I don’t have a problem with professionalism. Really, I don’t.
When someone is professional, it’s not typically a negative connotation.
- When I need to have surgery, I pray to God the surgeon is a professional.
- When I get my hair cut, it’s typically a plus if they have been to beauty school and know how to cut hair.
- When I go to college, I want to learn from professionals – those who have gone before and know the ropes.
- When I worship with my church family, I want to be led by someone who is a professional – someone who knows music, flow, liturgy, and songs.
At the same time, it’s possible to become too professional. Professional in the sense that you stop learning, stop seeing the wonder, stop pulling the beauty out of life. You know how to clock in and do your job. You know the ropes. You know how to dial it in.
Children Are Not Professional
My son is 3. There isn’t much he can teach me as far as writing better blog posts, playing the piano, or doing my taxes (who really knows how to do that?). He’s not a professional. But there are nuances and depths to life that only he can teach me.
He approaches every day with enthusiasm.
He is relentlessly positive about mundane, routine things.
He is honest, real, down-to-earth, loving, and caring.
Professionals can often forget all of this.
The problem with professionalism in worship is when the passion for the craft overwhelms our passion for the Christ.
It’s when we simply “dial in” a worship set because we know how. We stop gazing in wonder. We’re not expectant. We’re not hungry. We don’t really want to know him. We just want to be known.
We just want to be recognized for how good we are.
But when I read the New Testament I read about how Paul wanted to “count all things as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Phil. 3:8).”
I don’t know if that’s a great professional career move.
Professionalism Redefined
But let’s be clear. The answer isn’t less professionalism. If a surgeon is just going through the motions, missing details, and not doing his best work, he needs to become more professional. Deeply caring is part of being a professional.
So maybe the answer isn’t less professionalism, but capturing the essence of what professionalism is.
To be a professional worship leader is to know how much you need God.
It’s to never lose the wonder of the Gospel.
It’s to relentlessly seek to connect people to Jesus.
It’s to do everything with such attention to detail, such excellence, such follow through so that distracted hearts can see the beauties of Christ more clearly.
Maybe we don’t need to dial back the professionalism but rather, redefine it.
I love how John Piper captures it in this prayer from his book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals:
“God, deliver us from the professionalizers! Deliver us from the ‘low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us (Quote from E.M. Bounds Power Through Prayer).’ God, give us tears for our sins. Forgive us for being so shallow in prayer, so thin in our grasp of holy verities, so content amid perishing neighbors, so empty of passion and earnestness in all our conversation.
Restore to us the childlike joy of our salvation. Frighten us with the awesome holiness and power of Him who can cast both soul and body into hell (Matt. 10:28). Cause us to hold to the cross with fear and trembling as our hope-filled and offensive tree of life. Grant us nothing, absolutely nothing, the way the world views it. May Christ be all in all (Col. 3:11).
Banish professionalism from our midst, Oh God, and in its place put passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunger for God, rigorous study of holy things, white-hot devotion to Jesus Christ, utter indifference to all material gain, and unremitting labor to rescue the perishing, perfect the saints, and glorify our sovereign Lord. Humble us, O God, under Your mighty hand, and let us rise, not as professionals, but as witnesses and partakers of the sufferings of Christ. In His awesome name. Amen.”
Let’s not just be recognized for how talented we are. Let’s not be known just for how good we are at what we do.
Let’s be known for tears of compassion. Known for a relentless pursuit of Christ. Known for taking up our cross.
Let’s live our lives with a Kingdom value system. What do you say?
Let’s talk about it in the comments. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
David, the question for me is not about professionalism at all.
It is Carnal ism–It is Syncretism. We are beaten down by the isms.
We have many first clues, but we ignore them because
our ambition does not include our absence or at least a new set of standards for public worship that does not include happy hour and techno-mumbo-jumbo.
We set ourselves up by creating a stage for high performance rock and roll like our “worldly” counterpart. Then the taker is that we want everyone on the “look-at-me-stage” to act like they are in a monastery. We want them to exhibit a level of maturity that if they did, they would step down and worship in silence.
We prize the simple because we know in our hearts that is where God is, but we lust for the attention, gadgetry and showmanship of the stage and lights–the adulation of adoring fans.
We created a monster–a carnal monster–and it has a huge appetite for all things ME!
We practice the syncretism of the humble Jesus with the hype of the world and wonder why we are left with no more than a 1 hour promotion of ME while pretending it is all for HIM. We have to pretend, because now it is a big money machine.
According to the “experts”, this “all about ME ism” was supposed to have ended with the baby boomers. But alas, it has infected the Millennials as well. Not only that, but the Millennials have taken it to much higher levels of sophistication. Why aren’t we impressed?
This is good stuff, David. This makes me think of escalators and moving sidewalks. I was told by architecture pals many years ago that Americans tend to ride escalators and moving sidewalks, while folks in other countries walk on them to go faster. How often do we just ride on or lean on our outlines, our formats, our programs, our liturgies to coast through our services, instead of using them as tools to accentuate our walk and propel us closer and deeper into the presence and reality of God? It is unfortunate that so many of us in the “American Church” have become so complacent and comfortable. This is challenging and convicting. Just what I needed. Thanks!
Bill, this is a great analogy. So true. Thanks!
Great thoughts, David.. Keeping the wonder of a child but also the wisdom and experience of the years.. it’s often a difficult balance.. thanks for the reminder!
It is so difficult. Any tips for how you keep it real?
At the end of the day, are we saying ‘look at me’, or ‘look to Jesus’? Let’s be as capable as possible, always learning and seeking to point people to the Saviour
David, I’m glad you are reading Piper. E.M. Bounds stuff is classic!
Yes the Church has sold out to the world’s standards and has forgotten her identity. The Church is for the building up of the Body of Christ NOT the main avenue for evangelism and the unbeliever. Each individual is to evangelize outside of the Church. But we’ve redefined what the purpose of the Church is and that is why we find ourselves catering to the unbeliever by trying to be the slickest we can be. The Church could never compete with the world’s music and why should we? It’s not about MUSIC, but worship and honoring God. I’m all for EXCELLENCE but never at the cost of spirituality and building up those inside our churches. We should have both BUT if the people who are used in our churches are not up to a competent standard you still use them because we are to develop the people we have not bring in the PROFESSIONALS. We are becoming like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day..The professionals. I’m afraid many churches are guilty of …”comparing ourselves among ourselves” which the scripture says is not wise.