I remember the moment everything changed for me. In 2013, our worship department at ORU had weekly breakout sessions where we would cover topics from theology, to leadership, and the practicals. It was a Monday night, and a couple dozen college students were gathered in our rehearsal space, listening to me blather on, regurgitating the usual talking points when I realized that I was as bored as they were. It hit me that I was giving them the “right” answers, but not the “real” answers. Sure, what I was saying sounded nice but—if I was honest—it wasn’t even how I led our department. My brain interrupted my mouth probably mid-sentence, and I shifted gears. I left behind the talking points and shared the real answers. Glazed-over eyes melted, and previously daydreaming students now leaned in to bear witness to my newfound irreverence.
If you haven’t cracked open your dictionary in a while: reverence is “profound adoring awed respect.” Synonyms include: deify, glorify, venerate, worship.
Pastor Willie George is known for saying that anything that can’t be changed, that is beyond being questioned, has been elevated to the status of the divine. And when we do that, we’re actually worshiping our methods. Or worshiping our expectations. Only God does not change, only his divinity should not be questioned.
Only God should be revered, that means everything else is on the table. All of our expectations, methods, habits, and ideologies.
“Don’t Rock the Boat”
If a mission statement could be formed from the strategies of current worship leadership thought, this is it. When it comes to content for leaders in worship ministry, you’ve probably heard it all before. And that’s a problem. Our current system of regurgitating the same worship platitudes and talking points is perfectly designed for our current results: bland, recycled, and—let’s be honest–-mostly unhelpful content.
The upside to this generic fluff: it’s not harmful! But it’s also not specific. It’s the equivalent of your doctor telling you to drink water and get enough sleep. Both great things, but probably won’t fix your hernia or a broken finger.
Close Your Eyes and Imagine With Me…
We are at that worship conference. You know, the one you paid $600 to go to. We’re sitting in that afternoon breakout session: the kind every conference always includes but is never that great. And it’s the worst part of every breakout: the Q&A section. This is when a sincerely struggling local worship pastor nervously asks the recording artist on stage how they would handle a problem with one of their local church volunteers.
Let me be clear upfront: I am not a cynic. I love worshiping. I love worship music. I love worship ministry. I even have compassion for the current worship blogs/podcasts/conference answers. Back to our imagining…
In the age of the greatest online connection the world has ever known, this recording artist is expected to give a concise, notable, tweet-able, universal answer that will neither embarrass the ministry they represent nor shame the people asking the question. A tall order to be sure.
Here’s the problem: that kind of answer is vague and limited.
I have notebooks and notebooks full of these answers. And they are the “right” answers. the correct answers. Answer like: “you need to just get back to the heart of worship,” “have you tried loving this difficult team member and having coffee with them more often?” “you need to light your worship team on fire for Jesus because if they burn with passion, then all your problem will burn away too.”
Okay maybe I’m exaggerating that last one.
But there are only two basic talking points handed out as the right answers: you or your team needs to love Jesus more OR you or your team need to love each other more. And both of those things are great. Both of those things are necessary. Both of those things are the right answer. But after years and years of trying to solve specific situations with vague answers, I found myself wondering… when do we get the REAL answers?
You can’t solve specific problems with vague answers.
I Want The REAL Answers
Here’s what happens, the leader answering the question might give the “right” answer, but when you dig behind the scenes, you’ll find they actually have another answer. A more specific answer. The one they actually used. A REAL answer. Answers that sometimes even contradict the “correct” answer they would give in the session. An answer would be something like “make sure you pick keys that aren’t too high, or else nobody will sing along at church.” Meanwhile at their church, people are shouting the lyrics at the top of their lungs in an amazingly high key. Or “if you have problems with a worship leader at your church, get to know them and love them as a person.” But at the same time, worship leaders you used to hear lead half the songs are suddenly missing from future albums with zero explanation.
So what’s the point?
Here’s what I believe: there is no such thing as a “boiled down” answer that can solve every problem. After a decade of doing this, I have come to this conclusion: there are right answers and there are real answers. The right answers are vague, safe, and frankly not helpful. Questions like “my drummer never learns any of the songs, shows up 45 minute late for soundcheck, is always posting instagram stories of keg stands and clubbing… what should I do?” And hearing the answer: “Have you tried praying for them? Have you tried taking them to coffee?”
I don’t think a Frappuccino is going to solve your drummer’s laziness and sin addiction issues.
Who Is This For?
These articles are for anyone with any amount of leadership in a worship team. Maybe you’re just getting into ministry and you’re facing certain situations for the first time. Or maybe you’ve been doing this a long time and you’re just not satisfied with the results you’re getting from the current answers. My hope is to offer some thoughts from over a decade of full time worship ministry experience to help you challenge the status quo, doubt the default, and be able to offer some alternative viewpoints to this wild ride of worship ministry. I also hope we can laugh at ourselves in the church sphere and a lot of the bad habits we’ve gotten into that if we just take a step back, are actually pretty silly.
I believe that my greatest qualification is that I have made countless mistakes and have had to learn from failure after failure. My hope is not that you try to glean wisdom from my accomplishments, but rather that you would learn from my blunders without having to pay the price yourself. I honestly believe that you can be spared the frustration and wasted time of running around in circles with the right answer, when you can make real progress with a real answer.
Love Podcasts? Be sure to catch the discussion over at Episode 1 of The BotaCast.
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