Worship and the Art of Healing

I'm having one of those days where I am not only distracted by the abundance of websites at my fingertips, but distracted by the thoughts in my mind and the music playing in iTunes. I can't help but think about the future, the possibilities of the things to come, the promise of renewed hope, and the healing power of God's grace. On top of all of those thoughts, I am thinking about how my attitude towards worship music is daily changing from a selfish "how could anyone like this garbage" to a God-honoring view of "if it pleases the Lord, how can I not sing?"

When I first became a Christian, I thought Christian music was amazing and refreshing. My formative years were spent listening to a lot of hard rock, heavy metal, eventually getting into death metal and some really dark music. So, it was quite a leap to go into the synthesizer/acoustic guitar sappy sounds of Christianity, but there was something audibly refreshing. I found that I related to the messages of the songs in my heart a lot more than the other music. But over the years, my heart hardened to Christian music, specifically the songs that were sung every weekend in church. The week after week pounding of songs by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and the local flavors just got too much and I really got apathetic and cynical, shunning a lot of artists that write the majority of worship songs.

But it's amazing what God can do with time, my love for music, and His desire for His creation to worship Him. And it all started with a Worship in the Pacific Northwest conference, a local worship leader named Mike Hohnholz (www.mikehohnholz.com), my friend Tony Johnson, and a growing church in Camas, WA, Grace Foursquare (www.gracefoursquare.org).

I have been a musician for most of my life, so I really admire musicians that not only write their own music, but also their own lyrics. So, I was really surprised when I entered the church scene and started looking at the copyrights of songs and saw that a lot of the songs were not written by the people playing the songs, but they were covering these songs. I first experienced cover songs on Metallica's Garage Days Revisited, where they cover a lot of New Wave of British Heavy Metal songs, so cover songs to me were more about a fun escape from the seriousness of the creative process. So, is the church a cover song culture? Something that is a fun escape from the seriousness of worshiping God with the gifts that He has placed within the heart of a worship leader? Is there any difference between a worship leader and a worship songwriter? Should there be a difference?

Well, when I heard Mike Hohnholz's music and his heart, I was amazed that there was a local worship leader that could not only lead worship, but also write music from his heart that reflected his love for Christ and the passion within his heart for others to worship with him. So, I visited the church he was leading worship for, and immediately found a place that valued the use of the unique gifts that God had given the people in the church. Thus, a chain-reaction was started that would bring me to the place where I am at today.

Upon leaving my position at a local megachurch in November of 2005, my wife and I visited several churches before deciding that we wanted to call Grace Foursquare our home church. During that time of visiting other churches, Mike Hohnholz moved out to Beaverton Foursquare to lead worship there and a new worship pastor named Loren Craft came to Grace, along with Joshua Son. And again, God astonished me with the talent and passion for worshiping the Lord that He placed in their hearts. But nothing would change me more than finally getting the opportunity to be a part of the worship team, filling in on bass when no one else could be found.

The first time playing bass on stage at this new place was interesting, mainly due to the song choices. Two of my least favorite songs were picked, and after playing them several times during the week in practice and rehearsal, it was in the last service of the weekend that I really sensed God telling me, "Chris, I don't care if you don't like these songs, I like them, it's not about you." And with that, my heart began to change towards worshiping the Lord.

Playing bass several times now, I have had the opportunity to see a unique perspective that not many get to see and that is of the multitude worshiping the Lord. Sometimes the eyes of the people are upon you and you can't help but examine your heart to make sure that you are truly worshiping, and not just going through the motions.

It continues to be a process and it will always be, but it helps to have truly passionate people around you who could get the rocks and every inanimate object to sing out loud.

Thanks Tony, Loren, Josh and Mike.