How genuinely “New Testament” is 21st Century evangelical charismatic worship?
We have a lot of baggage attached to worship that maybe the early church didn’t have. Like how did they cope without microphones and ohps? Often the whole of our worship preparation is more like preparation for a small scale concert than for a time of worshipping God.
One thing that I guess doesn’t serve us well is the big events like bible weeks. Mistakenly we start to see that as a model for church and so we lose the dynamic of “everyone has” and replace it with “lets wait till the people at the front tell us what to do”.
Which leads me on nicely to the whole subject of “worship leading”. Considering that so much of our Sunday morning revolves around the “worship leader” it’s remarkable how little the New Testament has to say on the subject. The New Testament seems to focus much more on the whole body worshipping, than what one person does at the front of the meeting.
Unfortunately too our evaluation of “how good the worship was” is often tied up with the skill of the musicians, the quality of the sound and the ability of the worship leader. How often do you hear someone say “the music was awful but God was really there!” Not often. There is a danger that we rely on musicians to create a good atmosphere and we mistake the good atmosphere as feeling the presence of God.
So what makes a good worship leader? In my view someone who doesn’t drive the worship, who doesn’t control the worship, who facilitates worship and makes room for others. Someone who can worship unobtrusively and who worships when they’re not in charge!