20 years ago I was sitting with a bunch of friend that worked as a planning group for an immersive worship service. We were talking about the value of special music in the Sunday worship services. Jim says, “Well, I place a high value on it. Sometimes the message won’t speak to you but the music will. I remember a Sunday about four years ago when that happened. It really moved me. My wife and I still talk about it.” I pointed out that the experience was four years ago and it hasn’t duplicated itself since then. I am a big fan of music, I just not a big fan of what church performance has brought to us week after week.
I am a musician and I grew up singing in church. When I showed up to church on a Wednesday unaware that the youth group went dormant, the pastor picked up another chair and carried it to the choir loft. It was the one and only place I ever qualified as a bass! I sang in choirs and played in bands through college and performed in a boatload of churches. I still play many weekends and on rare occasion I still lead worship.
I am not a hater of music or music in church.
Somewhere along my journey I realized that I could not define the line between worship and performance if I was the only one singing.
Worship is bringing glory and honor to God through our time, attention and talent. Performance is bringing me glory that I can, at times, point towards God. If I am garnering the attention of a congregation or an audience how do I make the distinction? For me, I decided that if I am the only one going to the throne of God and I am inviting other to watch me go there, it must be Christian performance. If I am inviting other people to join me on the journey as part of the team, then it must be worship.
At the beginning of Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Freddy is giving a big press conference after unmasking another caper. Under the big lights with the attention of all the media, Freddy says: “People ask me why Mystery, Inc is so successful. And the answer is: Teamwork. I do a tremendous amount of teamwork….”
I hear the same hollow humility from Christian musicians and vocalists. We want to be honored for our talent and our veneer humility. We are willing to give tacit honor to God because it seems the the thing to do. I think Freddy is honest in his assessment, and still dead wrong. The spotlight can bring out the worst in all of us.
It is difficult to work hard as a musician without a place to perform. It is hard as a worship leader to not save a little piece of the worship for yourself. Music is such an integral part of both ancient and modern worship, yet has so many humility traps in it. How can we navigate out?
For our church, we have decided that we just don’t do “special music”, where people perform Christian music for others to enjoy. We focus on corporate music, where everyone is invited to participate in singing. For us, this means a bunch of new songs (as many as 15 new songs a year) and a few ancient ones. We have songs that every church sings. We have songs that you many only sing with us.
We also look for musicians that don’t need the church for a stage and a spotlight. I love it when we have musicians that play in local bands at local parties, bars and weddings. These guys understand the difference between performance and worship. They have also spent the years to hone their craft. When it comes to leading people to the throne of God they simply have more to offer those that follow them. They do not need to keep any of the worship for themselves because they can get that other places.
That is why, at times, you can find me in a bar on Saturday night listening to live music. If my musician friends invite me to their performance, I go, no matter where it is! But, that is a subject for another time….
We sing a bunch of the KLOVE top 40 because people who are hurting often turn to KLOVE for comfort and find it in the music. Then eventually they decide that trying out church again might be a good idea. These hurting folks should find music that sounds familiar.
What’s the Consequences?
Now, I will admit that all of this is short sighted if it stops there. I became the musician I am today because I was given a chance to learn and perform in front of my home church — poeple that loved me! And that is true. I was in 10th grade when I was given the chance to perform special music at our church. It was a Sunday evening, but it was a Sunday! I can’t imagine it was pretty or that I made it to the parking lot, let alone the throne room of God! What will happen to music in the church if we never have room for poeple who are learning? How can we encourage people to continue to practice if there is never a stage to perform?
Frankly, this is a point of concern for me. The music budgets in our public schools are squeezed. Private schools are worse. Private lessons are easy to find, but they can be quite expensive. How is it that the church can encourage people to learn instruments and have performance opportunities if the church isn’t encouraging it? Where will the next worship leader learn to sing in front of people?
For our church, we have started two initiatives. First, we have started School of Guitar. Three of us that play guitar have banded together to teach a few students to play guitar. Most are kids, but also some adult are learning. Many of them are building the skill set necessary to lead worship in the future. We are encouraging youth kids to be useful in youth group by learning a few songs so they can lead worship in midweek services. This can be a valuable time learning to hone the musicianship we will need in the future.
Second, we have instituted an open mic night. Right now we have only hosted it on Fat Tuesday as a precursor for our observation of Lent. But, how cool is it that we can give our own musicians and vocalists a chance to perform in front of people that love them! We don’t care if it is specifically Christian or not. We just want people to come and share something musical that is important to them. We also encourage our School of Guitar students to practice something to bring, so it is a kind of recital for them.
Somewhere along the way, we need to take responsibility for the care and nurturing of our musicians so we have musicians in the future. We also must take serious consideration what we consider “worship” and appropriate for a worship service. How we define this will teach the future generations how to define worship for themselves.