Leading Worship Not Just Music.
By Jake Barreth (Worship Pastor of www.lifechurchmiami.org)
I used to live right across from the University of Miami. It was great because I could hang out with all of the college students and enjoy campus life without ever having to take classes. I would attend Bird Road Baptist Church and one of my roommates, Joel, was the worship leader there. He was a great worship leader and had such a deep and personal relationship with music that he wouldn’t hear music so much as he would feel it. He was from New Zealand but won a scholarship to come to the United States to get his masters degree in music percussion. He would say things like, “New Zealand is the best!” and “Peter Jackson for president,” and “bloody stupid Americans.” I met Joel, funnily enough, while going to watch one of the Lord of the Rings movies at a local theater and invited him to church that week. Anyway I would usually play lead guitar or bass for Joel while he led worship. In the two years that we were roommates I learned more about music than in any other time in my entire life.
One Sunday Joel was leading worship and the whole service seemed to crescendo to an ear blisteringly loud and amazingly worshipful moment, every vocal chord in the sanctuary was strained to its fullest volume in sincere and heart felt worship toward God (Joel was SO great at leading people through music; like I said, he felt it more than he heard it and that made a big difference.) Everyone was proclaiming the name of God at the top of their lungs, our worship was massive and with each cymbal crash our music resonated louder and louder, it was as if we were being wrapped up inside the music; as if a blanket of Goosebumps and warmth and power surrounded us. What happened next was one of the most powerful worship experiences of my life. The music rose higher and higher and louder and louder with every beat; the energy was almost too much to bear and at its peak Joel signaled the band and with a mighty CRASH…
There was silence.
Joel didn’t speak… and I didn’t breathe. For a good 2 minutes there was no music, no preaching, there was nothing but silence. I looked out from the stage and saw hands raised and heads bowed and through squinted, tightly closed eyes the faintest glimmer of a tear like a hot spark fell down the cheek of a young lady. Another glimmer caught my eye and I saw another spark hanging in the corner of an eye owned by an old wrinkly man; and there, another spark on my pastors chin, and another and another… There we stood. Together. Worshipping God in silence. The power of the silence was amazing. After a few minutes Joel prayed and the band played one final song.
That day we went to one of our favorite Cuban restaurants for lunch. I asked Joel about the music. I said something like, “How on earth did you come up with that moment of silence?” in-between mouthfuls of rice and beans he said, “Sometimes the best songs are the ones you don’t sing. Silence is an often-overlooked tool in music.” After a few more minutes of chewing on fried plantains Joel said, “Sometimes I try to plan an entire worship service around a single moment. It might be a prayer or time of meditation or a certain chorus that I feel God has really been laying on my heart. Today it was silence. Everything that we played and sang before and after that moment I chose as to enhance that particular moment of silence.” We spent most of the rest of lunch in silence while I thought about what he said. In the car on the way home Joel rounded out his thoughts in an offhand remark stating, “Worship is all about God; it’s about bringing God our most sincere, heartfelt offering of praise. Today we reminded people that it’s all about God, not music.”
I couldn’t have put it any better.
I think that as worship leaders if we genuinely pursue the heart of God for every worship service first, and then use music as a tool to bring the message that God has lain on our hearts then we begin to lead people in worship and not just lead people in music. God is searching for people who will worship him through genuine praise, and as worship leaders it is our responsibility to do everything within our power to help a congregation achieve this. I think this verse sums it up pretty well.
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
-John 4:23
1 comments:
You mentioned in your intro that you had submitted this piece to some publications and had had no response. The essence of the piece is powerful but it needs to be reorganized a bit to grab the attention of a busy editor. I can show you better than I can tell you. Drop me a note and I'll elaborate.
But at any rate, you have written something very profound and worth sharing.
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