A Gamer’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare (Even If You’re Not a Gamer)

Six reasons a worship leader could walk away from faith.

A prominent worship leader from a leading church recently declared through social media that his faith was on shaky ground. It created a lot of conversational space filled with many opinions and many more questions. There have been some interesting responses from within the Christian community and even from others. As a believer for 24 years, a worship leader for 22 years and a bible teacher for 19 years here are some of my thoughts on this and other trends in church.

1. The experiential faith factor.

The trend in many churches today is to push for this Christian experience. What many might attribute to the more charismatic and Pentecostal stream of faith has now also become a reality in many other evangelical churches as well. I have spoken at a number of different churches and to people from various kinds of theological backgrounds. In all of this I see a trend now where the power of the worship experience in the music and the silent spaces between songs have become so fundamentally important that many times I have been asked if I can drop a point or two from the teaching of the word to accommodate for 10 extra minutes of that worship time and / or ministry time. But the Bible is very clear – “faith comes from hearing, and hearing the word of God” (Rom 10:17). There is a need for that experience of faith and the heart connect in the church. But the faith we profess is something that transforms the mind (Rom 12:2) and not just softens or warms the heart. In the very highly experiential and performance driven church services we are producing nowadays we run the risk of having lots of emotion but very little faith.

2.   The “music grows my faith” factor.

Anyone who studies the seasons of Church history will tell you that over the last decade or so there has been a considerable mushrooming effect of worship leaders and worship song writers. Where once we had the choirs of Maranatha Music, Integrity Music or Vineyard Music now we have a new worship artist to follow every week. It has resulted in a significant increase in the song bank for a church’s team to choose from but it has also resulted in a very music driven approach to growing our faith. Years ago the so called “quiet-time” of a Christian consisted of time studying the Word of God and in prayer. Today the mixture of busy schedules and the convenience of a song bank in 1000’s through Alexa or our little music players, our quiet time includes a large part of just worship music playing in our head as we sit back and meditate on the lyrics of the song. But as much as the song might be theologically accurate, doctrinally sound and even contain biblical language within it – the worship song is still a cheap substitute for the living Word of God. The person who thinks worship music alone can grow his faith is the same as the one who thinks one Sunday sermon a week alone can grow his faith. We will do well to realize that music exists firstly for the pleasure of God. Worship music above all must adhere to this principle. Worship music is first and foremost about and for God, not me. But we have such a consumerist mindset nowadays that the main thing we look at is how did the song make me feel? What did it do for my faith and my life?

3. Who are our teachers?

In today’s snapchat, instagram, youtube social media driven age it does not take much to be a person of influence. In a world with so many recording apps and programs such as garageband and the likes it does not take much to write a song that you can teach to others (believe me, I am talking from experience). But the result is that churches become quick to have the next singer song writer up on stage to share that song. Once you’re up on stage whether you like it or not you are a teacher, a model of what life ought to be like. In today’s worship superstars age we have young twenty year olds who spend more time pouring over their guitars and recording software than their Bibles coming on stage to teach us theology. Many a times a young worship leader is so much more skilled (because he/she has given that much more time) in writing a song or playing the music for the church worship team than they are at reading their Bible. The result is a worship music genre driven by talent and people consistently improving their music skill and not their Bible study skills. The final result is worship music that is lack lustre when it comes to theological soundness and expanse. After a while a theological framework that only sings about our favourite topics like the provisions and blessings from God will be a framework that will crumble under the weightier questions this world throws at it. If Jesus Himself spent an entire night in prayer before choosing and commissioning his twelve disciples (Luke 6:12) how much more cautious should we be before welcoming people into leadership?

4. The “God is using him powerfully, he must be so mature” factor.

We all fall into this trap somewhere in our life. In fact we fall in this trap many times in our life. We see this person that God is using powerfully and we assume spiritual maturity and vitality. After all if your worship leader is composing 5 songs a month then God must be inspiring him in tremendous ways. And if those songs make people cry or go on to become hits on social media platforms and cause more people to come to your church – then wow God is really using this person powerfully and we will celebrate their depth and intimacy with God. But the truth is God can prophesy through a donkey as well (Number 22:21-39). God can use anything. On one occasion Jesus tells the Pharisees that should they shut his disciples from praising him then the rocks and trees would start praising Him (Luke 19:40). Just because someone is used by God do not assume spiritual maturity or spiritual growth. Just because God is using you don’t get tardy and drop your guard regarding your own spiritual growth. Paul would say I work hard so that after teaching all the others, I myself am not disqualified in this faith race (1 Cor 9:27). We love to elevate worship leaders on to this stage where we then assume their spiritual lives must be so rich because the songs they write and the times they lead are so rich.

5.  The “Living celebrity” factor.

In today’s world it is much easier to become a celebrity. Even within the church you can become the favourite worship leader, favourite preacher within your own congregation. That’s because so many churches have church members that come with a consumerist mindset (but that is a topic for a completely different article). I remember a few years ago a secular band that had released 2 albums then went on to release their third and it was a “best of…” collection. I found it absurd that after just two albums they could think of realizing a greatest hits album. I heard another famous music personality then comment on this and say “when they have released 10 platinum selling records tell them to come talk to me.” Today becoming a celebrity and even a legend can happen by the time you’re 30. Even in church you can become the best they have ever seen at that congregation because you composed and taught 4 worship songs or one whole album. But I think back to the times of Charles Wesley who, it is said composed more than 6000 hymns during his lifetime. Or I think back to the time of Fanny Crosby who some say composed close to 9000 hymns in her lifetime. Their desire was to not to draw people into an emotional place of surrender to God. Their desire was to share through music the theological insights they had received both as observers of life and as students of the Word. They were not celebrities; there were no darkened rooms and streaming spotlights where they went. There were no album launches and teaser trailers. And in the end their faith endured. Music was a mere extension of their deep intimate faith in God and never the bedrock of it.

 6.       The deep lack of accountability among leaders.

The pedestal that leaders put on and the assumption that they are spiritually mature combine to create this void of accountability when it comes to being a leader. This phenomenon is amplified in the mega churches of our time. Very often there is no clear accountability structures around the leaders or in most cases the accountability structures are leaders of one ministry loosely and relationally providing accountability for leaders of another. We have mentors who we are connected to but who live in faraway lands and facetime with us to do the mandatory spiritual health check-up. Everyone is so busy expecting the next great show from us and people are already busy holding us accountable to getting the song list out on time and ensuring the practices and soundcheck happens on time that very few have the time to also then hold us accountable for our faith. And again we fall into the trap of the “if he was struggling it would show in his ministry” thought processes and excuses. But many leaders (worship leaders or other ministries) will tell you that they are weak and falling apart because there’s no one to just walk alongside them in the simple disciplines of the faith. We have sacrificed the power of the discipleship relationship for this convenient, off and on one arm’s length accountability that we see among today’s church leadership.

My prayer is that the Church today would wake up to discipleship and rekindle that deep love for studying the word of God for herself and in that deep study and from those ancient words that she would grow and fortify her faith and be that powerful witness for Jesus - speaking and singing the truth in love.