"Here we are now, entertain us..." Those words were coined in the early fall of 1991 by the late Kurt Cobain. The song, though written only in a matter of a few hours soon became the anthem to a population of young, unsatisfied and a seemingly disenfranchised generation. With an unforgettable sound combined with the rawness of its author’s voice, the song captured the hearts of youth all over the world who in loud proclamation demanded one thing...to be entertained.
There is a question that weighs on the mind of every church leader. Whether conscious or subconscious, the question remains and emphatically demands an answer: How can we win more souls for Jesus? I believe in our attempt to answer this question, the church has become so fueled with creativity and being culturally relevant that we have empowered our weekend worship experience to entertain the crowd and ushered true worship out of the door.
We have become so engulfed in the idea that if people would just come to know Jesus then everything in their lives would systematically fall into place that we do everything we can to keep them engaged, and our only hope is that when they walk out of the service they ask themselves, “How did they do that?” Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that creativity is wrong and should not be used. Not at all! However, creativity is merely a tool that should be used to elevate Christ so people are drawn to Him.
This past weekend I experienced a, “That’s gotta be the Holy Spirit” kind of moment. We planned our services with the same diligence as always and as the countdown hit zero the momentum was building underneath the swelling sound of the synthesizer. You want to know the truth? Well here it is: Give me the right band and the right crew around me, and I can hand deliver you a worship moment filled with praising hearts and tears. The rumbling of the drums timed with the movement in the lights will only begin to set the anticipation and as the electric guitar begins its powerful lead, the people are ready to go. Believe me, I’m not being arrogant, but if anyone knows music and understands people, then you know as well as I that it’s not that hard to entertain. The worship team is not leading to be entertaining….we have to understand this!
So what happened? We started the service in a creative but not so creative way. We read the Bible!!! No need to re-read that, you got it right the first time. As the music began we asked the people to get out their Bibles and stressed the importance of what we were doing. We made it clear that reading the Bible together was important.
1 Peter 2:9-10
As we read together, the voices sounded like a well-tuned choir all reading in unison. During one of the worship songs we opened up the altar and asked people (if they felt lead) to come and pray. It was an amazing moment. The stairs coming up to the stage were full and there was an intense presence of the Holy Spirit. I walked towards the back of the stage and began to look out and it was almost overwhelming to see people kneeling before the cross pouring their heart out to their Savior. We didn’t plan for this in any of our service meetings, but something happened in that moment and the only thing I knew was that it had nothing to do with me or the music. The Holy Spirit was alive and it was evident. You just can’t create moments like this…..
For those of you who are leaders in your church and have the responsibility of crafting a weekend experience, I challenge you to keep in mind that the greatest moments we can share together is where people experience grace through the power of the Holy Spirit and they are moved to worship in truth and spirit. Spend some intentional time and ask yourself tough questions about whether your are entertaining or facilitating the movement of the Holy Spirit and teaching people to recognize the Holy moments where God is stirring our affection for Him!
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