While having a cup of coffee with a friend the other day, he shared with me a frustration with his church. My friend used to be on the worship team at his church, but was told he wasn't really good enough to have his mic turned up high enough for people to hear him. Obviously, my friend quit. Not many people would want to sing into a silent microphone and just be a body on stage.
During our conversation, the extent of the pain inflicted by this event came out. I heard how my friend longed to be able to be a part of worship and to lead people in worship. The frustration was that church was just a show where stars are needed to sing, to preach, and to do the Christian act on stage.
This was a harsh observation to be sure, but my heart broke while we talked. Honestly, tears were coming to my eyes as I listened to a fellow Christian share the hurt caused by a church model designed to attract people in with high quality worship services. Now, I am not one to say this model is all bad. I believe in worship and I believe God has gifted people to lead in worship. But I also believe the church has to find a way to allow for greater levels of participation and expression our worship gatherings. Worship does not need to be perfect, it needs to be genuine. Voices do not need to be the most beautiful in the world, they need to be heartfelt. Preaching does not need to always come from the experts, it needs to come from the people of God. One person does not need to do all the talking at a worship gathering.
God certainly deserves excellence in worship. Sometimes I wonder if God and the church define excellence the same way. One thing I do know - a community that stifles the voice of one of its members longing to sing out the praises of God has some serious examination to do.
So, what do you do with Romans 12 where we are told that we are all gifted for something? I may want to speak in tongues or be a prophet but who says that is what God has called me to do? Maybe your friend would find his voice in another form of service. Perhaps his desire is one for the spotlight and upfront but God wants to fulfill him in another way... a way in which he has been prepared to serve and lead in an exemplary way.
ReplyDeleteI've seen many worship leaders who shouldn't be. Despite the tenderness of their heart and desires of their will their giftedness does not lie in the congregational leadership of worship. Maybe in scripture reading, teaching or something else.
Throughout the Old Testament we see God sets certain families, people groups, etc. aside for a specific task or purpose. The line of David was ordained to be royalty while the levites where called to do the work of God in the temple. Its nice to say "oh, you want to sing, here you go" but in reality you mislead someone from truly fulfiling what God has wants them to do.
The same can be said for sin. Just because I want to do something... doesn't mean I should. Just because I enjoy something, doesn't mean its good for me to do.
I think I would be very fearful of being the final judgement call on what someone has been gifted to do. Sure, not everyone is gifted for all things, but God is also in the business of suprising us and putting his treasure into jars of clay.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who had a slightly different experience at her church. She was a wonderful singer, and sang on the worship team until, as the church grew, she was asked to change her image or step down. She didn't "look the part" because, I guess, she wasn't skinny and fashionable enough. Since she could definitely sing, this to me is an even more extreme example of a church's drive to present "beautiful worship" getting in the way of its ability to worship beautifully.
Church leadership is asked to make a lot of judgement calls. What, in the end, should be the plumb line for those decisions? If I were making a judgement on someone's giftedness, I would REALLY want to make sure that I was using the right line.
Good thoughts, both of you. Dtbubba, you have some good insights to the patterns we see throughout Scripture. I'll have to think about how those might translate into contemporary times.
ReplyDeleteOne thought I have is this, do we have to be gifted to be a part of public worship? I will concede the point that not everyone ought to be the main leader of worship, but I wonder what it might look like for a church to allow for more public expression in worship so that the gifts, passions, and thoughts of the body might be more a blessing to the body.
Bringing this story to CCCH, I love that we ask lots of different people to to communion meditation and I celebrate the gifts and ideas people bring. I even like some of the goofy things people have done because it shows how much of themselves they have put into it.
On January 3rd I was able to preach at my home church. At the end of the sermon and communion, there was an open mic time for people to respond. One lady responded to the sermon and her words were probably way better than my sermon - which was totally cool.
I don't really have any answers to anything, which probably means I shouldn't open my mouth in the first place. But this kind of dialogue really helps me think through a lot of stuff.
In the end, maybe this is a better way to say it: the challenge for the church leader is to create space for the unique and varied gifts of the body to be expressed in important and significant ways through corporate worship as well as in other aspects of corporate life.
Thoughts on the last comment, anyone?
(As a side note, if anyone is ever interested in reading someone absolutely going off against the church on this topic, see Neil Cole's Organic Church. He definitely goes the to extreme.)