When Excellence Takes Over Worship
Mar 24th, 2008 | By Matt | Category: Matt's BlogSomething that has been on my mind lately is the thing of musical excellence being a hindrance to true worship. Can a team be so focused on achieving technical proficiency at a high professional level that they miss the point of worship altogether?
You need to hear my heart on this. For me, worship is a major key in releasing the anointing and becoming aware of God’s presence. I think that skill and the heart attitude go together, a balance. Saying that, if the worship is pure, it really doesn’t matter how bad the skill level is because God can do anything He wants with anything He wants. So we cannot limit God to how good or bad we are in our musical abilities.
The thing I have been thinking of is : can people get so wrapped up in being so good that the technical execution of the music is all that matters when you get together to practice and when you play on Sunday morning?
I have no answer or major exposition on this topic but would welcome other views and input on this if it affects you in your church.
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wow! thanks for this , i been thinking about joining my youth group, an just need to remember its not about playing drums, its about praising God with drums , or what ever the instrument.
I totally agree with your comments. The Lord says to do everything as unto God, and I always try to remember that it really is for an audience of one. God is who we praise, who the worship goes up to and who the recipient of the music is. If I start worrying about how professional it sounds, then I forget the reason I play the drums in the first place. I was in a worship team that had that very thing happen. The being professional and having the sound be just right was more important than being a habitation for God’s presence. It didn’t work. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t all strive to be better or negate the need for practice. The Bilble talks about playing with skill. I don’t want to be the “clanging cymbal or the resounding gong”, but sometimes things just need to be simple. If you can’t technically keep the beat, you can always fade out to just the cymabals or a shaker or just the bass. It really truly is about the drummer’s relationship to God and his heart towards God. I once got asked to play for a band that would have been a lucrative gig, but because of what they played and where they played it, I just couldn’t prostitute my gift for that, even though I needed the money. So, I agree, technicality is not as important as being led by the spirit. Just remember the heart of the “the Litttle drummer boy” –I played my best for him pa rum pu pum pum……. Just play your best and God will help make you play better.
one again a great discussion! i loved it. however i do have one point on this and the worship ministry at our church and I have had many discussions on this. where is the line drawn on musical talent. what happens if someone wants to play drums or any instrument for that matter, but they honestly can’t play. now, the whole goal of a church is to love everyone with open arms, however if you have a person up there that you know isn’t called to play or sing, how do you confront them. you dont want them to leave the church, however if they are not playing well, it affects the whole congregation. I completely understand the fact that God can and will use anyone, however I have seen in our church how a beautiful service can be affected for the worse by someone that thinks they can play but really can’t. if this comes across arogant I’m sorry thats not my heart, however its a deep discussion that is so hard to answer in a church setting. And don’t get me wrong, i totally agree with the fact that excellence can get in the way, I have seen it. however, is there a line where some sort of excellence has to be reached? thanks again for your posts Matt!!!
hi u all,
my opinion on this is the following: we are a young church for young people; we want to minister to young people from our town, people that want to listen to rap, rock or any other kind of music in church and we want to offer quality - I have a very young band but very talented, most of them are in music school and that helps.
Our goal, when ever we play (do P&W), is to praise and worship, we expect thing to happen (I mean spiritual things), we want God’s presence to be real, we want people to be touched but we believe that skills help us be free on stage to focus on God and we do not want any mistake to be a distraction for anybody (not that it doesn’t happen!)
I am a drummer for 20 years now, worship leader for 2 - and I do tend to practice things until they get very good, but my reason is this: on sunday in worship I want the band to know so well the songs so they can actually worship!!! “I am free to sing” not concetrated on my chords or the fact I do not remember how many times we do the chorus.
So, my idea on excellence is that is needed because on stage we need to be so focused on God, that we do not have the time to mess arround with misunderstanding betweend the leader and the band or the singers.
From my experience, being in worship as a drummer for 20 years almost, I know that my skill really helped me to play at any time, with anybody, and also be so free that I could actually enjoy that time in worship and be a help to the person or band that I have helped.
