Dave Wainscott has put together some excellent quotes around the topic of “Worship is not Music.”
“It would be true to say that during the last twenty-five years or so amongst those churches which would own the label ‘evangelical’, a significant change in understanding has taken place over the meaning of the word ‘worship’. If a few decades ago the person leading the service had said, ‘We are now going to have a time of worship’, most people would have looked on in utter bewilderment. Now everyone would know exactly what to expect: a lengthy time of contemporary Christian songs, maybe interspersed with a few prayers and exhortations, perhaps with hands held up in the air and a far-away look in the eyes.”
We have, first of all, limited the concept of worship to an event that takes place for twenty minutes rather than a life that is devoted in love and surrender to a compelling God.
Even worse, we have reduced corporate worship to times in which music must be present. Further, we have become so dependent on great-sounding music to drive the worship times that very little true heart-worship is needed. In fact, some would say, the result is a steep decline in actual corporate “worship” and an increase of music-moved emotion.
I share this only because simple/organic churches have the opportunity to re-capture the heart of worship. We want to re-affirm that the Christian life of worship is one that is not segmented into times of worship and times of non-worship. Every day, and every gathering (whether at home, or with friends, or with nonChristians, or with community) is an opportunity for worship of many different kinds.
AND, when we do gather together and find ourselves expressing love-sick worship toward God with our hands, lips, body, soul, and spirit… we can recover heart-driven worship. We can learn the wonder of a small group of believers who have developed the daily discipline of turning their hearts toward God in adoration coming together to do the same corporately. In that time, music can be good but it is not essential. Spoken praise works, psalms read works, silence works, spontaneous non-professional singing works, poetry works. When our hearts are driving worship the external forms become far less important than the inner longings that truly do usher in a deep conscious sense of God’s presence.
I love worship. And I love music. But I long to see our gatherings re-capture the numinous awe of God simply around the fact that a group of Jesus-lovers have gathered who are in awe of Him.
When the music fades / All is stripped away / And I simply come / Longing just to bring / Something that’s of worth / That will bless Your heart
I bring You more than a song / For a song in itself / Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within / Through the way things appear / You’re looking into my heart
I’m coming back to the heart of worship / And it’s all about You / It’s all about You, Jesus
Comments
4 responses to “Music is Not Worship”
Well said, I went through one of the longest church meetings of my life Sunday night and it was all about “worship.” People talked about how they couldn’t worship with certain styles of music and blah, blah, blah. It was all very annoying but reinforced the fact that the whole music = worship paradigm is deeply, deeply ingrained in Western Christian thought. And it only took about 10 to 20 years for that to happen.
Great insight, Roger. We’re in our first month of gathering as “simple church” in Miami. It is quite a different thing to worship as a small group of believers who love Jesus, face-to-face in a home, than in a congregation sitting shoulder to shoulder, face forward, waiting for a prompt from a chancel/stage that will move them to inspiration or worship. One gathering, as you indicated, is dependent on “heart-worship” that has happened all week long, culminating in a corporate togetherness. There is a quality of complete dependent on what God wants to do and responsive to the moving of the spirit in the midst of the 2,3, 10, 14 that seems necessary in this simple setting in order to be free and open to what can happen together. The other is waiting for a leader to share an insight or an emotional appeal that involves them. The former places responsibility on God to move and each person to anticipate and participate with the Spirit and each other. The latter places the responsibility on those who prompt the congregation in worship, to do it well and to inspire them from passive to active participation.
Music is a powerful art form that can elicit emotion and engage the heart with God. The level of performance is less relevant to worship than the heart that expresses the music and the heart that agrees in worship with the expression to God. Music has the ability to move us to high experiences. I suspect that the fact that it has this power can confuse the experience of music and the experience of God. We could praise a performance and be inspired by it, rather than praise the God who created and speak through the performance. Case and point, I find that when a performer bows after singing a worship song or “special” piece of music in a service of worship, I am left cold in the question of who was the focus of such music in the worship.
Having been nurtured in the conventional church, some of which have had very sophisticated musical programs and high quality musicians participating in worship, there is a significant re-programming or “renewing of the mind” that I am having to go through in order to re-engage with music in worship in simple church. I, like the deer panting for water, am trying to get at the “heart of the matter” and be able to include music simply in worship. Thanks for the post.
I love your phrase “music-moved emotion.” A life of worship certainly contains appreciative emotion but the key is to act as Jesus asked. We must choose to obey with or without attendant emotions.
Good post, music is not worship, worship originates in our hearts as they are centred on Him. Expressing our love and worship to Him is spontaneous. Not something that we can orchestrate and manufacture. Music is helpful but worship is an attitude that is deep within our heart. WE want to express to Him continually that we love and trust Him !