When it comes to worship leading I can say that I have a "no agenda, agenda". I am not fulfilling some regular gig musician wannabe void and I am not out to further myself. I lead worship for 2 reasons. God gave me the gift and my church asked me. What other reasons are there?
With that established, I wanted to address something I see in a number of contemporary Christian circles/churches. That is the "worship leader as a means of promoting my song writing ability" mentality. Having hit a number of blogs and other types of worship sites, I typically see some level of product placement or other references to self-made music musicians often do in public places as a soft sell of their own material. Believe me, I know about this because I do it in my other projects that are not related to worship music!
It usually goes like this:
"I was bothered by the lighting in my church and wanted to relay my thoughts on lighting. Here at We're God's Rocking House church, we take a subtle approach. Like last week when we were playing "God Rocks" off of our new cd (available at most online stores and from the address bar on the right)..."
You get the point.
Now, is this inherently wrong? Not really. God didn't anoint one song-writer's ability to copy a Psalm and put music to it more than another and I'm sure a sincere rendition of any words recognizing the majesty of our Father is all he is looking for. But, if these songs are being written for self-profit or promotion then yes, I do think the intention can cross lines. Churches should not be platforms for frustrated musicians. Like Myspace or other internet sites that let generally untalented people post generally untalented music, just because the outlet is there, doesn't mean it needs to be used. All worship leaders should look within and ask themselves "Do I lead worship as an act of obedience and use of my gifting in the body as illustrated in I Cor. 12?" or are there other motivations?
I encourage all worship leaders who want to write music to do so outside of their own church and once it gains acceptance elsewhere, bring it into your own body. If you're that good, this shouldn't be an issue.
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Hi Ron,
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts. ButI don't agree with the ending.
I think you should write for your own church first. I think it is similar to a pastor preaching his sermons at his church first, then (if they are well-received) pursuing radio or writing ministry.
I don't think it promotes humility to shop your songs outside of your context any more than it demonstrates humility when you shop your songs inside your church. At my church, we don't put our names on the PowerPoint credit line. It just says "written by HarvestSongs" for anyone in our community of songwriters.
Thoughts?
That is a good analogy Matt. My point was that there need to be checks and balances. As long as other members of the worship ministry have the "no-hurt-feelings" authority to say that a song shouldn't be done, then I'm cool with that.
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