Worshipping the Worship

Anne Jackson is a blogger and honest follower of Christ.   Anne posted some great thoughts on the Hypocrisy of Worship.

Seems like we are all wrestling with the same thing; is God as tired of our songs as we are of singing them? Aside: check out the Tired/Orphan Blood song here.

Don't get me wrong: corporate worship has a place. Hey, I make part of my living leading worship :> It is biblical, but I don't think God's dream is getting lullabied (is that a word?) while fellow humans are suffering. Are we singing and doing nothing else with our lives? That's not called worship, that's singing songs.

At exchange, we are contemplating a new series called "Live Like We Sing"  (thanks Shawn).  So, my question to you:

What phrases do you feel like we keep singing in our songs? We may take some of those and address what it would really mean to live like we sing.  Please comment below!

2008 by Scot Longyear at Resonate

photo by hiddedevries

Comments

[jess w]

Hey, in response to Susan...

Thanks so much for the comment. I found it very interesting to read your perspective, and I agreed with the things you said.

It is very hard as a worship leader to pick songs that are only about God and his attributes. There are so few songs like this! Or, should I say, there are so few popular songs, songs that the cool people in my church are actually interested in singing. Many of the favourite songs are songs about how "we gotta be more passionate!".

So thanks for the reminder. I think it's worthwhile to find the songs (even write my own, if I have to!) that are actual worship songs. I will be looking through our song file and hi-liting the ones that talk specifically about God and who He is. He's the unchanging one, regardless of where we are at when we're singing!

[Jon]

I feel like we are missing a certain "joy" and "amazement" in our worship... many songs say how "lost" we are or how "desperate" or "hungry"

We serve an amazing God, who satisfies everything we need... we are to PRAISE him... not plead with him because we are flawed beings, he wants our "highest praise" how is it praising or father when we constantly ask for more... is it about the worhiper or He who we worship? God is crying out to US to love HIM... we dont need to beg and plead for God to show up... we need to thank him for being there at all times...

worship is to emo.. to use a common phrase in music today...

we need more praise.. much more praise...

[Susan]

I found that post about hypocrisy in worship discouraging. The writer of the article indicated that it makes her cringe when she hears someone speak enthusiastically about worship. She suspects that the people who are worshipping so enthusiastically are actually not living the way they should be. And she thinks they ought to examine themselves and live right rather than saying things in worship that they don't really mean.

I'm not sure why I find that so deflating and depressing, but I do. Maybe it's because I spent so many years trapped by legalism ... so what makes ME cringe is even the thought of examining my life to see if I'm doing as many good works as I should be before I worship God. I do need to examine myself to see if my eyes are on God and if I'm open to his voice and his direction, but as far as checking my status card of good works to see if I'm good enough? No.

But perhaps she doesn't mean that at all. She refers to "empty devotion and dedication." Perhaps what bothers her is that the songs she hears people singing are devotion and adoration songs, and she thinks people should be more devoted and adore God more before they sing songs like that.

Personally, I think devotion and adoration songs aren't really worship songs at all, and they can certainly make liars out of us if our mood isn't a certain way or if our instructions from God are different from the songwriter's. But I think the problem is more often with the song than with the person. For example, this song:

This day. You have chosen me. To walk beside the lost.... This is the day that I have chosen ... to walk beside the lost, to tell them of the love that sets them free. etc.

This song is not about God, it's about me and about how devoted and committed I am, specifically how much more devoted I am than I was yesterday, and also about specific plans. If I haven't made plans to witness to the unsaved that very day, I'm singing a lie.

Other songs that make a liar out of me are songs that express a specific mood I might not be feeling at that moment. For example:

I'm desperate for you ...
I've never felt so happy ...
All I ever want to do is praise you ...

In my opinion, the solution is not to start beating ourselves for not being passionate enough, but to stop singing so many songs that are about what intense and wonderful worshipers we are, and to start singing more songs about God and what he's like.

With worship songs -- that is, songs expressing appreciating to God for who he is -- I don't have to worry about being hypocritical. For example, this song:

Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are all your ways,
King of the ages.

That's true and I can sing it out even when I'm feeling crappy, and if God has called me to baby-sit rather than to evangelize that day I'm not lying either.

I don't have a lot of experience with corporate worship, since most of my church experience is in churches that do more teaching than worshipping. I'm interested to hear what others have to say on this subject.