A few years back we had a date night on steroids as Amber & I headed to The Q Arena in Cleveland for Billy Joel in concert. As we entered the doors the anticipation from the crowd was palpable. Thousands of people were jammed into seats, talking, cheering, sneezing, waiting.
As the lights began to dim to darkness and the background music started to rise, people jumped to their feet cheering and screaming. He was moments away from appearing. Complete darkness, and then dazzling, spinning white lights illuminated an elegant black piano that had appeared from nowhere middle stage. And there he was seated on the piano stool. The Piano Man's grand entrance.
People are screaming, adrenaline is pumping, camera flashes are echoing throughout the packed arena. Billy Joel leans forward to begin playing and...
Nothing.
No sound comes from the piano keys.
What? The crowd silences for a moment. What's going on? I can't believe what's happening.
Billy tries again. Nothing. He shrugs his shoulders at the crowd, obviously as perplexed as we are that we can't hear a single note. A stage manager appears on stage, hurriedly trying to fix wires underneath the grand piano. Billy stands up and mimes his frustration. The crowd is with him, cheering, laughing at his impromptu antics, surprised that the Road Crew missed this obvious technical glitch. 50 seconds tick by with a nervous Billy Joel killing time in silence on the stage for his grand opening number.
Finally, music. The opening piano solo to "Angry Young Man." The crowd gets back into the excitement, cheering for the sound man.
Half-way through the next song, a powerful rock ballad,
the sound goes dead again.
The band keeps playing, the crowd begins singing out the words in full-force to cover the emptiness. Joel is frustrated.
In that moment, my mind went to the Church. These types of glitches are distracting. They pull us away from the intended focus and make us shudder at the obvious problem playing out in front of us. You can't help but feel bad for the performer left stranded on stage. Because it's Billy Joel, you're in it with him, cheering for him regardless.
But what about during a worship service? During corporate singing, there is an audience of One. Jesus is the focus. Christ-followers lose themselves in focusing on the Spirit. The skeptic visiting is experiencing a powerful public apologetic for the reality of the Divine by passionate worshipers ascribing worth to God. Undistracting excellence - pursued by Billy Joel's Road Crew - is extremely important. Shouldn't it be even more so when singing to the Almighty?
One sloppy mistake can destroy a worship environment for an unbelieving friend who is visiting the church on a rare occasion. The public apologetic can be harmed when we don't do whatever it takes to think ahead - plan ahead - with our worship settings.
When the problems creeped up in front of thousands of adoring fans, we showed grace to Billy Joel because we were for him. We already had a relationship and were invested in this thing.
Not so for the visitor to the church; it's possibly a one-shot deal. If we create a hurdle during worship, we may be part of shutting them down from hearing the Gospel.
No one is calling us to be perfect in serving, just prepared every week in our approach and devotion to the worship setting. This experience really pushed me to think: If a guy from Long Island pours time and money into a single 2 hour concert experience, shouldn't we as the Church do the same - more - for the sake of making Jesus famous?
