Last Sunday I had the experience of leading worship without being able to sing. I had lost my voice, and there was no way it was coming back without a miracle. In the midst of much prayer, I found peace knowing that God didn't need me to sing in order for worship to happen.
Of course, there was some anxiety and frustration, but by the time I got up there, I had surrendered whatever was going to happen to Father. I knew that if He wasn't going to restore my voice miraculously that He had something else in mind. Which soon became evident.
He did a work in my heart and taught me, yet again, that in my weakness He is strong. Even though I didn't have much to give, I gave what I had, and I know that it was a sweet smelling offering to Him.
Worship is about giving, not getting(1); about bowing down and surrendering. Worship is summed up in 1 John 4:19, "We love him because he first loved us." Derek Morphew talks about worship as our reaction to God's actions.(2) Our worship is praise and thanksgiving for what God has done in Jesus, is doing in the Kingdom, and will do in the eschaton.
A thought from N. T. Wright on corporate worship... Many contemporary worship songs talk about personal feelings. What happens when there are people in the congregation who have had a crappy week and maybe don't feel like life is wonderful? They'll probably disengage from the song because it is not relevant. But they might be able to engage in a song that spoke of how great God is regardless of their circumstance.
Wright also asks, "Are we putting words into peoples' mouths before they're ready for them?"(3)
We must remember that worship is a shared experience. When we plan times of corporate worship, we must ask, "how best can I plan this worship set so that we in community have a sense that we are doing this together?"(4) Brian Doerksen said that we sing songs because it's something we can do together.(5)
Our job as worship leaders is to create a space where people can engage with the Living God. Songs are "non-geographical" places of intersection between God and man, heaven and earth.(6) We respond to God's invitation to worship Him and then invite others to come along with us.
(1) Williams, Don. Language of Sacrifice.
(2) Morphew, Derek. Arrival of the King.
(3) Wright, N. T. God-Centered Songs.
(4) Wilt, Dan. The Nature of Worship, video.
(5) Wilt, Dan. The Nature of Worship, p.5-6.
(6) Wilt, Dan. The Nature of Worship, p.4.
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