Shifting Your Church’s Worship Culture w/ Inclusive Language.
Finding that your church isn’t engaged during corporate worship? Been there.
You’ve put in hours of thoughts, prayer and work into preparing an opportunity for them to worship and encounter God in a creative and unique way and they’re looking at you like, ‘can we move on with this service so I can get myself some Christian chicken?’ (That’s Swiss Chalet for all my Canadian friends…).
“Growing and cultivating a culture of worship in your local expression isn’t an overnight process. It’s actually not fixed solely on a Sunday, from the platform, in a corporate expression… But there are things we can do during our gatherings to help foster a worship culture that is participative and expressive.”
REMEMBER, your church is not an audience singing popular songs that they like back to a cover-band that is playing parts. Your church is a collective expression of individual believers, joining together to worship the Lord and have their lives shaped into His image. Too many worship cultures suffer from an ‘us versus them’ mentality when in reality you can encourage a more participative, engaged and wholistic expression with simple word changes.
Utilizing these word changes may also create a heart posture change in you, your team and your leadership. It’s not just about changing a phrase to be more inclusive… It’s about genuinely believing what is coming out of your mouth. I commonly have to ask myself: ‘when I said that was I believing intentional and present or is that what I always say?’ Stewardship of moments where we are together, valuing each other’s precious time and focusing our attention on Jesus is an intentional discipline that requires thought and practice.
So try this…
Commit to using intentionality in language that results in cultural clarity.
The words that we use are important. I once heard it suggested that every word that comes out of a leader’s mouth that is unintentional must be counterbalanced by 10 intentional ones. Commonly, a lack of participation in corporate worship is rooted in corporate confusion — and that’s not the congregation’s fault. Usually these word or phrase selection aren’t malicious or heretical; they’re just weak and, as such, aren’t great tools to creating and cultivating a unified culture.
Here’s an example…
Worship leaders and pastors use ‘you’ or ‘they’ in reference to their congregation or attendees. ‘Come on church, you sing it out.’ Is that terrible? Wrong? Destructive? No. But is there better? I think so. Why not use more inclusive language, like ‘we.’
Why? Because WE’RE on a collective journey. WE are all being led of Holy Spirit into a beautiful moment of worship and revelation. I need to worship, praise, glorify, magnify, bless and receive as much as you do. Therefore, regardless of the opportunity that I have to lead in this moment, WE are all following the Lord TOGETHER.
Pastors do this all the time and I’ve never fully understood it. Are there moments for pastoral blessings? Benedictions? Yes, I believe so. But in moments of prayer saying something like…
“Lord, would you open their hearts to receive what You would have for them.”
… comes across, in my opinion, as exclusive or even arrogant. As though, ‘I’ve got the full truth and revelation and I really hope that what I have to say gets through your thick skulls today.’
I think it would be better said,
“Lord, would you open our hearts to receive what You would have for us.”
Rarely is the heart posture of a leader who uses ‘you’ instead of ‘we’ led by impure motives — I’m not suggesting that. However, language is an important ingredient in creating culture. Using inherently inclusive vernacular in worship can help to establish participative and engaged mindsets and attitudes. It reminds each of us that we are not merely spectators or recipients, we are contributors.
