A Challenge for Worship Leaders
I’ve got to speak up.
I’m not on staff at a church. I’m not a worship leader. I’m not a creative arts pastor. None of those things.
But I’ve got speak up and ask for a favor. Make a challenge. To those who lead, stand up, speak, sing, make announcements on Sunday mornings.
I’ve got a challenge for all my brothers and sisters who are leading millions of folks in congregations around the world……
Please make it ALL worship. Not just the singing.
When you say “Now it’s time to worship” or “Let’s stand and worship” or “Wasn’t worship great!” and you are only referring to the singing, I think we’ve missed something. Does that mean the rest of the Worship service we are part of is not really worship? Only the singing part?
It’s all worship. Monday through Friday. Saturday. Sunday. The singing. The giving. The teaching. The praying. The confession. The community. The Bible reading. The relationships. The small groups. It’s all worship.
I think we are all on the same page, we just have to change our vocabulary.
So this Sunday- how about we all say “Let’s CONTINUE in worship through singing.” And at the start of the service, when someone gets up and does announcements, let’s say “We are glad you are here to worship with us today through teaching, giving, singing, connecting, reading. It’s ALL Worship. Let’s celebrate together.”
It’s ALL Worship. Even the BAD singing….
Right on, Brad. Our worship leaders at Grace do a great job of saying things like “One of the ways we can connect with God through worship is through singing songs and hymns. We’re going to do that right now and invite you to join us.”
They’re very specific about not pigeonholing singing Chris Tomlin songs as the only way to worship God.
Great word Brad. I am the worship leader at my church and what you just talked about is something that drives me nuts. I’ve spent a lot of time telling my church that worship is not just music. Music is a tool we use to worship. Worship is so much more that the songs that we sing. It’s also the prayer time on Sunday mornings, the videos, and especially the Word of God being taught. But it’s also a lifestyle we live out every day, not just the hour or so we’re at church.
Thanks for posting this. It’s also great for worship leaders to see that others take notice of what we’re doing, and if we’re causing them to be distracted or confused, then we’ve completely missed the mark on what we’re called to do.
Brad,
You said it perfectly. I too have struggled with people that say Worship was great, and are just referring to the music. I use to be the Technical Director at my church, and every Sunday at least one person from each service would say that. I honestly wanted to stop what I was doing, and ask them to define what they meant by “Worship”.
I agree with you, the defining of that word isn’t a re-define, it’s a repeat define by the leadership of the church.
[...] – Friend Brad Lomenick just unleashed an attitude blast on his blog regarding “worship in the church” here. [...]
YES! PLEASE keep shouting this everywhere you go! My “official” job title for the past ten or so years has been “worship director,” which means that my primary duty is to play an instrument and sing on Sunday mornings. In spite of that, I try to repeat over and over that worship doesn’t end when we leave the building or when we stop singing. I wrote a study on worship in which I emphasized at length that the Biblical definition of worship, according to Romans 12, is a life lived in sacrifice.
Louie Giglio, in reference to this very issue, said “terminology becomes theology.” When we use the word “worship” to mean “singing,” then our theology about worship becomes limited to singing, instead of a whole life-encompassing reality.
About five years ago, at my previous job (“worship director” at another church), I started putting “Come, Now is the Time to Worship” at the end of the service, just to make the point that worship continues after we leave. One day, the associate pastor told me to stop doing that, and said that this was just me trying to push my agenda.
We need to keep repeating this over and over and over. Christians are called to live worship with everything they are, and we have a lot of un-learning to do!
I’m gonna disagree with you just a bit… I’m not convinced that the sermon time is worship (or at the least, that most pastors and attendees aren’t making it a worship time). It’s the “pretty passive listening time” for attendees, is it not? How is that worship?
And the pastor … is he making it worship? Leaving time for some type of active response to God? Helping us engage more than just our ears? I have yet to see that in a church.
Don’t get me wrong – teaching is important. But to me, it’s sorta like college. You attend class and listen to the professor in order to learn how to be a marketer. But you aren’t actually doing any marketing. Same with the sermon – you are learning how to be a better worshipper … but you’re not actually worshipping.
Two different things entirely.
Good points. I get tired of hearing songs that say “We are going to worship”. My question is “when?”
or when the song repeats a thousand times “we worship you”
Why not actually worship? That is, express what we know and appreciate about Christ. Can’t we explore the scriptures to know more about Him and then express what we learned in a prayer or song?
Of course, putting our lives in his control is the daily worship we owe him.