It is so easy for me to get tore up about church music. It’s my passion. It brings me joy. But it also brings heartache. I’m definitely not an expert. But experience and observation combined with a great deal of sorrow have brought me to some of these thoughts.
We must discover the difference between offering our best as worshippers and showcasing our best. We must learn the balance of excellence and education as we provide these opportunities for musical worship during our church gatherings.
Of course we should give our very best and aim to make music that is excellent. It’s important to note that every individual will have a unique preference. Yet, when it comes to congregational worship, it’s not about self service. It’s about glory to God. It is about allegiance and praise to the Creator who lavishes love and mercy on a very undeserving world.
We must practice letting go of our personal preferences when we worship together. It is not about self. (I definitely struggle! It is so easy to focus on what I prefer and enjoy.) It is not about showcasing our best, either. (Different from giving our best.)
Genuine, authentic worship is not always pretty. Raw and hungry, passionate and desperate? Absolutely! Quiet and reserved? Sometimes….yes. Flawless? Rarely.
First and foremost, the recipient of our gift of worship is our Heavenly Father. We do not give him scraps. Secondly, we want to make sure that the music we create is not a distraction in the opportunity of congregational worship. Hence, excellence is not an absurd expectation. (The perception of excellence will always be different, though, depending on the perspective.) Even if we have extensive training on our instrument, it does not mean that people will appreciate it or prefer it or utilize it. Preferences….
There is benefit and blessing in utilizing a vast variety of musicians. We will certainly not sound like we belong on a top 25 Hits album. That is completely acceptable. We will not all express our love of God through music the same way. Yet, the opportunity to serve with our unique musical gifts can shine such a bright light!
A worship team in the average church is not a group of paid staff. An expectation that one emulates or sounds like other church worship teams, not to mention professional musical teams, is not appropriate or healthy. Every congregation will have its own unique group of willing and able musicians. Many will not be very experienced. Some will have great talent. There will be some that are much more experienced than others.
There’s such a great opportunity in the church to educate, disciple, and build up musicians. In my opinion, this is the best place to provide experience and perspective and possibility with our young worship musicians. Not every church will be able to facilitate that the same way. There are definitely ways to do this, regardless of church size and make up.
Certainly, there will be an overflow of opinions and personal preference in general. It can get so sticky. Sometimes it gets political. Sometimes those making decisions are not necessarily the ones that are qualified to make the most beneficial decisions. However, there is a way through this. I believe that with my whole heart. Communication is key. Working as a team is key. Allowing experienced individuals to assist and provide enlightenment is helpful. Ego has no place.
These relationships are important. We must cultivate them…treasure them. We are so easily wounded. So often we are so afraid to express what is in our hearts. Maybe we don’t feel like we should. Maybe we don’t feel like we are qualified. Perhaps we don’t think it matters to anyone. Or sometimes we don’t know how to explain. So we feel trapped. We suppress the hurt. Maybe we flee.
And sometimes when we do speak up, the true intent does not get heard or understood. So often we are poor communicators and bad listeners. I think that is because we are all coming from different perspectives and experiences. It is always easy to make assumptions. The hard thing is having the conversations that we need to have. The hard thing is listening to one another and admitting when we have misunderstood or made the assumptions.
Those of us that serve in church ministry know that mistakes are made. Just because we serve God, love the Lord and desire to give him glory, it doesn’t mean that we don’t fail to respond and act the way that would be the most beneficial to the kingdom of God. We are humans, prone to pride, pain, and prejudice.
Yet God is with us. He is glorious and worthy of our worship. We should not end the efforts even though it gets difficult and messy. It’s going to get messy, and it’s going to get difficult.
If we do not worship, the rocks will cry out. As we gather on a weekly basis, the top priority is that God is glorified. The message of good news should be clear. Prayerful, intentional planning…and quality practice/rehearsal for our worship teams is extremely helpful.
The Holy Spirit will guide us truly. But that does not negate the necessity of good communication, prayerful planning, and quality practice. I truly believe that if we consider all of these things, we will be better teams and develop essential skills for facilitating times of worship to God.
Who else but a messy, diverse collection of church musicians could team up to create such a blessed opportunity to sing out in praise to the most deserving Lord of all.💗💗💗💗
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