WorshipCentral

3 thoughts:

Worship bands could be evangelistic by playing in secular venues.

Worship songs could be evangelistic by explaining, rather than assuming, the gospel message.

But mostly, worship is evangelistic when it's understood in its broadest sense as what the focus of our energy, time, money and creativity is, rather than simply sung worship. As a person with a secular job, I've been challenged this year by the thought of "how can I lead people in worship in the church if I don't live a life of worship outside the church?" We (I) need to learn how to worship at work,at school, commuting, with family, friends and neighbours. I'm not sure exactly what that looks like - a mixture of working with integrity, speaking with authenticity particularly about Jesus, and trying to really love folk - anything that will make Jesus be lifted up.

Col 3:16-17: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

That pair of verses is a good reminder of Paul's third point - musical worship has it's place but worship as a whole is much wider.

Wulf

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Bassist for The Elusive Teeth, The Pico Brown Five and Hither Green Baptist Church

Paul, thank you. I love what you say here. Surely the most evangelistic worship God requires is our lives offered up as living sacrifices (Rom 12: 1-2)? Powerful, real, authentic. Horse before cart stuff!

I am not saying that there isn't a place for "shop-fronting" our sung worship to not-yet-believers. Indeed I'd say it is one of the most helpful overtly-spiritual activities into which those genuinely seeking faith can be invited. But I personally prefer it to be one of my later outreach "activities" rather than the first I adopt with friends. And only then being VERY careful about the words we are trying to put into people's mouths. I suppose for me the issue is around whether or not we ask unbelievers to JOIN IN with our singing or not. Whether they are aware beforehand that this might happen. If they are, fine. They can opt out if they want. Their choice. Sometimes unfortunately this is not the case, and folks end up singing with their arms twisted up their back so to speak.

All that said, surely the most satisfying worship leading I have ever led was at an Alpha weekend away years back where a middle-aged man quietly came up to me after a meeting to share how watching me worship had basically been the final nail in the coffin to him fighting off Jesus. He asked me to pray with him and he gave his life to Christ. A very humbling experience I can tell you. But obviously a very joyous one.

However, ironically, leading worship in an Alpha meeting early in the course or general "Guest Services", or even weddings where the majority present are not Christians, forced to be there, are places I feel most awkward also. Not because I am shy of talking and singing about my Lord (Far from it!) but because I don't like forcing unbelievers to say or sing anything they cannot with integrity say or sing. I basically feel obliged to offer them an "out" before starting, easing the situation a little for them but then you've got some singing their worship for what can be a significant period of time with others basically standing watching them. Bit weird for everyone, no?

So I prefer basically, obviously Godly lives AND conversations sharing Jesus first; deliberately trying to "force" unbelievers to actually sing songs only believers can sing much later on. Clearly, if there is no forcing going on, subtle or otherwise, I'm absolutely fine.

Thoughts? Happy to be shouted down on this one! Go for it. You know you want to. ;-)

Mart

I think we also need to be careful of asking believers to sing stuff they don't mean. For most people I think there is a gap between the declarations we make in song and what our lives show. For example, to pick on a classic hymn, "All to Jesus I surrender", you need to ask "really?". A lot of people spend more time on entertainment than developing a relationship with God through Bible study and prayer; they choose a job that pays the bills of their lifestyle rather than allowing them time to meet with other believers in fellowship and with other people in a way that isn't weighed down by the responsibilities and expectations of the working environment.

If we sing more songs about who God is than about what we pretend we might do in response and, when choosing more personal songs, make sure people notice the challenges and ask for God's help in reducing the credibility-gap, that would be an effective support to witness in and of itself.

Wulf

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Bassist for The Elusive Teeth, The Pico Brown Five and Hither Green Baptist Church

Thought it of value in this thread to make a relevant cross-reference to Al detailing the leading of worship at Alpha:

http://www.worshipcentral.org/forum/topic/lea...

I think it's helpful to remember that singing plays a variety of roles in our meetings. Of course, we're all used to how songs help us to express ourselves to God, and I think this is one of the great blessings of God's gift of music. But songs also declare truths about God (see the comment on Col 3 above) and so can proclaim gospel truths to unbelievers present.

But, for me, it's the combination of the declarative and expressive aspects of our songs that can be a powerful witness. It's not only as the truths are declared in the songs, but it's also as they are celebrated by the worshipping community that there can be a powerful witness to the impact these truths have made in the lives of the believers. The truths of the gospel aren't just another set of opinions that we may consider when making life choices, they are the defining values that we, as true worshippers, should be building our lives around. I think an authentic, dynamic, celebratory worshipping community can be a profound witness to unbelievers of the power and significance of these truths.

As a brief post script, one unbeliever who recently attended our worship service said this afterwards: 'I don't believe in God yet, but I believe in the people who believe in God.' Interesting statement...

http://music.glenabbey.org.uk

I think authentic worship in terms of actually loving people is where the rubber hits the road.

Al - that comment 'I don't believe in God yet, but I believe in the people who believe in God' is a great endorsement of what is going on in your church community. I would say many people would think the opposite of that - they believe in God but have a problem with Christians. Its great when the church is a great advertisement for Jesus.

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krismorris.com

This is an interesting topic for me as I'm actually employed by a church as "Music Outreach Minister" which means I spend my time using music to build links and proclaim the Gospel - It's awesome!
In terms of our Sunday worship being evangelistic I think the best thing we can do is be genuine, as soon as we start putting on a show for visitors (or indeed for the regulars) we lose what makes Christian Worship so unique and appealing- i.e. the presence of the living God.

Thinking about ways of using music and worship as outreach, one of the most encouraging things I've done in the 2 years I've been in post has been to set up a series of monthly Open Mic nights in church. These are a chance for anyone to come along and play in front of an audience and listen to some (mostly!) good local musicians perform. Around half of the performers are from local churches but the majority of the audience are teenagers from local schools who come to hear their friends perform and to play themselves. we tend to get about 50-70 people each month. I try and encourage the Christian performers to do a mixture of 'Sacred and Secular' music and there's always a lot of truth proclaimed in one form or another. The interesting thing has been that the fruit of it isn't generally in the Open Mic's themselves but in the conversations that I hear about from the guys who bring friends from school and college.

an interesting book to read on the subject is "Worship And Mission" by Dave Bilborough, it's a short book looking at the theology of using Worship as mission and some suggestions on things to do.

God bless, Rich

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www.allsaintslive.com

cool job rich! :D

I totally agree with Al, Rich and Kris on the authentic worship, I think we can make too much of our "outreach" services, using the "cooler" songs the "funny" preacher (and don't get me wrong its good to use songs / people that are helpful / gifted) for this but to me it cant take away from simply relying on, loving and encountering God and loving His people.
Wouldn't it be awesome if people encountered God through the way we lived before a song even came from our lips.

(at the risk of sounding cheesy:)
Amen to that!

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www.allsaintslive.com