Worship is More Than a Song

It was almost 14 years ago when I received a phone call that has stuck with me my entire ministry. I had just finished up seminary and was excited to find a church to serve at. As in any field, getting a degree does not guarantee a position, but I was pretty confident in the call God on my life to work with youth.

That’s when I got a call from a pastor in the Cleveland area. I don’t remember the name of the church, but the conversation went something like this. “Hey Brad this is pastor “so and so” and the chairman of the youth department at Liberty University recommended you for our youth pastor position. Do you play the guitar?”

Now I have own a guitar a time or two, that’s another story for another day, and I fiddle on them, but I’m not musician. I can “press play” with the best of them, but I’m not even capable of singing and clapping at the same time.

My response, “no sir I do not.”

“Well we are looking for a youth pastor that does,” he replied. Interview over. He then teased me about my singleness and such, but I knew I wouldn’t get a call back. And honestly, I didn’t want one.

Now, 14 years later, I see God’s providential hand was involved steering me away from that position to bring me to Lakeside Christian Church. And I often am amazed at how God worked things out.

Over the past 13 and half years as a youth pastor I’ve had a student led youth praise band almost the entire time. This has nothing to do with me, my musical ability or knowledge. God has always raised up students who want to help lead other students in worship. Sure we have had some growth periods and times where we struggled to field a whole band. But we have had some tremendous growth and I have had a front row seat in watching students mature as believers, young men and women and as musicians.

Worship is More Than a Song

This brings me to the point of my post today. Too often we get sidetracked from the main point. That one pastor 14 years ago dismissed me because I couldn’t lead praise music. Some people stop going to youth group or church because they don’t like the band. Some think the only time you are worshiping God is when you are singing.

Jimmy Needham attacked this perspective in his song “Clear the Stage.”

“'Cause you can sing all you want to
Yes, you can sing all you want to
You can sing all you want to
And still get it wrong; worship is more than a song”

What gets in the place of true and genuine worship for you? What idols creep into your life that distract you from connecting with God?

Sometimes it’s good to put aside the normal pattern, break away from the familiar and refocus your eyes on Christ. That’s what we did last week in youth group. We read through Psalm 145 together, out loud and prayed. We then skipped singing and went to the Arts & Craft room to create art for the glory of God.

It was neat to see how each of us had an idea that came from Psalm 145 and try to picture it. We had fun drawing, painting, gluing, glittering, and so on together. We learned about each other. We learned more about God. The result: Worship.

We ended up having such a good time that we didn’t get to the lesson. So this post belongs to last week and last week’s post belongs today.

Take some time out of your busy schedule, open up the Bible and read Psalm 145. Sit in silence. Get out in nature. Create something. Or maybe sing a song. Whatever it is, make sure it’s connecting with Jesus Christ in sincere faith and not just because of ritual.