April 19, 2009
This past weekend my band Standstill had an incredible opportunity to lead worship at a youth conference called Dnow at Crossroads Community Church. In a nut shell, it was a great time, I’ll post about that some time later cuz it was pretty ground breaking.
Anyway, in the middle of the day we had an opportunity to have coffee with the speaker for the weekend, Erik Smith. Great guy with some incredible challenge. I’d say he really thinks outside of the box of typical Church. Really cool. But we got on to the topic of worship and he said something that kinda woke me up a bit. He said something to the degree of “recorded Christian albums/songs don’t sit well with me. Its not really them, it’s a recording of them. People will listen to the stuff and then take that recording or live recording mindset to church and get frustrated because church and worship isn’t like that. Church is really about the community and whats happening there.” I may have butchered what he said exactly, but it was around the lines of that.
This completely shook me. Not in a bad way, but in a really really good way. So many times, I have listened to a Hillsong United CD and was like, “man I want our church to be like that or I want my youth group to be like that” but you know, if we strived for that same experience all of the time and had our mindset on that, I guess we are focusing on the wrong thing huh? I mean your intentions could be good, You could really have a heart to see the people at your church or youth group to really connect with God, Your thoughts and ambitions could be completely right and Godly and so forth, but what are we doing? We are taking a vision of what God had for a particular individual or a certain event at the time and are applying it to a group of people that it might not be meant for? Who knows they could be stronger that the CD your listening to…is this making sense? I think when we try to make our church or youth groups like the recordings we listen to or the videos we see, we completely rob people of the potential they have. You know? When we force these ideas of “everyone needs to lift hands or everyone needs to worship a certain way” or “these people aren’t really ______ you fill in the blank” we are discounting their individuality.
Now, these visions and things aren’t always bad to have. I mean, with me personally, I took aspects from a local college ministry to my youth group and things started changing rapidly and God was moving. But I didn’t want to make the youth group that ministry. In the same aspect, I have wanted the youth to worship a certain way and that just blew up in my face. I got frustrated and it was just ridiculous. We can’t form people into things that they aren’t. Thats where God comes in. I think when we have these ambitions, they need to be fueled by a passion, not for them to worship a certain way, or your church or youth room to look a particular way, not for numbers to be ridiculous and out the door, but a passion to see God move in your particular group of people. To see God transform and touch people in their own individual way. I mean think about it, wouldn’t it get pretty old if everything was the same way all the time? If every big event was predictable?
So, to wrap this up, after hearing that and thinking this, Standstill was invited to play at the 20 somethings ministry at Crossroads afterwards and we took it. Our time to hit the stage rolled around and there were literally 6 or 7 people out there. Then, the thought came back to me. “Here are 6 or 7 people, we will worship as a community” and it was probably the best set that we played all weekend. I encouraged everyone to worship how ever they felt lead. I didnt need them to stand or raise hands or dance around, I just had a passion for 6 or 7 people to worship with all they had and for my band to give it everything they had. and thats what we did. It was nothing like a Hillsong United CD, it was nothing like a Passion CD, It was nothing like the big churches that we hear about or we see on TV, but it was Crossroads Community Church, worshiping God with all they had.
So I hope you see where Im coming from. Maybe this week as you head off to church or take part or lead your particular ministry, You’ll have your eyes open to the individual potential to your church or ministry. That you will take what you have and let it blossom into its own individual living being. We, the people, are the church. We are not to be boxed in or framed into someone elses vision. God made us free and has equipped us with the talent, creativity, and vision to make your ministry something bigger that what your already experiencing.
What do you think?
