The Biggest Prank the Devil Ever Pulled On The Church
Competition in worship is an absurd contradiction
Worship leaders, don’t get punked!
I remember the first twinge of jealousy I ever felt as a child when I heard another kid sing for an audience.
I was probably around eight years old, and I was with my dad at a Radio Shack in the mall. (Remember those?)
As we browsed, a pretty little girl with long, brown, curly hair started singing into a karaoke machine at the entrance of the store, and a crowd began to develop around her. Her voice floated elegantly as she belted, “Wind Beneath My Wings,” by Bette Midler.
As she sang, I vividly remember making the conscious choice not to look at her. I poked around the store, pretending to look at cables and wires, trying not to hear how amazing she sounded to my envious ears.
When she was done, the crowd that had gathered — even bigger now — cheered uproariously as she blushed and gave a painfully adorable little kid curtsy.
All my eight-year-old brain could think about was how I also liked to sing, but that no one would ever hear me because I was too shy. She was prettier than me, braver than me, and had a better voice than me. I felt sour, jealous, and annoyed.
The drive home was quiet and I’m not sure if, even to this day, I ever told my parents why.
The best prank Satan ever played on the church
There’s a quote from the movie, There Will Be Blood, where the main character, Daniel Plainview, says,
“I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed.”
Does this resonate with you? Are you a worship leader who has worked for and chased dreams — even God dreams — and all the while there’s a nagging green monster eating its way through the back of your brain?
It’s almost like we think God doesn’t have enough jobs to give out to everyone He’s called.
We have this urgency to be noticed, to feel important… but that’s exactly the same urgency Lucifer had in heaven before he was kicked out for trying to pull focus from God.
Lucifer later became what we now know as Satan.
And now he’s trying to push that urgency onto God’s chosen worship leaders. I’m sure there are about seventeen thousand layers of irony there. It’s just so typical; why do we fall for it?
But no child of God will be a beggar. The success of others only points to how capable God is of pouring gifts into His servants, and it doesn’t take away from what God has poured into you.
Check your motives
Some healthy competition, when it’s grounded in talented people inspiring one another toward growth in their musicianship, is not a bad thing. Excellence breeds excellence. That’s good.
But when we step onto the worship stage, a sacred space that exists to point the room’s attention toward Jesus, and we make it about ourselves, we are wandering into insidious territory.
God makes this clear:
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another…” (Isaiah 42:8, NIV)
Even though God is so very gracious and merciful, He is never wishy-washy. He certainly makes it known in no uncertain terms that we do not get to block the world’s view of Him.
We have one job
My fellow worship leaders, singers, and musicians…
We have one job: to disappear.
That is, as worship leaders, we only need to use our skills to point to heaven; to lead God’s people up the mountain toward His presence.
There’s no need to size each other up on the way.
We’re on the same team!
Let’s stop being silly, shall we? No more comparing. No more competing. If you’re a worship leader, your job is to lead worship.
Don’t look to the left or the right.
Just look up.
Thanks for reading!
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