Ok I recently came across a video post over at christiantheology blog that dealt with 10 ways to hinder your church well they also did a video post called 10 ways for worship leaders to hinder the church so I thought I would reply in the same manner as i did for the last one. Remember its kind of tongue in cheek but through it the guy is making his points.

I really enjoyed the last one so here goes.. His 10 ways are in black and my replies are in red and some I agree and some I disagree and I explain why

If you want to hinder the work of God in church through worship stick to these 10 ways

1. Remember Doctrine and Worship do not mix. Doctrine is just about the head is hollow , now worship is about the heart, they dont mix so keep them seperate : My Reply: I agree and disagree here is why. Ok I can grasp where he is heading with this, today many people are complaining about that worship songs dont have MEAT to them … hard scripture, Gospel truth, deep revelations and that worship songs seem very hollow and lacking depth. But remember its all kind of in perspective really.. when it comes to sermons one guy might think that the learnt a lot about God through the words another person might think it was shallow.. each person decides it based on where they are at. Secondly at what point did someone ingrave in stone or write down on a scroll that the melody of the heart to God should be a sermon? Do you honestly think that when David in the bible sat under a tree beside his sheep he was sitting there thinking.. Umm am I singing theologically correct? Maybe I should throw in a quick sermon on the bridge.. Give me a break!!! The reason we have these silly debates over whether a song is hollow or wether it has depth is because today we have taught people in churches that WORSHIP is about songs and if its about songs then it had better Follow the ABC guide to " The Theologically Correct Lyrics " We need to move beyond this.. Bring more teaching on various ways of worship, worship through eating, sleeping, singing, breathing, speaking, walking, running, getting fit, relaxing,through relationships etc… Worship is a Process not a one time event! We know worship is a lifestyle so in everything we do in this life are we asking ourselves.. Umm can i make this more scriptually meaty? Im going to buy some groceries today.. let me think how I can really Beef up my trip to shop and make it more doctrinally correct. Seriously could we get more lamer. Thirdly… maybe the reason we dont have songs that go beyond more than " I love you" " I want to " is because we have confined our revelation of God to what is found within the front and back page of the bible. God is not confined to that, so stop thinking thats the only info on him maybe then worship would be more rich.

2. The Louder the Better : whether you are singing that loud song or the quiet reverent song make sure that those 10 foot stack of speakers is blaring i mean almost to the point where its hurting our ears: My Reply : Having been someone who has led worship and also played along side other worshippers backing a worship leader up.. the whole volume issue could be written down in a book there are numerous reasons that it either ends up being BLARING loud or Barely Audible. Its called everyones got to be heard so the sound guy jacks everyone up to 10. Point is most people doing sound have barely took any lessons and that goes for the muscians.. what do you expect? Anyway if it helps go check out sound tips

3. Make sure all the attention is upon you as a performer: Remember this is your time to shine so get people looking at you, dim the house lights put a spotlight on add some fog machines grab anything that will get their attention upon you. Whatever you do dont let them drift away into thoughts about God or what hes done. Get their attention upon you and PERFORM and remember entertain them: My Reply : Ah man this is going to be a circular argument. I totally get what he is saying but trying to get people to agree with this is like beating a DEAD DOG. Instead im just going to refer you to articles I wrote called Worshipper or Performer and Facing Worship Teams

4. Only play new stuff: We live in a MTV generation where every 3 months one of the new songs is going to be old hat you have to stay on top of the new stuff, Point is cut off all ties to the historic christian church. Remember we are out here alone we dont want to be remembering the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. So only new stuff!: My Reply : Well, being as usually there is more people who dont like change than there are more people that like change.. I personally think its good to keep things fresh it keeps us out of our COMFORT zone and heck we have been in that so long we have worn a hole in the pew and its now a Commode!

5. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat and Repeat : Many worship leaders do this quite well, Pick a song that has about 5 words and lets sing it Forty or fifty times.. Remember worship and doctrine dont go together so give us something MIND Numbing! Something we can just Zone out, almost like a trance as we are unevolved that way our hearts can really worship. That one is done pretty well in a number of churches so lets make sure to keep that one going My Reply : I agree and dont agree.. Sure going over and over and over the same thing can be numbing heck its enough to make you want to go up and have a Juicy Fruit Moment but lets bear in mind most people leading are trying their best to get people to learn a song so they can focus less on them and try to focus on God and not " I wonder what the next line? " or " I wonder if I should sing high or low ?"

