I was part of a discussion last week where a christian musician was asked if he plays in church. His answer was a bit muddled, but ended with the statement that he is not into performance worship.

What?! These words don't even go together! You either worship God or you don't in whatever you do. To be fair I think I understand what he was getting at, but also his statement gives a hint that he might not understand the concept of worship that much. If you identify something as performance worship you are talking about worship as a musical expression, obviously with selfish motives. Would true worship then also be a musical expression to this muso, but more unselfish and focused on God? Romans 12 tells us that all of our lives should worship to God; every part of it.

Ok, so this guy has been gifted by God to play an instrument, then my question is how can the fact that when he and some other musicians make music on a Sunday and the church joins in and sing songs of adoration to God be wrong. If one of the musicians playing have selfish motives of maybe wanting to be noticed, it still does not make it all wrong. This muso is on a journey with God like all of us and at least he is in church among other followers of Jesus. No church is perfect, no musician, no leader, no Christian. We all have our junk that God is willing to walk and deal with.

We are meant to get together as a church and sing songs of worship, learn from God's word and be edified as the church. A strong and built up church will be effective in reaching out and loving the world around it and Ephesians tells us that the church is the hope of this broken world. If our worship is limited to a Sunday it is pretty much fake, because all of life should be worship. We shouldn't come to church to worship, but bring our worship to church. It's not one or the other, but all of it. The rest of our week can not be out weighed by what we do on a Sunday morning.

It should be noted that I am not writing about the industry of the worship music genre, but the musical expression of worship to God in the context of church. To be honest I think that someone who makes a statement like this musician did rather has a problem with church as a whole than just the music part.

God has gifted us so that we should pour our lives into His purposes. If we do not use these gifts for building His kingdom our priorities are muddled. The church and it's people might be imperfect, but so are me and you. Do not stop to use what God has given you to build the church of Christ and the kingdom of God.