Bonus: Should Worship Look Like A Concert? (A Definition Of Worship Ministry Success)

Alex Enfiedjian 00:04 Hey guys short bonus episode for you here this month, I hope you had an awesome Easter and that you’re recovering. I just had two quick things that I wanted to let you know about. The first thing is that we now have free resources on our website for worship leaders. So if you go to worship leader training, comm slash resources, you can enter your email address, and you can download several resources. We have a KPI cheat sheet, we have a relative keys cheat sheet, we have an audition template packet type thing. And we also have a Nashville numbers cheat sheet. And we will be adding more free resources to that list as well. So check it out, worship leader training, comm slash resources. Now the second thing I want to share with you guys today is a thought that has been in my head for maybe the last five or six months. And that thought has been clarifying itself and crystallizing itself as the months go on. And it’s not a fully formed thought yet. But I feel like it’s worth sharing with you guys. Usually I do my best to really prepare my material before sharing it on the podcast because I want to bring the Lord my best. And I want to bring you guys my best. And I don’t want to waste your time. But But I feel like this thought, even if it feels maybe slightly half baked, I think it’s a thought that will be helpful, hopefully, for you to begin thinking about your ministry in a healthy way, and it’s more of an encouragement and an exhortation. And you’re like, Okay, well just tell us the thought already. Okay, well, so the thought really began to clarify itself. When I did my interview with Keith Getty, which is the last episode that released, you should check that one out for sure if you haven’t, because some of what I’m going to say kind of stems from those ideas in that episode. And the thought is this that worship ministry success in recent years, has been subconsciously equated to how much the worship experience looks like sounds like and feels like a concert. I guess if I could say it a little bit more clearly than that. I’d say like this. I think that a lot of us equate worship ministry success to how much our worship ministries look like a concert. I don’t think any of us would actually say that out loud if we were, you know, talking to other pastors or anything like that. But I think when we scroll through our Instagram feeds, and we see a really awesome looking stage with lots of lights, or purple lighting, or blue lighting, or really cool technology or Nord keyboards, or I don’t know, just a huge line array. We we look at that. And we say that is awesome. That is a successful worship ministry. And again, I don’t think we would, you know, say that out loud. But I do think I think all of us have that sort of like Instagram envy. We see worship ministries of you know, very large churches or just really cool churches with lots of technology and lots of lights on the stage. And we immediately equate that ministry with a successful worship ministry. And it might be it might be a very successful worship ministry. But I really want to encourage you worship leaders listening that technology and having all the lights and having a concert like experience does not equal ministry success. Ministry success, I think has absolutely nothing to do with what your worship experience looks like sounds like or feels like. I would put worship ministry success in these terms. Worship ministry success is when you as a worship leader, help people see savor and sing to Jesus. When you help people see savor and sing to Jesus, you have a successful worship ministry. Worship ministry is more about a weekly sowing of gospel truth into your people’s hearts and minds through song through sermon and through the sacraments. Okay, so I’ll say that again. A successful worship ministry is when you help people see savor and sing to Jesus. And it’s a weekly faithful, sowing into people’s hearts, the truth of the gospel through song through sermon and through sacrament. So what does that mean? That means that it really doesn’t matter what your worship ministry looks like,

Alex Enfiedjian 04:25 because some of you might have all the lights and all the, you know, awesome technology and crazy good sound system and in ear monitors and click track and some of you may literally be leading in a room with just your acoustic guitar. And I want to say, if you are helping people sing to Jesus, see Jesus and savor Jesus, you have a successful worship ministry. But I really want to encourage us not to get so focused on the lights, and the eye mag and the click tracks and all that stuff. That’s all those are just tools. And I would even say that those things can actually to potentially get in the way of people worshipping. And another thing is, I think we might be implementing some of these concert techniques in our services because they look cool because they sound cool because they feel cool. But I think the implications of those implementations might have long term effects that are actually fighting against what we’re truly trying to accomplish, which is to help people see, savor and sing to Jesus, for example, if you train your church, to not be able to worship without a loud sound system, and without a light bomb, hitting on the one downbeat of the chorus, then if your church can’t worship without those things, then maybe they’re not really worshiping Jesus. Does that make sense? So I don’t want to say that technology is bad or lighting is bad. But I do want to say let’s be careful about how we use it. And I also want to say that those things are not the goal of worship leading. And those things are not the indicators of a successful worship ministry. So I just want to encourage all of us to remember the heart of what we’re trying to accomplish. And then to ask the why. Why do we want to have lights? Why do we want to have iMac? Why do we want to have a line or a sound system, you know, big speakers like and if you can justify those things, that they’re going to actually truly help in your context, help people see savor and sing to Jesus, then great, do it. But maybe we don’t need to. And for those of you who are leading in a room with zero amplification, and just an acoustic guitar, and just one vocal, you can do an incredible job and you can have a successful worship ministry. And if you are faithfully, week in and week out, sowing the truth of God’s Word into their hearts through what you’re doing, you do have a successful worship ministry, you may never have a light, you may never have a cool projector, you may never have any of the fancy stuff that you see an envy on Instagram. But you do have a successful worship ministry. In fact, you might have an even more successful worship ministry than someone who has all of the lights and all the technology, but has distracted people from the primary calling of what we’re called to. So I don’t know if I made any sense in my my ramble here. But I hope that it was helpful and I hope that you’re encouraged that you can do a great job having a successful worship ministry, regardless of what it looks like sounds like or feels like.

Alex Enfiedjian 07:38 Alright,

Alex Enfiedjian 07:39 that’s my rant for the month. And I’ll see you guys on the first of next month with Andy Razia from vertical church band to talk about creating and cultivating a songwriting ministry at our churches. All right, God bless you guys. See you soon. Bye.