PRESENTATION OVER PRESENCE
I have been blessed to be a part of serving in multiple ministries and churches over the years. I spent ten years of my life traveling as a youth speaker; speaking at youth camps, rallies, See You At The Pole™, Super Summer, and conferences all over the nation and loved it. We saw hundreds of students come to Christ. So many students, who are grown adults today, have reached out to me and reminded me of sermons that I spoke years ago that had impacted them. Those were powerful years, and we saw Father make eternal impact!
I remember one night at the Texas Youth Evangelism Conference in Dallas, Texas - 18,000 students in attendance. I was one of the speakers. Chris Tomlin was leading worship right before I got up to speak. It was powerful and so much fun. We were on a stage in the round. That year soccer was huge – the World Cup was going on. So, I grabbed a soccer ball, and had all the guest speakers and singers sign it. When I walked out onto the platform, the music was blasting; students were on their feet. I was sporting a neon yellow soccer jersey and was holding the soccer ball above my head. The students were being students, and we were all having a great time. I walked out into the stadium, and with everything I had, kicked the soccer ball into the crowd, and the place went nuts. It was a fun environment for the students. After that, I had their attention. I brought the Word that Father had laid on my heart. Such an outpouring of God’s presence was in that place. So many students responded to the gospel message, and others… well, I won’t find out until we get to heaven.
THE DEBATE: Over the last couple of years I have had a stirring in my spirit and my mind about entertainment; not entertainment as bringing in the comedian or having the concert, but in what we would call the “worship service”. More and more lights, darker hazed filled rooms, theatrical elements now pouring into the church. Today I am hearing and reading more about the “entertainment” element in the church. “Is this a theater for man or a house of prayer”? Has the pendulum swung too far to filling seats and keeping the attention of men with lights? Haze? Killer worship teams that came straight off GQ/Vogue/Christianity Today; wearing the trendiest layered clothes, sporting beards and tats? Do we as church leaders want to hear people say “That was fantastic?” Or, do we long to hear God say “Well done?”
CREATIVE GOD: Jehovah God is a creative God. Look at the waterfalls in Hawaii, the deserts in Nairobi, the mountains of the Swiss Alps, sunsets and snow falls. There is not just one color green in the grass - there is a barrage of green shades. This is a creative God. Puppies that wrestle and horses that play tug of war with a rope points to a creative creator. Don’t even get me started about the intricacies of the human body or the vastness of the solar system! How creative is He? So why wouldn't I want to have a service that bears His name, points to Him that is anything but creative? I would love to spark those creative elements in you - those creative fingerprints of God that rest on you. I hurt when I hear a sermon that is given without passion. How can we not be passionate about the one who loves us, created us, redeemed and sanctified us, reached out of heaven to show us what God the Father is really like? How can we not be passionate about that? Forgive us as preachers if we speak of the things of God without passion. What about creativity? Is it wrong to talk about this creative God and remove any form of creativity?
WHY DO WE: Why do so many church leaders sprint towards lights, fog, and stellar facilities? Because we can build them, we can purchase them, and we can install them. “Presentation” is immediately visible, instant gratification, sometimes presence is not. Presence is all about Him. I can’t pick up “God’s presence” on Amazon.
All the “Presentation Tools” - lighting, haze, creative teaching, facilities - they should be tools - nothing more. The problem is when we as church leaders bend our hearts towards them, relying on them. Whether we say it or not we thus make them idols. Tools - and let me say this - they should be tools that God has approved. If you are installing, downloading, creating because that is the latest craze, you’ve got a problem. It is not your church, not your bride, not your sheep; they are God’s. Too many leaders do not inquire of God about these tools. Joshua got into big trouble because he made a decision that he thought was right without inquiring of the Lord. Did God tell you to install the next level of lights or did “Church Production” magazine?
I say these things and know them to be true - lights don’t save, haze doesn’t transform, and facilities don’t set people free. Only God through His Holy Spirit can do that. I have found myself saying these things but finding myself pouring hours online, traveling to see, asking, and looking for those elements of lighting, video and creativity. From my lips I would say “presence over presentation”, but my actions and time investment said otherwise. Oh, that I would have spent the time on my face before God crying out IN His presence in the way that I did creating the atmosphere FOR His presence.
Can I ask this question? Are our church services about what we want? Or what He wants?
Charles Spurgeon would say; “Don’t go where it is all fine music, and grand talk and beautiful architecture…Go where the gospel is preached and go often”.
Paul wrote the Corinthians and said;
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, (I Corinthians 2:4).
I didn’t come to you with lights and haze, with model dressed worship teams, I came to you with one thing; the power of the Holy Spirit.
