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Sincere Jesus-Centered Worship Team Members Had A Friend In Tozer
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"True worship is not entertainment; it is an offering of the entire soul to Jesus. The moment we bring the world's chords into the sanctuary, we lose the presence of the Holy One."
— A.W. Tozer
That Tozer quote strikes deep because it exposes the subtle line between performance and true worship. When you are leading in the sanctuary—whether you are singing a note, strumming a chord, or standing silent in prayer while you wait for your time to join in the worship singing or handling the technical production—it is incredibly easy to shift from offering a sacrifice to putting on a show. Tozer spent much of his ministry fighting against the commercialization and entertainment mindset creeping into the church. For those, who like me, didn't know we had such an understanding friend in our struggle, here are three more powerful, unfiltered quotes from A.W. Tozer on keeping worship entirely pure:
1. The Peril of the "Program"
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"To great sections of the church, the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the 'program.' This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the public service which now passes for worship among us."
2. Culture vs. Christ
"Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us."
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3. Entertainment Replaces the Holy One
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"God calls us to worship, but in many instances we are in entertainment, just running a poor second to the theaters."
Tozer's book on the topic which is considered a classic "timelessly relevant and useful" is "Whatever Happened to Worship?". Interestingly it dates back to 1960. We tend to think that AI, algorithms and AV tech makes this more so of a modern issue but it goes back further. Here are a couple of videos I found pertaining to the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKncXb8Po74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJjNKoE1wx0
BINGO!!!!! Found this! If you have Amazon Prime that means you also have Amazon music and that gives you 1 free Audible book per month if I have that right. This is a collection of Tozer's writings on the subject on Amazon music...
https://www.amazon.com/music/player/audiobooks/B07452KHDL?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=dm_ics_us_dps_dw_ae_t1&pf_rd_p=e4a94859-6ded-4c92-9e57-f801242d864a&pf_rd_r=QYVYM9KCRH1PDFR5ZES9
Tozer's message is a heavy but necessary reminder for anyone serving in ministry: we are there to minister to the Lord, not to please an audience. For those of us who are well aware but still sometimes might struggle I hope this is helpful.
Humbly presented, Zeb
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