WorshipCentral

Mike Pilavachi Interview from Passion For Your Name

Why do you place such a high priority on worship in all that you do?

Worship involves engaging and encountering God out of a relationship of intimacy, adoration and devotion. But it is more than simply singing songs to Him - it also involves living a life that expresses it, in the same way that if you love someone it doesn’t just affect the things you say, but the way you live. In the bible it is very clear that worship is our highest priority. When Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, this is actually a commandment to worship. In the Old Testament the issue for Israel was, were they going to worship God, or were they going to worship idols. And so theologically I think it seems that worship is the highest priority to God. He made us for relationship with himself.

What fruits have you seen by placing such a high value on worship - both personally and in everything you do with Soul Survivor/PFYN?

Over the years I’ve found a measure of healing in worship. I’ve found that often as I’ve worshipped I’ve had fresh revelation of who God is. Also lots of times as I’ve read the scriptures out of worship, it seems coincidental that I get more revelation from the bible. With others I’ve seen a lot of people come to the Lord out of being impacted from an anointed time of worship. I know that God speaks to us when we worship, He transforms us as we worship - there’s that verse in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” And I’ve seen that - people who have beheld His glory in worship have changed. So I’m sold on it pragmatically and practically, as well as theologically and biblically.

Being less musically inclined, what do you think worship leaders and musicians need to be mindful of when leading congregations in worship?

I think it’s important to play well and be as good as you can musically, which involves practice. We need to aim for excellence, but the issue isn’t how good things are musically, the issue is who it’s all for. Worship isn’t a performance and worship leaders and musicians shouldn’t be thinking about performing to congregations, as worship is for God alone. It means that the heart attitudes are essential for all involved. There is nothing wrong with musical excellence - in fact I think it should be striven for, but where it’s wrong is when that gets in the place of leading God’s people and it becomes a distraction. And that is heart attitude thing. If we’re honest that can be hard for musicians, as particularly in rock music normally you want to play well in order to impress people. However in worship you want to play well, so you can be more invisible to enhance people’s connectedness with God.

How strongly should a worship leader lead?

I think the expression is a good worship leader should be visible enough to give a strong lead, but not so visible that he or she becomes centre stage. So the idea is to give a strong enough lead to enable and serve the people of God in their worship, but not to dominate and stamp themselves all over it. A bad worship leader is one for whom at the end of a meeting everyone is saying - ‘what an anointed worship leader they are, what a wonderful man or women of God they are - aren’t they incredible.’ If people are saying that, then they’ve done a bad job. A good worship leader is one, when at the end of a meeting, everyone is saying - ‘isn’t Jesus amazing, isn’t He fantastic.’

How important do you think it is for pastors and worship leaders to be working together?

As worship leaders it is really important to be under authority and it is really important to look for authority to be under. I mean the worst model there can possibly be is the itinerant, self-sufficient, self-supporting, independent worship leader, because worship leaders are servants in the church. There has been a tension often in churches between pastors and worship leaders and a lot of that is often down to misunderstanding and not deferring to one another. If I were talking to pastors, I would say that they need to befriend their worship leaders and they need to love them, serve them, get to know them and build the relationship with them. Out of all that, it is then important to share their heart and values and explain what they see happening. For worship leaders they need to love their pastor, and in the same way get to know them, serve them and talk to them. Then if the visions and values are so different, maybe rather than having wars over worship, it might be better to graciously withdraw, and find somewhere where there are the same values. That is if the worst comes to the worst and there is really no other way. The very worst thing that could happen is to have a war over worship. I know worship leaders who have been hurt by their pastors who on the whole do hold the power, but there is a place for hanging in their and not giving up on the church, and not putting ourselves outside of the church. But rather loving the church, loving the leadership and working on the relationship and I think that has to work both ways.

Is there anything you’ve been particularly thinking about on worship recently?

For me I’ve been looking again at the whole theology of worship and the richness in the Scriptures with all the different images and all the different aspects of worship. It really is what we do with our whole lives and not simply what we do with our words. And yet what we do with our songs is important to God and to us. But more that our devotions on a Sunday should match are devotions on a Monday, when we’re out in the world. It’s that connectedness between adoration and the rest of life. We know that worship and evangelism belong together and that worship and justice biblically should never be separated, and all of this enhances what we do on Sunday and what we do when we meet together.