Rethinking what we believe about worship
Worship vs Performance – Tips to keeping the right perspective
Posted by Jason Lehman in Observations on 04 11th, 2009 | 4 responses
I often wonder how worship leaders draw the line between what is worship and what is a performance. It can be a difficult distinction to make. Because worship is based on a personal response it is almost impossible for people to remain purely objective when evaluating the difference. Over the years I have come up with a list that I use to keep myself in check.
- every time I stand on a stage and people do not see God I perform
- every time I make it about excellence over humility I perform
- every time I make it about the set, planning or package I perform
- every time I make it about anything other than God I perform
- every time I question the quality of my presentation I perform
- every time I rely on my skills I perform
Performing is always about pleasing someone (God, staff, people, ourselves)
Worship always happens within a spirit of humility. The result is not a feeling. It is an attitude of thankfulness and trust.
Good points. Challenging though because there is such a fine line for the worship artist. Can leading worship and performing for God exist together somehow?
I believe that both can exist together. Obviously as a singer, guitar player, drummer, etc. you want to “perform” at your best so others can get the most out of your worship service. Not much is more distracting to a congregation than poorly performed music. That being said, if you find yourself playing for the applause of people toward you then you are performing for selfish reasons. You should always perform so that people want to worship God, not you. Prayers between songs or during a quiet instrumental can accomplish this quite well.
It’s a cool checklist. I have always been taught that worship is more about the state of your heart than your singing / playing / speaking ability, and so being the “lead worshipper” requires you to focus your heart on God before you can ever expect the other worshippers in the room to do the same. So every time, a visible heart of worship trumps a technically excellent performance.
The line I draw is distraction / disruption / chaos. As soon as your “performance” becomes a distraction for others, whether because of your amazing guitar licks leave everyone gaping at your awesomeness or because you’re hideously out of time with everyone else, as soon as people are being drawn away from fixing their eyes on God for whatever reason, that’s the point where you need to consider putting some concentration into your performance.
It’s also important to realise that there’s nothing wrong with concentrating on the technical aspects for a time – anything we do in order to glorify God is still an act of worship, and some people find it very difficult to play and be consciously worshipping God at the same time. But always be looking to grow out of that.
I think our definition of “performance” needs work. Pop-culture has taught us that performance is all about the glorification of the performer.
As a music performance major in my undergrad, I was taught that GOOD performance is never about the performer, but rather the communication of the piece. In worship it goes further and becomes about the communication of God’s character and actions…showing us who He is. So it becomes not about the music itself, but about what the music points to.
Ignoring characteristics of GOOD performance is dangerous in worship. Often times we fear that expression is distracting. But it’s a lack of expression that is generally more distracting. Expression helps us get out of the way and let the Spirit work. At least non-forced expression does…We can’t force it, we just have to connect and let the Spirit work.