Kindling For False Fire
A couple of weeks ago I updated my Facebook status with “Too often worship leaders are hired to be kindling for the false fire we see in churches every Sunday.” I thought I might elaborate on that just a bit due to a few friends who placed question marks in the comment section of that post. First let me say that I in no way meant for this comment to be the representation of every worship leader or every church. However, I unfortunately believe it is more often the case than not. Let me explain.
There are two extremes that the church has gone to with regards to worship leaders. The first is attitude of “anyone will do.” I cannot tell you how many events that I have been invited to lead worship at where the only requirements were that I fit in the budget, sing the songs that people like and have a good voice. To illustrate this better than I could here is Voddie Baucham’s view on worship pastors:
“I have a very high view of the role of the worship leader. I view leading worship as a sort of pastoral responsibility to which one must be called, and for which one must be equipped. Unfortunately, we live in a time when every kid who knows five chords and ten songs thinks God has called him or her to be a worship leader. Hence, there is a flood of young, inexperienced, untrained, and often biblically illiterate worship leaders who have done nothing more than learn the top songs off of a few worship CD’s. This is a travesty!
These guys go on to steal songs from men and women whom God has anointed and gifted to write songs, and use them to make CD’s of their own. All of this is done in the name of having “product” to sell on the road, or to promote ones self as a worship leader. Imagine John Mayer going into the studio and saying, “forget the hard work of producing an original album, lets just take the top ten songs from last year and put them all on my new CD this year.” That would be unthinkable! Nevertheless, that is what is happening every day with so-called worship leaders in this current generation; and they think that paying someone a few cents per copy makes it ok. I would rather not be a party to that.
I also do not think it is a good idea to work with people with whom I do not share a ministry philosophy, or theology of worship. I do not think that a worship leader and a preacher should just be thrown into the mix together because they are both “good at what they do,” and they both “love God.” That’s like putting a wishbone quarterback on a run-n-shoot team and expecting him to do well because he has great athletic ability!
A good voice and a love for God is not the sum total of a worship leader’s qualifications. Nor is it the ability to “move a crowd.” There is the question of the depth of one’s theology and how that depth is communicated in the songs one chooses to use, and how one chooses to use them. There is the ability to choose songs that are appropriate for the given audience and occasion. There is the ability to sense where God is leading and moving during a service, or a series of services (I.e. choosing response songs that suit the manner in which God is calling people to respond to what they’ve heard).
These are just a few things that must be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, they rarely enter into the decision of whom one will invite to lead worship. Often, the only questions asked are, “does he do the songs our people like?” and “does he sing well?” That is the type of shallow, carnal approach to ministry I try to avoid.”
Since that quote was lengthy I will consider it self explanatory and digress on the first attitude that churches have taken on worship leaders. The second attitude I believe we have taken in the American church is “inexperienced need not apply.” By this I am not implying that experience is a bad thing and should not be considered when hiring a worship leader. However expierence and skill is often put above the absolute love of Jesus and the call to share the Gospel. Here are some snippets from some online worship leader job descriptions that I saw a few years ago when I was looking for a worship position:
“This person will provide vision and direction for a contemporary worship ministry by supervising, recruiting and equipping worship bands, as well as vocal, drama and technical teams.”
“We are looking for a leader who is passionate about worship, someone who will bring vision to our worship teams. We want someone who will equip our large group of dedicated and gifted volunteers in vocal and instrumental music, drama, dance, visual arts, multisensory interactives, as well the technologies that support worship.’’
“The church has two thriving contemporary worship services and is in need of strong leadership of the worship ministry team. Stylistically, they are playing artists like Crowder, Tomlin, Redman, Brewster, Smith, etc. and really love the congregation to "get into" worship. A worship leader who can teach folks how to "worship" is a must!”
Some may think that these are fine job descriptions. Others may see these as just an overview of the job description with the assumption of more “spiritual” duties unmentioned. Still others may think that these job descriptions are not the norm. To that I say that these are not sufficient biblical job descriptions and unfortunately these are the norm on almost church staffing website that I have visited. These are not even the worst.
Notice that none of the job descriptions lack any sort of unprofessionalism. In fact one could argue that unless you know how to run a state of the art show every Sunday then you are not “called” to be “our” worship leader. Emphasis on things like “multisensory interactives” so that your congregation might “get into” the worship are huge signs of false fire starters. What kind of true regenerate believer needs lights, fog and lasers to know how to or desire to worship the God who saved them from eternal torment in hell and a life of joy in the midst of suffering on this earth? I have been at churches that have tried to hire me after leading one or two “good” worship sessions. The only thing they knew about me was that I was good at music or singing or leading people. They knew nothing of my personal relationship with Jesus, whether I honored and loved my wife, or whether my house was in order (Titus 1). Unfortunately this is the same for youth ministers and lead pastors alike. Preach your best sermon, look the part and act the part and you have the job because you qualify on paper. What happened to the qualifications the Bible gives for a pastor and elder? What if this worship leader or pastor is using your church as a stepping stone towards the better church a little higher on the ladder? (see my blog on Pastoral Longevity here http://sastroope.blogspot.com/2009/10/pastoral-longevity.html
The point I am trying to get to is perhaps the point that I get to in every blog that I post. The church is filled with a lot of people who think they are saved and are not. There is no argueing that. You can use the research from Barna or from the SBC or any other reputable source out there that statistically proves it or you can just read 1 John and realize that by those standards the narrow way that few find is much narrower than we thought with fewer on it than we ever imagined. That being said when a church considers some one to lead the sheep in “musical community worship”, they had better be more than just someone to fill the void or get the job done. They should be more about the heart status of the congregation than whether they looked successful because the people “got into” the worship. John Piper says that we worship in everything. If this is true then those that are good at leading musical worship should be equally as good in worshipping in everything else they do and being able to teach that to their tech team, music team and congregations.
