You Cannot Generate Worship!

Back in the late 80’s and Early 90’s, our small university church was one of a handful that found themselves on the cutting edge of the contemporary worship music scene. There was a group of brave university students that agreed to partner with my father to create a worship service that was meaningful and filled with authentic worship, liturgy and prayer. 

The leader of this group who actually stayed on till I joined university in ‘97 used to say something to us all the time when we were on retreats building our spiritual muscle... he used to say, “You cannot generate worship!” 

What he was really trying to tell us is that you cannot transform yourself into an authentic worship facilitator on the platform in front of an audience when you are not an authentic worshipper in the privacy of your personal life. He taught me that while you may think that you are doing a good job trying to channel something that you are not familiar with, the audience that you seek to inspire in worship can see through you - either consciously or subconsciously. 

He was the first person that helped me see that I could in fact tell when I was being led in prayer by somebody that did not have a well visited prayer closet. He helped me see the times that I was being led in liturgical worship by a person for whom the liturgy held no meaning and it was through his example that I came to realize the importance of congruence between my personal worship time (if any) and the moments where I facilitated worship during the weekly services or fellowships. 

It is no secret that I place a high premium on authenticity as I seek to facilitate worship at woodvale and my prayer and hope has been that this would become a cornerstone value of all the worship facilitators at woodvale. My charge to the worship team members that have been at recent practices is to re-discover on their own their passion for worship and a desire to meet with God. This is not so that Pastor Paulo is pleased with  us and what we have done, but that the worship experience that we seek to engage the congregation in is something that flows easily from within us and not an act that we put on when we find ourselves on woodvale’s massive stage. 

About a month ago, I was having a chat with the choir and one of the guys in the choir spoke up and said that it is not right for us to be two different people; one week an expressive exuberant group when we are standing on the choir risers and another week a disinterested and sedate group when we are sitting in the pews. His charge to us that evening was a stark reminder of my team leader’s words to us back then: 

YOU CANNOT GENERATE WORSHIP! 

All of this comes into sharp perspective when you realize that God cannot be mocked by our lack of authenticity. Our worship falls flat and it is reduced to flattery,  meaningless repetition and babbling because of the disconnect between the people we are pretending to be and the people we really are. 

Let us therefore be exhorted by the words of John 4: 21 - 24. 

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."