Congregational Worship
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There are many forms of worship that we experience in life. As you scroll through Instagram, attend a conference, or visit your friend’s church, you will see some form of worship, differing in every instance. With that being said, I want to take some time to reflect on our culture of worship, the role of the praise team, and when worship is successful here at Midtown Baptist Temple through our College and Young Adults ministry.
The Culture of Worship
“Too often we fill our hearts with ourselves”
The culture of worship in our churches is derived from our biblical understanding of what worship is. Genesis 22 or the Psalms are great places to begin seeking that understanding. At it’s core, worship is sacrifice of self to receive any and all from the Lord of Lords; true worship is to submit yourself and find yourself standing, sitting or falling at His feet (Please refer back to my previous post for more on worship as individuals). On a larger scale, our culture of worship needs to be one of celebration in this fact. What do we have to celebrate? That Christ has made us alive! We have been purged from our old sins and bought with a price, that price being the life of our beautiful Savior Jesus Christ. Despite our circumstances, our flesh, and the world’s desperate attempts to steal God’s glory or distract us, we celebrate his name, and choose Him.
When I say celebration, that does not mean that our praise sets exclude songs of introspection or sober minded-reflection. But, overall, we are in awe of who God is, what He has done for us and how active He is in our lives. Too often we fill our hearts with ourselves. This looks like reoccurring songs that are all about us and how we feel, or songs that are heavy and slow with the burden of our christian walks and us “getting ourselves together”. Again, moments of introspection like these are not bad, but this heart attitude cannot be the focal point of our worship. Culturally, worship should be a place where the body of Christ gathers to see one another, catch up on life, and invite new members into the family — similar to a holiday feast. Our songs, above all else, praise God, crying out to His goodness and mercy. We sing together with our brothers and sisters, rejoicing as a family. Our souls should heap accolades and thanksgiving to HIS mighty work in our lives. Our praise must be a declaration that God is the God above all gods, he is worthy to be praised and worth putting your faith in. We should sing His many names, sing His mighty acts, and relent our lives into His hands.
Even amid difficulties and hardships, we can still worship the Lord. In fact, this is imperative. If you study the patterns and contexts of sacrifices in your Bible through the Old Testament, you will see sacrifice is always to remember the Lord. In 1 Chronicles 29:20-21, we see how meticulous and grandiose the Levites made their events. This was done to show God’s worthiness of that kind of passion, excellence, and extravagance. Through everything, we must remember this one thing about our God: He is always worth throwing a party over, He is endlessly good and His glory is so much more important than the goings on of my life.
The Role of a Praise Team
“...the true instrument of Sunday morning is the voice of the people”
The role of a praise team in congregational worship is very important. The praise team, regardless of where they stand, is a part of the congregation. We look at passages 1 Chronicles 16 or 1 Chronicles 25 to reflect on what our responsibilities are as a sort of “New Testament Levite”. I could say a lot here, but ultimately the praise team is present for one task: to take the voice of the congregation and help magnify it to Christ. Old-time priests would take the sacrifices of the worshippers of God and sacrifice them to the Almighty for them. Now, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law and he doesn’t require our sacrifices, but our hearts. As the beings breathed into life by God himself we are commanded to worship him and him alone. The praise team is charged with seeing the hearts of the congregation and helping to reflect them towards God, to bring them into His presence.
Knowing this, we must stop and consider some things if our corporate worship begins to look like a concert. There are plenty of statistics about a “lights down, music loud” atmosphere of worship, but an important thing to consider in that scene is this: yes, there are maybe 25% of the congregation down front with their hands up and connecting emotionally with the songs, but the other 75% are in the back, arms crossed and not singing. We know in our society that lights down and something lit up in front of us means it’s time to be quiet and watch. It means entertainment is starting. It’s the environment in a movie theater, at a play or musical — all events that do not require your participation. In our worship, we leave the lights on bright and we don’t blare our instruments because the true instrument of Sunday morning is the voice of the people. However, the praise team can amplify, complement, and facilitate that voice because that is their purpose.
True, celebratory, and glorifying congregational worship will be at its greatest when it stems from worshippers who have a powerful personal worship relationship with the Lord. You build deep believers with deep songs, you build deep community with deep conversations and you build a radical witness with radical worship. The lost world will be affected when they come into a sanctuary or a home and experience sons and daughters of the most High rejoicing in Him through song. When that lost person then goes into a home or visits a bible study and sees the same worshipping heart in the church members even outside of Sunday morning, it is obvious that there is something legitimate about the Jesus Christ that they worship. Worship is a success when people walk from the set having seen, savored, and sang wholeheartedly to Jesus Christ.
“Our praise teams must seek to assist the congregation, not perform for them ”
Our culture of worship must strive to be one that is excited to be together on a Sunday morning, or any gathering, to lift up Jesus Christ. Do not be drawn astray during this time, and please remember to pray for your worship leaders. Our praise teams must seek to assist the congregation, not perform for them.
Uriah Guenther is a discipler and small group leader in Midtown Baptist Temple’s College and Young Adults ministry and is the leader of Temple Worship.