Friend:
I’ve been hearing much about “worship participation” recently and how much of a consumer mindset has begun to pervade Christian communities.
The insight is that what happens on stages on Sunday mornings is beginning to be more and more of a concert performance rather than an invitation to participation.
This is a conversation we should have, but it extends outward past mere participation.
What do you think the difference is between participation and partnership?
Can’t wait to hear your insights below!
Me:
You've seen it. A familiar song comes up in the set and everything changes. We do way too many new songs, and so many of them are out of singing range. Add to that the fact that many of the new songs are simply trendy, not quality. Bad doctrine, bad lyrics, and they all sound about the same. We don't need to do songs from the 80s or whatever, but we do need to acquire familiarity with our songbook, and that songbook ought to reflect the best that's available. With thousands of quality songs, plus the sparsely played originals, this shouldn't be too hard. Further, we need to keep it firmly in mind that worship is for God’s pleasure, not ours. I'm so weary of perfunctory worship crowded into 20 minutes, only to be interrupted by the announcements. Well... you asked.
Friend:
I did indeed! Questions are an invitation to intimacy through self-disclosure and replies are an RSVP to the same!
To breathe this back, I hear that a large song bank of new songs, performance level key ranges, trend-sharing lyrics, etc... wars against mere compliant participation: it leaves people set back on their heels before the first chord drops by not serving to provide a context even FOR compliant participation. This is where I hear you saying, when a song comes around that people are familiar with, there is a surge in participation. With the previous, people are just stuck watching something while trying to figure out to merge into it. Familiarity, consistency, and clarity are fixes for compliant participation. Am I hearing that correctly?
These fixes all promote people to join the sound of room, but they don't get people into the circled woman's posture, which is where the last bit of your reply speaks, I think. Solve every accessibility problem in the entire "worship ministry world" and it could still, in principle, never produce a posture of surrendered worship.
A service perfectly engineered for pacing, efficiency, and engagement (right songs, right keys, right runtime, right lyrics, right doctrine, nothing that would make anyone trip mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, doctrinally, etc) can be a flawlessly executed participation machine and still structurally exclude partnership, because partnership needs something efficiency can't budget for: unhurried, unscripted time where a person can go to the floor and the room not only lets this happen but promotes it to happen. We can fix every song on the setlist and still rush past the twenty seconds where covenant would have happened because we weren't thinking about partnering with God, we were focused on complying with participation. Again, I hear this in your allusion to "perfunctory worship crowded into 20 minutes, only to be interrupted by announcements."
I hear that the first portion of your thoughts draws in what's fighting against getting to a mere level of compliant participation; and that the last explains why compliant participation, even when done well, still isn't covenant partnership.
Do you feel like I'm understanding what you've shared well?
Friend 2
Perfectly performing perfunctory praises, perpetuates personal pride propped up by personality and position.
In my yester-year (aka "back in my day"
)...I've played drums in many bands, churches, groups (from a few people to thousands of people) and I STILL go back to the times I've looked at as moments we met with God and worshiped Him in Spirit and in Truth were the small intimate settings singing a capella or in the small churches with acoustic guitars, cajuns/djembes, voices, and the affection and adoration we brought to God.I've also been a tech director, bought lasers, refilled hazer machines, hung and programmed moving lights, walls of subs, learned how to dial in the sound, compression, reverb, delay, and EQing...and been moved and experienced God in those moments as well.
The question I guess would still not be "which do I prefer?"...but rather "which one does GOD prefer?" I would say that I think what moves the heart of God is what resonates with the heart of man because God has created us with His heart...and for those of us who are in Christ have had our hearts of stone removed and given a heart of flesh, we have a heart that is aware when it resonates with the joyful heart of our joyful Father.
Friend 3:
I so appreciate this conversation. Is it possible some are looking for an “experience” of worship rather than worshipping? We need to define worship correctly. Worship is sacrifice to one we recognize as superior.
- Psalm 51:17 (KJV) The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
- Hosea 14:2 (KJV) Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive [us] graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
- Romans 12:1-2 (KJV) 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Music is simply one medium through which we can corporately sacrifice together in our meeting together.
Unless we participate in worship, become a partner in worship (present our bodies a living sacrifice) we don’t experience worship.
The new covenant is God’s instruction written on our hearts. That’s Torah, all of it, in us: including the third book. Worship is important. We need to define it correctly and do it.
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