I said there might be another. Apologises if I cover the same ground again. For the context see, Performance or Worship - Part 1. Again, where I say 'worship', please read sung worship. I know it is much more than that...I am just focussing on a specific here.
So today someone made a comment that made me think. She said 'Our worship should be fit for a King'. Now of course, this is absolutely true. We are worshipping a King so we should never be satisfied with worshipping that King in a mediocre fashion. However, I don't believe that anything we can offer will ever be fit for our King. He is too great, too holy, too incredible for us to ever be worthy of being in his presence, or even daring to think we can offer anything to him that is worthy. But, that does not mean we shouldn't offer Him the best that we have. God knows us, He knows that we are fallen and broken, and when humbly coming to Him and offering up ourselves, offering Him praise and honour and love, from an honest heart that is truly grateful for what He has done for us and truly in love with Him, I believe He gracefully accepts it.
However, sometimes when we are trying to engage in worship, things can go wrong. We can be in the middle of worshipping and the power point fails so nobody has the words. We can try to listen to a cd, and a broken lead means that the cd is distorted, we can prepare and prepare to try to create an atmosphere which enables people to tune into God, but 'things' can so easily spoil that. I have mixed feelings about when this happens. To be honest, there have been times where I have felt that when things go wrong like that, it has actually heightened my experience of worship - why - because it breaks the routine it is easy to fall into of singing without thinking, of tuning out when someone is praying or reading the Bible or giving a sermon - (not that I ever would Richard and Ann!) I think sometimes when everything goes as planned, it is easy to lose something of the authenticity of our worship.
To be honest, the last couple of weeks, things have gone wrong with the technology we use in worship, and there are times when this has frustrated me, where I have wanted to fully engage with God, and have been hindered from doing so by 'stuff'. But - there has been something about the last two weeks in our church that I have really loved. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there has been a bit of a buzz. Am I the only one? I wonder if sometimes sharing in the annoying little things that happen together, being able to laugh about them, and being able to get past them actually brings us closer together, and reminds us of our position before God. We aren't shining stars able to give God the performance of a lifetime, we are human beings who get stuff wrong, make mistakes, sing out of tune, and get our words muddled up. But that is how God accepts us and loves us. I completely believe we should always try to offer him our best, but we should also be humble enough to recognise that when stuff goes wrong, we can still recognise God for who he is and tell Him that.
If the devil has any part in the little frustrating things that have been happening in our church during worship, then I pray Him out, but I also pray that He will be humiliated by our willingness to worship God humbly and joyfully even when things are going wrong.
I would like to clarify that I don't believe that mediocre worship is something we should be trying to attain. We should always give God our best - but when our best efforts are thwarted by things out of our control, I think we should try to use them to remember who we are, and who God is, and why we are there in the first place.
I so desperately want our church to be a vibrant place, filled with the Spirit, evangelising and seeing people accepting Jesus as their Saviour. I want to see people finding their place in ministry at this church, discovering gifts and using them to build God's kingdom. I so want to see people so filled with the spirit that they are moved to worship God extravegantly. I want people in church to feel that they belong and that there is a community of people who love them. I want people to be constantly journeying into deeper relationship with God, finding out more about Him, and more about how to live by His word in this world, and through that becomming ever closer and ever more in love with Him. I want to see the children praising God, and saying their prayers, I want to see the youth questionning what it means to be a Christian in this world, and discovering that their faith can be real and active and can make a difference. And I want to see them discovering that God can offer them so much more than this world can. Mostly, I want to see the church praying, crying out to God to let all of the above things be seen in the Salvation Army at Romford. I want to see His people on their knees accepting that we can do nothing without the power of prayer and the fire of the Holy Spirit. I want to see us crying out for that Spirit to come in power in His Church.
Sometimes it seems like we are a far cry from being that kind of church, and yet I believe there is potential. I think there might be something in learning humility that can show us that whilst our worship will never be perfect, it can still be God honouring. I don't want these little annoyances to get in the way of us recognising and praising God for who He is. I just wish I could stop getting distracted by them. I wonder if this is about choice. Do you think we can choose to let them get in the way - or not to?
So today someone made a comment that made me think. She said 'Our worship should be fit for a King'. Now of course, this is absolutely true. We are worshipping a King so we should never be satisfied with worshipping that King in a mediocre fashion. However, I don't believe that anything we can offer will ever be fit for our King. He is too great, too holy, too incredible for us to ever be worthy of being in his presence, or even daring to think we can offer anything to him that is worthy. But, that does not mean we shouldn't offer Him the best that we have. God knows us, He knows that we are fallen and broken, and when humbly coming to Him and offering up ourselves, offering Him praise and honour and love, from an honest heart that is truly grateful for what He has done for us and truly in love with Him, I believe He gracefully accepts it.
However, sometimes when we are trying to engage in worship, things can go wrong. We can be in the middle of worshipping and the power point fails so nobody has the words. We can try to listen to a cd, and a broken lead means that the cd is distorted, we can prepare and prepare to try to create an atmosphere which enables people to tune into God, but 'things' can so easily spoil that. I have mixed feelings about when this happens. To be honest, there have been times where I have felt that when things go wrong like that, it has actually heightened my experience of worship - why - because it breaks the routine it is easy to fall into of singing without thinking, of tuning out when someone is praying or reading the Bible or giving a sermon - (not that I ever would Richard and Ann!) I think sometimes when everything goes as planned, it is easy to lose something of the authenticity of our worship.
