Challenges we face in creating weekly worship gatherings
by Nancy Beach

Meeting with worship and arts leaders from all kinds of different churches is one of the privileges that comes with my role at the Willow Creek Association. I’ve sat with worship and arts leaders in settings as varied as Toronto, Germany, New Jersey, Australia, Calgary, and Norway. Yet, in every one of these gatherings, and in dozens more conversations over the phone or through e-mail, these leaders are telling me they face very similar challenges at their churches connected to the weekly worship gathering. 

This is what I most frequently hear:

• Some people in our church think the music is too loud and edgy.
• Other people in our church think the music is boring and not contemporary enough.
• I’m very concerned about how we can reach such a wide variety of age groups during our worship times. Right now, it seems like nobody in any age group is really happy.
• We haven’t cracked the code of integrating more than one culture into our worship style, and this doesn’t seem very inclusive to our minority groups. How can we become truly multi-cultural?
• People complain that the worship leaders up front don’t dress nicely enough for church.
• People say that we stand up for too long in worship and repeat the songs too many times.
• People want more of the traditional older hymns.
• People want more relevant, current music in church.

Does any of this sound familiar to you?  These are what I call worship hot buttons, and I’m learning that they’re common at almost every church in big cities and small towns, in every country. You wouldn’t believe the feeling in the room when these leaders discover their church is not the only one facing such challenges!

If you’re dealing with some of these same issues as well, you may find comfort in knowing that every generation has had their own degree of hot button banter. For example, we have a record of conversations happening as far back as the first and second century, including 1 Corinthians 14, which gives guidelines to those who plan worship services. This passage is a continuation of Paul’s exploration of spiritual gifts that began in chapter 12, where one of the key themes is laid out in verse 7,: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (TNIV).

Chapter 14 underscores this with a specific example:

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. Those who speak in a tongue edify themselves, but those who prophesy edify the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. Those who prophesy are greater than those who speak in tongues, unless they interpret, so that the church may be edified. (I Corinthians 14: 1-5, TNIV)

Verse 1 sums up Paul’s entire position: What matters most is that we follow the way of love. The word translated “follow” has the idea of pursuit with persistence; it indicates an action that never ends. Paul must have known that the issues he was about to explore are highly controversial and potentially divisive for the church. So he begins with a reminder that our ultimate goal should always be love.

Next, Paul essentially contrasts the gifts of speaking in tongues and prophecy. The gift of speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, is not speaking foreign languages. Rather, it is unintelligible speech primarily used as a private prayer language for devotional practices. Prophecy is a gift that is something like our preaching today, though not limited to formal teaching. It is uttering the words directly inspired by God using intelligible speech.

Paul gives two reasons why prophecy is the greater gift. First, prophecy addresses other people, not just God; and second, prophecy builds up the whole church. It is very important that we understand Paul does not deny that there is a value in the gift of tongues. In fact, he says he wishes all of them had the gift. But he strongly prefers prophecy because it is intelligible—it communicates clearly to everyone and can build up the believers. Again, we see the idea of pursuing that which promotes the common good. In verses 11 and 12, Paul underscores this truth when he writes, “If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.”

This is an applicable truth for those of us planning worship assemblies today. A good question for our teams might be, “Will everyone, no matter where they are on their spiritual journey, understand what is going on and feel free to take another step toward God?” It’s key we think through all our communication with the goal of using crystal clear language everyday people can access and comprehend.

Recently, Bill Hybels gave a message that included an illustration using traffic lights to describe where a person might be in their walk with God. He put people in green zone, yellow zone, and red zone categories. After the services, Bill and I prayed with scores of people. Some of them were asking for prayer to move from a stubborn place in the red zone to a seeking place in the yellow zone. Many others recognized they have been stuck in the yellow, undecided place for far too long. I had the profound privilege of praying with at least 8 or 9 individuals over the course of the weekend who told me they were ready to receive Christ and begin to follow Him. As I drove home that Sunday afternoon, I reflected on how grateful I am to be a part of a church where the gospel message is taught with clarity and power, in a way that all people who enter our doors can understand.

So how does all this relate to how you’re doing when it comes to corporate worship practices and the worship hot buttons in your church community? I think it can be summed up in Paul’s emphasis on love and the pursuit of Christ’s followers to build the church for the common good. In today’s terms, I’d say it’s about believers seeing that “worship hot buttons” can almost always be defused by realizing, “It’s not all about me”.

For example, let’s look at the issues related to styles of worship—and in particular, musical menu favorites. Imagine with me that everyone in our congregations owns an iPod and they regularly download music. If we compare playlists, it’s not likely we’ll find anyone with the exact same preferences. And when it comes to corporate worship, we have personal playlists as well.  As we enter a worship gathering, we hope the music selected will be in the genre we most connect with, one that helps us intimately give praise to God. These could be traditional hymns of the faith, or choruses commonly sung in the 80’s and 90’s, songs from Maranatha and Hillsong. Or they might be songs from younger voices like David Crowder or Charlie Hall. For some of us, worship doesn’t begin to cut it unless there’s a definite edge.

