It's All About the Heart

"Some Sundays it seems to me that with the addition of several hymns and/or special musical presentations that at the end of the service I have attended a recital instead of a religious service."


This comment was shared from a member of my congregation through an anonymous survey on worship. However, due to the rest of the comment that this person made, they are part of the Music Ministry of the church. There were plenty of other not-so-positive comments made, and none of them really hurt me like this one did. Now, I'm not sharing this to gain sympathy or to say "woe is me". I'm a big boy. I can take it. I know I'm imperfect. But I want to share this comment to take a bit of time to explain the heart and worship.

There is a popular song in many churches called "The Heart of Worship". And the chorus is: "I'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you, it's all about you, Jesus". Sadly, in our consumer driven world (and churches?), the chorus can be changed to "I'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about me and what I like. It's all about my likes and dislikes." The problem with sin is it makes us desirous to be God. We think we know better. In some instances, we do. Most of the time, we don't. But back to the comment. Worship turns into a recital? I actually like that. If you've ever been a part of or been to a recital, students practice and practice and practice and sometimes, the music is beautiful. Sometimes, the music is far from beautiful. But you'd never hear boos or catcalls at a recital, no matter how unmusical the music is. And if we follow that logic of worship being a recital, isn't that really what we do? We prepare music for God. Sometimes, it's beautiful, sometimes, it's far from it. Does God reject our worship? I sure hope not!

I'm guessing that this person probably didn't intend this comment to be a positive statement. I can't quite tell. But from the context it seems that way. And I think initially, that's why the comment stung so hard. It is my hope and prayer that the music I share, and that I encourage others to share is taken in the way that it is intended it to be. That is, to glorify God, praising Him for His gifts, and encouraging all gathered together to join in giving God glory. The problem comes when our perspective changes in relation to worship. If the worship is about US and what WE get out of it, whether we sang the hymns we liked, or if the service stayed within the confines of our expected timing, or if the organist didn't "just" play the hymn the way we like it, it's not about us. And that's where we need to have our heart checked. I've had my heart checked in this way so often, because I'm sinful. I can and have easily fallen into the trap of "look at what I can do". Time and maturity has led me to a different way of thinking. That is, "Look at what God does through my very flawed offering of music." As I was telling someone last night, I make plenty of mistakes, I've learned how to hide them throughout the years.

So what's the answer? That's the challenge. Ultimately, I know my heart and I know what I say to encourage people to share in that mentality, but I don't know what's in anyone's heart. I don't know what is in the heart of the congregation listening to the music. When all is said and done, it's about the heart, and it's about that focus being on giving praise to God for what He has done. I look forward to continuing to search out answers and continuing the dialogue.