All Believers
One of the basic tenets of the Reformation, was the priesthood of all believers, which is an absolute necessary when grace is to be considered within a personal relationship with God without intermediaries that know better, or supposedly have the power to give access to God.
However, there is one aspect of the priesthood of all believers that we seem to not only have overlooked but freshly rolled back to pre-reformation times, which relates to worship. Worship is as much part of the priesthood as any other aspect of our connection with God. Luther understood this to be such an important part of our close relationship with God, that he set out to teach not only grace and faith but also to encourage and provide singable songs and hymns for the congregation to engage.
Somehow, we might have reverted to a sort of “clergy worship” where all happens at the altar of performance, while the congregation mostly passively sit and enjoy the music. This is not the case in all churches, but has however, permeated a big chunk of Christian worship.
A Story
Many years ago, we were holding a series of special meetings, every night for a couple weeks at a church. We had some amazing gatherings where the Holy Spirit was moving, and the crowd was increasing every night. The pastor was a bit concerned because his church was not too big and the worship team was quite amateur -so to speak- and given how the meetings were going he wanted to provide a more “professional” approach to worship. So, he called a friend pastor who had a great worship team at his church, and they came in to lead worship.
The first thing I noticed was that this new team was somewhat dismissive of the local team and did not allow for any participation from them. Not yet a red flag but still. Then something began to transpire that knocked me off my tracks, so to put it. When I travel and minister in those revival meetings, I always want to make room for the Holy Spirit to move without interference, so I have a plan for the services that worked quite flowingly.
When we arranged the meetings, I always asked the local pastor or organizers not to do any introduction/bio or other kind of presentation regarding me, in between the worship time and the preaching, but rather do all those introductions and such at the beginning of the service, before we started the worship. I also aimed to connect with the worship team, if possible, ahead of time, and look at songs, and we worked out a flow to connect the worship and the ministry of the Word, with the prayer and altar time. This worked really great providing an atmosphere of freedom, while not being disorganized or random.
We. Don’t. Do. That.
Back to my story, we were flowing nicely with the local team, but when the new team arrived, there was a shift toward the platform that created a sort of disconnection. This team was very good musically speaking, they even composed many of the songs they were singing, and they were good, both musicians and songs. But I was missing the part where we connected all things, where the people could become part of the worship, engaging and connecting altogether with the Holy Spirit, which we had before.
Now, this is not to say that the Holy Spirit moves more freely with amateur or unorganized people. No, by no means do I mean that. But I also found that when the congregation is not engaged in the worship in a meaningful, participating way, there will be a disconnection, and just like all disconnections, there will be a disturbance, and something will go amiss. Unfortunately, what goes amiss most of the times, is the freedom to move together with the Holy Spirit.
So, I talked with the leader and explained how we used to flow together with the team, leading the people into the Holy of Holies, and connecting all parts of the service so as to create an atmosphere of freedom in worship while doing the best we could. I explained that sometimes, when I feel the Holy Spirit was moving, I like to go into some more intimate connecting songs, and extend the worship, or at time while still preaching I called on the team to start playing certain songs. The leader sort of “slap me flat” at the request. He said, “No, we don’t do that. We just prepare the songs we will do, and we do our part, then you come up and do your thing”.
Wow. No need to say that those two days the atmosphere had flattened, and rather than flowing, there was a heaviness pushing down.
The Returned Atmosphere
When the people are not an integral part of worship, it is like there is no oxygen in a rarified air.
I asked the pastor to dismiss the new team and bring back the local church team. I am so glad we did, because the atmosphere of freedom in worship returned, and we ended up extending the meetings because of such a move of the Lord among the people.
Where am I going with all this rant-y story?
Simply put, worship must follow a pattern -as David put it “I went with the multitude and led them into the house of the Lord”- such that the congregation engages in the worship. It is this engagement of the body of Christ, gathered in one place, that creates the place and environment to experience God’s presence in that particular meeting.
Let’s Get Practical
That said, I want to address a bit the issues that conspire against the priesthood of all believers in worship.
One basic issue of today’s worship ‘scene’ is the fact that many if not most songs are composed with the performer in mind, rather than the people we are meant to lead into God’s presence. Those songs, while awesome and uplifting, are not ‘singable’ by the common folk. When you go to the opera, you are not expected to sing along -actually you will be shunned from doing that! But in a church congregation, it is part of the reason we gather together, to worship together.
Songs that range from a fifth or more below middle C to a fifth or more above C5 could be performed by a trained musician, but those frequencies are unreachable by everyday church folk who probably feel comfortable in a range between C4 and C5 (leaving aside any technical consideration for different voices). And if you lower the highs and up the lows the song changes its character. So, what are we meant to do? I’d say to musicians, compose songs that the congregation can sing, not only for your performing skills or range. I’d go even further and suggest that you compose a simplified version of the song for use by a congregation.
Compositions that include loads of intros and outros and turnarounds, and variable mesures of wait in between verses, (not to mention, for example, a song we tried the other day that changed from 6/8 to 2/4 to 3/4 to 5/8 in a span of 12 measures!) are very confusing and people cannot really follow.
The wording is also important. Jesus must be in it. The Father. The Holy Spirit. God’s work of salvation. Forgiveness. The blood of Jesus. The cross. In short, the Gospel must be in our worship, and all with thanksgiving directed to God.
A little note about the sound. If the sound from the stage is very loud, people cannot hear themselves singing, and that works counter to the focus of engagement of the body. Conversely, if the sound becomes too low in the house, people can become overly conscious about their own voice being too loud -and a bit of shame can kick in- resulting in both the cases mentioned in this paragraph, in the congregation refraining to sing.
Ultimate Focus
We must always focus on providing an environment, creating an atmosphere of engagement in corporate worship. Whatever we do must aim to “lead the people into the Holy of Holies” and prayerfully entreating the presence of God. Worship is to be directed to God, hence the reason why engagement and participation are of paramount importance. There is a difference between “experiencing worship” and experiencing God through worship.
Music at a concert is great, and it can be an awesome experience to be with thousands enjoying a perfectly performed array of worship songs, by accomplished -and yes, anointed- musicians in a Christian band, but let us never try to emulate what happen in those stages, trying to repeat it in your church. Concerts have a place. Congregational singing has a place too. Here participation and engagement are the clue.
I have been to many public worship performances, both as a listener or myself performing. I enjoyed that, thoroughly. But the most amazing experiences in worship, treasured in my memory, are those where tens of thousands were singing all together things like “How Great Thou Art” or Alleluia.
Last words.
Do the best your skills allow. Perfection yourself. Yet, keep it simple. Make it singable. Focus worship onto the object of our worship: God. Aim to take the people with you into that place of worship where you are going -and make sure you are going there yourself- so that the people you are leading can follow.
Conrad Lampan eMail: connect@conradlampan.com Facebook: Conrad Lampan Instagram: conradlampan TikTok: @conradlampan YouTube: @revivalhighway