Written by JD Walt, Chief Sower at Seedbed Publishing
---
(continued from Part 1 here)
2. A Priestly Mind and a Pastoral Heart.
More than taking us on a spiritual journey, worship leaders have the task of orienting us inside of the presence of God. Are we the loyal subjects “down here” worshipping a distant Sovereign who is “up there?” Or are we being ushered by the Spirit into the family room of God as the Sons and Daughters whose hearts cry Abba? While these are not mutually exclusive realities, the latter does not necessarily follow upon the former. Are they growing in the capacity to help us worship an unreachable God who has made himself touchable?
Do our worship designers and leaders create space for confession and repentance? Are there meaningful opportunities to lament or is it one happy song after another? Do they realize that silence can be as significant as singing?
3. Prophetic Vision and Intercessory Intention.
Are our worship experiences an emotional escape from Earth into a nirvana like experience of Heaven? Or does worship lead us to engage the suffering and brokenness in the world. Think about your last worship experience. You had an audience with Father-Son-Holy Spirit. Did anyone mention the hungry, the poor, the weak, the sick, the imprisoned or the strangers in our midst?
Keep in mind, the symbol at the center of our sanctuaries is a sign of immense unjust human suffering. As the faces of the downcast and dispossessed are visualized in our sanctuaries they will become far more visible to us in the streets. According to the Bible, the big question at the judgment will not be God’s question of us but our question back to God, “Lord, when did we see you?” Is the shape and structure of our worship training us to live intercessory lives? Are our would be worship leaders growing in the capacity to help us intercede and intervene?
Closing Thoughts
So there it is. This is what I think we most need in our worship designers and leaders. While much good has come from the expansion and innovations in contemporary worship over the past twenty years, I fear that in recent years the work of worship is becoming over-focused on the technical issues of generating a certain kind of experience for worshippers and under-focused on the theological dimensions of an encounter with the living God.
Do you agree? What do you think we most need in our worship leaders?
---------------------------
Seedbed Publishing is based in Franklin, TN. They are aimed toward resourcing individuals, communities, and movements to love the whole world with the whole gospel. Seedbed is sowing the whole Gospel into the whole world, uniting voices around a shared vision and publishing resources that awaken the Wesleyan movement for the 21st century church.
You can find out more about Seedbed here, or check out J.D.'s blog for more though-provoking posts.