Reverence isn’t a tone. It’s a posture toward Someone who is actually there.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12:28-29 (NIV)
What’s actually going on
Reverence is one of those church words that sounds heavy but has slowly turned into a vibe. We can produce the look of it. Lower the lights. Slow the tempo. Close the eyes a beat longer than usual. The room reads it. The team reads it. Sometimes nothing is actually happening between you and the Lord.
A worship leader told us this last month. “I can lead a song about the holiness of God on autopilot. I know what to do with my face. I know what to say between verse two and the bridge. The room buys it. I’m the only one who knows I haven’t actually thought about who He is in three weeks.”
That’s not failure. That’s the cost of repetition. You sing the holiness of God forty Sundays in a row and at some point your soul starts treating it like a setlist item. The lyric becomes a cue. The cue becomes a job. The job becomes a Sunday.
The danger isn’t that the team can tell. Most of the time they can’t. The danger is that you can’t tell anymore either. The platform absorbs the difference between actual reverence and the look of it. The secret place doesn’t.
Which means most of us, if we slow down for a minute, are not really wrestling with how to act more reverent on Sunday. We’re wrestling with how to look up again.
What’s true
Hebrews 12 says we worship God acceptably with reverence and awe because He is a consuming fire. Reverence isn’t a worship technique. It’s the response that happens when you keep your eyes on a reality.
When you stop seeing the reality, you start performing the response. And performing the response is exhausting because there’s no actual fire under it. It’s all you, all the time, faking the heat of something you can’t generate.
The fire is real. He hasn’t stopped being holy. He hasn’t gotten smaller because you’re tired. The kingdom you’re receiving still cannot be shaken. The question on a Monday morning isn’t, how do I become more reverent. The question is, am I willing to look up again?
Today’s invitation isn’t to manufacture more solemnity in your set list. It’s to spend a few minutes considering Who is actually on the other end of the songs you’re leading.
For your team
- When was the last time you were genuinely struck by who God is, not just the song you were leading about Him?
- What’s something you used to find weighty about God that has gone quiet for you?
- How can we, as a team, protect against confusing the look of reverence with the reality of it?
Pray this
God, You are not a tone. You are a consuming fire. Strike me again with who You are so my reverence comes from the reality, not the routine. Amen.
This Sunday
Before downbeat one, take thirty seconds and name three things that are true about God, not the song. Lead from there.
Go deeper
In the network: Search “Reverence Without the Routine” in the TCC community for the live training on cultivating awe in the rehearsal room. Free at thechurchcollective.mn.co.
This devotional is part of The Church Collective’s free 52-week worship team devotional series. Get the first 12 as a free PDF and a fresh devotional in your inbox every Monday morning.
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