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Worship - perhaps the trendiest Christian thing our culture does. We, especially as the younger generation, have become enraptured and obsessed with this thing we call “worship.” Oxfords, v-neck t-shirts, and skinny jeans have become the uniform of worship leaders. We idolize our worship “pop stars” and we even idolize the lyrics to the newest worship songs released on iTunes. Do not get me wrong. I think this new era of Christian worship music in the church has paved a way for the creativity of the kingdom to be brought forth into our congregations. I think change and relevance is always needed in every area of the church if we are going to reach a changing culture. My problem is, I feel as though we have traded the truth to be trendy and we have begun to worship worshipping. In our efforts to keep up with pop culture and be as creative and out of the box as they are in order to reach our generation, we have started to blur lines. We have abandoned true worship and traded it for a Christian concert every Sunday morning. The title of “worship leader” has almost become the trendiest title in the church. Whenever we hear someone say that they are a worship leader, it is almost as if we instantly idolize that person. But let me remind you, worship was never supposed to be a cool thing we do and it was never supposed to be about worshipping A person but THE person. True worship is powerful. Whenever the people of Israel would march out into battle, God would always send the tribe of Judah, the worship leaders, first. He knows that worship is what will break addictions and bondages off of our lives. Worship is where we will win our victory. Worship is where we get to see the glory of God and where we get to feel the intimacy of His presence and His closeness. But God is not the only one who knows this. Satan also knows this and if he can get our focus off of how powerful worship is and unto how cool the band is or how beautiful the lyrics are, his goal, for God to not get the glory, wins. We must remember, worship was Satan’s job in Heaven. Satan knows more about worship then most of us worship leaders will ever know in a lifetime because He experienced and led it in the throne room of heaven. He ushered the rest of the angles and the elders into the most magnificent choruses of worship. But no matter how beautiful his voice was or how great the band was Satan was kicked out of heaven. I really cannot act like I do not understand Satan’s feelings and think them completely insane. Especially if you are a worship leader, you know how easy it is to see the presence of God move and see people experience God and begin to think that it is you. You can believe that you are the reason for the powerful service and you can even begin to want people to adore you because you are giving them the experience of a lifetime. You see, Satan was not kicked out of heaven because he sang the most modern worship song instead of an old hymn. He was not even kicked out because he wore skinny jeans and had a man bun. He was kicked out because he decided he wanted to be worshiped and that is where I fear our culture of worship leaders is at. We want the popularity more than we want the presence. Worship leaders; let me remind you that it is our job to help our generation really understand what worship is, not to get popularity. It is our job to make sure that we and our teams are not putting on a 30 minute show every week but that we are really giving people an opportunity to encounter the presence of God. It is our job to make sure that we are raising up people who worship God, not our flesh, because that is what got Satan into mega trouble. And worshippers; do not become so obsessed with the songs or the people singing the songs that you forget what they are trying to do and where those songs full of cries of desperation are trying to take you. It is your job to press in past the music and past the voices and worship the almighty creator.
Forever Yours, Kristen