The second half of the worship leader interview is up at Consuming Worship.
What great worship risks have I taken? What are my predictions for the future of worship in the Church? Find out and tell me I’m all wet.
You’re currently reading “My Fifteen Minutes Are Almost Up,” an entry on myopic pilgrim
cool interview. I particularly like the quote about back past the Reformation and beyond Matt Redmond.
It reminds me of this Billy Graham quote. At some point during the cold war, he went and met with the Soviets. On his return, someone complained that “he had set the church back 50 years.” His response was “Oh, I’m sorry about that. I was hoping to set it back 2,000 years.”
I’m interested also in your notion of the worship leader’s job being ‘not to make people worship, but to create the environment for them to worship.’ I guess I’m not sure what this means for the worship leader’s responsibility. I get that the worship leader can’t make people worship probably in the same way that the evangelist can’t make someone believe. But when you say ‘create the environment’ it’s not clear to me what responsibility the worship leader is taking on as this could be everything from ‘making sure the music sounds good and the lights are dimmed’ to ‘guiding people’s souls into a place where they can actually worship Him.’
In this day and culture I would say you’re right. They’re responsibility runs that spectrum.
Here’s another way that I broadly look at it (and tell me if this doesn’t help). I walk this line that seems to border “limit distractions” and “coach (teach) the people.”
So part of it is making the actual space, sound, and visuals helpful for worship, or at least reasonably non-distracting. But it also includes communicating some focus or truth of God.
That makes sense, there’s an issue of form (atmosphere, aesthetics, etc) and substance (perhaps, what you personally have to communicate about God).
great interview~! I enjoyed reading it.
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I’m father to two young boys. The older is a toddler who I’m getting to know pretty well. It’s my understanding that the chicks dig him. The younger is still an infant and is still a bit of a mystery. I’m married to a wonderful, bright woman who I admire. She’s what I need. She’s uncommonly sweet with a voice to match and that sometimes misleads people into thinking she doesn’t have a will of iron.
I read fun books by Nick Hornby
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