I’ve been having conversations with some of the worship leaders, singers and musicians in our city, and I’ve noticed some common themes each time I listen. I’m hearing hearts that are simultaneously feeling wounded while carrying deep hunger. There is a reach for something more than what they are currently experiencing in their role and church worship environment.
As I listen to them share with an effort to articulate what it is they truly want and need, I’ve picked up on at least two contributing factors to the discomfort or frustration they find themselves in. The first factor is the impact that COVID and quarantine have had on the current church expression. I can’t discount how a global pandemic and massive cultural adjustment has impacted the church worship expression. The second factor has been around for a long time: the perceived limitations that Sunday morning structures place on the creative and prophetic expression, as well as the worship leader and their team’s ability to “freely follow the Holy Spirit.”
While I do not have all the answers to the things causing creatives to come to me and express some measure of pain, I feel I may have some insight to offer derived from my own history, as well as from the culture of how we are building a day and night worship and prayer community for our city of Richmond, Virginia.
Both of these factors are realities that I truly believe God is using to awaken us to something within His heart that He wants us to fully grasp. Our hunger and dissatisfaction with the way things are can be a gift of grace from God even when it’s produced in discomfort and pain. Our discomfort can be received as a nudge from the Holy Spirit to lean in and listen to what God is saying. We may well find that it is in fact His desires that are being formed in our hungry hearts.
Click here to read more on how current circumstances are affecting the prophetic worship culture. For more Spirit-filled content like this, listen to the MAPS Global podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}
