Posted on 27 Nov 2024 in category Church by The Pensive Pastor
Tagged as: worship
"To lead the people into the felt presence of God through their corporate worship of Him, thus releasing the Holy Spirit to do His work and His will among the congregation"
The challenge to both people and leaders is, are we prepared to let our schedules and plans go out of the window and allow God to do His work in His way? If so, He will come.
Are we prepared to release control of this time to Him, without conditions? If not, He will not come, because He requires absolute freedom to do the things only He can do! There are things we can do and put in place to make it easier for God to break through into our hearts and our meetings.
Three set-piece songs (or four, or five) followed by moving on to the next item will not enable us to enter the presence of God (or if He begins to come, He will withdraw again)! Often we don't even have time for all the people to draw together in true corporate worship before stopping our 'worship'. Think about it - the 'worship time' is pretty much the only part of the service that is totally devoted to God and directed upwards to Him, yet churches regularly cut it short for the sake of getting the rest of the programme in before 12:30 (or whenever).
Song choice is vital! There are 'we' songs, 'He' songs and 'You' songs! 'We' songs are best at the start, to draw people together and these are good when lively. 'He' songs are songs about God but not addressed to Him. But 'You' songs are addressed directly to God, eg "You are holy", "Worthy are you Lord", "You are exalted on High", etc. THIS is worship!!
We need to go through a process and journey from celebration, through reflection and thoughtfulness to true worship in God's presence. The human mind, coming from a week of busy-ness and usually non-Christian activity, needs a process to quieten the heart and spirit and to direct thoughts and prayers toward God. Music and song are the two rails that carry our "train" towards God. Let's not stop halfway or hit the buffers suddenly before we reach the end of the journey.
Back in the days of the early charismatic movement in the 1960s and '70s, new songs were often lifted straight from Bible verses. These songs were usually short, with a simple repetitive rhythm and easy to learn by heart. In recent years, new songs coming from mega-churches have swamped our churches through the internet and social media. We have lost the simplicity of older songs and our church cultures insist on large bands, unnecessary technology and a projector or expensive screen to make sure we read the words we can't learn by heart!!
Introducing a new song every week not only puts added pressure on the band to practice but restricts the congregation's ability to employ that song to truly worship God. A good worship leader will soon sense which songs "work" and which don't. Using songs the people know and respond well to will greatly enhance our ability to know God's presence.
It is easy for the worship leader to be focussed on playing and his band, but being conscious of the level of worship in the congregation is essential to experiencing God's presence. Knowing when to encourage the people verbally and when to allow silence to settle, plus having a song list long enough to allow for flexibility in choice, all enable the people to experience more of God and His presence and power.
Throughout church history to today, God is ever willing to come with His presence and power but we have to make the space for Him. We have to relinquish control if we want Him to come.
Insecurity, fear of backlash from people, reluctance to change existing paradigms of church behaviour; all these cause leaders and worship leaders to deny God the freedom to move as only He can. We need to ask ourselves this question and look inside our hearts for the answer!
How far will we release control and what risks will we take to see God worshipped and his power released among His people, the body of Jesus?
N.B. All the above sections are expanded in this download (pdf file)