Kim Gentes

Dan Wilt, popular blogger, speaker and teacher on worship, recently posted a very rivetting article on worship leaders. You can find it here:

http://www.danwilt.com/worship-leader-get-off-the-platform/

Before reading the article below (my response), you should first read Dan's original article. It is well worth it.

As response to it has been rising, I wanted to reflect some thoughts about the issue and perhaps some of the reasons for this issue rising in our current church culture. Without some of that discussion, I believe people may respond to Dan's article without some needed context.

First of all, it is a great article, in my opinion.

Like Dan, I am concerned with the rising desire in our modern worship culture for a "platform". And not just for that platform, but for the abandonment of Christlike character that slowly becomes the cost of gaining such a platform.

Of course, as already been pointed out in the conversation/comments on Dan's original post, there is balance on all fronts. Yes, most of the people who lead worship in local churches are unpaid volunteers who should be thanked for their contributions. Others point this out. But let's not kid ourselves. The "stage" has a seduction that always has pride in its gun sights. I have connected with literally thousands of churches in the last 20 years, through ministry, work and resourcing. There are very few churches where the people "up front" don't get the pats on the back and recognition of thanks from at least some of their church community. Sure there are churches where the worship leader feels under-appreciated and over-criticized by various ones, from pastors to people.

But what Dan speaks to in his article is an issue that is crisp and clear throughout the scriptures. 

I believe that the reason we are "seeing" a sort of criticism growing towards "musicians and worship leaders" actually has little to do with not being appreciated. In fact, just the opposite.

Forty years ago, it was a thankless job to be an organ player in a local church. But as rock bands rolled into churches and the liturgy of the local communities became the "platform" for these musicians, something changed. That something was an inculcation of "celebrity values" into the realm of liturgy.

I use that noun on purpose- liturgy. It means the "work of the people". The "work of the people" used to be serving communion, prayer, sharing the peace, speaking the sermon, reading the scriptures, singing the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and in some churches expressing devotion through various forms of arts.  Certainly music has always been a part of the liturgy, since even before the time of Christ. As Christians, the Hebrews were our progenitors in faith, and they brought along with them over a thousand years of singing and reciting their creeds and psalms. In fact, the great art and music that eventually grew out of the Christian church, and flourished for 2000 years, became a beacon and hallmark from which art and music emitted.

In the modern times, since the "Enlightenment era", the prominence of church influence waned until it became even scorned. There are many reasons for that, and some of them very valid. In any case, the last couple of hundred years have seen arts and music taken over almost completely by the secular realm. Music, especially, gained enormous prestige and prominence as a secular "liturgy" in many ways- it became the way in which people could find meaning and joy without having to attribute the same to a source of a great God.

Musical styles grew and expanded throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. By the time the rock-and-roll era came into full swing throughout the late '50s and through the 60's, the church had long since given up being "vanguards" of musical innovation. And as the popular music gained appeal through the early 70's, it began, especially in the US, to make its way into local churches. There is far too little space here to account for all the reasons and streams and explanations for how this happened. But it did.

The time of the 80s', 90's and 2000's was a steep learning curve, as the churches in most western civilizations embraced and engaged popular music styling into it's musical liturgies and traditions. I talk about some of this in a short chapter on history of church music resources in my book.

During that pivotal time, the people, practices and values of the secular pop music found their way into the churches, through the minds and hearts of the musicians. The modern church, for the most part, accepted both the music and the people (not without resistance of course). 

But no one (save a few insightful minds who saw this coming) pressed into the nuance of values and perspectives that must be parsed through in order to have great music, but with thoroughly Christ-centered values. This is a long and extensive debate that has been discussed by many and is part of Dan's excellence in walking through (in his books, lectures and resources). 

So let's speed up to today and Dan's article. Here now, Dan is placing some of the issues and items at the heart of this transformation in our midst. The issues of platform, place, influence and more. All things that certainly have concerns for all people (there are not a few pastors who could do with reading this entire post by Dan and applying to their own selfish empire-building agendas). In fact, in our society, I would venture to say that every one of us who seeks to use popular media, social media, platforms and communications as a way to "broaden their influence" needs to think seriously about what Dan is saying. I certainly am. And I have been guilty before and will no doubt need to be confronted again in the future. The sly and insidious power of pride is a cornerstone of all sin.

What Dan is saying is not that we shouldn't be thankful for worship leaders or concerned with being supportive. In fact, Dan is saying just the opposite. We should be concerned. And that is exactly what this article does- it points out why we are concerned and how we, as a community (I am a worship leader, as is Dan), must tend our hearts. Yes, the Holy Spirit convicts and brings change. But the community must be part of the growing together as well. Not to tear down, but to build up. And Dan has done just that.

Getting back to the point I was making with the short history detour-  Because all these values and undercurrents of pop-culture came along and swept into the lives of local churches, the people too began to experience and expect something skewed to those "pop-culture" values. 

What the "church" (people) began looking for, in more recent times, is for the "music" of the modern maestros to do for their "liturgical" experiences what pop-star music does for its crowds. To thrill, to emote and to engage so deeply that it creates the memories and euphoria that the rock-stars give us.  But liturgy isn't based in that kind of paradigm. For certain, liturgy can have experience. And yes, it can be powerfully meaningful and euphoric. But it is founded on a different principle than pop-music. In liturgy, we are seeking to grow a person and community through the years of repeated right actions and thinking that lead to Christlikeness. Pop-music seeks to give an experience or create memory to thrill a crowd.

So you can see what has happened. The leaders of our pop-music driven liturgies have become lost in the grounding of their very calls and the very purpose of their function. They have kept the language of devotion, but struggle with the desire to ascend the stage, to deliver the experience and to supply the crowd with the memory. And it isn't all as cut and dry as one thing or the other. It is all mixed up- true devotion and the pop-culture driven model of "celebrity heroes". 

And it's worse than just the leaders turning into "stars". The people have come to expect that too. The pop-culture model has sunk deep into the minds of congregants everywhere. They expect the "heroes" to be one stage. In fact, in many places, they demand it!  Where is the show? Where is the great performance! Without it, church congregations in many churches are like Sunday morning drunks, hung-over from a painful week, making their way to their church "bar" looking for the weekly experience that will prop them up. They want to see their heroes and get their fix.

Again, I am overstating the point and taking it from various perspectives here, assuming a lot of knowledge of the various contextual backdrops (music, church, culture etc).

Dan's work here is to help articulate this in a careful and nuanced way, and this article has done it very well. And his warning is still valid- as worshipers in local churches, we can't turn our dismal and misinformed demand for celebrity worship leaders into a witch hunt where we begin persecuting those who have ultimately failed us. The point is, that we failed them just as much. All of it happened, and there is plenty of blame to go around- people, worship leaders, and the pastors. Something of due responsibility lies with each group.

But we don't move forward without starting the conversation and taking on the challenge. And Dan has done just that. Well done.

Worshiping with you

Kim Gentes