“I want everyone to really think about the words to this next song.”
*During this pensive time the worship leader will sometimes add "God is speaking to you." Now, how does he know that? (Maybe it's coming through the earpiece of his headset mic.)
Monday, March 23, 2009
#71 Worship leaders asking folks to "really think about the words to this next song"
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23 comments:
oh my! that brings back so many memories....
These are generally prime times for the songs in which the term "Jesus" or "Lord" could be substituted with "boyfriend."
For a great example, consider (or Google) the song "Your Love Is Extravagant."
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http://intelligentresponse.blogspot.com
Everytime I think you have exhausted all the annoyances of my christian experience, you do it all over again. It makes me LAUGH so hard!
For this, I thank thee.
Really sit back and let that sink in.
uhh, the song "your love is extravagant" doesn't really work. Theres a line that says "spread wide in the arms of Christ, is the love that covers sin" ...You can't really sing that to a boyfriend or girlfriend as a romantic piece. Just sayin.
For that one you could change the words to "spread wide in the arms of Chris (if your boyfriend's name is Chris) is the love that has never been" or "is the love that lets me in" or "is the love that buys Sapphire gin" or...or....
or ... Sophie Loren
Christians are awesome. Loving the Lord is priceless...or something
Why is this rarely said on fast, upbeat songs? Are we not suppose to think when we sing those? Oh, right. . most people don't think AT ALL when they sing worship songs, fast or slow!
A very intelligent elderly lady comes to our evening services even though the music is all band style and not her cup of tea (we use hymns as well as the band in the morning service.) One Sunday evening she looked very puzzled so I asked her what was up and it was the words of one of the songs; she said they didn't make sense. Do you know what - they didn't and none of us had questioned them at all. It took an old lady to remind me to always think about the words.
At our place, it's 'make this your prayer"...frankly, our congregation needs all the encouragement it can get to be involved (physically, intellectually, emotionally) in worship. (Except for 'critically'. we're really good at critiquing musical worship.) So I don't mind at all when leaders say that stuff, personally.
Usually I'm exhausted when I get to worship (college=draining) and the last thing I want to do is "think about the song". I just want to be refreshed by the Lord and take a breather, but now I have to take out my "Analysis of Christian Worship Music" skills and analyze the words going across the pretty colors on the screen.
I can't force it. Sometimes worship strikes me and sometimes its just another song. Any time I feel like I have to force myself to be "Christian" it feels all fake. I mean, its great if song is how someone expresses their love to the Lord. In that case, please do. Just don't expect me to all the time, because I can't.
I've just realised what I really don't like about this - the use of the description "Worship Leader". In our church we have Music Team Leaders becasue worship isn't just singing it is / should be the way we live our whole life in God's presence. I also notice that the worship leaders in the pictures have placed themselves centre stage making themsleves the central sacrement instead of the alter / communion table. Sorry for the rant but I beleive it is critical that we keep Mass / Eucharist / Communion at the heart of our worship because this is where we celebrate Jesus' life, death and resurrection.
No that would be the voice of the soundman saying 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 10, 9... in your in-ear system while you are watching the countdown on the screen... >sigh<
All of this critique and analysis of religiosity is fine, and most of it pretty accurate, so long as you who are taking part in the critiquing are willing to remain in a place to make some of the changes that you are so quick to say need to take place. It's really easy to sit back and say what's broken or stupid about the way ministry happens, but far too few are willing to step up and allow God to use them to do more than just critique, but actually bring change, and in some cases healing. Just something to chew on.
I've disabled anonymous posting. It just allows people to snark at others without any accountability, and I don't think that's good. I'm a fan of snark as long as the person can own it and not be subversively abusive. Thanks, all.
Generally I'm already "thinking"--it's just when someody pushes me to do so, I start thinking more about the individual pieces and less about general impressions.
I like this blog way more than stuff christians like. Stuff Christians Like started out hilarious and has since evolved into a self-referencing, mildly humorous devotional. I love this post especially...it's worth pointing out that usually the song the worship leaders are talking about is one of those songs where they'll repeat phrases over and over again...and they'll repeat them until the spirit moves them to stop.
Hugh said...
I've just realised what I really don't like about this - the use of the description "Worship Leader". In our church we have Music Team Leaders becasue worship isn't just singing it is / should be the way we live our whole life in God's presence.
.......
That would make another great Christian Culture topic: Worship = Music.
One of my pet peeves- when the guy (and its always a guy) "leading worship" shouts out the first 4 or 5 words of the next line of every song, even though the lyrics are displayed in 1000 pt. type on the giant screens right in front of our faces.
...does Christian culture assume we cant read?
...or that there's some spiritual value to keeping everyone from actually enjoying the way the music sounds?
Prompting the audience to "really think" about the song shows that it's actually a fluff piece. If it were all that thought-provoking, no one would need to be reminded to think about it.
Very nice. This reminds me of the time our worship leader once said, "Find your God spot." and we had no idea what he meant.
Later on we hired a team of scientist who used triagulation and the Pythagorum Theorum to actually locate the God spot. It was near the Men's restroom.
Worship-related: Something else Christian Culture likes is songs that contain metaphors about nature. Lots of mountains trembling, rivers churning/flowing, earths quaking, suns shining. Let's also not forget cups overflowing!
Hahahaha...
Wow.
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