Worship Leader - October, 2009

field notes
The Un-Concert

By Paul Baloche

ield notes implies “notes from the cornfield,” vineyard, or perhaps

“the battlefield,” depending on how things are going for you right now. I know that for me, this has been one of the busiest seasons of ministry in my life with an array of events including conferences, festivals, a European tour, and the production of a new worship project with all new songs. Oh, and keeping my local church worship scheduled properly and being a husband, dad, a son to aging parents, and so on.

Many of you have similar roles and schedules to wrestle with. On one hand we rejoice and are energized by the opportunities, on the other hand we can hit a wall of exhaustion that leaves us numb down deep in our souls. I’m grateful that there is some light (and a vacation) at the end of the tunnel coming up soon.

Summer is traditionally conference season, and over the past few months many of us have attended some wonderful events where we have been greatly inspired by the nights of worship, concerts, and performances. We experience high times in the presence of God with believers from every denomination, with very diverse backgrounds and traditions. A very powerful sense of community occurs in such a short time because of several factors: God’s presence, intense spiritual hunger from the participants, and the skillful leadership of many of the presenters.

Lose the Lights and Mirrors

But when I go back to my local fellow-
ship and, inadvertently, try to impose a con-
cert experience on my 8: 30 a.m. service, it
falls flat. They look at me with blank stares
as if to ask, “What are you doing?” I can’t tell
you how many times I’ve come back from a
conference pumped, and instead of letting
that encounter pace itself over time from the
inside out, I end up trying to copy the exter-
nals of a certain band or new artist. But I’ve
come to realize that the concert experience
doesn’t translate to most of our churches on
a Sunday morning. Worship concerts are
completely valid and exciting, but they often
don’t translate to Sunday morning. Sunday
mornings are more of an “un-concert.” Our
role is to help others worship. Period. The
people that attend my fellowship don’t want
or need a performance for entertainment
purposes. They need connection—with
God and with one another. Our job is to fa-
cilitate that as best as we can.

Tools for the Purpose

I admit that when I travel with my “road band,” they are all professional musicians who have been making a living at playing music for many years. But when I return home to my “church band,” they are primarily made up of talented volunteers who serve selflessly and do a great job every week of leading our local fellowship. But they’re not fulltime pros. As a team we practice, prepare, and hope that after 15-20 minutes or however long we have for corporate singing, there will be a sense of connection between the congregation and the Lord and a connection with one another in the room.

At the end of the day, God is not calling us to perform on Sunday mornings but rather calling us to be more authentic and more transparent in our times of worship. More real. More Dylan, and less Elvis. The early sixties folk movement invited the everyday person to join in and sing along. It wasn’t slick and perfect. It started a cultural revolution.

Shepherding

When I hear the voice of insecurity whisper, “You’re not enough. You have to be more like this person or that expression.” My pushback to that voice is to intentionally surrender my heart and pray something like, “Lord, at the risk of being boring, would you give me the courage to be who I am in You? Nothing more, Nothing less.” That is why I like to emphasize our role as “pastor” more than musician. We are pastors who utilize music to facilitate a conversation between the believer and their God and to create an environment that helps others worship.

Jesus said to Peter, “Do you love me? Feed my sheep.”

Conversation and community are two words that I’ve been chewing on lately and asking questions like, “Did our worship time feel like a conversation with a living person— with God—or did we just contrive a performance? Did our time of worship foster a sense of community within the church or are we just enabling people to have a solo “experience” with God?

Let’s determine to finish well by helping facilitate a lifelong conversation and sense of community between God and the people He has called us to serve.

As a Dove Award winning songwriter, Paul has written hundreds of songs that have been featured on a variety of albums, including “Open the Eyes of my Heart,” “Praise Adonai,” “Hosanna,” and “Our God Saves.” For 15 years, he has served as the worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas.