Picture the scene … A Sunday morning service, we’re a few songs in and we’re singing a well known song. You’re stood in the pews following along quite happily. Then, the worship leader starts to repeat a new line over and over again to the same chords. Do you:
(a) Disengage and wait until the worship leader sings something else?
(b) Blame the OHP controller for obviously not scrolling the new lyrics onto the projector in a timely fashion?
(c) Repeat the new line over and over again along with the worship leader?
Whilst I was planning for a recent Sunday morning service I was going through a particular song when the words “Up from the grave he arose” came to mind, and I started repeating that over the chorus chords. I felt my soul stirring as I proclaimed the breaking of sin’s sentence over humanity. My next thought was how could I transport this to a Sunday morning? How can I share the subject that God has given me focus on with the wider church? Indeed, is it even worth trying despite the possible a’s and b’s from the list above?
It was mentioned during a worship team meeting recently that we need to be sensitive to how we ask people to worship. The responsibility of leading corporate worship is weighty, the priviledge is often overlooked, and the potential to change the spiritual atmosphere sometimes a missed opportunity for any number of reasons. Forcing people to worship in a specific way that they’re uncomfortable with is to effectively become a stumbling block to them and would breed resentment – a clear distraction from focusing on the Lord!
Yet, we love and are loved by an infinitely compassionate God! Why shouldn’t our worship life be (gently!) extended beyond what we always do? Let us be open to experience God in new ways. Let us allow the Spirit to soften our hearts, draw intimately close to him and embrace modern songs, traditional songs, fast and slow songs, loud and quiet songs, songs with actions, songs with heavy language, lifting our hands or clapping, freely singing what our hearts express, speaking in tongues, praying out loud over music. Let us choose to engage in areas of worship that are outside our normal generational boundaries for God responds to a heart that is wanting to reach him.