WORSHIP-LEADING

ESSENTIALS
(Part 2) The Awakening Power of Truth

M AT T R E D M A N

The truth of God has power to awaken us. Many

times my heart has been slumbering—I’ve felt a
certain numbness in my walk with God, and
found myself lacking in energy and passion.
Before too long I start looking for the reason.
Overworked? Perhaps. Distracted? Perhaps.
More often than not I realize I’ve fallen for the
same old trick. I’ve been neglecting the Word of
God—somehow trying to move on with God
without the daily bread of Scripture. Often it
takes just a single, piercing line of His truth to
begin the wake-up call in my soul, whet my
appetite and begin to brighten my walk with
God. One passionate psalm, one wise proverb or
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a few words from the mouth of Jesus in the Gospels,

and I know I’ve come to the right place. Before long,
I’m worshipping.
Taking it to a congregational level, it’s vital that
our worship gatherings are full of truth.
Kevin Navarro comments, “Every worship leader
must become a theologian.”1 As leaders involved in
gathered worship, we’re placed in a position of great
responsibility. And to handle that entrustment well,
we need to become students of the Word of God.
This will lead us to choose God-honoring expres-
sions of truth that ensure we’re rallying around the
essential focus points of our faith, and at the same
time defend our services from misleading theology.
It is said of the old preacher Charles Spurgeon, that
“his blood ran bibline”—that if you’d have cut him,
the Bible would have flowed out. What an amazing
tribute! Oh, for worship songs and services that
bleed with the Word of God! But if we want to bleed
the Bible, we have to read the bible. If we want to
bleed the truth of God, we have to feed upon the
truth of God.
Planning for congregational worship comes with
much responsibility—for, like it or not, what we end
up singing in our gatherings will, especially over time,
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affect people’s view of God. Think, too, for a moment

of the unchurched visitor—what you sing about (or
don’t sing about) in those few minutes can have a
profound effect as these seekers are introduced to
God. Marva J. Dawn comments that a worship service
may never contain every single aspect of God’s truth,
but “worship must never give us untruth.”2
It’s also important that we make an effort to
ensure that none of the major ingredients is missing.
Over a decade ago, the Vineyard Movement was lead-
ing a conference in Australia. As a response to the
content of the worship songs, one pastor wrote to
John Wimber (who led the Vineyard Movement) and
pointed out that out of around 70 songs in the con-
ference songbook, only a few directly referenced the
Cross.3 His point being that the centrality of the
Cross is essential in Christian worship. Wimber was
grateful for this insight from an outsider, and
shocked by it, too. He immediately set about feeding
his songwriters once again on the beautiful truths of
the Cross, sending many of them some of the major
Christian writings on the Cross. Sure enough, many
new songs flowed out, centering around the truth of
the Cross. Out of the overflow of the heart, the
mouth speaks (Matt 12:34). The more we digest the
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revelation of Scripture, the more powerfully it will

affect the way we write and choose worship songs.
The truth of God sets us free to worship. Many
times I’ve witnessed a congregation resounding with
a certain lyric—a powerful display of God’s revelation
in the line of a song, which resonates deeply in the
hearts of those singing it. Perhaps a little moment
where people let out a cheer of praise or some other
sign of agreement as they receive a glorious truth of
God. A good example is the hymn “Thine Be the
Glory”—which powerfully presents the glorious
truth of the resurrection of Jesus. Each time we arrive
at the line, “Endless is the victory, Thou over death
hast won!”4 there is an upsurge in worship. Hearts all
around the room are experiencing the awakening
power of truth.
Too often, we mess around trying to make some-
thing happen in congregational worship times. And
we underestimate the awakening power of God’s
truth. Worship, as John Piper described it, is meant
to be a “glorious feast on the perfections of Christ.”5
Songs and services must present the glories of our
Lord Jesus—and then provide appropriate ways to
respond to this splendor. The healthiest congrega-
tional worship times give us space to both inhale and
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exhale; to breathe in the powerful revelation of God,

and then breathe out with a cry of praise and devo-
tion. The best worship songs poetically, relevantly
and biblically capture the truths of God, and at the
same time also give the worshipper a way of respond-
ing to these truths. A great example of this is Tim
Hughes’s song “Here I Am to Worship.” The verses
take us through the powerful truth of the incarna-
tion of Jesus: “Light of the world you stepped down
into darkness” and “Humbly you came to the earth
you created, all for love’s sake became poor.” And the
chorus gives us an opportunity to respond to that
beautiful truth: “Here I am to worship. Here I am to
bow down, Here I am to say that You’re my God.”6
The truth of God has power to wake up both the
lost and the found. To bring fresh flame to fading
embers, and to ignite for the first time a fire in the
hearts of those who had never before seen Him. As
leaders of worship, let us never underestimate the
awakening power of God’s truth.