I was recently leading worship at an event where the MC announced to the congregation, “Make sure you arrive on time to our next gathering! We’ll be jumping right into the thick of things and we won’t have any ‘worship filler.’” Besides struggling with my personal feelings of being devalued, I had to contend with my own willingness to get offended by such a blatant disregard for what should be prioritized rather than marginalized.
In our western culture, we often believe that the most obvious and impactful methods for communicating truth is through teachings and lectures. While I strongly value the need to exhort God’s people and accurately teach the Word of God, perhaps we might consider that time spent listening and responding to God Himself in worship times could have an even greater impact on the Community of Believers to understand how to apply and obey the truth of God’s Word.
In worship, we are called to look past our circumstances and understanding in order to proclaim that God is God and we are not
When we engage with the presence of God in worship, we position ourselves to better understand and commit to obedience. Worship itself is an act of obedience that defies our selfishness and egocentric tendencies. In worship, we are called to look past our circumstances and understanding in order to proclaim that God is God and we are not. We position ourselves to hear that the God we adore indeed has intense affections for us, and the more we understand the fact that He loves us, the easier it is for us to obey what He is calling us to.
It seems we tend to rely on our sermons to call people to obedience because we don’t trust that God Himself can call people to advance His Kingdom according to His design. Perhaps we rely on our eloquent speeches because we are convinced that listening to God is too difficult for the average believer, so therefore it is up to us to call His people toward action.
While these teachings and exhortations can and should be powerful, we simply cannot allow them to dominate all of our gatherings at the cost of diminishing or devaluing time spent together in worshiping at the feet of the One who promises that His faithfulness can be trusted because He indeed loves. When we finally come to a place of revelation, where God’s love is personally experienced, we can then in abandon and gladness follow wherever He leads.
Are you interested in exploring this topic further? Join Kristy and the rest of our Worship Arts Department this spring for The Well.
The Well is a hands-on training and practicum program for worship leaders and worship musicians. This program is designed to challenge worship musicians by moving beyond simple worship sets towards a more integrated worship model that places a high emphasis on response to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
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Thank you for writing this. I am a worship leader myself and often I was baffled by people’s misconception of worship through music. I guess if you haven’t been there….’Cause if you have you couldn’t call that “sweet intimate time of gazing at Him just because He is” a filler. God bless you and your team of passionate worshippers!
Hi Kristy, thank you for this lovely article. I wonder what kind of church background the young man who made that comment is from? In our faith tradition (Presbyterian) we refer to the entire event as “the Worship service.” For us it is all worship–praise, thanksgiving, adoration, prayers, the sermon…and even the offering. It is an all encompassing holistic understanding of worship and as such there is no part of the service that can be called filler!
Worshiping God brought me to my knees and repentance, not listening to a sermon. We need to worship God no matter how we feel – we worship because GOD is GOD and to Him should go all our praise. In the church where I grew up some people think the songs are a ´preparation for the sermon´. I wish they would understand it is so much more! Singing songs of worship is not preparing you for hearing from God; He already speaks to us in the midst of the worship!
However, I´ve also been in churches where worship has become the main focus and people spend most of their time soaking in Gods love (and that in itself is not a bad thing, of course) but then there was very little teaching of the word. We need BOTH! We need to go deep into the word of God and hear the Truth through sound teaching AND spend time giving Him glory and honor and thanks and everything because He is worth it, and because He loves it when we are in His presence!!! Bless you!!!
BEAUTIFUL ARTICLE KRISTY. ENJOY HEARING FROM YOU ABOUT YOUR MINISTRIES. GOD BLESS YOU AND JEFF AND FAMILY . ALICE M.