He’s a cute little guy. But he sure can cause a lot of problems.
Don’t get me wrong.
Evangelism is what we’re all about.
YES, we want to be relevant. I agree completely!
But….(and you knew it was coming)…..evangelism cannot ride on the back of worship.
We have to stop trying to make worship – evangelism. Worship is worship, evangelism is evangelism. I agree that a worshiping church is attractive to a non-believer. Far more than a non-worshiping church. I also agree that we want to be conscious of evangelism when it comes to worship. But, we as worship leaders, can’t allow evangelism to determine our worship.
We must choose our worship based on what helps our congregation worship, not on what we think will draw in the lost. Let’s be real, we’re not going to do music that they truly like anyway. Most of us don’t play songs from the top 40 in our worship services. Some do, but most don’t.
Two simple things happen when we try to combine the two:
1. Worship is Diluted.
God wants our worship. It’s that simple. When we try to turn evangelism into worship, it becomes less about worshiping God and more about attracting the lost. We want to be focused in our worship. God and God alone.
2. Evangelism is Marginalized.
When we’re trying to do worship and attach evangelism to it, evangelism becomes marginalized. We can’t focus on both. And, honestly, it becomes too easy to say that we as a church are doing evangelism, when in fact, all we are doing is worship.
Again, let me reiterate, Evangelism is what we’re all about. We have to be about reaching the lost. But, if we’re going to do evangelism, let’s do it all the way. Let’s design services and events around that purpose entirely. “Our people won’t go for that” you might say. “Lead them” I say.
When a service is a worship service, let’s worship.
(To hear more on this topic, check out episode 0093 of the podcast.)
Agree? Disagree? Why?
