True
Worship is biblical and spiritual...
John 4: 23-24 "Your worship must
engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the
Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before
him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him
must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in
adoration." (The Message Translation)
When you visit churches, you realise that most
churches, especially “big” ones, place a lot of emphasis on worship through
singing and that a common practice seemed to have developed to lead people to
worship. It consists first of all of
songs of thanksgiving, followed by praise and finally worship. It seems that
the extent of the success of this process is believed to be largely determined
by the way the worship team leads them. Is there still an expectation of a
gracious touch of Gods Spirit left, with so much emphasis on the technique of
musicians and the skill to engage emotionally with people?
It looks as if the “quality of the performance” of musicians
and the worship group became more important than anything else. To me the most worshipful experience still is
where you can only see the words to be sung on a screen, (the worship group and
band, or organist or pianist, not central, perhaps even behind the
congregation). I find it much easier to focus on God, than in those congregations where
the musician or the “band and singers” is the central focus point of the
service (taking up a central position liturgically
speaking, outdoing the Lord’s Table, the pulpit and the baptismal font in the “competition”
for attention and focus.)
Where the worship groups are less prominent, and
liturgical symbolism remains in place, you are not distracted by what the
members of the team are wearing, how they play the instruments and how they
express their own worship through their body language. Where you see less of
the performance of the worship leaders, it is easier to see more of Christ.
Our heart's desire must be to lead God’s people to truly
worship the Lord with the expectation that as we do this, as we engage in the
pursuit of authenticity in worship, we will also become more motivated to surrender
our lives to the Lord.
To worship while you engage your spirit in the pursuit
of truth (reinforcing biblical teaching through lyrics); to worship out of our
very being, our true selves, in adoration (focussing on God, rather on an
entertaining performance of the worship group), we should seek God’s presence,
also when we sing, through the Word and the Spirit, rather than through the emphasis
on style, fashionable music trends and performance.
Here are some guidelines:
Through the work of the Holy Spirit, express love for
the Father in Jesus Christ;
Pray to be delivered from the worldly distraction of
“how well we perform musically” as first priority;
Seek to be humble and sincere in desiring to come into
the presence of God and express that humility through the choice of music and
style;
Test each song in terms of its content with the question:
“Is the teaching biblical and Christ centred;
Do not be distracted from the main purpose to worship
God by zeal for my own preference of style, beat, sound, instruments or hymn
book;
Mainly try to understand how through practice, style
and choice of hymns and songs, we can remain authentic and inspire adoration,
and only as an afterthought ask how we can produce great music too.
Will you all ask the Lord with me to be delivered from
selfish reasons why we love singing in church – reasons of self satisfaction
and the need to be entertained, - and pray to serve him because we acknowledge
our need to be renewed by his sovereign grace, when we come to church!
And pray that God will bless those who lead with a desire
for his anointing and with true adoration of God in Jesus Christ our Saviour.
