Over the years I've participated as a player and leader in contemporary worship, I've had moments where I was experiencing the most powerful worship and those where I felt like a struggling guitar player, bass player or vocalist. While I've swapped in and out of those two situations at different times, I've achieved a much better ratio of being in authentic worship over the last few years, while participating as a guitarist, singer and worship leader.
I used to think it was 90% attitude. If you concentrated on being in a state of worship, you'd put yourself there. To some degree I've found that true. I guess I should back up and say a bit more about what I'm referring to as being in a state of worship, or what I'd call "worshiping in the moment".
For me, worshiping in the moment is where I truly feel like what I'm singing
or playing is an offering I'm making to God, while in some type of conversation
with Him. It's praise, it's offering myself and my heart, it's about prayers I'm
offering, and it becomes a worshiping experience. I just feel like I'm giving it
my all, leaving nothing left on the field. It's not that I'm ripping off some
blazing guitar lick or giving some of Steve Perry vocal rock concert
performance. (If you've heard me, you know neither of those are possible anyway,
lol.) Those would be examples of playing well or at a certain level of
professionalism, not necessarily worshiping.
Worshiping in the moment is feeling that while I'm playing and singing, I'm connected to God. The music and singing by everyone in worship are almost like a warm blanket wrapping us all up in that relationship experience, both individually and together at the same time.
So if it's more than just an attitude thing, what is worshiping in the moment and what does it take to do it. Today I wrote an email to our praise team and praise choir about an upcoming worship service we're designing and preparing for. In that email, I laid out how I make sense of getting to that place of worshiping in the moment. Here it goes...
I think of it in five priorities: (1) worshiping in the moment, (2) passion, (3) energy, (4) singing/playing, and (5) preparation. But the way these five priorities work is they build on each other, and you have to fulfill each one in order to gain and add on the next higher priority. Let me explain.
It might be counter intuitive but (5) preparation is THE KEY to the entire process. The more preparation, the easier it is to achieve and visa versa. Without it, you might have some amounts passion and energy while playing but you probably haven't fulfilled them, and you'll only fleetingly achieve worshiping in the moment. By the time you approach playing your worship music, you want the music fully ingrained in your heart, so much so that you know the pieces by heart. I didn't say memorized, or knowing them by memory. I really mean the songs are in your heart, with the message in the songs connecting with you, building an internal fire for worship. When you think about them, the songs spring up inside you, before they are ever even externalized. When you learn the parts to play or sing, the song leaps out of your voice and instrument. Playing and singing (4) is then the delivery of what's in your heart, using the parts, voicings, licks and patches you've chosen to create the song.
If you've done that, the rest is easy. It's about releasing what's inside you to bring you and the congregation to a place of authentic worship. A worship experience. Energy (3) is being free to release what's in your heart, not holding back because you're worried about how others might perceive it. Expressing what's in your heart, by movements of your body and your soul. Passion (2) is making what you are singing and playing personal, so personal that your are sharing with God at the same time you are playing or singing with others around you.
The culmination of bringing passion, energy, singing/playing and preparation
together through you is worshiping in the moment. Those things coming together in a powerful way creates worshiping in the moment. The preparation took the
mechanics and process of singing and playing out of the way so energy, passion
and worship could fuse together, right now, right here... in a personally authentic
way. That's worship in the moment. The multiplier is when others around you have
done the same thing and are worshiping in the same way, both personally and as part of that congregational experience. That creates a feedback
loop, where the worship of each person builds on and accelerates worship amongst
all of us worshiping together.
Together everyone is lifted up even higher. Have you had one of those "wow" worship experiences were you just walked away saying or feeling "wow, that was so powerful", "I felt so moved", or "now, that was what I call worship!" You were worshiping in the moment. It's where worshiping took over from singing and playing, and became about praising, praying and just being in a space that's all about your relationship with God. Most of the time during a worship service, that's what I'm feeling, that's where I'm at. And I hope that's adding to the congregational feedback loop, creating the environment for worshiping in the moment that everyone present can experience. That's what I'm shooting for.
I hope the explanation gives you a new perspective, tools and ideas about achieving a powerful worship experience for yourself and everyone around you -- in the band and in the congregation.
