Rethinking Music

Sometimes music tends to define what kind of church we are – traditional, contemporary, praise and worship, blended, etc. It tends to be the dominate ingredient in what we do on Sunday morning. But to really rethink church means to rethink the role music has in our worship service. Darlene Zschech is a worship leader, speaker, acclaimed singer, and songwriter from Hillsong Church in Australia. In fact, one of Good News’ favorite songs, Shout to the Lord, was written by her. She is one of the leaders in what many call the praise and worship music movement. Last week, I stumbled upon an article she wrote for the September issue of Worship Leader Magazine and I wanted to share some of it with you.

I will never forget a few years ago, when I was sitting in a lecture style environment listening and gleaning from a wonderful godly leader as he taught and poured out his heart on the “how to” of worship. There was a great deal of practical and necessary advice, but perhaps what was missing from the discussion was the “why” of worship. And as many of us in the room were fairly new in our roles of overseeing and teaching teams on worship, we were hungry for theology, hungry for revelation, and desperate to know God’s voice in the midst of it all. Towards the end of the lecture, the question was asked, “What about Jesus?” The room went uncomfortably quiet, and the lecturer gave a little laugh and simply said, “Well of course, it’s about Jesus.” We left the room feeling awkward, and confused about where Jesus fits in our worship.
When I looked back over that moment, I realize that somehow we had lost Jesus in the middle of our quest to make things sound good and look good.

Music, like all things in our worship, should be done the very best we can, but if it’s not done for Jesus for the glory of God it’s just another distraction keeping us from encountering the risen Christ. The kind of music we sing at Good News does not define us. Instead, let us be defined by who we sing for.