Monday, January 23, 2006

Worship disconnect

I was recently in a prominent church in the midwest and observed something that troubled me very deeply. The worship leader was leading the congregation in the song "Blessed Be The Name" by Matt Redman. The context of the song is Job and the song talks all about suffering. When all was stripped away from Job he was still able to say, "Blessed Be The Name of the Lord". Now in light of the fact that all of Job's family was killed, except for his wife and he lost all his material possessions as well, it goes with out saying that this song is not a "happy" song. The problem was that the worship leader was leading the song with a huge smile and his face and he was exhorting us to dance and clap like it was a high school pep rally. Granted it is a an upbeat song, but for sure it is not chipper in light of the lyrics. There seemed to a be vast disconnect between the content of the song and the way in which it was presented. It was a great reminder for me as a worship leader (cause I have done this in the past I'm sure) to seek to be true to the tone and meaning of the song in its presentation. The flip side would be presenting a song about the joy of the Lord and we lead it stone faced and seemingly bored.

I think the same goes for preachers. If we are going to give our people a "red faced rebuke" about how they don't give enough to missions or whatever, then we must ask if that was also the authors intent in the text from which we are preaching. If the text is from Paul, then does Paul seek to be angry and rebuking in the message that he penned? If not, then I don't think we should either in our presentation as preachers. For example, if we are preaching from Galatians 1 then it would be appropriate to be stern and rebuking in our tone as preachers, but if we are preaching from Phillipians, then probably not in light of the context of his message there. Make sense? Would love your thoughts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya - and Matt Redman is suffering from that song all the way to the bank! :-)

Melissa said...

I think this posting holds some tough love for all believers. We often have to check our true intentions when we praise and worship. If we sing a praise song or sit in prayer, are our words true? I think it's always important to find a moment within our worship or prayer to ask ourselves, why am I saying these words? and is God at the center of my thoughts during this time? If we can ask ourselves those questions, it is one step closer to genuine moments with God.

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