I must start off this post with a confession. I have a condition I believe many of us suffer from on a weekly basis, typically on a Sunday after church or when conversing with fellow Christians. It’s easy to get caught up in it when talking with your friends about the most recent church production gadgets and worship songs or when scanning the most recent edition of Worship Leader Magazine or Church Production Magazine. This condition has no cure primarily because no doctor will ever diagnose it. What is this condition I’m ailed with?
I suffer from church envy.
As a 20 something year old worship leader serving in a church of multigenerational worship styles, I sometimes struggle with not being content with where God has placed me. I would hear the latest Hillsong or Gateway project and think, “I want to be there! God why haven’t you placed me there?”
My envy of other churches started to seep into the planning of my worship sets and shaping how I believed our congregation SHOULD be worshipping. Instead of being sensitive to where our church community was in their development as worshippers, I forged ahead. I put my blinders up and marched my crusade all in the name of becoming more “relevant”. For a while, I thought it was a problem with them. I was selfish and thought as long as I could worship to what we were playing, that’s all that mattered, they’ll catch on eventually.
This didn’t last very long until God opened my eyes to the power of a congregation singing a unified song, petitioning heaven with a unified voice. It quickly changed from the song I was singing to the Lord, to the song WE were singing to the Lord. When planning my weekly worship sets, my thinking drastically changed from what is God speaking to me, to what is God speaking to all of us.
I do firmly believe that we have a responsibility to continue to seek new songs and avenues of creativity in order to keep our worship fresh, but do what is right for your church. Now as I look to leading worship for my church, I view it as a challenge and a privilege. I’m challenged to build worship sets that are accessible to all age groups and cultural backgrounds and I’m privileged to lead such a diverse group of people into the throne room of the Almighty God.
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