BUT I HAVE TO AGREE THAT A VERY SKILLFULL PERSON WITH THE WRONG ATTITUDE BEFORE GOD AND THE BAND AND THE CHURCH, CAN BE A PROBLEM IN A BAND!!! SO I ALWAYS TEACH MY YOUNG BAND THAT WE ARE NOT “ROCK STARS” WE ARE WORSHIPERS!!!
So let’s play skillfully but let our skill be a praise unto GOD!
sorry for my english… ;o)
bless u all
Matt, you’ve obviously touched on something here.
Adrian, that’s an excellent point you raise concerning knowing the music thoroughly and being comfortable with it.
And in response to Jared; one church I used to go to had a system where anyone who wanted to play in the Worship Team had to attend the Friday night rehearsals. Everyone was welcome and they would get people of all abilities along. But only when someone was considered to be at an acceptable standard and with the right attitude would they be allowed to play on Sunday. This seemed to work very well and helped avoid difficult situations.
Blessings,
Mick !!0<
Hi, I totally agree with everyone’s statements. I want to add that everyone in the worship team need to be constantly encouraged to realize Who this AWESOME God is whom we worship. So, our “perception” of God must be worked on regularly - that will defenitely help in spontaneously keeping the motive and attitude of the hearts right. That will make me realize that I can worship HIM freely, but with a holy fear… He loves me with an eternal love, but “He can wipe me out if He’d wanted to…” I know He will not do that, but just the thought of that makes me respect Him even more, and even love Him more because, even though He could wipe me out, He doesn’t… (LOVE). So, in practise, I really believe it’ll help if the worship team can really worship together and flow in the Spirit (without the instruments) before practice in order to set the hearts straight, and even read psalms or other pasages in the Bible of who God is - that might also fill each one with a sense of AWE for: Our GREAT GOD! Most important, if I truly worship God at home and in my personal life, I will be “a natural worshipper” when it comes to playing drums in the worship team…
Love you all!!!
Wynie
Hey guys, thanks, that’s awesome, keep ‘em coming!
Hi,
What great comments to a subject that that has and should be addressed.
It really does boil down to God bringing in the right folk for the right job at, the right time. He also gives us wisdom and authority to sort the wheat from the chaff sometimes too. I find God easier to see when I am on my knees.
I agree so much with every word that Wynie typed. You have inspired me - thank you.
In my best Bruce Forsyth…. keeeeeep drumming!!
Brendan
WOW what a conversation, We have a different team play most Sundays except for the drummer, there are two of us but I do most as my friend works most weekends. I have tried to set up a practice session (we rehearse for hour and a half before a service) but because of everyones different family committments this hasn’t happened. This puts us under a lot of pressure on a Sunday morning and we sometimes loose focus as to why we are there. We do pray for help and guidence from the Holy Spirit before the service begins and that we focus on him and not us.
We all have differnet levels of talent and our church does encourage us all the time, and as someone has already said, we re not profesional, but we should strive to give God the very best we can.
God bless
Joe
Hi Joe,
I picked up something in what you said, and I want to discuss it with you in the forum under “General chat” if you want. So, I’ll post it under the heading “When exelence takes over Worship”. So, talk to you there, or anyone else who wants to join that specific line of thought.
Wynie
It may be best to continue here as it seems most people have been discussing this post here, if that is ok with you? Otherwise you are welcome to use the forum if you so choose!
Hi again Joe,
I see I cannot post under that heading a new reply, so look under the heading “Leadership’s roll in worship” in the “General chat section”…
Wynie
April’s featured video is from Paul Baloche discussing “My worship team won’t practice”. Check it out!
Hiya Wynie
I will check out what you saud
God bless
Joe
Great web site and topic !!! I am struggling at my church with this. I have been drumming for about about 25 years and am struggling terrilbe with my tempo. We do the new songs like Matt Redman and Charlie Hall and such, I guess I am old school like 80 ’s or 90″s worship. Practice my butt off with MP3″s of the songs but I am constantly dragging down the rest of the team while struggling along. My worsip leader is VERY technical and wants the songs to be exactly like the recordings. I write out a cheat sheet with all the changes and dynamics but wonder if I am to OLD to play this new stuff!? I feel very much out of place but .. drummin is what I do so it is a learing experince for me. Teach me Lord to play this new stuff and help me keep the old tempo !!
