With a Subtitle: How to discern Gospel ministers from performers in modern Christian worship.
A brief Excerpt: Many worship songs mention Jesus, but not all worship is truly God-centered. This article warns believers to discern between Spirit-led worship and religious performance.
The Lord showed me a dream a while back.
I was at a church. It looked like a modern church — really grand, with plenty of instruments, and the production was top-notch.
The lights dimmed, and all … this band playing seemed very passionate as they played a song that got the crowd cheering, including me.
Then moments later, the Lord took me backstage. It felt like I was there in an observatory role. They were being asked one simple question: Who is Jesus?
They were dumbfounded. They couldn’t give any answers.
They were not only lost for words, but they were also confused. Their faces said it all: “I have no clue who you are talking about.”
When I woke up, the message was clear: many professing worship teams are performers, not ministers. They do not know the God they claim to sing to.
The Blur No One Is Talking About
For many years now, the line between true and false worship has become blurred.
The warnings helping people to differentiate between true and false ministers have largely been relegated to preachers, all the while a very important function — I dare say, the one with the most influence — is left less scrutinized.
Gospel singers, artists, and ministers, we call them. These titles seem to be thrown around carelessly and sometimes used interchangeably, when in reality they differ greatly.
Gospel Artist, Gospel Singer, or Gospel Minister?
How do they differ? One is a minister, and the others are performers.
Sadly, many undiscerning Christians think that because Jesus and God are mentioned in a song, it automatically makes it a worship song.
Except it doesn’t. What makes a song true worship is who inspired it.
Many of the “worship” songs sung in congregations all over the country are inspired by the soul. It’s mostly about emotions; rarely is it about God.
That’s why they cannot give life because they are devoid of it.
The life of God is only administered by His Spirit, not by how well a song is composed and performed.
The name of Jesus has become a rubber stamp that gospel artists use to merchandise their songs to enrich themselves.
When the secret to true worship is the power it carries and dispenses, the difference between the name of Jesus in the mouth of the minister and the artist is not in the mention but in the individual’s relationship with God.
The Only Question That Matters
The most important question when judging true worship should never be how good the person sounds but whether he or she is known by God.
Does this person have an active relationship with God?
If the answer is yes — then you are most assured that the individual has been extended the privilege to carry God’s presence and to administer God’s power; the result, therefore, is life.
Because wherever God’s presence is lacking, theatrics are employed to make up for it. But that only produces death.
God Still Inhabits True Worship
I have become increasingly concerned about the reluctance of Christians to understand true worship and how they shortchange themselves by not experiencing the weight of God’s glory when true worship is present.
They do not seem to know that God comes among His people when true worship is offered.
Psalm 22:3 — “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”
My desire for this article is that it helps genuine believers recognize the difference between Gospel Artists and Gospel Ministers, regardless of what they profess.
The Difference Between True and Fake Worship
True worship is inspired by God. Fake worship is inspired by many sources, but not God.
While the distinction may be difficult to tell from the surface, you should be able to tell the difference by the end of this article.
True Worship Is God-Centered
When inspiration comes from God, you’ll find that the words flow God-ward. It talks about God’s character, His nature, and His grandeur; it is always about Him.
But fake worship is human-centered. It’s always about receiving, never about giving to God. It is benefit-focused but never about sacrifice.
True worship exalts and magnifies God so that anyone who is under such ministration is able to lift their eyes above their situation and fix them on Jesus.
Their struggles become diminished, and faith rises up, while fake worship provides false hope.
Fake Worship Stirs Emotion Without Transformation
This false hope is created by motivational songs that pump up emotions and leave the people high as it’s being served. Once it’s done, they are brought back to where they were — no real transformation occurs.
In a nutshell, true worship makes God so big that mortals and whatever it is we are going through become minimal.
This state can only be achieved if worship is ordered in a way that causes the presence of God to rest on us.
A Gospel Minister vs a Gospel Artist (Performer)
A gospel minister ministers, while a gospel artist performs.
The goal of a gospel minister is to usher in the presence of God that brings with it life. But the goal of a gospel artist is to only energize the crowd.
Both can stir up emotions, but one leads to healing, conviction, and repentance while the other excites the flesh.
A Gospel Minister Seeks What God Wants
A gospel artist thinks worship is about the set of songs sung, how they rhyme, and how good they sound.
They choose songs based on popularity, how they feel, or how much of a crowd pleaser it is, while a gospel minister understands that songs are not sung based on what he/she or the crowd wants to hear; instead, it’s about what God wants to hear.
So he/she spends time in prayer to know what God desires, and that is how he orders his worship.
A gospel minister understands that a call to worship has a two-fold assignment: to bring down the presence of God and to usher the congregation into the glory that the presence of God brings.
Gospel ministers are keenly aware that worship is less about the congregants and all about God.
Worship Must Flow From Intimacy With God
A gospel minister knows that he or she ought to minister from the abundance of their intimacy with God and cannot be effective if they don’t first know how to minister to God themselves.
Because of this, they do not play from a position of personal consecration.
Consecration is the act of setting oneself apart wholly unto God — living a life devoted, purified, and yielded for His use.
But for a performer, it’s about their skill, talent, and vocal prowess.
God values skill and talent, but they should never drive worship.
A gospel minister fears God, and it is evident in how they administer worship.
You’ll often hear such ministers admonish the congregation to put away their phones, reminding them that they are not at a concert, and that the presence of God is more than a social gathering. They strive to ensure God is reverenced and do not mind losing a following in achieving this goal.
But a gospel artist loves attention. He or she revels in fanfare, so the self is glorified instead of God.
When Worship Becomes Entertainment
This scenario reminds me of a real story a friend of mine from church shared.
She went to a concert that featured most of the big names in the western gospel scene, the ones they play over and over on Christian radio.
Her experience involved people coming into the venue with beer, half-naked, and without any sense of reverence.
Such a thing can only be tolerated because the event wasn’t held to glorify God in the first place.
Tickets were sold, and the people at the door only checked for tickets, not for appropriateness.
Why? Because they were never taught that worship should only cater to God.
Therefore, if the gathering is for Him, then His standard has to be prioritized.
We Have Misrepresented God
When I talk with other Christians about this, some seem confused about who God really is.
They insist on quoting, “God wants us to come as we are,” which is true, but that doesn’t automatically mean any behavior is allowed in the presence of a holy God.
The simple test I often cite is this question: if the president of the United States invites you to dinner, would you show up unprepared and behave in any way you wish?
My guess is no.
If we can show proper respect to a man simply because of his title, how much more should we show it to God?
The issue isn’t exclusively with the people coming; it is with those who are called to be Christian leaders, as they refuse to teach those in their charge how to respect God.
God has standards, and not everything is acceptable to Him.
But we often present God as desperate and willing to manage any scraps that we offer Him.
This too is our lack of respect for Him.
And sadly, we can dress this lack of reverence as love for people.
We are so afraid to offend people that we would rather offend God.
Final Thought: True Worshipers or Performers?
Whether we agree or not, God has standards, and it is in our best interest to know what they are and pattern our lives accordingly so that our lives will also be a form of true worship to Him.
Because in the end, we are all created to worship.
But each of us have a choice: to be true worshipers or performers.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org
This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.