Thursday, December 07, 2006

Getting Your Worship Buzz On

My brother Thad has posted an interesting question about worship that has generated some comments from his regular readers. I posted a response, but couldn't leave it alone so to speak. (By the way, this is the sign of a good post in my opinion) So as I was reading the Disciple-Making Church by Bill Hull, I came across this quote:

"With the recent surge in church planting has come an intense interest in creating environment. The lack of a praise environment, not a lack of technical know-how, most hinders the contemporary church. Avante-garde church planters, those on the cutting edge, have begun to ...use drama, special effects, and whatever can be found that will hold the congreagtion's interest. ... However, I do not believe the worship environment they seek can be found through such techniques. These merely simulate a real, Spirit-engendered environment, while their artificial nature highlights the talent and abilities of man. A spiritual buzz based on highly gifted person's presentation will require a long string of buzzes. That, of course, leads to a desensitizing that eventually becomes boredom." pp. 71-72

I believe worship that is not anthropocentric (man-centered) but is theocentric (God-centered) is built on genuine enthusiasm. Hull writes rightly
"Enthusiasm [in the early church] made ministry a natural overflow of internal experience." p. 71.
That is, genuine worship comes from the inside out, not the other way around.

On this basis, how was your worship this weekend? Did it flow from a growing, developing relationship with God or did it wait for the gifted worship team to give you an infusion of their synthetic sugar-coated worship narcotic? Did you worship with the worship leader or watch him worship and draw a vicarious, second-hand drag off of his performance?

Tough questions. But they must be answered. It's time to detox and sober up on this topic.

Striving to be a lead worshipper not a worship leader,
Mike

2 comments:

Garry Weaver said...

Great post, Bro.! I think sometimes people would rather "draw a second hand drag" off someone elses performance because true worship brings us into the very presence of God. For those who are living shallow and self-centered lives; that can be at least uncomfortable if not down right terrifying.

Sue Densmore said...

Hi, Mike -

Our worship was great this weekend. I started with an exhortation to consider the story of salvation, the story of God's intervention in human history, through the words to the songs this weekend. It was fun, and people engaged.

"Rescue" was written by Jared Anderson, and was included in Worship Leader Magazine's "Song Discovery. This comes out about every eight weeks or so with a sampling of what's going on. I usually find at least two usable congregational stuff that fits with our style. The styles included are actually pretty diverse.

Anyhow, if you go to the worship leader magazine web site (the URL for which escapes me at the moment) you should be able to get started finding it. Another place to try is www.sheetmusicdirect.com. They seem to have a lot of stuff to choose from.

See you!
Sue