Rory Noland’s name is well known to many of us as director of music for Willow Creek Community Church for twenty years and as author.  His first book, Heart of the Artist (1999) addressed some of the basic issues concerning the individual worship artist, including artistic temperament, working in community, aiming toward servanthood and excellence. His second book, Thriving as an Artist (2003), tackled more of the long-term issues of individuals: sustaining passion, cultivating confidence and dealing with rejection and failure. The Worshiping Artist (2007) goes much farther in two different directions...

... the private worship life of artists and the role and responsibility of leading public worship. He organizes this search in three sections: worshiping in spirit, worshiping in truth and learning from ancient worship leaders.  

In chapter one, Noland explores the different uses of the word worship, from individual to community to lifestyle.  He thinks that our concept of worship has become too narrow (19), including limiting it to singing. I’m currently involved with two churches that are struggling with defining worship around song style and looking for overall change in the quality of worship.  Do any of you or your churches struggle with those issues?

Noland is also concerned that Christians picture worship as happening only in groups and not as individuals. “The first step in becoming a worship artist and an effective lead worshiper is to become a vibrant private worship” (22).  Working in a seminary, where so many hours are devoted to intense academic study, it’s not uncommon to see people neglect private worship.  I often notice the times I put tremendous effort and thought into planning chapel services and rush through my own private worship time in the chapel of my morning commute.  Noland offers three actions to respond to God privately: 1) make ourselves increasing present to God, 2) set aside time regularly for private worship, and 3) offer ourselves completely to God.   How have any of you responded?

Practicing God’s presence and time for private worship is a joy for many of us.  However, Noland speaks strongly on the subject of sin when it comes to offering ourselves complete.  “It’s impossible to discuss giving yourself completely to God without addressing the issue of sin” (28).  Noland even brings up tithing and the trend that he sees of artists thinking that the worth of their time is their tithe instead of money. (30)  This is a difficult issue in the church, from many sides.  We do know many volunteer artists giving an extraordinary amount of their time to the church.  Should they instead be working during that time to earn money?  Noland connects the amount of money spent on the arts, including video and amplification, to the artists: “… it’s a shame that the team that utilizes those things most barely contributes to funding them.”(30)  Is that fair?

May God give us creativity, strength and love for our congregations as we faithfully tell the Story.

Margaret Brady is worship arts coordinator at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL.

Note: You must be registered and logged in in order to post a reply. If you forget your password, there is a button you can click on the login window. Once logged in, you can change you user profile (such as user name). Just click your username in the upper right of this screen. Profile options will appear. Need help? Email webster@covchurch.org.