As we talked about last week, it is important to speak the truth in love to each other. As we grow in our ability to do this, we need to also grow in our ability to HEAR the truth when it is spoken to us. Here’s part two of this series to start our discussion. Leave a comment here, drop me an email, or better yet, start a thread on the FORUM and let us know what you’re thinking.
The Bible says that we are to “speak the truth in love” to each other. One of the things that we as the Church are getting better at as a whole is the second half of this idea. We are (thankfully) improving at loving each other. What we’re still needing to improve on, myself included, is in speaking the truth. This is especially CRUCIAL in worship ministry.
Worship ministries are comprised of artists, and typically led by artists. The classic artist mentality is one that does not see black and white, and rarely aligns itself with the lines, rules, and boxes that the rest of the world does. It’s not that we’re unaware of reality, we just see reality a little differently. We tend to see things to extremes. When others are joyful, we see the reason behind the joy and want to capture it in song, word, dance, poetry, paint, or media art. When others are mournful, we feel deeply along with them and want to give others a vehicle for expressing their sorrow with our art.
While we go about the ministry of worship as artists, centering our lives around the truth is our highest calling. As we lead others in expressions of praise, adoration, worship, joy, lament, and contemplation, we need to be firmly grounding ourselves in the Word so that what we lead others in is not simply an emotion, but rather a timeless truth that seats Jesus on the throne of our lives.
This is no more true than in our interactions with each other.
With all that said, here’s the latest DW video installment, called “The Truth”, part 1 of 2.
A continuation in this series dealing with a critical phase of worship leading that often goes unnoticed… the time AFTER we lead worship.
I’m enjoying the first day of the Willow Arts Conference. The first session was very inspiring.
I got to meet the ministry team from Southside Community Church in Paragould, Arkanasas. Andy is “halo_jmpr” on the forum, and he and Mike (the worship pastor at this church) have used some of the DW videos in the course of their ministry. It was great to meet you guys!
There is a critical span of time AFTER we lead worship. Let’s talk about it.
Imagine the President comes to your town. He pulls up outside of the event location in the luxurious armored limo, steps out, and walks “the line” greeting people, shaking hands, and speaking with the citizens and press that are gathered at the event.
You, however, miss all of this.
You run straight to the driver’s side of the car, and try to speak to limo driver. As he rolls down the window, you ask questions…
“DUDE! That was the best slow-driving I’ve ever seen! The way you turned that corner without ever topping 4 MPH was amazing!!! Hey, what kind of hat are you wearing? Are those driving gloves leather?!? Do you have any tips for me as I drive my car? Are you using 92 octane, or is this thing diesel? Do you ever have a hard time getting the car to go in reverse? I want to drive just like you!”
The problem with this is that while you’ve gotten to know the limo driver and asked him some questions about his job, the President of the United States made himself available to you, and missed it.
Worship Leaders are a LOT like limo drivers.
We live in a strange time where worship leaders get a lot of attention. They play well, sing well, inspire us, lead us in worship, and they are a gift from the Lord. When we see them as the main attraction, though, we miss the entire point.