i am an offering

The Annual LifeLight festival was held this past weekend in Sioux Falls, an event which I’m very fond of. It was estimated that about 320,000 people showed up over the course of the weekend, which is phenomenal, and God is using the festival to move mightily in our area. One thing got me thinking, though, and, in fact, may have bothered me just a little.

Several people made comments about how amazing or awesome or fantastic or [insert adjective here] it was to worship with Chris Tomlin on Saturday night. This got me thinking. I was there. Did I find it particularly different than any other worship experience that I’ve had? In ways, yes, but in other ways, not at all. Why did people seem to think it was elevated higher than other times of worship that they’ve experienced recently? I want to try to answer this question and maybe challenge us to think a little differently.

Why did people seem to think it was elevated higher than other times of worship?

• It was Chris Tomlin and he’s just this amazing worship leader.

Hmm…Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed how he led worship very much, and I think Chris Tomlin is one of the elite songwriters in the “worship world” today. But, to be honest, he wasn’t anything extraordinarily special as a worship leader. Yes, he was good, but not supremely better than others I know. Maybe it was the fact that he made a wise comment that the night wasn’t about entertainment but was about worship. But, another comment he made was, “I have an amazing band.” I wonder how much of the concert was enjoyed because the talent level of the band was on a scale way higher than most churches experience. They were so rehearsed and knew the songs so well that there were no distractions. Sure, Chris Tomlin is a great worship leader, but without his band, would the concert have been so amazing? Without his band, he’d be just like several very good worship leaders that I know personally who lead worship alone regularly, with no phenomenal band to back them up.

• We were worshiping with almost 100,000 people together.

Granted, that was pretty amazing, I must admit. But, aside from the awe that the numbers inspired, does it really matter how many people we have worshiping with us? Shouldn’t worship on Sunday morning with 1000, 800, 500, 100, even 50 people or at a small group with 2-10 people be just as amazing?  Shouldn’t worship be amazing because of the God we’re worshiping, not the atmosphere in which we worship?  I also admit that it was very impressive and moving to have so many different denominations represented. However, the people group that was dominant in the crowd was caucasions. Can you imagine how much more amazing it would be (and will be, someday) when every people group from every tribe and nation come together to worship God?

I want to challenge us to not get caught up in moments of worship that seem like God is “more present.” God is just as present in our Sunday morning worship as He was at LifeLight. God is just as present when we worship Him alone as He was with multitudes for the Chris Tomlin concert.

I want to challenge us that the God we worship does not change when the atmosphere changes. We can have just as exciting, just as intimate, just as fulfilling times of worship at our churches every week. We just need to remember who we worship, not the experience of worship. Granted, having good musicians and confident teachers and leaders to help eliminate our minds from being distracted from who we worship is very important, but we need to be sure we never place our expectations for worship on them, instead of the One we worship.

*Update -06/16/08 - While God is still “just as present” in our Sunday morning worship - His presence can be intensified while worshiping with more people.  I just listened to some wise comments from Bob Kauflin about this subject and understand a bit more what people meant when they said that “worship was amazing” that night.