To be honest, the last couple of weeks, things have gone wrong with the technology we use in worship, and there are times when this has frustrated me, where I have wanted to fully engage with God, and have been hindered from doing so by 'stuff'. But - there has been something about the last two weeks in our church that I have really loved. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there has been a bit of a buzz. Am I the only one? I wonder if sometimes sharing in the annoying little things that happen together, being able to laugh about them, and being able to get past them actually brings us closer together, and reminds us of our position before God. We aren't shining stars able to give God the performance of a lifetime, we are human beings who get stuff wrong, make mistakes, sing out of tune, and get our words muddled up. But that is how God accepts us and loves us. I completely believe we should always try to offer him our best, but we should also be humble enough to recognise that when stuff goes wrong, we can still recognise God for who he is and tell Him that.
If the devil has any part in the little frustrating things that have been happening in our church during worship, then I pray Him out, but I also pray that He will be humiliated by our willingness to worship God humbly and joyfully even when things are going wrong.
I would like to clarify that I don't believe that mediocre worship is something we should be trying to attain. We should always give God our best - but when our best efforts are thwarted by things out of our control, I think we should try to use them to remember who we are, and who God is, and why we are there in the first place.
I so desperately want our church to be a vibrant place, filled with the Spirit, evangelising and seeing people accepting Jesus as their Saviour. I want to see people finding their place in ministry at this church, discovering gifts and using them to build God's kingdom. I so want to see people so filled with the spirit that they are moved to worship God extravegantly. I want people in church to feel that they belong and that there is a community of people who love them. I want people to be constantly journeying into deeper relationship with God, finding out more about Him, and more about how to live by His word in this world, and through that becomming ever closer and ever more in love with Him. I want to see the children praising God, and saying their prayers, I want to see the youth questionning what it means to be a Christian in this world, and discovering that their faith can be real and active and can make a difference. And I want to see them discovering that God can offer them so much more than this world can. Mostly, I want to see the church praying, crying out to God to let all of the above things be seen in the Salvation Army at Romford. I want to see His people on their knees accepting that we can do nothing without the power of prayer and the fire of the Holy Spirit. I want to see us crying out for that Spirit to come in power in His Church.
Sometimes it seems like we are a far cry from being that kind of church, and yet I believe there is potential. I think there might be something in learning humility that can show us that whilst our worship will never be perfect, it can still be God honouring. I don't want these little annoyances to get in the way of us recognising and praising God for who He is. I just wish I could stop getting distracted by them. I wonder if this is about choice. Do you think we can choose to let them get in the way - or not to?
8 comments:
I worship lead at our small community church and struggle to not feel irritated when my perfectly planned worship time doesn't pan out the way I want. I think the important this is to remember to pray beforehand. Commit it to the Lord. He will take care of the details. I prayed last week that the congregation would get something out of my leading, that they wouldn't "just sing" but really connect. I was mid way through one of my favourite songs (Heart of Worship) and had to stop using the microphone because it was moving me to tears. I remember thinking to myself "ok Lord, I know I said I wanted people to not just sing but to feel, but I didn't mean me!" I think thats something I need to work on as a worship leader. I have to remember to worship myself. Not just lead.
I'm thinking of a ruling that says all submissions for PowerPoint etc are with me by Saturday night, then the sort of thing we've seen in the last couple of weeks would have less chance of happening.
It really does confuse things when people turn up on the day and say "Here, I've done this..."
It's not all about performance - heart and attitude are so much more important - but there are some things which are within our control, and everything we can do to help people connect with God is worth doing.
On the flip side I think there's something really positive in the fact that little niggles don't get in the way of our congregation's worship. That's how I think it was yesterday.
Hmm, that sounds like a good idea. Yeah I think that yesterday's power point was because of the switching between presentations, (although I know so little about computers that I can't really know!), so if it had been put together earlier it probably could have been avoided.
I also think that was how it was yesterday. I really loved being there and really felt like I had been part of something lovely and truly worshipful.
...and words that rhyme ...or don't are also helpful in their own little way!!! Hope you've pulled yourself together now Kirsty!
Ha ha! That was so funny! It was one of those moments where you manage to stop yourself laughing, and then you remember what you were laughing at and it sets you off again!
But see what I mean - Sunday was great. It was just so enjoyable. I feel like I was able to worship as well.
On the flip, flip side, some people will have a niggle about anything - if it's not the powerpoint, it'll be a something else and I have to say that unfortunately, at the moment, I am one of those people - probably I'm just tired :)
your blog made me chuckle coz on sunday the songsters sang twice @ sutton & after caroline was like yes we had the wrong notes in that first song & God doesn't care so we dont. but that second song was very nearly perfect & god loves that 2!
we tend to read the bible reading all together as well & we think the comp was hungry coz either the first line or the last of each slide kept disappearing!
how funny how people react to things going 'wrong' mayeb it's not going wrong but God wants us to stop getting caught up in technolgy. like the song 'when the music fades'
dunno y im waffling on really just thought it was funny that all churches are the same in their differnt ways!
Adam says:
Kirsty
Firstly, I really think that your desire/passion for considering deeper issues like this is a real gift and contribution to our fellowship.
On the subject you raise I would share my own view. I think sometimes you have to separate the act of worship as a 'worshipper' and the responsibility of being a worship leader in the variety of senses of that.
I think that as a worhipper God will honour your worship in whatever form or 'standard' that is. As a worship leader or contributor there is a responsibility to create an atmosphere as conducive to worship as possible. That will be different for different people, hence the regular debates about style, however I think most people will feel more relaxed in worship if quality is high. Personally I find nothing more challenging to personal worship than feedback from an amp, a powerpoint that doesn't work or someone playing the wrong part in a hymn tune and not realising until the last verse.
Sometimes being a worship leader (in my case as a bandmaster) it can be a hinderance to personal worhip as the desire to ensure things are done properly means that corporate worship can be put before personal worship. I guess that is part of the responsibility of taking that kind of role.
Anyway enough of my thoughts....
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