My friend, John Pinkerton, loves telling people to “own it”…I love that.
With whatever you’re doing, just “own it.” There’s no doubt the Church, for the most part, is “owning” the musical expression of worship, but what if we’re “owning” our reactions instead of “owning” how we should respond?
Let me explain. If we’re positioning ourselves as the Church to react to how people may subjectively feel before how we should respond to God, then there lies the problem.
Worship is for the Church to respond to the presence of their King.
Worship is not for the Church to react to people as they respond to their King. We are called to respond to His presence.
Psalm 40 is one my favorite passages throughout all of Scripture. In one of the lowest points of King David’s life, his honest response is to do the following: sing a new song in his heart and a hymn of praise on his lips so that many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
I think in our pain and in our joy, our response to God should be the same. It’s not and should not be watered down for people.
It’s apparent that in David’s real, vulnerable, honest place of expressing worship, people took account and put their trust in the Lord.
Is this how we lead worship?
