The Worship Swing-Vote Principle: A Divine Partnership

Another factor that has an oddly infectious effect is if people have an unresolved relational problem with someone present. Unforgiveness puts the brakes on engagement quickly and spreads. Smaller gatherings are more susceptible to this. The worship team cannot likely change this, but it must be regularly addressed by those who teach.

In much-larger gatherings, some of these dynamics are overcome by sheer numbers and momentum. There is a concert effect where people relax and go along for the ride. However, this is not necessarily worship engagement and must be evaluated for what it is. A concert is about spectating. A worship service is about engaging God in worship.

My point is that every gathering has dynamic, changing factors that will affect the time. Even when everyone is on the “same page,” there are more factors that impact the gathering. So, we are moving people overall into a more mature worship commitment and expression. We are also dealing with an ever-changing set of variables each time we gather a group of people.

Isn’t worship all about anointing?

Over the years, many have mentioned that “the anointing” was there and that a particular worship leader was “anointed” … and that’s why worship happened. If what we are saying is that the Spirit showed up, I certainly hope this is the case every time! But I have heard worship leaders say things like, “The anointing was on me, but people didn’t join in,” or, “I just went with the Spirit, but the people didn’t.” This line of reasoning has always troubled me. One experience years ago made these misconceptions clear to me.

We assembled eight churches together to have a great night of worship and celebration. We enlisted the talents of an internationally famous worship leader to lead a crowd of about 800. The room was electric with anticipation. It looked promising.

The worship leader began by playing a new song of his own. He didn’t take the time to teach it to us, and after a few minutes, I realized he was making it up as he went. Eyes closed. Lost in worship. Repeatedly singing the same phrase over and over. The excited members of the crowd were good sports. They tried to jump in, but the melody was too unpredictable.

The next song was on the same track, only it lasted about 10 minutes! Still, the primarily Top-20 group gave it the college try. A few hands up here and there. Then he threw in a familiar chorus and the place erupted. Alright! Now we’re in! I thought. But, then … he went back into the spontaneous song he was making up. The person projecting the words looked at me in utter bewilderment. I could give no direction, because there was none!

In a loaded car on the way home, I asked how they thought worship went. One guy expressed frustration that he wanted to worship but never had the chance. Another piped in, “That’s not the leader’s fault. He had the anointing. People just didn’t jump aboard.”

To this I snapped, “No. It was the leader’s responsibility to lead us. Instead, he just played his music and worshipped in front of us. But, he never led us into worship. He never even gave us a chance!”

This experience is part of why I started to muse on and formulate the swing-vote principle. Somehow, “anointing” didn’t translate into leadership.

I believe anointing and leadership must work together. God will not do our part, and we cannot do his! We must have the supernatural empowering of God to do anything related to his kingdom. But we must also know how to lead people—the people he’s entrusted to us.

Is it God, or us?

As I write this, there is a sense of uneasiness that bubbles up within me. It’s possible to take the principles I’ve outlined and use them … without God! We could carefully craft a set of songs, pay attention to people dynamics, get everything right—and it still be a just a man-made marketing strategy.

Worse, it could create an unhealthy trust in our ability to manipulate the dynamics and the people! Still worse, by leaning on these principles, we could actually be stealing glory and attention from God himself! (e.g., “Look at what we did!”). This scares me.

In our church, if a worship time goes well, we’ll typically say it’s all because God blessed it. If it goes badly, it’s because we bombed. I believe we need some new verbiage (and/or categories) that help us recognize a job well-done on our part, while taking no glory for ourselves … that fully recognizes that God’s discernible presence was in our midst, and his blessing was what made it all work together.

There’s a tension in all this that I cannot resolve. Perhaps the tension must remain or we will default to “it’s all God” or “it’s all us.” The reality is, it is God working through us, equipping and empowering us to lead people to him in worship (John 5:17-20; 1 Cor. 15:10).

Please hold these principles with an open hand and ask God to help you notice what he wants you to work on. It is leadership in partnership with God.

The God Particle

All bets are off if God is not the true center and focus—not the music (no matter how hip and cool), nor the people, nor the volume, nor the style, nor the length of the songs or time, nor how well we’ve done in leading people. This is all about bringing a sacrifice to him. A response of love, praise, adoration, thanks and awe. The swing-vote principle is only about helping the church focus not on themselves, but on the One who loves them—and moving them into a growing, worshipful responsiveness to him.

We must seek him for his leadership, both in preparation and in delivering the worship leading we prepare. As we ask, it is God’s pleasure to anoint us with his Spirit as we seek to worship him with all our hearts.

Bob Branch is the founder and pastor of The Springs Community Church in Temecula, California. He has been leading worship for more than 35 years. This article was originally published on WorshipLeader.com.

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