There was a worship book written by a worship leader that was literally entitled - It's Not About the Music - The Journey into Worship. I want to spin off of that from the last couple of blogs.
When I saw that title I was reminded of the story of how Matt Redman's church actually took a break from any music in their worship so they could find what it truly was that should be focused on in worship. His song, The Heart of Worship, actually came out of that experience as a church. As that song says, "We need to come back to the heart of worship . . . and it's all about Him!" It is not about music; it is about Him. Also, it is not about music, it is about our hearts. With what heart attitude do we approach worship? The attitude of our heart is paramount in our approach to worship. It's about our heart and about Him.
Is music one of the many tools of worship, yes. Is it worship, yes. But it is not ever the main thing. Does God desire to hear the praise of His people? Yes, the scripture says so. But is it the main focus of our worship? Never.
We live in a day, when Bands have jumped on the worship wagon and sometimes, in a sense have tried to make worship about music. We must be very careful of that enticement. It is much easier to worship certain music, rather than worship Him. I am afraid we have neglected other things in worship because of music: prayer, the reading of God's Word, testimony of what God is doing in lives. All of these are also important to worship. Why do we not do more of some of these things in our worship? I think it might be cultural as well as putting music ahead of other things. People get restless when music is not happening in worship. We have lost the understanding of power in prayer and the power of God's Word being read. These are my thoughts. May we continue to grow in our worship of Him.
Worship is not about music. Worship is our life in Him - our obedience to Him - our surrender to Him! As Martin said in the service today, "We were made (created) to worship. May we truly learn to worship Him with our lives. . . and then our music will be much more meaningful in our worship of Him - and be kept in its proper place. mjm
