Crossing the Line

I have opportunity to publically pray over certain things in our services… often. I was on vacation and our Senior Pastor invited a regularly attending young person to greet first time visitors and pray for the morning offering in my absence. Without missing a beat the teenager recited my Sunday morning greeting with detailed instruction (including hand gestures) then prayed over the offering. The congregation just howled. Our worship team can quote another prayer of mine. Before we step on the platform I pray something like… “Lord help everything to work (I like the simplicity of that). Help us get out of the way. Come with purpose in this atmosphere of worship You are about to help us create. Do what You want to do in this service.” Paul Baloche echoes this desire in a quote found in Sweetwater’s “Worship Sound” magazine. He writes, “All technology needs to serve the goal of helping to create an environment that makes it easier for people to connect with God. Technology, when done well, can really enhance the experience. It’s almost the same thing as songwriting; it’s a fine line where, when you’re writing a worship song, you want the congregation singing the song to feel like it’s a natural, organic prayer that they’re singing to God. But if you cross the line where the song is just drawing all the attention to itself, then it’s not necessarily accomplishing the goal of helping people draw near to God.” The question is, where is the line? Plenty of salesmen would love to sell your church new stage lighting and a haze machine. There are many well meaning voices claiming to know what worship songs you should sing during corporate worship.  Ultimately, what is used to assist needs to be tooled out by local church leadership. Each congregation is different. One thing remains constant regarding corporate worship. Whatever is done “needs to serve the goal of helping to create an environment that makes it easier for people to connect with God.” Baloche gives sound advice regarding moving forward. He comments, “… go slow. Don’t feel like you have to go out and buy all this stuff overnight. Add things incrementally. As you add, you need to learn how to use it. Find somebody who’s a step ahead of you and just humble yourself and ask if you can glean from them.” There are questions I occasionally make myself re-examine regarding how we facilitate our corporate worship vision. Why are we doing what we’re doing (with respect to any given area)? Does it (whatever I’m examining) help or hinder that vision? Does it need to change?

God is good,

Tim Covert