10 Mistakes Worship Leaders Make - Mistake #1 - Assuming
Mistake #1 - Assuming that everyone has tasted worship.Imagine: you have a basket of apples and you are standing before an audience which had never seen, let alone tasted, one. How are you going to impart the essence of the apple to them?
Lecture about it? PowerPoint it? Eat it in front of them? How about passing them out and letting them taste and eat for themselves?
O, taste and see that the Lord is good! – Psalms 34:8
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but . . . worship cannot be taught. You cannot stand on a platform and bring people into worship anymore than you can stand on a stage and bring people into apples. It has to be tasted. And, once that happens, people are forever changed. They never forget it!
Throughout history, the nature of worship has changed. In oral culture, worship was a cosmic drama. There was no “worship leader.” It was a divine play and everyone was part of it. That drama actually changed time and space to sacred time and sacred place. The people were reenacting a cosmic event as though it were happening again right in their midst.
When the Reformation came along, making print became the dominant communication, content became the essence of worship. The primary issue was the lyrics – doctrine in music.
In broadcast, worship is about the person on stage. So, if that person is genuinely worshiping, those gathered in that place will catch a “taste” of real worship. If he or she is performing, that comes through. If the worship leader is living a lie, that tends to confuse or contaminate the process.
So, it is essential for worship leaders to, first, know what real worship is, and then, second, to give the people a taste of it. They should never just assume that everyone “gets it.” Worship leaders must always be prepared to explain (and disciple others in) real worship.
3 Comments:
Rex,
I'm looking forward to this series. I am a worship leader, one who takes worship very seriously and I appreciate being able to hear from a non-worship leader some of the aspects of where we might be going wrong.
I do agree that the actual act of worship cannot be taught. Of course, the nature of worship, the reason for worship, the Who, what, when, and where can all be taught because these are basically facts. But the actual engaging-in-worship process is not teachable; it is a Holy Spirit/worshiper issue.
So I think I understand your statements "I hate to be the one to break this to you, but . . . worship cannot be taught" and "Worship leaders must always be prepared to explain (and disciple others in) real worship" in context with one another, but could you explain these two seemingly contrasting ideas? That worship can't be taught but that worship leaders must always be prepared to explain?
I'm not trying to be argumentative at all by asking this question, so I hope you don't read that into this. I'm just curious to hear a little bit more from you on this.
The tension between the two ideas is intentional. We certainly can teach the theology of worship, the benefits of worship and examples of worship. None of these are worship.
Teachers have a similar dilemma. Their goal is to create a learner. They can teach the subject, model the benefits but until a child passes the threshold of discovery and connects that "aha" to learning - the teacher is passing along information.
The information can lead to a hunger, a curiosity but until the person experiences worship - then they have no context for the information.
When I played and taught tennis the best lesson was to play. As a coach I got to know my students tendencies. I could then create on court scenarios (i.e.deep to the backhand) so my student could become aware of a weakness an how to respond to it. Or I could set up a scenario and reveal a strength so they could take advantage of it. The context, however, was my familiarity, our relationship, bringing something to the surface (awareness) modeling and teaching a response and the practicing and refining.
Athletes receive far better discipleship for a crown that fades - I'm calling our worship leaders to a higher vision from what they may see as their current role and opportunity.
The challenge here is that many worship leaders are products of an academic or performance model - so this coaching/discipling model is foreign. They too need mentors in order to be good mentors.
Thank you for your heart.
Rex
Perhaps I should tell you that I think worship, at least for me, is directed from me to God: I turn my thoughts and actions to worshiping God; for me, it is an act of the will. Often, I actually encounter God in worship. He speaks to me, personally.
Still, it seems apparent to me that many people see worship as something they attend, or something they watch. So it seems to me that there needs to be some attention to education to help people learn that worship is something you do.
Perhaps worship cannot be taught, but things about it certainly can be.
Post a Comment
<< Home