It was during the late 1990’s that the pastor of a fairly successful church in Watford, England began to realize that their church had seemingly lost its way when it came to their worship services. The conclusion was, and I’m using their words, a dynamic was missing with the result that a sense of apathy had set in.
So the leadership decided that they were going to get rid of the sound system and the worship team’s instruments, and solely rely on the congregation singing without any accompaniment. The hope was that by doing so, they would strip away all the diversions and distractions so that the worship experience was reduced to just God and the people.
At first it was awkward, really awkward. People weren’t used to hearing their own voices. How do you sing without any backup music? But over the weeks people began to sing again and the reason and purpose for worship was reignited in people’s hearts.
Eventually as worship became more about God and less about them, and as it returned more to the purity of worship rather than the performing of music, the leadership reintroduced the sound system and the worship teams once again picked up their instruments to accompany the voices.
It was out of this experience that one of the best known songs of the last couple of decades was born: Heart of Worship. Part of what this church was working through during this time was whether they were going to focus on Atmosphere or Presence.
There is a danger that lurks in the heart and mind of every leader which is the temptation to try and create the Presence of God in a church service by bypassing God and attempting the feat on their own. I believe that most pastors/worship leaders/evangelists/missionaries long for God to “show up” in their services with the result that people actually meet with Him. We know that without His Presence, something dynamic and necessary is missing.
The problem comes when we try to substitute various endeavors for those advocated for in the Bible such as fasting, prayer, holy living, and the Gifts of the Spirit which are given to us as weapons or tools that invite the Presence of God into the lives of the believers, and into the sacred time we call “church”.
The difficulty for many of us is that it seems easier and takes less sacrifice to create the substitutes. Praying can take time and is often difficult. Fasting requires much self discipline. It is much easier to add some more lights along with some dry ice and create our own atmosphere that at times can seem similar to the Presence of God, than to wait upon the Lord.
In the Old Testament (1 Kings 14:25-28) we read that the king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and stripped the treasures of the temple and the palace of Judah. With no gold remaining, the king ordered that the shields be replaced with bronze, as that is all they had left to work with.
From a human standpoint it was a smart decision. Bronze can be polished to shine, somewhat like gold. Bronze has a yellowish hue to it, like gold. Bronze can easily be shaped, as can gold. And the best thing? It was cheap and plentiful.
The writer of 1 Kings tells us that they would take these new shields and parade them from the palace to the temple and back again. On the surface, it looked like the real thing. It reminded people of the days when the real thing still existed. And so the parades continued. The audiences cheered. On the surface, everything looked like it should. Except, regardless of how you spin it, bronze is not equal to gold.
Is it possible that the church may be guilty today of trying the same tactic? Have we tried substituting Atmosphere (which we can create) for Presence (which can only be brought by God)? Have we settled for the easier and the less costly and the least demanding? Have we become so used to the bronze (Atmosphere) that we forget what the gold actually looks like (God’s Holy Presence)? Is it time to abandon our own attempts and instead go back to the ancient paths advocated for in the Bible?
These words are not to belittle lighting or good music or excellence of effort. Indeed, all these things can enhance our times with God. But as good as we might be in putting on parades and making people feel good, as Christian leaders, our main goal should never be to put on a performance that is designed only to make people feel good. Rather, it is to bring each of us into the Presence of God for it is only He who can make a lasting change in all of us.
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