Will be capable of saying no to recognition.

I was at a worship conference years ago and chose the workshop titled, “Submitting your song.” As an inspiring young song writer, I thought maybe this might help me get some of my work noticed. The guy leading the seminar was from a company who discovered the song “Heart of Worship” by Matt Redman. He was very proud of this song and proceeded to tell us the story of how it was written. The church Mr. Redman was leading at the time was encountering a season of sloth in its approach to worship. The leadership began to detect this and decided the proper response in addressing it was to remove music from their times of worship, to sit quietly together and simply allow the Spirit to move in their midst. It was reported that an incredible time of renewal came upon their congregation. The line from the lyric, “I’ll bring you more than a song…” reflects that time. Seminar Guy encouraged questions from us in attendance, so I asked him if there was ever a time when they found an awesome song like that, but decided to leave it alone because it was too sacred to be thrust upon the masses. He had no idea what I was asking. I tried to clarify by exploring the notion of allowing a song to stay where it was born and letting it live out its useful days there, instead of seeing it as the next big thing and recording and selling the life out of it. My bottom line question was, “Have you ever found a great song you knew would sell, but did not bring yourself to try and get that song noticed?” “No.” Next question. I may just be judgmental, but there is something in me that wanted to hear the guy say yes, followed by a number of examples of how their company let an incredible song be. But instead it was more about finding the next big hit. Suddenly, getting a song noticed lost some of its luster. What was becoming of my motive for song writing? Was it to bless the people I was leading, or was it to make a name for myself? I’ll admit it’s a pretty good buzz to hear someone sing your stuff. I’m not sure I have the maturity to handle too much of that kind of success. Which bring me to my point, that the Worship Leader of the Church of the Future will not be seduced by popularity, recognition or fame. But instead will have the ability to say no to all of it, even if it means not allowing a song to be noticed. Instead, he or she is able to keep it as an intimate and sacred expression for the flock.