MattGlover.com

My interns are currently reading through Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. This is one of my favourite books of all time and this is perhaps the fourth or fifth time I’ve gone through in the last few years. Always challenging, always confronting, but always inspirational. Read it if you haven’t!

Anyway, todays chapter for discussion was that on worship. I particulary liked Foster’s challenge to make worship an every moment of every day thing as part of ‘practicing the presence of God’ like Brother Lawrence.

Ironically, today I also received an invitation to a worship conference from this bunch. While I’m not against worship conferences altogether, what really irritates me is when events like this are promoted as something to “teach you how to worship” or “show you how to lead effective worship” or something similar, when all they are really designed to do is focus on one small facet of worship - the music.

For instance, the electives offered are as follows:
Musicians
Songwriting and Recording
Vocalist
Worship leadership (Leading people in song)
Sound and Production

The message that sends to non-musical me is simply that I can’t go to this conference because I am not gifted/talented in any of those areas. And by extension, I can’t worship. No mention of taize styles, of meditative styles, of baptism or communion, of worship in the workplace, of using other mediums etc etc

Just thinking about this as I type makes me mad. This is the sort of thing that has made worship a shallow and limp expression of what God wants it to be. It forces Christian people into the false mindset that they can only worship when they are singing with a band infront of them. And probably worst of all, only musically gifted people are the ones that should be leading worship.

The brochure quoted John 4:23 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks”. My guess is that the stuff being taught about worship at this conference will be lucky if it is even half-true.

Anyway, the brochure now sits comfortable in my bin.

Best place for it….