After I read through these chapters again (for the third time) I had underlined, circled, and wrote comments in the margins all over the place. There is a lot of good thoughts and questions that are brought up in these chapters that could be discussed but I'll just comment on a few ideas and questions that stood out to me the most. Please add comments about any areas that you found particularly enlightening, that you had questions about, or in response to the thoughts I had.
Right on the first page of chapter 1 (page 15) Kauflin brings up the issue of "going through the motions" during a worship service time after time after time and how this can lead worship teams to a feeling of pointlessness and hopelessness in what they do. I confess that I have had this feeling of pointlessness many times over the last 9 years that I have been a part of leading worship.
What I've found is that when I begin to feel this way it usually is because my focus has begun to shift away from what is important, namely God. It's easy to get caught up in "playing to the crowd" where instead of wanting to please and honor God with our worship time I begin to want to please and honor the congregation.
Pleasing the congregation is certainly not a bad thing, but when that becomes my goal, pride starts to creep in. I want the audiences approval, I begin to accept applause from the congregation instead of joining them in applauding God, it becomes all about me and how well I did instead of about God and how great He is. When this happens then it has become a truly pointless and hopeless venture for me. As Kauflin puts it "That's exactly what it would be like without [God] - pointless." (p. 19). Worship matters when God is the object of our worship. If we replace God with anything else, whether it be ourselves, entertainment, pleasure, or people, our worship truly becomes pointless.
Another point that stood out to me was when Kauflin said "In too many churches we detected a disconnect between the God they worshiped on Sundays and the one they seemed to follow during the week." (p. 18). This made me ask myself, "Am I (are we as a worship team) consistent in following God from Sunday to the rest of the week? Am I (are we) maintaining a relationship with Him by setting aside time to specifically talk with Him and study His word each day? Are my (our) choices and decisions honoring Him as I (we) choose what movies and TV shows to watch, what music to listen to, what websites I (we) frequent? Is the way I (we) speak bring Him glory when talking with friends or strangers?
These are questions and issues I've encountered and struggled with before (as I'm sure you probably have as well) but this was a good reminder and helped me to see how much I need His grace and helped remind me that there are areas in my life that I need to be giving over to Him in order to be more consistent from my Sunday worship to my worship during the rest of the week.
There were so many points that made an impression on me that I could go on and on, but that would simply take too long and I'm sure you're tired of reading my thoughts by now. What are some thoughts and/or questions you had in the reading this week?
I go along with Kauflin's perspective of its got to be from our heart. Sometimes when I am up front I am more worried about how I look to the congregation than my own worship Other times I get lost in the words of a particular song that points out my brokenness and I just about lose it with tears rolling down my face. I hope we can encourage folks to take "Sunday" through out the coming week.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree, Dad (Enalo). Our hearts need to be in our worship of God for it to be worthwhile, otherwise it is nothing but a "resounding gong" to Him. We need to have an honesty and authenticity as we honor and glorify God. Hopefully the more we have authenticity the more the congregation will be willing to join in, especially if they can see that our worship is authentic and consistent throughout each week beyond Sunday mornings.
ReplyDeleteI am really thankful at the timing of us reading this book as I and a few others are planning worship for our Women's retreat. Already I have sensed some division and this book is a reminder that it is not about us, but about glorifying Him. I really appreciate his honesty about pride. It really reminds me that in any ministry that God has me, it's important to check my motives and keep my eyes focused on Him.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that a lot of times we (Christians in general) do things in the name of "ministry" but after a while it becomes more in the name of "me" instead as we try to achieve our own self-serving goals. That's a good reminder, to always "check our motives and keep our eyes focused on Him" in whatever ministries God has placed us. Thanks Michele.
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