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Worship vs. Entertainment
how would you know if the praise and worship of a music team becomes entertainment only and not really worshiping God. any advice of past experience?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Doswell on -
I have had people try to make me feel guilty 'cos I get such joy from worshipping and also feel excited about it. I think music in itself is a gift from God, but it's what we do with it that makes the difference. God gives us everything, but praise and worship is the one thing we can give to Him, and surely it's natural to feel pleasure in giving something, no matter how small, to the One we love and honour.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Hartwell on -
Heck, no. We want everyone to suffer through overly loud, poorly played renditions of hymns from a hymnal that has the print too small for reading, with meanings that are too inscrutable to be comprehended by the congregation. As an added bonus, we play them really slow, in difficult to reach keys. (Ab is one of our favorites.)
That way, when the congregation sings "Amen", they really mean it!
It also makes everyone so much happier to see the pastor come forward with his message. He's currently working on a 40-week series on sin, condemnation, hell, fire, and brimstone.
:-)
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Permalink Reply by Rick Cogbill on
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Hey, can I come to your church next week? We've been a little too joyful lately...
I pray that those coming into our services of worship (to take a term from the late Robert Webber) will be overwhelmed by our love and joy for our amazing God, so much so that they want to know Him that way as well. And not just our love, but our holy fear of His majesty, our humbleness at His grace, and our awe over His gift.
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Permalink Reply by sheryll on -
LOL.sure Ptr.Rick you are very welcome! our church called "house of prayer for all nations" nations are welcome.. my Ptr (He is my Father in law)often say that our church must be a(church without walls) hpoe you'll met him and his wife. thay are such a wonderful couple. anyway, our music team really need to be train in this area of ministry and i have also this passion to learn more about worship leading so i can lead the congregation in God's presence not in man's way but in His own way,in in scriptural way or i say in tabernacle way, because i believe that God's approval is very important,without His presence and approval during worship everything will be in vain.
thank you very much to your advice and encouragement in my past post it really helps.God bless you!
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Very good observation, Ed. We can get into guilt trips so easily, and I think the enemy does a great job of pushing us there.
I'd say when we start worrying more about what people think of our music than about how God feels about it, we're on shaky ground. I remember a time when I found myself wanting to get out to the foyer quickly after a service and just "hang around" and see if people would comment positively on my music that morning. I was seeking the glory of men. Not a great thing, so I make a point now of being a little slower to leave the stage after the last song. If people really have something they want to express, they'll come up and find me.
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Permalink Reply by daniel cash on -
Very true. I agree with what Rick said, too. Far too often we burden ourselves with guilt over being a "performer." Oh we can't do that, it could be construed as 'performance,' or we should be more somber because being energetic would be "performing."
I'm a fairly animated worship leader. I do riffs on my electric (which in all honesty may be too sexy for church - the guitar, I mean), I do what may be considered "dancing" but is probably closer to "twitching" when I sing (wow that makes it sound ridiculous). But all of these things are an extension of my worship and playing style. I don't sit at home with my guitar practicing my sweet moves in the mirror and I don't add things to impress people. I had to come to the decision a long time ago not check what I'm doing against that "is it performance" plumb line. That kind of guilt gets in the way of everyone's worship.
And Terry is right. Let's call a spade a spade. We are live performers. If we really wanted to be invisible, singing into a microphone while standing on a lighted, raised platform directly in front of everyone may not be the best way to achieve that. But those things are inherently bad.
Let's try some cathartic therapy: Instead of "platform" let's call it a "stage." Would that really change what goes on?
I say, check your motives, not your means.
That's nice and vague and non-specific, isn't it? ;)
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I talked to a drummer once who played so quiet you could hardly hear him. Basically brushes on cymbals for everything. I asked if he could ramp it up, especially on the upbeat songs. "No," he said. "I don't believe we're there to stand out."
Never thought I'd hear that from a drummer...
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Permalink Reply by Andre Paular on -
You could tell him that if he's playing softly, and all the other instruments are louder, then they ar standing out, in the wrong way, heh.
A drummer should play appropriately for the venue and size of the building (consider acoustics). That is so, the environment is best-suited for helping bring the congregation closer to God, and so worship doesn't sound like noise OR has no rhythm.
~andre
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Good point! Being appropriate for the moment is a good thing.
In talking with my team about removing distractions to worship, I've made the point in the past that playing poorly or timidly actually draws attention to yourself.
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Permalink Reply by daniel cash on
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Seriously, what planet is your drummer from? Though one of our drummers cam from another church and he acted like a dog that had been beaten when he played. We soon broke him of that. ;)
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Permalink Reply by Jason Watson on -
Rick, are you sure he's not some kind of android? I always thought playing quietly was against the "Drummer Code of Ethics". :o)
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Against the code? I thought it wasn't in the vocabulary? :)
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