photo by:Matthew Walker
I receive a magazine called “Technologies for Worship”. I started receiving it because I used to volunteer as a sound tech at a church we previously attended. It has some great articles on the basics of using audio and video technologies in church.
Increasingly though, I have become disillusioned with the content. It has less to do with changes in the magazine than it does with changes in me.
The Spirit has been working on me about priorities in life. What is truly important, and what is just fluff?
As I read the magazine and see the multi-million dollar facilities and the six figure audio/video upgrades, I begin to wonder if it’s really the best use of resources in a world where whole people groups have not heard the Message of the Gospel and so many people are dying every day due to lack of basic food, water, and medicine.
To illustrate my point, let me refer you to a short article within the first ten pages of the latest issue of the magazine. It’s titled “GLP Impression Spot One & Wash One Enhance Worship at Lifegate Church”. Really? It enhances worship? (In case you can’t tell from the title, it refers to a new lighting system.)
I also have run sound for a very small Christian Music venue. We were located in a multi-purpose room at a small church. We used a small audio system that was decades past its prime. We had ZERO lighting beyond two banks of fluorescent house lights. The stage wasn’t even big enough for all but the smallest of bands. They usually put the drums on the stage and everyone else played from the floor.
But I cannot tell you how many times I truly Worshiped in that place. That’s because it has nothing to do with hardware or facilities.
The reasons I could worship are very simple. First and foremost, I was open to the Spirit and ready to Worship. And secondly, the bands were ready to be a conduit for the Spirit and True Worship.
It’s really a simple formula. It requires no complex audio systems. No flashing and sweeping LED lights. No multi-media presentations. At its basic, True Worship simply needs a willing worshipper. The One Worthy of Worship is already there waiting, and He’s not messing with His iPod.