I have spent the past three days at a conference for the Classical Conversations method of homeschooling. There have been lots of things said over these three days (what else would you expect from a room of 40 plus women???) The major point was about the shift toward a utilitarianistic (just made that up) world. Living a life of utility almost forces out the concept and idea of God. That thought has clicked on some things in my head. I have thought about that in many ways, but especially in my own realm of worship in the church.
I attend an awesome church community at First Free Church called Quest. We speak constantly about being a place for the skeptic, inquirer and the already convinced. The whole idea of the skeptic has been placed in a new light for me this week. Skeptics are really skeptical (DUH!) and they are getting more and more skeptical everyday. Something that I’ve come to realize is that the thing that most people are skeptical about is Christ and the thought of God creating this world. That statement then is followed by a million more statements, but that’s not what this is about. This is about how to create and present music that is relevant to skeptics and already convinced alike. Periodically, I get to spend time talking with my friend, Alisha. Whenever that happens, we get to talk about the relevancy of the service that we attend on a regular basis. We talk about lot of different aspects of the worship service, but we don’t always talk about the music. It’s not because we think our music is perfect (because we don’t), but there are so many other things that we put as more important than that in our worship experience. All this to say that I believe that we should look harder at the concept of worship from the mind of a skeptic.
How does worship music look to the skeptic? We are always inviting people to our churches and a lot of times we tout the quality of our music and worship. But does our music really present something that the skeptic can connect with? Our music is distinctly Christian (which is GREAT), and I wonder if sometimes our music is turning skeptics away before they hear the message that is being preached that morning. Now I’m not saying that we need to start adding Usher and Miley to our song sets on Sundays. That’s the OTHER extreme. But I want to be able to think about what our worship and music time is saying to those that are coming to our church. Worship leaders, what are you thoughts about this? Church attenders, what are you thoughts about this? Skeptics (if any of you read this), what do you think about this? Let me hear from you…
Interesting question. I do know this that every person in the world identifies themselves with and by music. It’s the quintessential question “What kind of music do you listen to?” Further more we define others by their answer of that question. Music is not just about hearing or even feeling it’s about identity.
Skeptics don’t identify that’s why they don’t engage or believe. Whether it be that Christ is God or that Garth Brooks is or isn’t real country music.
If you want people to identify then you have to either A. change your message to identify with them, or B. get them to identify with your message. The question is how? Well unfortunately the answer is not you or anything you can do. It’s Christ. There is a series of events that occur before someone steps foot in your church or worship service. Those series of events will either prepare that person to identify to your message or not. There is nothing you can do about those series of events unless you are already engaged with that person.
The message we need to stay focused on is one of the Gospel. We as any kind of leader have to stay true to our first love and not stray from it. Continually preaching the same truth.
When Martin Luther started the reformation he kept preaching the same sermon over and over. He was once asked “How long will you preach the same sermon over and over again?” He answered “Until they understand it.”
I like that answer. I don’t believe that we should change what we do or alter it in anyway for a specific person. I was just asking the question. Relevancy is something to think about in everything that we do. I think sometimes I wonder if we take the idea of relevancy a bit too far.
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