Our team has been having some fascinating conversations about the role that musical “excellence” should play in our worship services these days.  We all feel that something has profoundly shifted in the last ten years, and it’s exciting to try to name it and flesh it out together.  Here are a few of my reflections and thoughts-in-process…

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The goal is engagement.  As artists in the church, we are using music and art to create a holy space that invites/allows our community to engage with God and each other.  The goal is never excellent music or art.  However, excellent music and art definitely helps people engage…up to a certain point.

(1) At first, I believe that excellence and engagement are directly related.  If the music sucks, people are distracted and disengage.  And so the better the art is, the easier it can be to engage with God.

(2) However, there is a certain point where this flattens out.  Once the experience is “great” (which is SO subjective), making the art 10% better doesn’t always help the community engage 10% better.  In fact, truth be told, they may barely notice.  (This is one of the gifts that living with a really discerning non-musician has taught me!)  Chasing the “more is more” mentality or a “the better we play the better they’ll pray” approach doesn’t always bring the result we’re aiming for.

(3) I believe that there is a wide range of musical/artistic quality that serves people well.  Musical excellence is just one value in a web of very important worship leading values.

(4) However, if we try to push beyond the point where our excellent art serves the community well, I actually believe that it becomes self-defeating and hurtful to our goal of engagement.  The music can become so interesting and attention-drawing that people stop seeing it as a pathway, and start viewing it as the focus.  This is a very subtle, subjective tipping point, but very dangerous.  And even if the music never reaches this flashy level, the pursuit of “over-excellence” can very quickly chase away all the quirk and honest humanity that makes art so compelling in the first place.

I realize that I’m talking rather objectively about wildly subjective and mysterious things, so please forgive the over-simplification.  (I even drew a chart.  A chart?  A chart!!  Who have I become?!?!  ha.)

Does this connect with you at all?  How have your observed excellence and engagement working together – or against each other?  If you’re a worship leader or artist in the church, how do you approach it?  Curious to hear your thoughts…