Snapshots from El, Inc.

What's Your Angle?

From Steve Fry of the Worship Institute.

In the perennial Christmas classic, White Christmas, Bing Crosby sets out to educate Rosemary Clooney on the unseemly underside of show business. He concludes her education with the cynical line, “Everybody’s got an angle.”

We live in a culture of angles and agendas. Of course, the more noble or religious souls call them “missions.” But whatever you call them, they give us a sense of purpose, save us from boredom, ensure us that our days are not random, and convince us that we are, in fact, “going somewhere.”

Going somewhere is good, but that can quickly translate into a driven-ness that disturbs our peace and dulls us to His presence. And whether motivated by a mission of mercy or the crass pursuit of personal advantage, we can find ourselves driven by agendas all the same.

In a highly individualized society like ours, the drive to authenticate ourselves can dominate our lives. The need to fulfill our destiny, the push to accomplish our purpose, or simply the appetite to maximize our potential tends to subsume everything else.

Tragically, even human relationships are formed in order to fulfill certain personal objectives. Friendships are valued by how each contributes to our goals. Will this connection get me where I want to go? Even a family can become a mere support system for each member’s personal agenda.

What about our “angles and agendas” with the Lord?

Naturally, this kind of agenda-driven self-absorption can infect our worship. Is this worship experience meeting my needs? Is it giving me peace? Will it grow my church? Because of these angles and agendas, worship can become a means not an end; friendship is sacrificed on the altar of mission. Everybody’s got an angle.

So, how do we unplug and detox from a life-style dominated by angles, agendas, and even addictions to ministry? How can we rest in our call, instead of being driven by our needs for success and significance?

I think we must let go of our agenda, releasing everything until our rhythm of communion with God is restored. Charles Spurgeon once said: "Success exposes a man to the pressures of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices, and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion."

Focusing on Christ is the first step to rejecting those dictatorial demands. And we must unplug and “just say no” to the incessant screaming of our culture to “be something” or “go somewhere.” Only when we die to the need for personal significance, can we find release from the drives that threaten to push us over the edge - and that place where we are lost in the embrace of Jesus.

Gazing upon God

Jack Hayford says, "Worship holds the solution to the dilemma of mankind.” That is true because worshiping God takes the focus off of us. The world will only see Jesus in us as we reflect His beauty. And we cannot reflect His beauty unless we are looking at Him. Worship is gazing upon God. Without an agenda.

I once watched a young worship leader in action, gracing the keyboard with the velvet touch of a master, moving the congregation to a higher pitch of emotional intensity. He closed his eyes and sang songs that strummed the deepest yearnings of the human heart. The worship swelled. Faces were lifted to heaven, eyes glistened with an unspoken ache for intimacy with God. No doubt, it was a sweet moment – but was it worship?

Afterward, the pastor of that church cornered me. He was clearly frustrated with the worship leader – the passion displayed on the platform had not translated to Christ-likeness in his character. It seemed that he worshiped worship – engaged more in the experience of spiritual encounter, than in yielding his will to the Master. The feeling of spirituality had replaced nut-and-bolts obedience. His worship leading had an agenda. Whether he realized it or not, creating an emotionally cathartic moment that ingratiated him to the congregation was his agenda.

One of the clear words we have received about this year’s IWI is that we are to design the entire event in such a way that the only ‘agenda’ is gazing on God’s glory and embracing His presence.

Yes, the teaching will be rich, the workshops helpful, and our times of worship will be moving. But above all else, the Lord wants to do in us what He is doing in His people all over the globe: restore our focus on His glory.

Please join us for this encounter.

Labels: For the spirit, Musings

posted by Joel Chan @ 12:32 PM