family’s recent trip to Disney World. Man, that was an experience. It was an experience lugging two toddlers around the enchanted streets. It was an experience buying a $10 turkey leg. It was quite the experience seeing the castle lit up at night with fireworks all around. It was memorable. It was fun. Was it life changing? Hardly.
I’ll remember Disney. It was a unique family memory. But nothing about that experience will prepare me to live for Jesus and speak of Jesus and magnify Jesus in a dark world.
And that is what I feel our worship “experiences” are truly for. We gather not to have a memorable experience. We gather to be changed.
Changed…by the living Word of God.
Changed…to be sent out and live for Jesus in our communities.
Changed…by giving praise to the One who is worthy of all adoration.
Worship Is Transformational
It’s more than an experience.
We don’t gather for information but transformation.
It’s not enough to be entertained by a band. It’s not enough to be inspired by a talented worship leader. It’s not enough to sing your favorite songs.
It’s not enough for worship services to be a form of escapism from reality. If anything, they should prepare us to love Jesus in the midst of life’s realities.
Think about this: Christ died…
“So that he might sanctify her [the church] having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:26-27).
Worship leader, as you lead think about this verse. Labor to present your church to Christ, not to steal their affections for yourself. Labor to root their faith in more than a powerful, energizing experience.
We all know what happens when our faith is merely experiential, celebrity driven, or a chasing of the latest fad: faith falls away when life is shaken. I have numerous friends who’s fire once burned bright for the glory of God. I remember the conversations about reaching the nations, giving it all, going for broke. But many of those people are no longer following Jesus. It was an experiential faith – faith based on experiences – a feeling.
Our worship, our preaching, our services need to go deeper.
We need to view our worship planning through the lens of transformation.
The Problem with “Experiences”
The problem with the “experience” focus is that we focus on inspiring people with our excellence. We have a desire to “wow” people with our talent and production. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, except that’s not enough to categorize something as “church”.
Does our production prepare people to truly live for Jesus?
If our worship services aren’t preparing people for the storms of life, what are they doing?
If they aren’t helping to anchor people to the Rock of Ages, what are they doing?
I understand the semantics of this. Most of us when we say “experience” refer to people having a life changing encounter with the Holy Spirit that will influence how they live for Jesus on Monday morning. I get that. But we can often stray far away from our ideals.
I simply want to offer a challenge in all our worship service planning.
Worship leaders, how can you lead people to Jesus and not just to an awe of your talents?
Preachers, how can you produce a congregation of people who learn how to feed themselves with God’s Word Monday thru Saturday?
I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.
Also, we’ve released a new online course for keys players called Learn Worship Keys. For a sampling of 3 free videos, sign up here:
[ois skin=”Learn Worship Keys”]
Two excellent questions David. Thank you.
“Worship leaders, how can you lead people to Jesus and not just to an awe of your talents?
Preachers, how can you produce a congregation of people who learn how to feed themselves with God’s Word Monday thru Saturday?”
For answers of the childlike variety, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMAixgo_zJ4
Everybody is trying to tell Ernie–“You gotta put down the ducky–You gotta leave the duck alone to play the saxophone.”
What are the constants? Musicians who stand front and center, all decked out for Jesus, ready to rock the audience’s souls into submission to God. (while they themselves are entrenched in self-promotion and sales) They have to put down that ducky if they want what their heart tells them is true.
Preachers must put down our ducky that presupposes we can produce anything.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
Admitting powerlessness must translate into something more than effervescent hyper-activity designed to give people an experience. When the band remains front and center calling themselves “Worship Leaders”, indeed the conflict heightens. Then we feel obligated to “fix” the problem of person-ego-centered leadership.
Somewhere in the late 60’s the church decided that Pop Culture would be good for the church to bring inside and coddle. The same people were sure that lead in paint and gasoline wasn’t going to hurt anyone. This love affair has not weakened, in fact, it has blossomed into what we see today. Too many of us “Christian performers” refuse to trade our ducky in for peace and a willingness to step out of God’s “lime light”. (Limelight –calcium heated by oxyhydrogen– illuminating solo performers in the same as our follow-spots today.)
The rubber ducky is not necessarily the band, choir or organ, or sermon for that matter. It is where we place them in concert fashion. (look at me and be impressed-front-center) Given we all have narcissism to varied degrees, we set each musician/preacher up for failure, no matter what experience they froth up on their own. Such cheap substitutes are what we offer our congregants and we wonder why the musicians, preacher and “audience” goes home more like the world than Christ.
Preachers are the priests who watch the hijacking of worship in this fashion each week and we say nothing. We allow people to flit about pretending that they can lead worship. Because we have our own issues with hero-worship? Worship shall not be led by any man. Our people, however, are starved for such leadership.
I am ready for the Sunday Morning crowd to abandon their pitiful status as “Audience” and become once again the Congregation. They need real, biblical leadership to get it done. Gotta put down the ducky boys and girls.
Thanks David. I’ve been thinking about the formational aspects of prayer and worship and how we are so shaped by the content of our worship and prayers. In the tradition I’ve grown up in and am now a worship pastor in, most of our prayers and worship place a high value on the spontaneous and on what is new. Transformation has been more of a miraculous “in the moment” kind of idea. And I believe the Holy Spirit can and does speak and breathe life into these things. But transformation is about the renewal of our minds as we read in Romans 12 – and that is a process that takes time.
I’ve been challenged in my own prayer life – what kind of shape am I going to be made into if I’m only praying what comes into my mind? I’m only left with what I formulate myself. So I’ve begun practicing praying set prayers – prayers that have been written and prayed for centuries by the church, prayers written in the scripture, prayers that I believe will shape me in a greater way than simply relying on my own spontaneous prayers. I still take time during the set prayers to pray spontaneously, bringing needs to God, just being still with him. However, I don’t just rely on the spontaneous because I know it’s lacking.
And in our gathered worship formation, I wonder how we may be experiencing the same lack in how well we are being shaped. Perhaps we should think more about transformation over the long haul, rather than transformation “in the moment” and in the spontaneous, and with the ever steady diet of new worship songs. Perhaps there are some ways we can plan to shape ourselves through worship that involve more tried and true prayers, songs, creeds, meditations that have been used over the centuries by the Church. Because typically we mostly rely on the words of the latest songs we sing to shape us. And they do, but maybe not well enough.
Thanks for your post
Wow, Chad, this is really profound. Thanks for that. I’ve never heard anyone critique their own spontaneous worship like that which is super refreshing. It’s true – approaching God from a completely spontaneous perspective is like working on your marriage based solely on how you feel. Not reading any books, going to any retreats, or learning from what others have done. I think there needs to be a balance. The more we’re formed by the Word and by the creeds and prayers of the past, the better our spontaneous worship will be.