Nashville has a lot of churches. I once heard someone describe churches in Nashville like gas stations: one on every corner. And truthfully, this description is not inaccurate. When my wife and I were getting ready to move to Nashville we had a few churches that we wanted to visit. Before we moved, I spent time watching set lists and sermons from the church we ultimately called home. I remember being impressed that this particular church had a number of gifted worship leaders on staff and quickly had arranged them in order of my personal preference. But something interesting happened as we began attending the church. My ordered list of worship leaders inverted.
I think this is because what I read as ‘slow’ or ‘bland’ online, I saw clearly as loving and pastoral in person. Matt Smethurst speaks to this reality when he said, ‘In a world forming us to be addicted to spectacle, healthy corporate worship will often feel simple and slow. That isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of countercultural strength.’ Although our home church in Nashville was by no means a loops and lasers kind of production, my mindset was the same: impress me.
Whether you are currently leading and serving in an environment that is simple and stripped back, or with high production value, we do ourselves and our congregations a disservice when we think ’spectacle’ rather than ‘slow.’ Spectacle is more concerned with week-to-week execution, slow is more concerned with spiritual formation. Spectacle short-sightedly asks the question ‘what is the best thing for this moment?’ Slow asks the question, what do we need to do now to form our people over the next twelve months, five years, fifty years?
The culture forms individuality, the corporate gathering should form a people.
The culture forms personal preference, the corporate gathering should form those who consider other more highly than self.
The culture forms personal authority, the corporate gathering should form people who surrender their own will, die to self, and follow Christ.
The culture forms a view of personal assets, the corporate gathering should form people who know all we have is gift and grace, entrusted by God, stewarded by us, and ultimately belongs to Him.
The culture forms people to think first of self, the corporate gathering should form people who first seek to serve.
The currents of culture are strong. But the Gospel is stronger. How can we as worship leaders ensure that the way we lead is counter-formational?