Recently I was a little disappointed about the music selection chosen during worship at my church. I wrote the person in charge regarding my thoughts. While well written, the gist of my email was something of "throw me a bone, me wants some more hymns". The response I got was, well, corrective to say the least. I wanted to write back, "ohhhhhhh BURN! You took the high road of spiritual sarcasm, well played."
Cynthia,
Thanks for your kind words and thoughts. I am sorry our Easter
services did not meet all your Spiritual need for that day. I
honestly try not to ask myself questions about style or mood or those
kind of stylistic divisive thorny issues. When I plan worship, I
need to have a sense that I am pleasing only to my Savior. To be
sure there are plenty of people influencing me, some with authority
to do so, some without--yet when it is finished planning--I must know
that worship is about pleasing the One worshipped not those offering
the gifts of praise. Cain was sure his offering was acceptable, but
his mistake was he used reasoning to arrive at what should please God.
It may be of little consolation, but we did play traditional Easter
songs at the opening of the service, and then there were two hymns in
the music I led. I felt good about using My Redeemer Lives combined
with the hymn Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It. By the way we
would love to have you help us lead worship every week. We meet
Wednesdays at 7 PM in the Worship Center and need every voice we can
get to honor Him. I would be glad to talk to you about your dilemma.
Blessings,
Da Song Leader Extrodinaire
5 comments:
I would never again visit a church that has someone who uses such Sarcasm as a worship leader. I'm sorry but he was totally out of line.
Call me crazy, but I'm really not seeing a whole lot of sarcasm (except for towards the end where he suggests you join the worship team - which, I have done and probably would do again myself were I in charge of something that was recieveing varying criticisms.) His gist is, he can't please everyone, so he just goes with his own thing along with what whoever's in charge wants. Why don't you just call out a hymn at the beginning - everyone should have a song or hymn or thought, right? ;)
I agree with Danielle. I don't think his intention was to be sarcastic. It was to share his process of choosing songs with you. I know from working at a church that it is difficult to please all of the members. I'm sure he valued what you said and will keep it in mind but may not make significant changes.
So am I the only one who thinks "Da Song Leader Extraordinaire" was out of line?
I mean give me a break. This person is put in charge of leading the worship service. To use the phrase "Worship is intended for God and not for the worshipers" is simply ignoring the worshipers. Worship is truly intended for God and God alone. However, Worship is administered by those who worship. If they can't be led or put into the right frame of mind to offer the right kind of worship, then the person leading the worship is at fault. That's not to say that that person is solely responsible for the heart of the worshipers, but to simply write them off and use the excuse that "I have to cater to many people and tastes" is to simply ignore the responsibility with which they have been entrusted.
Let me add that "da song leader extrodinaire" was my addition! I didn't want to put his name and so I named him. Yes, I'm aware it lacks maturity....it's all a growing process! But thank you for your great comment :)
Post a Comment