Worship Circus
8 min read
5 God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the LORD amid the sounding of trumpets.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.
— Psalm 47:5-7
God loves it when we sing His praises. God loves it when we sing His praises loud!
I think that the way a congregation praises God through music may be one of the clearest indicators of a congregation’s spiritual health and maturity. Of course, this indicator has nothing to do with the size of the congregation or the praise team. This indicator has little to do with the skill of the worship leader, singers, or musicians on stage. This indicator has something to do with the style of music and the songs we sing, but not in the way we might think.
The congregation’s posture toward corporate praise as an indicator of spiritual health is related to the practice of dying to oneself.
One of the most practical letters in all the Bible related to the practice of dying to oneself is the letter to Philemon. Philemon, a wealthy church leader, had a slave named Onesimus, who stole some money from Philemon and ran away. While Paul was in prison in Rome, Onesimus found him, became saved, and then spent some time ministering to Paul’s daily needs.
But Paul knew that things were not right. Onesimus had to go back to Philemon and accept the consequences, come what may. And so Paul wrote this letter and gave it to Onesimus to deliver to Philemon!
In this letter, the message that Paul delivers—not just to Philemon, but to all believers in Jesus Christ—is that in a broken world, the only true solution to relational conflicts is for everyone involved to give up their advantage and their rights. Paul had to give up the benefit of having Onesimus around as a beloved friend and helper when he desperately needed one; Onesimus obviously had to give up his opportunity for freedom; Philemon had to give up his right as Onesimus’s legal owner to do as he saw fit.
Of course, Philemon’s decision was critical in outcome of this conflict.
What in the world does this have to do with congregational praise? When I was a praise leader, no one had really trained me in how to be a praise leader. And I had not been raised up in the church, so I really had no idea what I was doing. Not that I was terrible, but I tried to shape the artistic culture of the congregation based on the songs that I liked.
But not everyone liked the songs that I liked, especially since they were not songs that were typical in most English ministry contexts. I was more of a rock-n-roller.
Anyway, this difference of opinion about songs and worship style escalated until, eventually, it became a thing that divided the opinions of the congregation. And of course, the divisions became more personal in nature—those who supported me, those who did not, and those who were torn.
We (I) became terrible witnesses of our Lord Jesus. Worship wars have nothing to do with whether there are drums or electric guitars, whether we sing hymns or “mainstream” praise songs or rock-n-roll praise songs or gospel praise songs. Worship wars always erupt when people insist that they know better what are “good” or “bad” songs for the church.
As the worship leader, I should not have allowed myself to be tricked by the devil like that. I should have kept my hand on the pulse of the congregation in terms of their general taste in music so that there would be nothing distracting us from entering into the presence of the King together. And if I gave up my right to play the music that I wanted, perhaps there would have been better opportunity to train the hearts of the congregation to enjoy some rock-n-roll worship songs.
Or not. What matters is that WE “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.”
Father, You are worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. You are worthy of our LOUD praise. You are worthy of our soft praise. You are worthy of all praise. Forgive me, and forgive Your people for worshiping other things—songs, genres, styles, people. But bring us together as one to bless Your heart. In Jesus’s name. Amen.