There are two extremes that the church has gone to with regards to worship leaders. The first is attitude of “anyone will do.” I cannot tell you how many events that I have been invited to lead worship at where the only requirements were that I fit in the budget, sing the songs that people like and have a good voice. To illustrate this better than I could here is Voddie Baucham’s view on worship pastors:
“I have a very high view of the role of the worship leader. I view leading worship as a sort of pastoral responsibility to which one must be called, and for which one must be equipped. Unfortunately, we live in a time when every kid who knows five chords and ten songs thinks God has called him or her to be a worship leader. Hence, there is a flood of young, inexperienced, untrained, and often biblically illiterate worship leaders who have done nothing more than learn the top songs off of a few worship CD’s. This is a travesty!
These guys go on to steal songs from men and women whom God has anointed and gifted to write songs, and use them to make CD’s of their own. All of this is done in the name of having “product” to sell on the road, or to promote ones self as a worship leader. Imagine John Mayer going into the studio and saying, “forget the hard work of producing an original album, lets just take the top ten songs from last year and put them all on my new CD this year.” That would be unthinkable! Nevertheless, that is what is happening every day with so-called worship leaders in this current generation; and they think that paying someone a few cents per copy makes it ok. I would rather not be a party to that.
I also do not think it is a good idea to work with people with whom I do not share a ministry philosophy, or theology of worship. I do not think that a worship leader and a preacher should just be thrown into the mix together because they are both “good at what they do,” and they both “love God.” That’s like putting a wishbone quarterback on a run-n-shoot team and expecting him to do well because he has great athletic ability!
A good voice and a love for God is not the sum total of a worship leader’s qualifications. Nor is it the ability to “move a crowd.” There is the question of the depth of one’s theology and how that depth is communicated in the songs one chooses to use, and how one chooses to use them. There is the ability to choose songs that are appropriate for the given audience and occasion. There is the ability to sense where God is leading and moving during a service, or a series of services (I.e. choosing response songs that suit the manner in which God is calling people to respond to what they’ve heard).
These are just a few things that must be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, they rarely enter into the decision of whom one will invite to lead worship. Often, the only questions asked are, “does he do the songs our people like?” and “does he sing well?” That is the type of shallow, carnal approach to ministry I try to avoid.”
Since that quote was lengthy I will consider it self explanatory and digress on the first attitude that churches have taken on worship leaders. The second attitude I believe we have taken in the American church is “inexperienced need not apply.” By this I am not implying that experience is a bad thing and should not be considered when hiring a worship leader. However expierence and skill is often put above the absolute love of Jesus and the call to share the Gospel. Here are some snippets from some online worship leader job descriptions that I saw a few years ago when I was looking for a worship position:
“This person will provide vision and direction for a contemporary worship ministry by supervising, recruiting and equipping worship bands, as well as vocal, drama and technical teams.”
“We are looking for a leader who is passionate about worship, someone who will bring vision to our worship teams. We want someone who will equip our large group of dedicated and gifted volunteers in vocal and instrumental music, drama, dance, visual arts, multisensory interactives, as well the technologies that support worship.’’
“The church has two thriving contemporary worship services and is in need of strong leadership of the worship ministry team. Stylistically, they are playing artists like Crowder, Tomlin, Redman, Brewster, Smith, etc. and really love the congregation to "get into" worship. A worship leader who can teach folks how to "worship" is a must!”
Some may think that these are fine job descriptions. Others may see these as just an overview of the job description with the assumption of more “spiritual” duties unmentioned. Still others may think that these job descriptions are not the norm. To that I say that these are not sufficient biblical job descriptions and unfortunately these are the norm on almost church staffing website that I have visited. These are not even the worst.
Notice that none of the job descriptions lack any sort of unprofessionalism. In fact one could argue that unless you know how to run a state of the art show every Sunday then you are not “called” to be “our” worship leader. Emphasis on things like “multisensory interactives” so that your congregation might “get into” the worship are huge signs of false fire starters. What kind of true regenerate believer needs lights, fog and lasers to know how to or desire to worship the God who saved them from eternal torment in hell and a life of joy in the midst of suffering on this earth? I have been at churches that have tried to hire me after leading one or two “good” worship sessions. The only thing they knew about me was that I was good at music or singing or leading people. They knew nothing of my personal relationship with Jesus, whether I honored and loved my wife, or whether my house was in order (Titus 1). Unfortunately this is the same for youth ministers and lead pastors alike. Preach your best sermon, look the part and act the part and you have the job because you qualify on paper. What happened to the qualifications the Bible gives for a pastor and elder? What if this worship leader or pastor is using your church as a stepping stone towards the better church a little higher on the ladder? (see my blog on Pastoral Longevity here http://sastroope.blogspot.com/2009/10/pastoral-longevity.html
The point I am trying to get to is perhaps the point that I get to in every blog that I post. The church is filled with a lot of people who think they are saved and are not. There is no argueing that. You can use the research from Barna or from the SBC or any other reputable source out there that statistically proves it or you can just read 1 John and realize that by those standards the narrow way that few find is much narrower than we thought with fewer on it than we ever imagined. That being said when a church considers some one to lead the sheep in “musical community worship”, they had better be more than just someone to fill the void or get the job done. They should be more about the heart status of the congregation than whether they looked successful because the people “got into” the worship. John Piper says that we worship in everything. If this is true then those that are good at leading musical worship should be equally as good in worshipping in everything else they do and being able to teach that to their tech team, music team and congregations.
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