Podcast 078: Worship: The Foundation of Your Creative Life (with Aric Marshall, Professor)
Creativity is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional topic. Yet at the end of the day, we operate by one simple truth: God is ultimately the source of our creative powers. The whole point of our lives is to honor Him with our creative gifts. That’s why it’s foundational to have a robust and meaningful worship life. I’m honored today to share a conversation with a friend who gives us practical guidance for living a life of worship.
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I’m excited to share my conversation with friend Aric Marshall, who is the Professor of Worship at St. Louis Christian, where I also teach. Aric is new to our college, but he’s definitely not new to worship leadership and education. He has been a public and private school music teacher, worship leader, private music instructor, and is now a college professor. Aric is an accomplished pianist and also plays a mean saxophone!
In our conversation, we cover a variety of topics, including the role of emotions in worship, why it’s still important to be involved in church, the danger of toxic people, how to select worship songs, and strategies for handling musicians who don’t fit in your church’s music style. You’ll also learn essential habits to help you become a better worshiper and leader.
Aric and I both have extensive backgrounds in worship ministry, so our conversation naturally drifts in that direction. But even if that’s not your area of interest, you’ll still gain a lot from this conversation whether you’re a church member, leader, or pastor.
And if you’re listening and you’re not a person of faith, I hope this will give you some insight into why worship is so important to us. I also hope it inspires you to keep seeking as you continue your own spiritual journey.
Episode Highlights
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Aric’s definition of worship: “Our response to God’s revelation.”
- Whether our emotions are an adequate gauge for evaluating our worship.
- The importance of gathering for corporate worship.
- Why some pastors and leaders avoid toxic people.
- What to look for when selecting a good worship song.
- Aric’s thoughts on using hymns in worship today.
- What it means to create an “atmosphere of worship,” and how to do it.
- How to handle musicians whose talents don’t fit within your musical style.
- Habits that have helped Aric be an effective worship pastor and leader.
Key Takeaways
I confess that it’s pretty hard to select just three takeaways from this conversation with Aric. Over the last 30 years, I have been highly involved in worship ministry as a musician, worship leader, pastor, professor, and volunteer … so I have a lot of thoughts to share!
That said, I’ve managed to whittle it down to three takeaways.
1. Enter into a worship service with the intention of giving a blessing.
This goes completely against our tendency as Christians in western culture who are immersed in a consumer mindset. But the reality is that if you always have a consumer mindset in church, you will never be happy. You will always find something to criticize or dislike. That is the nature of consumerism.
The church is supposed to be a family, not a collection of consumers. When you go to a family gathering, you go with the intent to love and engage with others. When you have a family dinner, a common question people ask is, “What are you bringing?” (in terms of food).
That should be the question we ask ourselves when we attend a worship service: “What am I bringing?” That is the fundamental question that a family member asks.
It’s a lot more fun to go to church with the attitude of giving than it is to go with an attitude of taking or just receiving. In addition, it’s not just about the worship service itself. It’s also about the people you run into in the hallway or parking lot. Those little conversations may seem insignificant at the time, but I can’t tell you how many “little” conversations at church have made a huge difference in my life.
So, go with the intent of giving, not just getting.
2. Be a positive force in your congregation.
Aric mentioned the unfortunate reality that sometimes pastors avoid toxic people at church. I’ve had that experience as well! As a pastor or leader, you have to do that out of sheer emotional survival.
But rather than looking around for all the toxic people, it’s worth asking ourselves—and here I’m speaking to church volunteers—am I a toxic person? Am I a complainer? Do I bring negativity to the church environment?
Take a moment and do an honest gut check with yourself.
Aric asked the question, “Are you praying for your pastor?” Wow … what a great question. If you aren’t praying for your pastor, you have zero right to complain about anything. So don’t even think about posting a negative comment on social media about your church, and don’t even think about putting than anonymous comment in the offering plate, until you can honestly say that you have prayed earnestly for your pastor.
And then, once you have done that, then you can share your concern privately. Not on social media, not on a blog, not with someone else … but the pastor.
If you’re unhappy with something at church, instead of complaining about it, find a way to help solve the problem in a helpful way. And if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution, then you have abdicated your right to say anything about it.
3. Operate by the question, “How can I help you?”
Aric mentioned that he constantly asks this question, and it has really helped him in leadership and ministry. And I would add, it’s a great question for teaching and business as well.
Any creative work we do (and I would include ministry in this category) is all about serving others. It’s not about our being on stage or in the limelight. It’s about impacting lives and helping people solve problems.
This may seem counterintuitive, but sometimes the best way we can help people is to direct them to a different ministry. In worship ministry, we must have standards of musicianship. It’s easy to lower the bar because we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. But the best way is to help them reach the standard instead of lowering the bar.
A leader’s job is to help get people on the right bus. While a lot of people want to be on the “music” bus, sometimes that is not the right bus for them.
Leadership can be tough. It involves making tough calls and sometimes keeping people from serving in areas where they’re not gifted, or may actually do more damage than good because they’re not on the right bus.
Resources
Download my free ebook: 21 Time Hacks for Writers.
I want to thank Aric for taking the time out of his busy schedule to share this amazing conversation!
If you want to dive deeper into topics surrounding music and worship in the church, check out my blog series “Whatever Happened to Singing in the Church?”
