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Christian Concert or Worship?

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It was our first time visiting this particular fellowship.  We had just taken our seats in a very quiet room.  The musicians began to assemble upfront, the guitar player put his strap over his shoulder and began to play some pretty face ripping power chords!  Ok, this was going to be different!  But this, in various forms and styles, is what is actually becoming more and more commonplace in many fellowships- the worship band is getting in the way of worship. 

As the first song got under way I assumed that it was probably just an opening song and that as we began to sing together the volume and “attitude” of the music would come down a few notches.  That was not what happened.  For me the “worship time” ended up being an awesome concert!  But we had not come for a concert, we’d come to worship.

Am I at a Christian concert?

The praise team was so loud it drowned out the sound of the entire church singing!  If this was a concert I could care less how loud it was, I love loud music, but this was not a concert, it was supposed to be worship.  Part of the worship experience is being able to hear the voices of God’s people joined together in song in worship of Him.  It is a corporate thing of which I am but a small part.  It’s a glorious thing to hear the Body of Christ together worshipping Jesus!  We get a picture of that kind of worship in Revelation; IF WE COULD ONLY CATCH A GLIMPSE…

“Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they sang:
   ”Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
   to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
   and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
   ”To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
   be praise and honor and glory and power,
         for ever and ever!”  The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.”  (Revelation 5:11-14)

Worship like that involves hearing my fellow worshippers!  The experience is one of being swallowed up by something greater than myself.  I am instantly made aware that I am but a small part of a great multitude who worship Jesus!

The music’s so loud I can’t even hear the rest of the church sing!

The truth is, the music was so loud at this fellowship that most of the time I could barely hear myself sing let alone hear anyone else!  I began to wonder if others were having the same difficulty as I was.  I looked around… and I noticed others looking around!  Many, many more were sitting or standing silently.  There were some hands raised, and some mouths were moving, but I couldn’t hear them.  We loved the preaching so much we came back a second time hoping the “worship” would be better; it wasn’t quite as loud but it still felt more like a really good Christian concert event than it did worship.

As it turned out, we loved the preaching so much on our second visit we decided we’d try again a third time!  But things were basically the same.  There was a moment I thought we were about to head into a place of “entering in”, but it was quickly ended by a massive wall of sound as the next song began.  I was so caught off guard I spun around to my wife with my mouth flung open in amazement, as I did I caught the face of a woman who had pretty much the same expression of disbelief as I did.  “What was THAT?”  The band, the worship leader, the music itself was awesome… each time my wife and I would talk about it after the morning was over as we headed for lunch; we LOVED the band, but it was hard to actually worship.

I have to tell you, I was baffled.  I couldn’t understand why this was going on.  Wasn’t anyone discerning this?  Wouldn’t the leadership address this “worship” issue?  I just didn’t get it.  My wife and I discussed the whole thing at length and one thing we both agreed upon was that if this was a Christian concert we’d be totally blessed.  And here is the crux of what I’d like to share: This particular band was not just giving a performance in my opinion.  It might be easy to write it off as that, but I don’t believe for a minute that that’s what they were doing.  Their music was anointed and very powerful, but there is a fundamental difference between corporate worship and using music as a vehicle to communicate God’s Word.

Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs- Speaking to one another, or worshipping God?

The scriptures tell us to “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs…” (Ephesians 5:19)  This is something the entire body of Christ is told to do.  God is able to use music to powerfully encourage, instruct and bless each other in the Lord.  This is certainly good and something we should do, but it is not the same thing as corporate worship.

Corporate worship of God is directed upward, focused solely on Him; speaking to “one another” has the element of communicating to my brothers and sisters in Christ and is not the same as “worship” in that sense.

When God gave the gift of songwriting to me I understood that what He was calling me to do was to speak to the Body of Christ through song.  This, in essence, is what Ephesians 5:19 is talking about- It is an others directed ministry using music to speak to God’s people.  It can be worshipful, and certainly people will be led to worship the Lord in their hearts as they respond to the message in song, but that is not the same thing as corporate worship; corporate worship is purely God directed.

Corporate worship is what we see happening in the verses I shared earlier from Revelation; everything fades away as we jointly worship Christ and focus on Him alone!

As a practical matter, the worship band I mentioned earlier was so stylized, and the worship singer so powerfully individual in his singing that it drew attention to them.  I couldn’t even sing along with some of the songs because the worship leader was so much like a lead singer you never knew what he’d do next, or how he’d start or end a phrase!  This guy would be great doing a Christian concert, and I’d love a CD by him because we LOVED his music, the band, and the message in the songs, AND we felt is was anointed, BUT… how am I going to be able to enter into worship if I can’t even follow along to sing with him?  He might be worshipping well enough, but what good does that do to help me worship?

“But in the church I’d rather sing without a worship band, if the band’s going to get in the way of worship!”

Ok, that’s not how the verse goes.  Here it is:

“I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.  But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.”  (1 Corinthians 14:18-19)

This verse sums up what I believe God has shown me concerning worship.  The point is, when we gather together as the church, it’s got to be for the benefit of the church.  The application to “worship teams”, worship leaders, and those who would use their musical gifts to lead others into the worship of God through song is simple: Is what I’m doing truly leading others into worship?  Am I getting in the way, or getting myself out of the way of God’s people worshipping?  I may have the most awesome worship band in the world- and just as the one who speaks in tongues edifies himself and praises God, I may be worshipping God myself as a worship leader- but am I getting in the way of others worshipping?  Everything I do in the church should be to benefit the church, it’s not about me at that moment.

Think how “worship” might change if we applied 1 Corinthians 14:1-20 to our gatherings.  What would happen if we really asked ourselves two questions:

1.  Is there anything I’m doing that’s getting in the way of corporate worship?
2.  Lord, is there anything you’d like me to do that would encourage corporate worship?

“But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue…”

In the church I would rather LEAD GOD’S PEOPLE INTO PURE WORSHIP… than________.

You fill in the blank.

If the music’s too loud to hear God’s people sing to the Lord, I’d rather turn down the music.  If my singing style is so personally unique others can’t follow it, I’d rather become part of the chorus of God’s people than be their lead singer- I don’t want to stand out, I want to blend in!  If my guitar solo is so profound that people stop looking at God and start watching me play, I’ll play more simply or cut the solo.  If our multimedia experience is so slick that it draws people to watch the big screen instead of God, I’ll simplify or get rid of it.  You fill in the blank:

“But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue…”

In the church I would rather LEAD GOD’S PEOPLE INTO PURE WORSHIP… than_____________.

Tags: Christian concert, corporate worship, hymns, lead worship, loud worship, praise team, psalms, worship, worship band is too loud, worship God, worship leader, worship music, worship music too loud, worship singer, worship songs, worship team, worship time, worshipping