As a worship leader on staff at a Florida Baptist church, I’m on the list for a newsletter that goes out each month from Terry Williams, Director of Music & Worship Ministries at the Church Music Department of the Florida Baptist Convention. While I have to confess I usually don’t take the time to read all of it, I always enjoy the section at the end called “A Word on Worship”, where Terry includes a little note about a topic pertaining to this ministry, either written by him or shared from somewhere else. This month I was particularly blessed by an article he shared from the Barna Group, and decided to re-post it here. I hope it’s a blessing to you as well.
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FOCUS ON “WORSHIP WARS” HIDES THE REAL ISSUES REGARDING CONNECTION TO GOD
The Barna Group
According to data from a new study by researcher George Barna, the real issue on the “worship wars” is not the choice of music by churches but rather people’s interest in, understanding of, and engagement in the act of worshiping God.
“The major challenge,” according to Barna, “is not about how to use music to facilitate worship as much as it is to help people understand worship and have an intense passion to connect with God.” Barna noted that relatively few churches have intense musical battles but most churches have too few people who truly engage God in worship.
“Most of the church people who fight about their musical preference do so because they don’t understand the relationship between music, communication, God and worship. Church leaders foster the problem by focusing on how to please people with music or how to offer enough styles of music to meet everyone’s tastes rather than dealing with the underlying issues of limited interest in, comprehension of, and investment in fervent worship of a holy, deserving God.” “Music is just a tool meant to enable people to express themselves to God, yet we sometimes spend more time arguing over the tool than over the product and purpose of the tool.”
Barna encouraged church leaders to get back to basics. “Many church people fight about music because they have yet to understand the purpose of music in the worship process. That lack of insight causes them to focus on and fight for their preference. Too often, church leaders get caught up in the fuss.”
“These battles are inappropriate distractions from meaningful ministry and fruitful discipleship. Christians need to be more zealous about, and devoted to worshiping God. The Church needs to move on and focus on the One worthy of worship and the desire of His heart – which is to be worshiped with intensity and passion by His people – rather than to focus on the tools used to facilitate our expressions of love and gratitude.”
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Special thanks to Terry Williams
http://www.floridaworship.org
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