So I was preparing for a coaching meeting with a new worship leader, and I was reading the chapter in the book we're going through called "How To Lead Worship Without Being A Rock Star."
In the second chapter, author Dan Wilt lays out five worship values based on his church context. They are:
- Intimacy
- Accessibility
- Integrity
- Cultural Connection
- Kingdom Expectation
And reading the descriptions prompted me to write my own. They are:
- God-centric
- Authentic
- Inviting/Welcoming
- Moving/Stretching/Growing/Discipling
- Free
- Grounded and Very Broad
Maybe it'd be helpful to say just a bit more of each of them.
God-centric
I needed to say that He is the Host, that it's His party,
that everything is centered and gathered around Him. As we as leaders create
spaces where people can meet with God, it can be easy to focus on the people,
on us, on what songs we picked, on...stuff other than God.
Authentic
Man, is this you? I want to make sure that you buy it before I'll connect. You be you. And hey, this likely isn't a stadium of
Australians or Mega-church Texans that you're leading, so it probably won't
feel, look, or sound the same. You guys be you guys. Don't compare or imitate,
but be inspired by the other guys...and then translate it to your hometown.
Inviting/Welcoming
When
I worked at Starbucks, we were taught that we needed to be welcoming. There
was none of this scripted junk that we had to say or mandate that we needed to
greet a customer when they got to within 6 feet of us...but we by all means
needed to make them glad they were there. We could learn from that...from how
we talk to folks, to the way we open ourselves and lead vulnerably, to the
volume we choose at the beginning. No rules, just make sure that what you
choose to do has a good chance of making them feel like maybe, just maybe, they
belong there.
Moving/Stretching/Growing/Discipling
Entertainment? Feeling good? Sentimental fuzzies? Comfort? Um, no. When we lead worship, we are to be making disciples. It's our job to stretch people a little. (A little!) They should be just a little deeper in their relationship, a little more sold out, a little more fearless, a little more Christian (read: little Christs) when the last song is sung.
Free
So here's a sure way to tell if God's Spirit is at work in a
room: there's freedom happening. Every Sunday morning, there's this little
thing that tries to bite you in the heel or backside to make you tense up,
formalize, get churchy...and it's not
nerves. It's just not the Holy Spirit at work. Kick that thing. Tell it off.
Send it to its place...back where it came from. Abide in the Vine and bear the fruit of those things against which there is no law! :-D (Galatians 5:22)
Grounded and Very
Broad
Here's a newsflash: Church didn't start on May 4, 1972. It's
been happening for a loooong time! Praise choruses and hymns are a great place
to start in the lineup with current tunes, but did you know? Chants, Kyries,
twelve-tone beauties...are all part of Our
music heritage. So dig in. And while we're at it, we have such breadth in what
we could be using. Musically, perhaps we should ask WWHD?
There are so many more textures and grooves and ensembles and combinations and
arrangements and...I mean, use this
as a launching pad...it'll make you rethink throwing away that old typewriter!
Oh, so what's special about that 05.04.72 date? Christopher
Dwayne Tomlin joined us.
