Performance in Worship

There is definitely a fine line in a worship service that a worship band does not want to cross where the people in the crowd feel it is a performance. There is great validity to this concern. This concern brought to my attention a question that needs to be answered. What makes music a performance? (feel free to leave your thoughts)

• Is it excellence in music?
• Does it feel too much like a concert?
• Is it because people enjoy the style and presentation of the music?
• Do people sense arrogance from the leadership?

It is my opinion that if worship seems like a performance, it might just be because it is. The problem is when people get the wrong perspective. We need to broaden our view of who the performers are. The performance does not come from the band and singers only, but from every person in the room!

A worship service is powerful when every person is focused in to the audience of one, seated on the throne who lives in the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). Angels are constantly presenting a concert of singing and we join in with them.

11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon
thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and
the living creatures and the elders. 12In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" 13Then I heard every creature in heaven and on
earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" 14The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:11-14)

When you think about it, our worship is just joining the performance that is already going on in Heaven.