Worship today in many churches can almost be a formula. “We’ll do two fast and two slow,” this seems to be the most popular way of worship for a lot of churches. There is a purpose for the order, after all God himself tells us to have order in our services. 1 Corinthians 14:40 says, “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” I am not against having orderly services. What I am trying to understand and learn more of is having the heart of God when it comes to worship. I have been a worship leader for over 15 years and have led worship in various settings and in 4 different countries, and what I have seen and experienced the world over is that when people come with the heart of God rather than trying to follow a specific formula of “we’ll do this song exactly 2 times and this song for this long…” that God shows up! Yes, we make our plans and try to follow them so that we stay in order with the service, but we must also make room for the holy spirit to move amongst us, after all the bible says that where 2 or more are gathered in His name, he is there in their midst.” Mathew 18:20. In the preceding verse (19) Jesus says that when two or more agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
If we want God to show up in our worship we must agree together for his presence to be amongst us rather than focusing on our little formula and perfectly smooth program. The key for God to show up is unity and having a heart that longs to be close to Him. I am constantly drawn to the verse in Isaiah 29 which states, “these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” (v. 12-14) I myself have been guilty of this several times. I have stood in the front leading others into worship but my heart was far from God. My focus was on how great our team sounded or how awful someone was singing and sometimes even on worrying about what the pastor was thinking about how our team sounded. Even now as I write this my heart grieves looking back at the times when my heart was not focused on God, my lips were saying all the rite things, yet my heart was far from God.
Our main purpose as worship leaders is to bring the people into agreement about one thing, How Great Our God is. Our job is to be in unity with one another and to bring everyone else into agreement. This way God will answer when we call upon Him, He will do what we ask of Him if our hearts are for Him, in agreement with one another in unity. The more I lead worship, I only become more convinced that my job is to bring the people into agreement proclaiming the Greatness of our God for that is what softens the heavy heart. God may we honor you not only with our lips but with our hearts for you, that we may proclaim your greatness to the ends of the earth!