In an effort to meet this myriad choice challenge one church in California offers something for everyone. When you arrive, you can head to one room called Traditions where an organ will accompany hymns. Another space is called The Edge, and you can probably discern what it is like from the name. In yet another room, grab your coffee and enjoy more middle-of-the-road adult contemporary music. High school students meet together in another space. After each room experiences live worship, they all watch the same message taught by their pastor.

This strategy seems to be working for them, but may not be for everyone. Most congregations desire that people of all generations and cultures gather under a single worship set. Because no two individuals “playlists” are identical, this choice requires that, as believers, we come to the understanding, It’s not all about me! I may hear songs that aren’t on my personal “playlist.” Even so, am I able to celebrate the fact that someone near me may be fully engaged in this song? Can I sing along with a spirit of grace, even if the music is not in the zone of my preference? Can I support what is most commonly understood and builds up the entire church?

Another example is that it is so easy for us, in our culture and in our houses of worship, to think of worship as some kind of show or performance. We may walk out of church saying, “How was the worship tonight?” or “I didn’t really get anything out of it.” Statements like this reveal we have lost our way in understanding the fundamental purpose of worship.

The essence of worship is not singing. It is not spectating. In his book The Air I Breathe, Louie Giglio states that “true worship is a whole-life response to God’s greatness and glory. Worship is a verb – it is something you DO not something you WATCH.”

Moving us to participate, to commit to full personal engagement in worship, requires the reorientation of our thinking to fight against an “observation deck” mentality, with my own personal preferences in the forefront. Corporate worship isn’t about someone else lining up with our desire for an enjoyable performance, but participating for the good of the entire church in a spirit of love in an active demonstration of love for God and others.

Willow Creek worship leaders Matt Lundgren and Jay MacNeill have some great thoughts on worship that shed needed light on this hot button issue. Jay says: “If we are tuned into our whole life being an act of worship, then the corporate worship experience is simply the icing on the cake. There is too much weight and expectation put on a 30-minute section in a service. I would love to hear more often that worship is how we pay our bills, how we talk to our loved ones, how we keep the laws of the land, how we tithe, etc… then the act of corporate worship is more equalized instead of being the primary focus. If we don’t worship God through these other things then no matter how exuberant we are in our corporate worship it may seem like a loud clanging cymbal to God.”

Matt Lundgren adds: “The image I’ve had in my mind is that worship is the story we tell with our lives. Essentially we tell a sentence of that story every single week. The sentence that we tell with our lives is predominantly what happens outside of the sanctuary. If we are telling a God-honoring sentence during the week, our corporate worship will be a powerful exclamation point at the end of that sentence. At times, perhaps our corporate worship is not an exclamation point, because the sentence we told this week was not a very good sentence.”

When people think of their entire lives as a living act of worship, they’re able to show up to corporate gatherings in first gear as opposed to neutral—ready to participate, not just receive. With the right attitude, corporate worship just adds fuel to an already revved engine. This requires us to consciously prepare ourselves BEFORE we arrive.

What would happen if, as we headed out to church, we turned off our radios or CD’s and paused for a moment to think about the sacredness of what we are about to do, what we want to bring to the God we love? Thinking like this will transform us from critics of worship, consumers of worship, passive observers, to those who are actively engaged. Instead of asking, “How was the worship today?” we will ask, “How engaged was I in the worship today? Did I give God my best?” Instead of coming to church to worship, we will enter already worshipping!

To those of us in the twenty-first century who participate in or plan and present worship experiences, here’s what I think Paul would say if he could write us a letter today: “Your worship can be marked by greater fervency, abandon, joy, depth, unity, celebration, reflection, and above all, engagement. But these heights will not be reached unless each believer takes personal responsibility to live a life of worship all week long and commits to active participation when he or she arrives.”

The very privilege of worship cost our God something dear to Him. The fact that we can even be called His children cost the life of God’s only Son.  Giglio reminds us that “at the center of all true worship stands a wonderful cross…the cross on which Jesus died.”

The cross of Christ is where true worship begins, and where hot button banter falls silent. Instead of looking at our own personal preferences, we join the Roman centurion who looks up at Jesus and proclaims, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

It’s my prayer that each day we will write another sentence in our life story of worship, one that will render our times of corporate worship but an exclamation point. May we worship Him as we drive our cars, as we take care of our bodies, as we do our work, as we love our friends and family, and as we rest and play. The next time we gather in spiritual community may we put our personal desires in second place to the common good of all those present, as we worship the Living God in holy, transcendent unison. May each of us write our own sentence with devotion, beauty, sacrifice, obedience, joy, justice, and most of all… love. 

Nancy Beach is the leader of the Willow Creek Association Arts Ministry and author of An Hour on Sunday. For years, she provided weekly leadership to the creative arts teams at Willow Creek Community Church. Now she devotes all of her time to serving, training, and mentoring church artists and teachers across the country.