What does worship look like?
A few years ago I went to a concert at the Dodge theater in downtown Phoenix. Went with a friend of mine. Great concert. Loud like you wouldn’t believe, but enjoyed the time. The concert was packed. People everywhere.
There were songs we were all up on our feet and others when we just sat and listened. In the middle of one of the quieter songs I looked down the row we were sitting in and saw a woman standing with her head lifted, eyes closed and arms outstretched. I remember thinking that what she was doing was the very picture of what an authentic worshiper should look like. Solely focused, unaffected by the opinions of the others around her.
This all sounds like a great example of worship… right? Well, we were not at a worship concert. In fact we weren’t even at a christian concert. It was just a creative rock concert with some amazing musicians. How could it have been worship? Worship of what?
So how does a person become so affected by something that they almost involuntarily stand, close their eyes, and raise their arms? In a church setting we would call it worship… but in a secular setting we would just call it an emotional response or a feeling.
Here is the point. The picture that each of us have for worship is usually the measure we use to determine if leading worship was effective. If we believe that someone standing, closing their eyes, and raising their hands is the picture of what authentic and real worship is, then we evaluate based on that.
My experience at the concert changed my perspective of what worship looks like. For me, it challenged my assumptions about what I saw in the congregation Sunday morning. It helped me realize that sometimes the responses we see in people are real and authentic, but other times people are moved by the emotions the music creates in them. One is worship and one is just a feeling.
Our job as leaders should be to create environments of authenticity and worship so that people can experience God in a real way. It can be easy to build services and gatherings around the intended emotional impact. When we do this we are building something that strives to fulfill the picture of worship we have. Challenge yourself this week to change the picture of worship you have had. Challenge yourself to see past the creative package and desired response and realize that God wants you to trust him with how people respond.
While the worship leader/ministry is responsible for helping people enter into the presence of God, we also need to remember that worshiping is a choice the individual has to make, in order for their worship and corporate worship to be authentic. However creative we can get in crafting the right environment for worship, it will still be up to the individual to make that choice to worship the Lord at that moment. In fact, the choices that each of us has to make is that we choose to be ready to worship as an individual, as a body of believers, especially when we gather.
When we worship we are responding to a revelation of who God is and what He has done. This manifests in emotions. We are excited for what God has done, we are happy, or we are sad and hurt because life is not going well and a lament helps us express that pain to God. And lyrics aren’t always necessary for this either. Instrumental music can be just as effective of a tool for worship as songs with lyrics. Being moved emotionally does not mean we are not worshipping. worship requires emotional response.
However, what we are worshiping is a matter of the heart. Bono of U2 said, “music is worship. Whether it’s worship of women or their designer, the world or its destroyer, whether it comes from that ancient place we call soul or simply the spinal cortex, whether the prayers are on fire with a dumb rage or dove-like desire, the smoke goes upwards, to God or something you replace God with — usually yourself.”
obviously, we want people to be worshiping God…not the many other things we tend to worship. But we can’t make people worship God and it is arrogant to assume we can. All we can do is teach, choose what we sing properly, be an example of what it is to worship God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and provide a way for others to express their worship.