Lip-Synched Worship
In popular musical entertainment, there is perhaps no greater insult than being accused of lip-synching during your own performance on stage. To be quite honest, those who choose to attend concerts of famous bands and artists do generally expect the live performance to be just that, live. It seems ingenuine, wrong, even fake when an artist chooses to not actually perform their music but act as if they are.
There have been multiple instances when the crowd is able to figure out that the singer is lip-synching, whether it is due to some kind of technical malfunction, or the singer forgets a line in the middle of the song and the song continues to play, or for some other reason. In some cases, artists even admit they have lip-synched after their performances. A memorable instance came from Beyoncé who said she lip-synched for President Barak Obama’s inauguration because she felt that she didn’t have enough practice. Or the time that Ashlee Simpson lip-synched on Saturday Night Live and was so embarrassed she walked off stage.
Regardless of who it happens to, or why it happens at all, when professional artists are found out to have lip-synched, it’s embarrassing. It’s humiliating, even if it is because they had a hoarse throat and didn’t want to sound bad for their concert.
The problem is that many in the modern evangelical church, especially in the United States, is that too many Christians are lip-synching in their own worship of Jesus Christ. I am not talking about the Sunday morning worship service when Christians sing songs and hymns to Christ. I am, however, speaking of the Christian’s life of worship. Too many Christians today are lip-synching to the sounds of faith and acts of obedience, and refuse to join in the grand chorus that proclaims the greatness of God.
Lip-synched worship is the act of cheapening the grace that God has given the believer by imitating and copying another’s worship. Paul writes clearly in his letter to the Ephesian church that, “…grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.” (Ephesians 4:7) That measure of grace, given to each believer by Christ, is the gift, talent, or instrument (if you will) that believers use to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can think back to when I was in elementary school, when I was learning how to play the viola that I quickly quit learning how to play after failing to “get better” on my own schedule. I am sure that my parents’ ear drums callused over as I was attempting to learn to play, but they didn’t mind because I was learning. The same goes for many Christians in the pew today. They are genuine believers, love Jesus, and want to serve him. They spring up quickly, trying to figure out what their gifting is and just as they are learning to worship, they become discouraged and sit back down in their pew. This has resulted in the “performance” from the experts, or the “talented” ones. This is not what Jesus wants.
Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that, “…the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” (John 4:23) Jesus is communicating to the woman, and to us today, that God desires our worship and is inviting us to do so. And, by the grace of Jesus Christ, we have been given the instruments of worship by the Holy Spirit.
The reality is this, at first, we will worship clumsily. We will mess up, and maybe even embarrass ourselves! Here is my encouragement, as you grow in your love for Jesus Christ, and in your knowledge of God, you will produce the beautiful worship that you desire to produce. Do not become discouraged when you see others around you who seem further along than you, join in with them! Be discipled by those who have been playing for longer than you, allow them to teach you, and let them help you measure your growth as you learn together. Do not be like those who delegate their worship to the “professionals,” while becoming a spiritual bench warmer. You, individually, have been called and equipped by the Holy Spirit, and have been invited by the Father to worship boldly in spirit and in truth. So pick up your instrument, use your gifting, and worship.
