Worship

This weekend I get to lead worship for our churches Jr. High summer camp. It was that or go with canned with music. Pretty easy choice. Now, I'm not a great guitar player by any means, so I've been practicing a lot this week trying to get ready. But the whole experience brings the standard worship leader questions:

How good is too good? What's the line between excellence and showiness? When does it just become music and not a focus on God? Why in the world is so much focus placed on worship in the sense of music and left out of the rest of our lives? And just how many new songs can I do anyway?

It's all one big question. I've seen awesome music used for worship that really isn't worship at all. I've amazing music glorifying God with the best any musician could give their creator. (See Urbana post back in January).

One thing seems to be clear, and I'm pretty sure it will get me in trouble. I think to lead worship, I have to focus solely on worshiping God. I can't worry or think about how it is going to come across, whether it is to showy or not. I simply have to give God my all otherwise I'm trying to please man instead of God.

Today, off a blog linked by a poster on Alan Hirsch's blog, I saw a video by Brian McLaren that talked about worship. Now while much of what I've heard and read about McLaren sends my fundamentalist id into seizures, (I've actually never met the guy, nor read any of his books for the record) the video is pretty good.



I'll let you know my thoughts once I'm back and been through a leading experience. But for now, pray for focus on God and for a worshipful life in the kids that will stick with them for their all their lives. Because life is worship. All of it. You can't sing honestly "in worship" without living out a worshipful life for God. So go live!