6. Always choose songs that are beyond your abilities : I know the bible talks about God given you a mound of talent and with that talent God said he will go with you and do great mighty things that you do not know but dont trust that.. dont trust God to fill in where you are weak, Play songs beyond your ability as you know you have to do it if you are to win the congregation over or the people. Play the guitar you could never hit, Sing those songs with note you know you can never hit. Dont trust God to fill in where you are weak. My Reply: Dont put people up who cant even sing.. pretty simple they wouldnt do it on the radio, and we wouldnt want to listen to it on the radio so why do we do it? Oh we dont want to hurt their feelings. ok.. where is Simon Cowell when you need him?

7. Make sure every song we sing is about Us the singer and not about God: I want songs with phrases like: I feel this way, I do this, Im singing this way but dont really sing songs about God about what hes done and why hes worthy to be praised. I mean you can reference God but make sure the song is about the singer. People like to sing about themselves My Reply : Sure I agree there are some songs I hear on the radio that I think.. man could they have not thought of some other words than things that hymn with Love, Above, Cross, Boss lol. But on the other side of the coin and we do need to see the other side of the coin.. as life is not one dimensional. There are many ways about saying nice things about my wife and what she does and some of it is going to involve me as im involved in her life and im an example of what she has done.. so dont throw the baby out with the bath water and start measuring does this song have 5 jesus words in it, does this song have 5 " I " words in it.. Get over it! As that is just getting way to anal!.

8. Make sure to get emotional for emotions sake: Remember its about the heart not about the head. And a lot of the new stuff out there is really empty truth wise Let the empty stuff just burst out of you from agony and longing, just sing it like your heart is about to bleed. Get emotional for emotions sake. Even if there is no real truth underneath the emotion we are singing about. My Reply : Well hey you dont look like rigour mortise has set in.. Your singing about love, life, stuff that is passionate.. dont think that there should be some passion in it? Do you think people get up and just make up that stuff? Sure I get your point some people get a bit over the top and linger on sad sad ol tunes for too long so much it looks like a death progressional but Emotion is part of our being and its part of expression .. Expression is not confined to playing and singing, Love the Lord your God with Heart. Mind and Soul not just Hear and Mind and not just Mind!

9. Only sing songs with Vague Spiritual references: Like there is a light in my soul, my life is like a new morning or new day, do no sing songs that explain the theological or biblical significance behind those phrases, we want people to apply it to whatever they are doing. For example a man is about to go off into a new sin.. let him sing my life is like a new morning dont let it convict him of sin : my reply: Again beating a dead dog refer back to my previous answers..

10. If you are not pushing the Limits to what is acceptable in church services you are not relevant to this culture: You have to push to do things that would make most people in your church cringe a little bit, if you have to Swear, I know this doesnt happen in most churches but there is a movement happening where this is becoming more popular. So if you have to swear from the pulpit to show you are relevant leading worship. Do it. You have got to show the world you are as much like them as possible My Reply : Sure its getting a bit odd if people think they have to do extreme things to get peoples attention but remember they are just words.. I could put the same hateful emotion behind other words.. Heck we all do it when we treat another christians badly through the way we treat them.. its the heart,emotion and motive behind it not just the audible word that is wrong.. Either way I would go with what your saying on this one but then again I have to say that none of it would have to be even talked about if we would only realize that holding a 2hr meeting every sunday and expecting people to show up, pay up and shut up is not exactly relevant either!

He finishes off by saying " Obviously these are 10 ways for a worship leader to hinder your church, he then says he thanks the worship leaders who are doing a good job and then he asks for them to give us songs that beautiful but are truth driven. ( Quick sidenote doesnt this go against what he said in Way 1 of How to hinder church by going to get?? ) and when the spirit works through that there is power, so keep doing a great work there is a job to be done, so dont buy in to so many of these trends that the world is telling us we have to do if we want to keep the church alive, the spirit keeps the church alive through his truth and his truth is spoken even through his music, God bless " My Reply : You assumption is that you know how the spirit works and what he works through vs what he doesnt work through.. but the bible clearly tell us " No one knows where the Spirit comes from or where the Spirit goes."

Wow.. lol lots to talk about here.. well be sure to read my replies in red, whether i agree or dont agree … great video post matey.. least you have the balls to point things out even if you are doing it a non direct way - Peace Jon