Amos 5-21-24 I hate all your show and pretense--the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offering. I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a river of righteous living that will never run dry.
WOW!
As a worship leader I didn't know how to take these words from Amos. I didn't know they existed until I was reading an article in the new Worship Leader magazine and it mentioned it. It seems that Amos and I would have been either best friends or fierce enemies. I am not a very popular person because of my views on worship. I tired long ago of the worship leaders with teeth so white they looked liked Chiclets. I became bored with singing songs about how great God was when most of the praise team were living secret lives of sin and refused to do anything about it. I got frustrated with leadership that wouldn't trust or support me. I grew impatient with pastors who looked at me like I was from another planet when I spoke of God speaking to me. It frustrated me when I was told what style to lead or what song to use or what group of people to keep happy or "minister" to. WHAT?!!! God must be so tired of us. We spend so much of our time trying to please everybody other than Him. When we finally do get a clue or have an "AHA" moment we are so burdened down with spiritual junk that the words we say and the songs we sing don't get past the top of our heads much less the ceiling.
As I said, I am not very popular. I don't believe that God only speaks to the pastor or only speak to me through His Word. I am either stupid or gulible enough to beleive that He cares enough about me that He will speak to me on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and every other day of the week. He doesn't expect me wait until I can pull over to the side of the road and get my Bible out or wait until Sunday when the pastor speaks for me to hear His voice. God speaks to me. Get over it!!
He doesn't usually speak to me through music even though music is such a big part of who I am. It is very often through His Word and also through the pastors words. But there are those times when I hear God in an almost audible way. I hear Him say, "Boy". That's what He calls me. When I hear that I know it's time to turn the radio off, pull the car over or find a quiet place so that I can listen. It's usually something like, "Boy, why are you so angry?" "Boy, why are you defeated?" "Boy, don't you know that I love you?"
Anyway, back to the words of Amos. God hates what we have done to worship. We have cheapened it and made it more about the worshippers than the object of our worship. Where do we get the idea that we are supposed to be happy with the song selection. Where do we get off putting God in a box of 20 or thirty minutes? I will not even sit in the same room with a worship leader who hasn't spent more time in prayer and personal preparation than he or she spends fixing their hair or chosing their clothes. I remember watching a worship leader singing the song, "Jesus, Lover of my soul" and thinking each time they sang, "It's all about You" their lives and actions were screaming out "It's all about me".
I too, have fallen into that trap. Being a worship leader is a very tough job. We must constantly keep ourselves in check. We must examine our motives and acitons. We must take a long look at the way we feel led to worship. Does it bring more glory and honor to God or us?
What God desires more than the music and the applause is to see His temple decorated with a mighty flood of justice and a river of righteousness.
Worship go so much further than the songs we sing. I wish God would bring a direct revelation to each member, every pastor, elder and deacon. Maybe He will.
Blessings
Allen
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