Jason’s post brought up a lot of emotions in me that I haven’t experienced in a while. Back when I was growing up a conservative Baptist, I was turned off by the Christian music scene in general partly due to the feeling that I was being manipulated and that so much of the “worship experience” was a stage production. After reading what this gentleman had to say on the matter, and now that I have ‘come back’ to worship as a practice and means to connect with God, I have to say that for me the negative communication most likely comes from the person or people leading the worship. If the person behind the drums is not playing the drums to worship God, but rather to avoid sitting and listening to music he doesn’t care for, then I have to wonder if that attitude is not the exact issue tainting his overall experience in the first place. I sort of feel that if he wanted to truly worship God in a different way – he would. He would write songs and make helpful suggestions to improve his situation. But of course, this is just my humble opinion and in complete agreement with point #4 of this blog.

I do think he has a valid point that worship reflects many areas of our lives. In all things, we shall worship the Lord. I would respond to his statement that we are ignoring the Bible by worshiping the way we do by saying that to NOT worship through song would be leaving out an important area in many lives – thus disregarding the same passage he references.

To comment on this post, Jason Carroll’s response.

I think Origins does a fantastic job of leading worship. Being a musician myself, I struggled to find a church where the music wasn’t distracting. So many churches would either have the right mix of intent, but not the talent to carry it out effectively; or vice versa they would have the talent, but not the heart and it would show. There is a delicate balance between leading people in song and performing for them. I think we do a good job with that balance and we don’t carry it over the top with verbiage about “feel His love pour all around you!” phrases that can distract if that is not the intensity being felt by everyone in the room.

We make it about the music. Having been on both the listening and the leading side, I can safely say that no one on the worship team is in it for recognition or attention. I have been part of worship teams that were more focused on how many songs he or she got to lead and where to stand and wear versus what we were providing the congregation. I don’t get that from anyone in the worship team and I am so thankful for it!

In summation, I would say that yes – not everyone will be worshiping at the same intensity and there will be those that are not fully met on both extremes. But as worship and this topic pertains to Origins, I think that as long as we continue to do it for the Lord and not for ourselves, we can’t go wrong.