Worship Matters - Part 1

We (the worship and pastoral staff) at our church have begun the process of walking through Bob Kauflin's book "Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God". This book is so well written. Bob brings his wisdom, gained from years of experience leading and pastoring, and weds it beautifully with sound Biblical teaching. No other book on the topic of worship has had a greater impact on my life and my ministry then this book. It is both convicting and encouraging. J.I. Packer says, "The right words do not gurantee the right thought.". Kauflin takes the word worship and does a brilliant job of making sure the reader has the correct thought when using that word. I would put this book in the hands of EVERY church leader if I could. The culture has had too much of an influence for too long on how the church approaches corporate worship. This book has thrown itself in front of that bus and said - "STOP! What are you doing? Where are you taking us?"



Their are six of us on staff walking through this book together - the three worship leaders and the three teaching pastors. We are asking ourselves tough questions about the health of our church and what kind of a worshipping community we are building, and we are asking what personal views of worship do we hold that are helping us reach our goal or hindering the process. We will meet each Wednesday together and talk about this and I will post my personal thoughts after each meeting. For the protection of those involved in those conversations and for the protection of CCCC I will reveal only my OWN personal reflections and am in no way speaking on behalf of CCCC.



THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS FROM DAY 1

• It is of infinite importance that we as leaders model lifestyle worship. Our personal lives must line up with what is happening on stage. We must do everything within our power to keep our hearts engaged with God on a daily, moment by moment, basis. Worship is about what we do, what we love, what we enjoy the most. Is the answer to those questions God - if it's not then there is some heart work that needs to take place. Questions we addressed pertaining to this issue were. What idols do I struggle with? What idols does CCCC have?


• I have come to realize that I am a product of a worship generation that values musical skill, charisma, and emotion over correct theology and doctrine. It's not that we ignore it or deny it, but it is not the driving force behind what we do. When I came to an understanding that leading corporate worship was going to be my focus of ministry life I made a very unwise decision. I left the Bible program at the school I was in and began to work on my music and leadership skills. I had it backwards - I should have finished the Bible program. My mind - while not theologically deprived - had a very small understanding of theology and doctrine. I began to study "worship leaders" instead of studying God. I began to give my attention to crafting a finely tuned worship service that had great emotional flow - if it was theologically and doctrinally sound that was a plus - but that wasn't taken into consideration at the outset of planning. When I read scripture, I read it not to change my life or inform my mind, but to find scriptures that either supported what I was doing or verses that could be used to emotionally affect the service. We all agreed with Kauflin's conclusion when he states - "A worship leader who barely knows the Bible can't be a faithful worship leader." I haven't given the attention needed to theology and doctrine because it is hard. It is easy to plan services, to play the piano or guitar and sing and see people moved - why put in the hard work and read and study and discern truth? That's the pastors job, right? I don't need to know all that stuff. WRONG. Mark Dever says in a talk he gave in 2002 at a worship conference (paraphrase) - After the pastor, the next strongest theologian in your church should be whoever leads worship. WOW - that's strong. Again - I'm not saying I'm a dunce when it comes to theology and doctrine - but I KNOW I do not have a grasp on these things as well as I should. Again, we agreed with Kauflin that it is not easy, but it is imperative - "We want everything abridged, dumbed down, and in today's lingo, so we don't have to think too much or examine our lives to closely. Those attitudes are unacceptable if we want to display the glories of God through song each Sunday. Given our small minds, our absolute dependance on revealed truth, and the immensity of God, how can we think there's an easy path to knowing the God we worship?" (emphasis added). One of the many problems and baggage that my generation of worship leaders brings to the table is that we are more familiar and skilled with "wow-ing" a crowd then we are with knowing God as revealed in His word. Kauflin summed it up much better by saying - "My prayer for myself and every worship leader is that we'll become as familiar with the Word of Truth as we are with our instruments. Hopefully even more so. If we do, there's a strong possibility people are going to walk away from our meetings more amazed by our God than by our music." THAT - is my prayer and my desire.

I have begun the process of correcting my course. For the last 15 years I have led worship by doing what I saw other people do, saying what other people said, singing what other people sing - but glory to God that His grace has covered my weakness and error. It is long over due for worship leaders to begin to verbalize their theology of worship, to tackle sound doctrine and right theology. It is time to put down the guitar and pick up the Bible - worship matters - and we must begin to THINK about it correctly!