Minimum Distraction = Maximum (Potential) Worship - Part 1

“When the church gathers on the Lord’s Day for worship, and we have all the people assembled and in one place to come before our God with our praises and adoration, the last thing we want is for that time to be hindered by distractions.”

How do we, as church piano players, help encourage true worship?

Well, there's a foundational principle that really is so vital to our role as church piano players, and that is...

...MINIMUM DISTRACTION = MAXIMUM (POTENTIAL) FOR WORSHIP.

And while this subject is a musical issue, it's actually more of a pastoral issue.

When the church gathers on the Lord’s Day for worship, and we have all the people assembled and in one place to come before our God with our praises and adoration, the last thing we want is for that time to be hindered by distractions.

Why? Because we want the people in our church to meet with God - to encounter God and to have their minds and hearts filled with God, as much as possible, during the time that we spend worshipping together.

In saying this, though, it doesn't mean I am endorsing a form of church worship in which each individual person is undistracted from having their own time of worship in song, with no regard for the people around them. Not at all! The context we are serving in as church piano players is corporate worship - and sometimes people forget that.

Of course, while we do want our worship time as a church to be personally edifying, that doesn’t mean it has to be exclusively personal. For example, some worship songs involve us proclaiming truth to one another - which is not just for our own benefit - and not only are we certainly blessed as we do this, but so are others as they do the same to us.

So it’s not that we want to avoid distracting people from being in their own little bubble, but rather, we want to avoid distracting people from their awareness of Christ, and their awareness of the gathered local expression of the body of Christ (those brothers and sisters in the pews around us).

As you can see then, it really is a pastoral issue as it links to the responsibility that the pastors and leaders in your church have to provide worship for God’s people, with the minimum possible distractions.

So to expand on this principle, what are we trying to have minimum distraction from? From a focus on Christ, and the gathered body of Christ.

I'm saying minimum because there will always be distractions of one kind or another, but the more we can minimize that, as much as depends upon us, the better.

Even if we manage to minimize distractions in our role as the church piano player, there are distractions that come from other places such as those times when 5 people go out at the same time to use the toilet (or restroom), or that kid whose mum has just given them the car keys to help keep them quiet (please don’t give your child your car keys in the church service; I’m sure there’s a verse about that somewhere in the Bible - I just haven’t found it yet!). However, if we do our part, there will at least be less distractions over all.

So, we want minimum distraction - and if we can do that, we pave the way for maximum (the most possible) potential for worship.

The word potential is there, as I’ve said before, because no matter what we do to facilitate a time of worship for God’s people, we can never actually make a person worship. It's also important that we don't try to either, as that comes from the heart between that person and the Lord.

Although at times, some of us may be referred to as “worship leaders”, we must remember that while we might be leading the expression of worship through song for the congregation, we are not “worship makers”. Sadly, we do see that in a lot of churches where the focus is more on people’s emotions, wrongly thinking that heightened emotion equals greater worship.

So to recap then, the less hindrances there are to the worship, the more potential there is for true worship in spirit and truth to then take place.

Let's remember to keep this essential principle in mind...

...The maximum potential for worship is created, when there are minimum distractions.

And next week, we'll be looking at the second part of this subject, considering how worship might be defined.

[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]

This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.

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