If An Ugly Worship Leader Leads In The Woods . . .

I am certain you are wondering what in the world that could mean. It’s easy. With such a vast array of talent on our worship stages all across the country, certain classes of worship leaders are emerging. There are young ones and old ones. There are guitar based leaders, piano based leaders and vocal only leaders. There are those who are band leaders, vocal coaches, team leaders and solo acts. There are paid leaders and unpaid leaders . Give yourself time and I am certain you could come up with HUGE list of distinctions to classify types of worship leaders . . . uh . . . or is it lead worshippers? (cue the eye roll).

I want to focus on an simpler worship leader class designation:

There are pretty worship leaders. And there are ugly ones.

See . . . .it’s YOUR mind that went there, not mine. You probably conjured up a visual of some poor, out of shape, not very attractive soul, with a heart for Jesus, struggling to eek out a vocal that doesn’t cause one to look for a sharp stick, while trying to wrestle some kind of instrument into making music instead of noise.

We’ve seen them on the internet. We’ve laughed at their YOUTUBE videos. We’ve experienced them when we visit our parent’s churches. For some reason they end up included in stories about churches and something that went wrong in them. So embarrassing.

I am not going to invoke the beauty/eye of beholder deal. No way. Let’s be honest (as that is the Christian way). Some worship can be absolutely awful to look at and listen to. So much so that no one could possibly enjoy it. No eye or ear could stand it. Even God might look down and proclaim “Bless your heart!”.

The bar we hold worship services to is silly. It is the bar of great-sounding worship lead by good-looking people. For most churches, it is unattainable. Frankly, I also think unrealistic. While the fans of that type of worship will argue that it is generational, communal and Spirit filled, it is also exclusive. Exclusive to churches who have a little extra cash, and focus on the young. Who focus on the already churched. And while you could show me a few pics of the “diversity” in your crowd, it is usually exclusive to white churches. Mad at me? Go to CCLI and look at the list then tell me I am wrong.

Now, let’s talk about real people worship. Worship with crappy sound systems, in jacked-up rooms with whoever can be found in the congregation to lead. I am talking about worship lead by part-time, maybe trained, always willing, normal looking worship leaders. I am talking about the worship that occurs in the quite regular, non-spectacular, don’t have to strive for excellence, tree falling in the woods Sunday morning worship service.

If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody’s there, can you make a guitar out of it?

Silly question, because the answer for most of us is no, we still could not make a guitar out of it because we are not Luthiers. A Luthier could.

Now, apply the question to worship. If there is a congregation of 100 people in a room (who are not the best looking young people you could find), lead by an ugly worshipper with little to no “frosted tip” hair, regular clothes and a face for radio, gathered to praise God for no other reason than it is Sunday morning . . . can amazing, awesome, incredible, contagious, life changing, powerful, impactful, awe inspiring, God connecting, Jesus loving, Holy Spirit moving worship happen?

Hmmmm . . . it depends on where your heart is. Don’t blame it on the worship leader.

Of course, the answer is yes.

(How mad are you at me now?)