While reading The Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton, he describes the different ideas or struggles of worship that many churches think through. That, within worship in the church, there are aspects of worship we strive for that we may or may not need to worry about to huge extents. Labberton explains what he calls six "false dangers" for worship and why they may not be explicitly talked about as dangerous, but need to be addressed. These false dangers are: worship that's not under control, worship that doesn't seem relevant, worship that doesn't meet expectations, worship that isn't popular, worship that isn't comfortable, and worship that is unfamiliar. Each of these challenged me in different ways, but there were two that stuck out to me more. These two dangers are: worship that doesn't meet expectations and worship that is not under control.
First, worship that doesn't meet expectations really stuck out to me because I feel like I have a reputation to live up to when I lead worship. I feel like there is a certain way I am expected to sing and lead that if I ever switch or try something different, I feel I'm letting the congregation down. Like Labberton highlights, I find myself often focused on how I'm meeting people's expectation vs. how I'm meeting God's expectations. Rather than worrying about how the congregations expectations are met I need to fix my heart on how my leading is living up to God's standards and desires. Secondly, worship that is not under control scares me to some degree. The example Labberton gave was a Christmas service where people who were not planned to speak spoke but the church benefitted from it. This example made me think back to a similar experience I had, but it did not go as well. Someone just stood up right after the music and started giving his testimony, which was great, but then he started praising Mary as his Savior which made everyone uncomfortable. I think I have a fear of people speaking out like that now, and a have a lack of trust in people that they will do all they promised or are expected to do. But, what Labberton addresses about this idea is that God has control of how things go and will speak based on our plan or not. That he will use inconvenient methods sometimes in order to get His voice heard. These are the ways that challenged my beliefs and my experiences the most but have caused me to reflect on how to find solutions for them.
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