We’re consulting a church where the music director was a former professional musician, who toured and gave concerts. He has been a director of music for this church for several years. In our interview during the onsite consultation, he was asked, “What is the difference between performance and worship?” His response was fascinating! He said, “I’ve performed for thirty years. What is the difference between performance and worship? Actually, not much. You have to keep the attention of the people in the same way. The only difference, with performance, it’s all about you, the entertainer. In worship, it’s not about you, it’s about God. But otherwise, all the challenges and dynamics are precisely the same. You have to hold their attention.”

Sometimes we’re gun shy to talk about worship leading as performance. But from this performer’s perspective, he spoke, in a positive way, about keeping the audience engaged. I wonder what it would do in worship if every worship leader took the audience as seriously as do performers.