Worship in the Age of COVID

For months, my default position regarding my blog and COVID19 was silence…why bring it up yet again, aren’t we all tired of hearing about it? But I’ve had a change of heart. I don’t know if anything in this entry will be new or be of use, but if I can help or encourage anyone in worship arts ministry to carry on or try something new, it’s worth it to me.

There are so many approaches to worship during COVID, so I’m going to attempt to offer my best thinking taking a wider view, looking at aspects that would apply to many church ministries. These thoughts are based on my experience at my former church, Crossroads Community Church near Toledo, OH, and my new ministry of the last 4 months, Shepherd’s Gate Church, located in Shelby Township, MI.

FLEXIBILITY
I have noticed that at both churches I’ve served in during COVID, we have benefited from the ability to worship online, to pre-record services, livestream services, and hold various forms of in person services. At any given time, we have utilized some combination of these forms as the need arose. That’s probably not new to you, everyone has had to do that, but here’s the point: resist the urge to zero in on the option that happens to be working at the moment. Don’t make it your fav. That’s the danger I’ve been experiencing. We pivot to some new option and I start to think it’s gonna last. I get comfortable and stop innovating or thinking about new possibilities. Then conditions change, and I have to go through the mental stress of tearing myself away from whatever we are doing to find something else. Lately I’ve been careful to hold onto the current method lightly, it’s better for the body and soul! In a quickly changing world, change will be a constant companion in ministry, if you want to truly reach people where they are. So expect another pivot and look forward to the opportunity instead of mourning the loss of the current plan. I guess what I’m really advocating for here is an attitude of flexibility that will keep us all light on our feet and ready to move.

UNDERSTANDING
Leadership is often about showing people a preferred future and inspiring them to work together to bring that future in being. But there is a more subtle aspect of leadership that is important in our current environment. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there are many opinions about how to respond to COVID (wink wink). And quite a few of the people in my circle of friends are quite adamant about their opinions, treating them as facts. That has made this crisis particularly stressful. The leadership skill I am advocating is the ability to foster understanding on your team by helping everyone see that what they believe about COVID isn’t the only possible set of beliefs. There is nothing wrong with advocating for COVID beliefs, but there is something prideful and arrogant about disregarding other people because they don’t share your view. And somehow this has become common in our culture. Perhaps one silver lining to COVID is that it can be used as a teaching moment to help people on our teams understand and respect each other while also disagreeing with each other. This basic skill is sorely lacking in our culture at large and will be an attractive trait to add to any worship team.

THE NATURE OF WORSHIP
I couldn’t find a one word title for this thought which threw my pattern off, but I’m just going to go with it. COVID challenges our narrow view of worship in many ways. This Sunday, four team members were unable to serve at the last minute due to COVID related issues. Suddenly, we were a singer, a keyboard player and a drummer, with tracks filling out the rest. But guess what- we still had a satisfying and spiritually dynamic time of praise and worship. We’ve done one guy on guitar and vocals, we’ve fielded teams with only male singers, bands with no bass guitar…the list goes on. It was all worship. Because worship isn’t a style, or a certain group of team members, it’s a focus on Jesus. We could worship with no band. We could worship with no singing. We could worship with no building. What did the Bible says about that- where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am. It’s as simple as that. Don’t be discouraged, because in this environment you will probably have to make all sorts of compromises and face all sorts of shortfalls. Just know it doesn’t matter if the focus is truly on Jesus…stick with that and the rest, whatever you manage to put together, will be enough.

LORDSHIP
This one is a bonus. There have been a few memes out there joking around about songs we can’t sing during COVID because they have lyrics about breath, breathing, or the air around us, etc. It’s funny for sure! But I had this thought today- nothing should really be taken off the list. Jesus is still Lord of my life- all of it. Including the air I breathe. He gave me the breath in my lungs. COVID isn’t going to steal that away from me. Everything we are belongs to God, not to COVID. So today I sang, “It’s Your breath, in our lungs, so we pour out our praise.” And I realized how powerful and meaningful that is right now. I am literally trusting Jesus with every breath in a way I wasn’t before.

A GREAT GIFT…OR TREAT YOURSELF!!

Christmas is coming…give the worship leader in your life a gift they will really appreciate, a copy of The Creative Arts Ministry Field Guide! An easy read but chock full of great ideas to take worship arts and service planning to the next level. Get it on Amazon in print or Kindle versions!