What's The Deal With That?
A friend of mine once wrote a song with the recurring chorus tag of "What's the deal? What's the deal with that?"
The song was a collection of wry observations about life in general, such as "Why do drive-through ATM machines have BRAILLE on the buttons?"
So, let's start one of those "what's the deal with that?" brain-storming thingamajigs, all on the idea of pet peeves surrounding worship and worship leading (a subject near and dear to my heart). I'll start with a couple...
Since worship leading is supposed to be "leading", why do some demand that everyone dance when the worship leaders commands them to, as if they were leading worship with a cattle prod?
What's the deal with that?
Here's another: Have you ever led a worship song/set, and had one of those God-moments when the Spirit is really "present" in a powerful way, and one of the leaders calls the band back up to do the "anointed" song all over again? (Anyone else notice that this rarely produces anything noteworthy?)
What's the deal with that?
Okay, your turn:
The song was a collection of wry observations about life in general, such as "Why do drive-through ATM machines have BRAILLE on the buttons?"
So, let's start one of those "what's the deal with that?" brain-storming thingamajigs, all on the idea of pet peeves surrounding worship and worship leading (a subject near and dear to my heart). I'll start with a couple...
Since worship leading is supposed to be "leading", why do some demand that everyone dance when the worship leaders commands them to, as if they were leading worship with a cattle prod?
What's the deal with that?
 |
What's the deal with that?
Okay, your turn:
posted by Robbymac at
8:55 PM
18 Comments:
Robby,
Good questions. I wonder if there is some false connection made between leading and demanding - maybe our notions of worship leading need to come under some serious refiguring.
Spirit spontaneity, I think, is hard to repeat or recapture, yet there will be new moments of illumination.
why as worship leaders do we often pick to sing song's cos their the in things/move of the spirit like thing without evaluating what they're actually say, whats the deal with that?
i have found myslef guilty of that recently my wife was chatting with a freind from the church where i used to lead worship and she pointed out how a certain song was unsingable. She found the idea of god directing every lightning bolt where it should go offensive (consider someone who may have been hit by lightning) and the idea of heavenly store houses laden with slow just lauhable.
When i thought about it I totally agreed
Yet i had used that song just like many others, cos it was a cool new song that everyone else had been doing and seemed to like and respond to.
Why in the uk are you either a charis/evangelical/modern consumer nut case worship addict. or you cant sing worship songs
whats the deal with that
Your examples both deal with the awkwardness of a forced spontanaety in worship, and you have a definite point. Nobody wants to feel manipulated in their worship.
On the other hand, I wonder where the balance is...admittedly the verses aren't many, but it does seem to me that the scripture also makes demands of us to dance before the Lord. I wonder if our trouble with the worship leader calling us to dance might also reflect the trouble we have of turly embracing the scripture.
How come no-one bothers to do a spell/grammar check of songs before putting them on an overhead? Some of us get really distracted by that. What's the deal?
And I second the mention of content - some just don't make sense! A "life-song" can't sing - it can only be sung!
Cindy-lu
nthing spellchecker, song content, and cattle-prod leading.
How about "Turn to your neighbour and say..."? What's the deal with that!?
I guess it's just another symptom of cattle-prod leading, but in addition to leaders forcing people to dance, I've experienced them trying to force everyone to raise their hands, to speak in tongues, etc.
I guess it all comes to manipulation, control-freakiness, and abuse of power.
Okay whats with the "reserved for Pastor" signs at some churches? Does that mean the the pastor has some higher rank than the rest of us or can't walk as far? Doesn't that promote a bit of exultation of the leadership. If leadership are supposed to be servants, why not park further out so someone else can get the good spot?
What's the deal with the idea that yo can't deviate from the set list? Your up playing a killer song and God's precence is all over the place but instead of riding it for a bit you move on to the next song and it all falls flat?
What's the deal with the idea that the worship leader is one person and the rest of us are the band?
...the thing of repeating the "anointed song" over with the leader comes up to speak... uugh! done it too many times.
I had always determined that if I ever got to preach in the mothership at my CLB, I would get everyone to turn to their neighbour and say, "I hate it when they make us do this!"
Sadly, I never got the opportunity.
If Jesus is the bread of Life. what is with those stale little circular styrofoam wafer biscuits.What's the message?
