Are your songs loud? “Dynamic.” Bright? Contemplative perhaps? Reverent? Energetic?
In some churches, if you get the balance wrong, people are getting out of their chairs and walking out the back door.
Why?
Because it’s too easy for many of us who have grown up saturated in the common expressions of worshiping God to quickly focus on whether an expression or style of worship is serving our “needs.”
Those words above are all descriptions of how a Sunday morning worship service might be like. They’re usually good adjectives too. But are they necessary?
I’ve had the privilege of being a musical worship leader for the last 15 years and I’ve agonized many a time about how a worship service should go. What’s the right balance between reverence and energy? Between dynamic and peaceful? How loud is too loud? Are we missing great new songs from obscure Christian song writers? Are we incorporating enough of the staid hymn expressions?
It’s hard worthwhile work to be sure, but it doesn’t have to be as complicated as most of us worship leaders make it…
Could it be like this:
Imagine abruptly standing up in church this Sunday and announcing, “I would like to share a song!” You would then walk to the front and sing a song of your own creation—straight from your heart.
That’s a true description of how the new believers in the Kuman church in Papua New Guinea are incorporating music into their times of worship.
And to think that we make a big deal about whether the drums are too loud, or whether or not we should have stage lights on during a song. Our brothers and sisters in Christ across the globe know what is most important and it has nothing to do with the music.