Worship music isn't a big deal.

I can already hear the lighting of torches and the rustling of pitchforks as the Jesus Culture crowd prepares to hunt me down. Just hold on a second and hear me out. I don't think worship music is that big of a deal...

...and I'm a worship leader.

When you look into the worship guides and bulletins of many churches, what do they call that awkward time of singalong music that many people feel uncomfortable about? Worship. To the church at large, that's worship. Donald Miller recently posted a blog entry where he mentions that he "doesn't connect with God by singing. Not at all."  At first, the worship leader in me recoiled in horror. How dare he rebel against the institution of sacred music! Then, the idea he was putting forth slowly started to make sense.

I'm re-examining my long-held assumptions about what worship is and isn't. Honestly, I think the church presumes too much about worship music and neglects the greater concept of worship at large. I'm a believer in whole-life worship -- worship is a heart posture, not a segment of time where we do creative things. It involves both action and intentions. That whole creativity angle works for me, because I'm a creative individual, but I can tell as I peer into the squirming masses during worship that many people just don't get it. I see it in their faces.

Worship music is a cultural and economic force to be reckoned with. There's ministries designed around it, every church defaults to it on Sunday morning, and it causes a lot of money to change hands. It's an institution of its own, and I think we ought to re-examine it in detail.

Now, just because you don't prefer expressive, creative worship doesn't mean you shouldn't stretch yourself to try it and grow in it. I have to stretch myself too, for the benefit of corporate worship. I mostly can't stand the style of worship music. What is that, anyway? I would describe it as arena rock with U-2's guitarist in a v-neck and lots of melodrama. No thanks. So, by all means, don't think that this argument is a reason for you to suddenly disengage even further from creativity.  Everyone can benefit from creativity in some respect.

I wonder what it would be like if churches didn't presume that the music and teaching format was divine. What if we did other things on Sunday mornings instead? Like I said, I'm basically dismantling all of my assumptions about worship music, because I realize I've only held onto them because of my preferences. I prefer creative worship, so I do it. That doesn't give me the latitude to force it on everyone at the exclusion of other worshipful acts.

I'm going to keep exploring this, so bear with me as I unravel these ideas. And, for the love of Thor, don't tell Chris Tomlin I wrote this.

(If you enjoyed this post, check out my other blog here!)