I went to The Woodlands Church where Jimmy Needham usually leads worship. This was spring break weekend...Jimmy Needham was not there.
Instead there was this band. I will say this much, they were all talented musicians. Now moving beyond that they looked like a lumberjack, a hot chick, someone from a hardcore band and some dude from the chess team merged to form this band. Looks you can get around. There were no familiar worship songs were played, all of their own stuff. The opening lyrics were something like, "Rip open my chest and stand inside, burst open my veins and blood run down". Something odd like that. Almost everyone of the songs went like that.
So then comes the question. If the band was engaged in authentic worship and this verse is true why not worship anyway?
John4. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
I must say it was distracting, not only because the lyrics were just odd, and it was hard to understand what they were singing when they sang. It was also distracting because it seemed more like a "worship CONCERT" than being lead in worship. Also I would say 98% of that room was confused and weirded out by what was actually going on and then intent of the evening.
I tried to engage in worship, but the atmosphere was truly not conducive.
Worship is not always music either, it's you're lifestyle. You don't walk out of the 'worship service' and stop living/worshiping in spirit and in truth. I believe that verse is talking about the people God is seeking are those 24 hour worshipers. Get some coffee, wake up, and realize your calling. Each is uniquely different and still so much the same because the same spirit binds us all.
2 comments:
Nice thoughts! Ironically my church had a worship focus on Sunday- the message was about authentic worship-etc. Pastor spoke about David, and how he would dance in praise to the Lord and Michael was all like "good job David, way to be a King" all sarcastic like, and David was like "I don't care what you think, I know the Lord knows my heart". Pretty deep reminder of where our heart needs to be, vs. what we want to "appear" to be in a worship service.
So with this in mind, lets return to your post on contemporary worship styles vs. hymnals from a while back (I actually don't know if it is a blog, but I know we talked about it). Everything you said here pretty much expresses what I was trying to say. Contemporary worship in a lot of cases is just as much about the 'goings-on' as it is the worship itself. Think about how much money your own church pays for their worship leader... heck, they are paying you to do (among other things) move their stage around.
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