Pray against the music

Hello friends. It's been awhile, so let me give a brief refresher course on how I roll. I give you my own personal thoughts, opinions, insights, feelings, etc. I back up any claims I make with largely anecdotal evidence. You are then blown away by the persuasiveness of my arguments, the passion with which I write, and thus I break down the walls of your presupposition and convert you to whatever cause I might be championing in the moment. Everybody up to speed? Okay, good.

I've been processing the role of music in regards to our worship in the corporate setting- specifically, the fact that most of the worship bands I've been on spend pre-service prayer time basically praying against the music we are about to preform.

What I mean is, we pray things like "God, it doesn't matter if we play the wrong notes, we just want to worship you". Or, "Lord, the music doesn't matter, what matters is that our hearts are prostrate before you". Or, "Lord, please bless me with a brand new job and lots of money" Maybe not the last one. I've heard (and prayed) these same types of prayers hundreds of times over the past ten years. But when we do this- aren't we praying to separate the music from the worship? It's almost like we're trying to cast a demon out. We make the music a pariah- a necessary evil, something to be tolerated and not enjoyed or even embraced, in any way. I may or may not have stepped into the land of Hyperbole- but don't let my exaggeration keep you from chewing on a very interesting point.

I think a lot of it- for me, anyways, is this battle between pride and excellence. It's like you want to be very good at your instrument, putting in hours of practice time, playing along to songs, singing in the shower- while also being aware that God is not a big fan of pride. It is a fine line, for sure.

(Making assumptions) We want the music that we play to help people connect with God on a deeply emotional level. One of the ways that we know this happened is when people tell us we did a good job. I remember early on, when people would give me compliments on my drumming, I would feel uncomfortable. Not because I felt that I shouldn't be receiving compliments- but because I felt that I should. Heck yeah I did a good job- did you hear that sweet fill I did on Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble? You bet your a** that those mountains were shaking in their boots, baby! I tried the whole fake humility thing, but that's exactly what it was- fake. I believe that me and music being together is because of a stroke of divinity, so it's not like I was thinking I was this drumming big shot. But I also was the dude playing- angels weren't moving my arms, and I didn't have an out-of-body experience in the drum cage. Basically I had a season of tension between wanting to be a great drummer and not wanting anyone to affirm that.

A friend was able to help me out with this- she told me to picture the compliments like flowers. After accumulating a bouquet of 'flowers', I give those flowers to God. It's like when my kids give me a picture that they colored. I know they're showing me because they want me to be involved in what they're doing- they're proud of it, sure, but the only thing that matters to them in that moment is sharing their joy with me. Compliments on my drum work became the same thing. I gladly accepted all the praise and well-dones that were thrown at me, so that I could then share in those awesome moments with my Dad who made it all possible.

Anyhow, that's slightly off topic, but still relevant. It's relevant because I do not believe that musical excellence and spiritual attitude are mutually exclusive. I believe that we should try to make our songs sound as amazing as possible. Otherwise, why even practice? Why not just get up there on stage, with all of our spirituality, and just each worship in our own manner? Or why even have music at all?

I don't think that's the solution- because music is a very powerful medium, and definitely enhances the atmosphere. But I definitely don't want to hear a bunch of musicians going up there and doing their own thing (actually...that might be kind of interesting. Like watching a car accident, except nobody gets hurt or killed). I want cohesion. I want unity.

Our pastor talked today about faith without works being dead. I think the same thing applies to worship music- we can have a super-spiritual attitude about our worship music, and think all sorts of heavenly things about our worship music- but if we aren't applying those thoughts and attitudes to individual and group music greatness- then isn't our worship music dead? Maybe not dead- but slightly injured? Or not feeling well?

As Christian musicians, I believe that we've been given the incredible gift to use our musical talents to not only connect with God for ourselves, but to enable other people to reach deeper levels in their faith. I know that music is a tool and that it isn't the end product. But it's also not an outcast. We can prepare our hearts in such a manner that pursuit of musical excellence is not a hindrance to the Spirit- rather, that pursuit can enable the Spirit to move in even more power.