Worship: Getting Back to the Basics

“I love the music at NHC!”

As your worship leader, I hear this statement all the time. To be honest, I really enjoy knowing that people love the music and the musicians who play and sing each week. I love that people invite others to church by telling them how great the music is. Part of my responsibility to our church is to lead a team of musicians and technicians who can consistently produce quality music on Sunday mornings, and a good thermometer for success in this area is hearing our partners at NHC talking about their love for our music.

But, producing quality music is not the highest calling for my life or for my church. My personal mission statement is, as it has been for several years, “To help people experience genuine encounters with Christ by leading, teaching, facilitating and exemplifying authentic, Biblical worship.” Our church mission statement is “To reach people to discover life in Christ.” Music is a great tool to use to accomplish these things, but ultimately, music is only a means to an end, not the end itself. Bottom line, if our church is not collectively moving closer to becoming a church that is passionate about worshipping God (understanding that “worship” is so much more than “music”), as a worship leader, I am falling short. As a church, we are falling short.

People are creatures of habit. We feel the most comfortable and safe when we know what to expect, when we are presented with things that are familiar to us. And, to some degree, church should be a place where we feel comfortable and know what to expect. But, when tradition and ritual take over, going through the motions takes priority, true worship of God cannot thrive.

So, beginning this Sunday and continuing through the end of November, you will be experiencing some different things on Sunday mornings at NHC. The first thing you’ll notice this Sunday is that the stage will be nearly empty of all musical instruments, equipment and people. Normally I wouldn’t give you advanced warning, but I want to make sure that nobody misinterprets what is going on. Nobody from the band has been “fired” or asked to step down…the band has been offered the opportunity to take a short, collective break so that they can experience the next month with you from off stage, and they have been more than happy to accept.

I have always told those who ask, that the most promising thing a worship leader can experience is to witness those he’s leading lay down their lives in an act of worship to God. The most encouraging words I can hear are, “I love the worship of Nags Head Church.” The greatest compliment I could receive is to have somebody say to me, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to worship God today.”

Nags Head Church is an amazing group of people, and I am proud to be a partner with each of you. But even for a church that loves God and is serving her community well, there are times and seasons when we need to slow down, refocus and return to the basics of what God has called us to do and who He has called us to be.

I hope that you’ll join your pastors, your band and I in spending this next month seeking after the heart of worship.

Nathan Lawrenson