Matt,
Ah, yes, the tyranny of the "pop worship song" -- where you feel compelled to do songs that you don't even like that much (in my case, a few Vineyard lowlights which shall remain nameless). And the ever-popular extreme over-reaction to silly worship: no worship. I agree, what's the deal with that?
Burt,
You're right; sometimes it's just us coming up with fancy reasons to play it safe in the eyes of humanity (the "fear of man"). But you can usually tell when you're being herded towards a pre-determined expression of worship when the worship leader stops mid-song to scold the congregation.
Thanks for the reminder.
Cindy-lu,
Yep, we once went to the same church, didn't we? Although I think sloppy spelling on overheads/powerpoint is running amok in many gatherings. The only thing worse than badly-spelled lyrics are -- as you mentioned -- pointless or dumb lyrics.
Daniel,
Did you see Brother Maynard's suggestion for "turn to your neighbour and say..."?
I was just at a youth conference recently where one of the speakers droned on for two -- count 'em, TWO -- hours, and after the "turn to your neighbout" count passed 30, I stopped counting and slipped out the back and made a therapeutic visit to the closest Starbucks.
Ronni,
Personally, I think a true servant-leader would have a "reserved for Pastor" sign on the mop closet.
But maybe that's just me. :)
KSG,
I look forward to the day we can sit down in person and swap stories -- although it might take awhile!
I've seen the opposite to what you're saying sometimes: they camp on a certain song -- or just a itty bitty tiny part of a song -- and sing it over and over and over and over...
...until I'm seeing visions of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel thrashing about for a whole day to no good end.
The "deal" with having the worship leader being a single person, with their back-up band, is really odd. I find it hard to work that way, preferring to have a "band" approach to the worship team; this didn't make me very popular with the conference crowds: while I can be parachuted into any band as a bass player and usually do passably well, if I'm parachuted in as a "worship leader" but have "back-up band" people around me, they usually get flustered because they aren't used to having the freedom to create their own parts to the songs.
Brother Maynard,
The fact that you're still alive is proof enough that you never preached that in your CLB (since I know full well which church you're talkin' about!).
Ron,
Not sure what the message is; maybe it's "just a little so we can be reasonably sure you'll come back again next week"? :)
Okay, everybody, all together now:
What's the deal with that?
what's the deal with songs having to be played exactly like they are on the CD, with no deviation?
what's the deal with with worship leaders still having to strum/play whilst they talk?
what's the deal with hallujah? selah? and other such terms - what do they mean and why is it never explained??
'what's the deal with a clap offering, or a cheer offering - who exactly are we offering it too?' [i'd rather have a wine and BBQ rib offering]
'what's the deal with song's that say 'praise him' or instruct similar responses and we just sing/repeat the lyric 'praise him' - shouldn't we find some words to praise him with rather than just keeping repeating the instructions?'
'what's the deal with songs that talk about men - such as 'men of God' and don't ever mention women?'
'what's the deal with songs that have great choruses but really long hard to sing verses to get there [yes Mr Redman that means you]?'
'what's the deal with spontaneous worship when you're told to ok we're all going to be spontaneous now and praise God?'
'what' the deal that so many songs are about me and God and sung in the first person? Especially when we are gathered in a church together as a community?? Can we have some songs with us/our in them?'
'What's the deal with people who say "if you were at a hocky match/football/soccer/baseball etc game you would all cheer and go wild but at church you're so so quiet and passionless?" we're not at a sporting event, what not in a crowd of 20,000 + and we're not having the same crowd/pyschological effect - does God really want me to act as if i'm at a soccer match?
What's the deal with feeling like you have to "give a clap offering" after every song. How lame is that!? Sometimes I just want to stand in the stillness.
Anonymous,
One of my favourite times in corporate worship is when I look out and see some people standing, others kneeling, some with hands raised, others with hands in pockets, some singing loudly along while others are silently enjoying His presence, and others dancing while someone else is praying for a brother/sister.
When I see such a variety of expressions, all at the same time, I think it looks and tastes like "freedom in worship".
Paul,
I wrote a comment to respond, but maybe I was too long-winded, because it won't publish.
Your list is excellent. I've seen pretty much every example you've given, and laughed at your way of phrasing things. Thanks for a great list!
Hmmm...this makes me think.
If your hands are in the air when you ask me to raise my hands, if you are dancing when you encourage everyone to dance, if you actually FALL on your KNEES when you say you are falling on your knees, I may be compelled to join you in worship.
Otherwise, I feel manipulated.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home