- The Healthy Leader by Likewise Worship
- Posts
- it's never just another sunday
it's never just another sunday
... when you're pushing back the darkness
Likewise Worship
November 12, 2024
Raise your hand if… the weekends all run together or just feel the same. Most, if not all of us, have felt caught in the week-in-week-out monotony of singing the same songs and using the same service flow at some point. What this reveals is our tendency to forget about what is happening as we lead worship. Perhaps, that’s exactly the place our Enemy wants to lead us. Read on…
In Today’s Email
3 Ways You Push Back the Darkness
Introducing… LIKEWISE COFFEE
Crouch on a Sabbathless Life
3 Ways You Push Back the Darkness
Creative opinions aside, there are few series that portray the struggle between light and darkness better than the Rings of Power. As you watch, it’s difficult to not look at our world and think on the darkness that quietly encroaches on our countries, cities, and neighborhoods.
It’s important to let these visuals not just be fantasy - or even analogies. For the Apostle Paul, this was the way he viewed evil in the world:
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12)
As worship leaders, we know we have forgotten the importance of our role in this battle when things start to feel like Groundhog’s Day.
There is never a dull Sunday. Never a meaningless Sunday. Never a Sunday in which our Enemy has not spent the week prior attempting to wreak havoc in the lives and communities of those who stumble into church.
Each weekend, worship leaders push back the darkness by teaching, unifying, and warring.
You Teach
The theology of many Christians is shaped more by the songs they sing than by the sermons they hear. The reason? We retain more of what we sing than what is spoken to us. Music also acts as this binding agent that attaches our emotions to the content of the songs.
This means that, intentionally or not, you are teaching those you are leading each weekend. You are teaching them who God is, how to view Him, how to view ourselves in light of Him, appropriate responses to His glory, etc… (this is why right and clear theology in our songs is critical).
In short, you help people renew their minds (Rom 12:1-2). You help people replace lies with truth. You help people be transformed, not conformed to the world. You help people by reminding them of the light that can drive out the darkness.
You Unify
Divide and conquer. The philosophy is ages old and often repeated. Why? Because it works.
As mentioned in last week’s email, singing is one of the greatest unifying tools. When people sing together, the walls come down. When people sing together, the chasms that seem too wide to cross suddenly seem to narrow.
When you are able to unify people around the truth of the Gospel in the big room (your services), there’s a greater chance they’ll be unified in smaller ones (their neighborhoods and communities). This is the work!
We’re so much stronger together (Heb 10:23-25). Our Enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour (1 Peter 5:8).
Each weekend, you push back the darkness by strengthening the community at your church by unifying them in worship.
You War
In this most mysterious one of all, as you worship, you are leading your community into battle. As we rehearse the Gospel, we “come to”. As we rehearse the Gospel in our singing and other service elements, we wake up.
There’s something powerful that happens when are simply reminded of what is at stake. When we worship together, we being trained to love God instead of the world (1 John 2:15-17).
Eugene Peterson reminds us, “Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.”
As the people of God gather together to worship Him, we not only war against the cosmic powers and authorities (a topic for a different time), but we wage war on the battleground of our own hearts.
“Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves.”
- James K.A. Smith
Each weekend, you push back the darkness by helping people participate in the very act that changes their hearts.
Now before we walk away thinking we’re super important… none of the teaching, unifying, or warring is fruitful without the work of the Holy Spirit.
So, don’t let this weekend be another weekend. There is always so much at stake. God is at work. Will you join Him?
Introducing… LIKEWISE COFFEE
Yes - we brew our own coffee.
Yes - proceeds from the coffee help us keep our retreat costs low.
Yes - this is great for your green room or church coffee shop.
Different ways to drink - check it out:
Happy sipping!
Crouch on a Sabbathless Life
“A sabbathless life ends up with neither true work nor true rest, but with frantic and ineffective activity punctuated by couch-potato lethargy.”
- Andy Crouch
Join our community!
Gatherings - Looking to connect with other leaders? Come to our free monthly hangs with local leaders in select US cities or join us quarterly online!
One on One - Looking to process your ministry, your faith, or your challenges with a third-party you can trust? Set up a meeting with a member of our team.
Vocal Coaching - Feeling stuck or discouraged vocally? We offer professional in-house voice coaching specifically to worship leaders. Best part? We raise funds so we can give you a BIG discount. Schedule a consultation with our team!