If we entertain people, our church will grow. If we lead in worship, our church may shrink until it is composed of a group of people who want to worship. Then the church has a chance to grow based on the precedent of worship. The church that worships will have many visitors who never come back, and a few who cannot stay away.- David Hansen, The Art of Pastoring
The tough part about this is that we might not know who is being entertained and who is actually worshiping. Only God completely knows the hearts of our people and of our worship leaders. If our worship leaders are attempting to lead well with undistracting excellence then our people may or may not be entertained. God only knows and most likely there might be some grey area residing in our sinful hearts. Let's fight to see through cool music to the God who provides our salvation in Jesus.
(HT: Jared)
2 comments:
Z-
As a worship pastor I, too, resonate with this issue...thanks for the post. I have a thought on a peripheral issue brought up in your post.
What is "undistracting excellence?" Who decides whether or not it is "undistracting?" Moreover, who decides whether or not it's "excellent?" Is my goal really as a worship pastor to lead well with "undistracting excellence?" It's not that I disagree with you, because I've said the same stuff to the people I serve alongside.
You are an amazing musician and you surround yourself with people who can play above a certain standard of excellence. If you were to walk into my church and sit in the congregation during a worship service, I'm guessing you might be distracted by the technology and the musicianship. Objectively speaking, I am not in the same league with you as a musician. The music that comes from my worship teams will not touch your level of excellence. And that's fine. God has gifted his children differently and we’re not supposed to compare ourselves to each other and wish I had what you have. I want to be thankful for what Jesus has given me and serve him with heart, soul, mind and strength and do whatever it is that he has called me to do. I want to be faithful to the calling that God has placed on my life and serve with the gifts that he has given me.
I confess to you that I have struggled with “gift-envy.” I have often desired to play the guitar like him or to sing like him. “If I could sing and play like that guy then I’d really be effective in ministry.” That’s the heart of an unthankful child who’d kicked his Christmas present to the curb because it wasn’t as cool as his big sister’s.
I need to be thankful and I need to be faithful. God is certainly deserving of these two characteristics in my life.
The whole issue of “undistracting excellence” just kind of rubs me wrong because it seems to be such a personal deal. My hunch that you'd be distracted is based on the issue that "undistracted excellence" is different for different people. Herein lies the rub. It seems to me that leading our corporate worship experiences ought not to be measured by something as subjective as "undistracted excellence."
I don’t want to make excuses for lazy, shoddy music.
Blah, blah, blah
Thoughts?
Weav,
Great questions. I think I should said "as defined by the local church leadership". Yes. Excellence is certainly a relative term. But I think at least we have to attempt to define it (or at least work towards it) so that we don't default into laziness.
We certainly can't be all things to all people, thus some will think we are great, some won't, but at least if I am hired by a elder board or something I would hope that they had a view to excellence that was similar to mind.
I place this responsibility on church leadership. Let them define the lines and let us know when they are crossed in matter of preference.
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