Sunset & Skyline

Because of this…..

….this:

So what is it you are trying to tell me, Steve?

Jason Upton – unique, gifted, anointed worship leader. Watch this video of a bandmate talking about a particular encounter they had leading worship in Alexandria, Louisiana:

Now watch this video with the live audio. Just watch the whole thing – the song is powerful! Remember – Michael, who gave the testimony in the video above, said there were no background vocalists performing, or even onstage, during the tracking of this song.

THAT is awesome.

Ok, so here is a disclaimer. I am writing this with a lot of emotion inside of me. That may be a good thing, probably a bad thing, but I just don’t care. Once again, I am speaking to myself in a lot of this.

The first time I saw this video of warfare worship leader Rick Pino, I was shocked. Really and truly – shocked, confused, amused, etc. A whole gamut of feeling. I went ahead and showed the video to lots and lots of friends, and we laughed. We thought it was funny and weird that Rick and the boys were covering a Dead or Alive song in what looks like a passionate worship service. In the following months, I saw more and more people posting this video up, covering the social networking world with comments like “This Is What Bad Church Looks Like”, or “Worst Worship Ever”. Sheesh man, look at me. I wasn’t so public about it, but in the secret I was laughing, mocking, judging these guys as I passed the video around.

To be honest, I am a little disgusted with myself now. And if you have ever mocked these guys, or this video, I think you should be too. I know a couple of those guys playing – one of them fairly well. He wrote a song on my record called 2 A.M. He’s an authentic, amazing, forgiving, Christ-like dude who would do anything for me. He walks in the victory Jesus bought for him. We rarely talk, and he constantly encourages me. When I rag on this video….when I pass it around to friends so that they will think it is weird and wrong and funny…..I am flat out bashing his calling. I need to quit trash talking and mocking his minstry. Ed, if you are reading this man, forgive me.

I don’t have anything inside of me that gives me the right to flat out make fun or trash talk these guys and that congregation for what they see fit as worship. The song, the style, the direction Rick is leading them – I don’t entirely understand it. I will definitely say that. I think it’s outside the box, radical, and bizarre. But in the world we live in now – I think that’s a good thing. With the place that worship music has been for the past 10 years, and where it is now – I think radical and outside the box is important. You may think its freaking bizarre (I do, and I love that), but don’t call it bad church, or bad worship. Please.

Bottom line is – the world is going to see this video, laugh, and say that Christians are morons. We already do most of the following:

- Sing about Heaven meeting Earth like a sloppy wet kiss.
- Have terminally ill Christians, living their last few months on Earth, lifting their hands singing “I believe You’re my Healer”, when they should by all means be in a hospital bed resting.
- Have resurrection services in many countries, praying that God would raise somebody from the dead.

The world looks at us, engaging God in those ways, and they laugh. And we get angry, because we are encountering God – and it is AUTHENTIC, because we are directly involved. And we pray our hearts out, hoping the world would understand that we are loving our King. Then, we turn, and OPENLY, not just to ourselves, mock someone else’s worship. We post it all over our blogs and our Facebook like its some public spectacle that we should all join in and laugh at. We bash their ministry – a ministry where people’s lives are being changed. We bash that guy. Somebody that is on our team. Somebody that is passionate about sharing the Good News and loving the poor and reaching out to the least. Shame on us.

Are we, the Church, going to join in and point the finger at people passionately worshiping the Savior, in as strange a style as you perceive it to be? Just a challenge, for you and me. I myself will NOT be found mocking this video, or any other video, where people are responding to Jesus; strange as it may be. If you wanna laugh, then do it. But don’t call it bad worship…..don’t call it bad church. That is judgement……

1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

Done.