What if a concert were more like a worship service?

“The dead do not praise the LORD.” Psalm 115:17

What if a concert were more like a worship service? Well, by many standards no one would come, even if it were free. The energy and emotion usually associated with concerts is often a distinguishing mark between a group of people who gather around an artist and a group of people who gather around Jesus. I know that sounds harsh, but I’m a culprit too.  The Psalmist declares, “The dead do not praise the Lord.”  We should expect silence from a body in the ground, not from a person in the church. Simply, as long as we are alive on earth our occupation and preoccupation is to praise the Lord. Praise is to our life what light is to a star. Without praise, we cease to shine. Yet Christians are often afraid of showing emotion when coming together to praise and worship Jesus. This is curious since we don’t hesitate to show emotion in other areas of our lives or at many events that we attend. Again, I’m guilty. So if emotion is a sign that we are physically alive, then how much bigger a role should emotion play in the lives of us who have been raised from spiritual death to eternal life in Jesus Christ?

 

I have a vision. What if the praise and worship of the church of Jesus Christ were characterized and marked by intense earnestness, an earnestness more fervent than anything the world has ever seen or heard? Why? Because Jesus Christ has inspired eternal praise. He is worthy to be praised forever in heaven and on earth. Who He is and what He has done is greater than who any artist is or what any artist has done. Therefore, our praise and worship should be nothing less than a gloriously inspired concert of praise and worship in response to who Jesus is and what He has done. It should be sincere, full of conviction, unmistakable and, frankly, unmatched by any event centered around the name and fame of any artist. It should be audibly and visually stunning, simply because nothing can compare to the sound and sight of people worshipping Jesus together.

 

I have a vision. What if our praise and worship set the standard for a crowd of any size gathering together to sing? What if concerts with all their energy and emotion paled in comparison to the church’s energy and emotion? What would it look like if a people no longer condemned and under God’s just wrath, but forgiven, set free from the power of sin, filled with the life and power of the Holy Spirit and unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, came together with full conviction of heart and unity of mind for the singular purpose of bringing glory to God? What would it look like? What would it sound like? Not like dead people! What if a concert were more like that worship service?

 

I have a vision. What if we stopped being afraid of our excitement for Jesus being mistaken for a performance for men? In our earnestness we may dance, but we may not. We may shout, but we may not. We may clap, but we may not. We need not be afraid of particular expressions of praise and worship. Neither should we measure the loudness of someone’s singing or the coordination of someone’s dancing as being somehow that which determines its acceptability as worship. Worship is an unhindered and earnest personal expression of the heart in response to the eternal worth of Jesus. How that earnestness will look or sound to others should not be the determining factor. In the end, it’s not about the worshipper at all; it’s about Jesus. We are the worshippers, He is the One of worth! We’re not gathering around a worship leader or a favorite song, but around Jesus Christ because it is all about Him. There shouldn’t be anything more glorious to the redeemed sinner than Jesus Christ, and there shouldn’t be anything he or she does with more earnestness, conviction and sincerity than praise and worship Jesus Christ.

 

I have a vision. Attending a concert should never be more thrilling than worshipping at church. So whether it’s a pastor leading his congregation in singing the Psalms without instruments, or a worship leader and team leading from a stage with state of the art technology, JESUS must never be out-praised by any artist, crowd or venue. He must be worshipped now as He will be in eternity. We “will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 115:18)

Comments

[A Facebook User]

Wonderful! Thank you, Jonathan.