Experience – It is imperative for people to experience “the arts” on some level before they will even recognize their interest in particular areas. When “the arts’’ are done with excellence, it has a luring affect that stirs your spirit…especially if you have or are developing a passion for that particular area. This many times is a receptive situation like listening to a concert or watching an artist. Many people never get past this level due to a variety of factors.
Express – If you want people to participate, they must be given the opportunity and freedom to do so on various levels starting with corporate settings. This is usually an inclusive opportunity given by leadership as people are being ushered in. A good example is entering into deeper musical worship or slow dancing with your spouse instead of watching others on the dance floor!
Expand – If you want people to expand their giftings to another level, a good swift kick in pants is often required after they have experienced and expressed the area of interest. It’s only effective if offering solutions to go with the challenge. This is where training and impartation come in... usually after the individual shows a concerted effort in the “experience” and “express” areas. Examples: (conferences, workshops, more examples of excellence in particular area, one-on-one training…etc) This is where accountability partners really come in handy to recognize gifts and to help find creative ways to challenge and equip the saints into action.
1) You can teach a skill like how to play instruments but you can’t teach the anointing that goes with it to lead triumphantly.
2) You can teach the basic foundations of how to create art but you can’t teach the anointing of a visionary to see the art before it’s created.
3) You can’t teach things that have a visionary anointing very effectively (songwriting, preaching, art, worship leading…etc) but you can help sharpen those areas for people that already have a basic foundation and anointing in the giftings.
I concur with the quote “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies those He calls.” I also do believe that we should do our part to make the effort to sharpen our skills whether it be personal or in an outreach mindset.
The more quality examples people see (exposure), the more they can/will uniquely imitate!
Artistically creative people are drawn to the freedom and passion of the arts (musical worship, instrumentalists, creative speaking, poetic symphony, dance, art, theatre, choreography, videography, audio/visual...etc). If there is not room to breathe, the creativity and freedom gets clenched and therefore extinguishes the desire to pursue those passions in the subject venue and often in general.
Musical worship specifically is very similar. If there is little freedom, flow and room to breathe we in essence tend to clench the Holy Spirit and limit the ability for God to move and flow in the moment (even though He can override us at any time). That basically often leaves us predictably singing songs from A-B (although sounding good) with reduced passion or forward progress in the spiritual realm. I constantly see (in churches) seasoned followers either going through the motions with limited spiritual growth or frustrated with the depth level of corporate worship and seek alternate venues. I also see new seekers looking for something to grasp onto and rarely experience intimacy during worship due to the “in and out” “seeker sensitive” model that churches so often adopt. Offering additional services for the seasoned followers is a nice addition but Sunday mornings may be the only chance seekers get to see what legitimate followers experience. It’s hard to argue with the big guy standing next to you weeping before the Lord during worship. Even though deepness and “super spiritual” may freak out some, it’s so inviting to others that are looking to develop that same relationship with the Lord and encourages the law of “buy-in”. I understand and agree with time restraints (mostly) but uninterrupted freedom within the designated parameters can make a world of difference in effectiveness! So many things that churches do (offerings, announcements, hand shaking…other random flow breakers) can easily be done at the beginning or end of services to give the spoken and musical worship time an opportunity to breathe and pierce the hearts of the captive audience!
Disclaimer... these are only my thoughts and opinions based on past experiences and not intended to be an authority on the subject. I also struggle with trying to find the balance between feeding the newbies and the more mature in the same service.
Michael, Your comment about the need for uniterrupted flow in the worship service seems critical for the working of the Spirit. The natural inclination is to go with it as long as the fire flares.