Worship Leading Is Not Performing

In the early part of the 19th Century, Soren Kierkegaard made the argument that worship leaders should be facilitators, not performers.  He put it this way:

 

We often think

God is the Prompter

Worship Team is the Performer

Congregation is the Audience

 

What We Should Think

Worship Team is the Prompter

Congregation is the Performer

God is the Audience

 

First, it’s nice to know that performance during worship was an issue just as much in the 19th Century church as it is in today’s church.

Secondly, Kierkegaard’s argument is especially important in our current culture of consumerism that exists both outside the church and within.  We devour media all day long, via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, live and DVD’d concerts, movies, TV series, and Netflix (the list could go on and on), which in part makes us passive as we sit back and let the talented, creative few dictate the influences in our society.

Consumerism during a worship set on Sunday morning is just as rampant, as people think that the worship team is supposed to do the hard work of preparing and executing worship while the people in the seats sit by, take it all in, and join in here and there on the parts of the songs they like. Huge lights and HD cameras only exacerbate the sense of divide between the band and the congregation.

So we have to work against that.

While I’m all for musical excellence and spiritual depth expressed by the worship team, it’s just as much the congregation’s responsibility to come ready to be the worship leaders every Sunday service.

The band should be the prompters, not the performers.

The people are the performers.

God is the audience.

It’s about the congregation worshiping, not about the worship team performing well.

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~ by Kevin George Carey on July 5, 2011.