Of late I have been struggling with leading worship. You see I’m the conscientious kind of person who tries to give my best effort every time.But I have been feeling frustrated because we don’t seem to be engaging God as I would like.
So the usual tendency is to try harder, pick better, more hip and happening songs. Or get more another instrument involved, or make the praise songs more driving etc. (Obviously those are some good ideas for breathing life into stale worship performances, but stay with me…)
So the next step for me is to focus on my character, being raised as a conservative evangelical (you know how it is with us “people of the Word”), you start to look for sin or character issues in your life because that must be what’s blocking the “anointing” from happening. (Now don’t get me wrong, this is very valid too, but what if your conscience is clear before God? Stay with me…)
Anyway, I have been reading this book by Bill Johnson called “When Heaven Invades Earth” and he said something that really knocked me off my pedestal. Basically he was talking about it is unbalanced to think that good character is enough, we need God’s presence to be evident in us and moving through us! (Very loose quote, get the book and read it for yourself, chapter 8 I think)
WAIT a second! You can’t just toss CHARACTER aside! (That’s exactly what I was saying!) You see what Bill is saying is that even a “non-christian” can develop good character. Character is important but without HIS presence we just end up being little clones of “Mr. Nice Guy/Girl”.
Jesus was so much more than just a “Mr. Nice Guy” his power and danger came from his Father’s presence working through him.
So basically what I’m trying to say is that if we want to get worship back in focus we need all 3 things happening, and for me, at the moment, I need to really be seeking more of His presence evident in me and through me!
How about you?
Justin's Blog 
Justin, Last week after I did the sound check I thought everything was fine, and started leading the congregation in worship, when all of a sudden the sound cut out on my guitar. Dude, I had no amplification and I started to panic. I prayed and felt like equipment was a distraction. I unplugged my guitar and walked up closer to a packed out house and fully started to lead unplugged. What happened was remarkable. God met us and the voices of the church took over. I think we had a greater time with the simplistic sound of genuine worshiping voices. Sometimes, even technology gets in the way!
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So true. Instruments do become an obstickle sometime.We are worshipping at a Free Church in Scotland and there is no sign of instruments. Worship has taken me in a new direction. It is to connect with a living God that matters and not by the way we are doing it
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The other day I was talking with some folks about this. (Of course, I haven’t actually “lead worship” since I was at Westway, but bear with me…) We came to the conclusion that the title/phrase “leading worship” is kind of misleading. What we’re actually doing is drawing people into the worship that’s happening eternally in Heaven. One guy used the analogy of the parable of the feast (“go out and bring the poor to my table…”): we tend to get focused in on the menu items (read: music, instruments, etc.), when God has already prepared the feast and all we have to do is invite people to take part.
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Hey Justin. Well said. We so often think we can control what happens on a Sunday or whenever we gather together and attempt to encourage God’s people into His presence. We have to do our part but NOTHING we do can make worship happen (thank goodness). It is God who allows us in and our choice to respond to the open invitation. WE have found so many times that the less we do (sometimes by divine intervention – no matter how much we prepare and how much equipment we have)the more the congregation finds the will to engage and God responds.Makes me wonder what all the fuss is about?
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