Maybe have a chat with your worship leader, share your heart about where you’re at. Do you play with a metronome? Do you have a metronome? I would suggest that as a start for learning how to stay in time. I have recently started practicing my rudiments with a metronome at different tempos so I learn to ‘lock in’ the tempo and be disciplined when playing.
Old school is still cool and you’re never too old!!
Johnnyh, I fully agree with Matt (sharing your heart and rudiment practice at different tempo’s). You can tell your worship leader that a friend of yours (that’s me…your new friend) sugested that your worship team make room for own creativety. It’s good to immetate the original recordings, but it’s not a law and there are higher values than “wants the songs to be exactly like the recordings”. There must be a healthy balance between original sounds, ability and craetivety, otherwise it’s going to lead to discouragement and frustration in the hearts of the “less able” musicians. In our band we follow the basic “sound-line” of the song, but also mixed with a lot of our own “less able” stuff, and it sounds good… (well I hope so…haha)
God bless you on your journey!
Wynie
Guys, Thanx for the comments, Ya, Matt, I do not have a metrenome and we have talked about me getting one. I will be looking into getting one I usally can lock in once I get to practise with the whole band I guess last week was just a nightmare but when we hit the stage on Sunday moring it went really well !!! Go figure !!! Wynie, when I first aductioned for the band I talked with my leader about what you said and really ther is no room for that on Sunday. I even one time said let’s just jam the end of service as everyone files out and you would have thought I was speaking in tounges !!! So I will work on the tempo and keep the faith and if It works out fine if not I will step down and look for a wedding band to play for…. Ha me in a tux YIKES !!!
I’m sorry guys for the awful spelling !!! I will proof read next time.. Johnnyh……..
I think a tux makes us guys look pretty good, it’s not often we get to look cool on purpose!
Ha Matt !!!! You are right !!!
“…I once got asked to play for a band that would have been a lucrative gig, but because of what they played and where they played it, I just couldn’t prostitute my gift for that, even though I needed the money…”
Derek,
I appreciate your making a stand where you felt you wouldn’t be comfortable…I have made those decisions myself many times. I’m not sure if it was the content of lyrics that made you feel you couldn’t play with this band or if they were playing in a place (like a strip club) that would cause you to violate your conscience, but if neither of these is true and it’s just a question of playing secular music in a bar, for instance, I would encourage you to reconsider playing with this band, not because of the money (though God may have been providing for you through this), but because you may be the only Jesus the guys/girls in this band ever know.
todd
I have been involved in music making at a number of churches all open to encouraging poeple to be involved, most have operated a ‘come to the rehearsals and we will allocate you to a team’ approach, this works on many levels, learing the music before playing in church, learining how to worship using your musical gifts, you cannot lead where you have not been! and developing the enthusiastic players in their skills in an encouraging environment, yes the Lord can use us all and we are told to make a joyful noise nto the lord, but we have a duty if God has called us to be involved in worship and music making in the same way a prophet must spend time in gods prescence anf learning his word we must spemnd time in His prescence and honing our musical skills.
Hey Russ, thanks for your input. Time in God’s presence changes many things!
I would like to add a comment based on my concept of a perfect worship team, my dream worship team.
1) We have a regular practice, every week BEFORE Sunday, with everyone on time
2) We practice individually and work hard to better our skills
3) We have a devotion and group prayer when we meet to at our regular practice
4) Everyone prays at the practice because they want to and feel comfortable doing it
5) Sometimes we don’t practice because we spent the time in prayer (where did the time go?)
6) Sunday worship is Spirit led and not just confined to the ‘worship set’
7) Sometimes we don’t even use the band during our worship times
ah, the perfect worship team.