Why worship leaders should watch The Voice

I am not a regular watcher of reality television. I see enough of reality in my life. I'd prefer to use my TV viewing to escape.

But I really like The Voice.

I thought it might be interesting to share some things that make me wish worship leaders in churches are watching. Here are three.

1) The coaches keep telling their singers that they have to communicate the text. Have you noticed that? All of the coaches say it. They keep looking for different ways to get it across...like worship leaders should be doing. And they recognize it clearly when it happens. Some folks have made it past potential elimination simply because they were convincing. As I was working on my computer, I just heard Blake Shelton say, "If people don't believe you, it doesn't matter how well you sing."

Now, how much more valuable and significant is this counsel for those of us who stand on a platform in church than those who stand on a (very cool) stage on television? We have to keep finding ways to do more than "know the words." We've got to communicate those words. Clearly. Powerfully. Convincingly. The stakes are infinitely higher building God's kingdom than building the pop music kingdom.

2) The contestants work on their music before the first rehearsal, before the second rehearsal, and before the competition. Wouldn't it be fabulous if all of the musicians in our worship ministries (vocal and instrumental) would do the same?

Again, the stakes are higher in our churches than on this show. Sure, the reward for winning The Voice is a good bit of money and relative fame. But the reward for effective worship leaders is greater: a proud heavenly Father, a strengthened church family, and helping people cross from spiritual death to life!

3) The world is resonating with this show. In many ways, this is instructive for indigenous worship. I've done an entire blog post on what I mean by indigenous worship, but for now let me simply describe it as "a service in the language of a certain people group." Not just their verbiage, their entire cultural language. The Voice is, whether we like it or not, a standard by which our Sunday mornings are measured. Which reminds me of a series of blog posts: why our worship gatherings should be great.

It's why I founded Worship Coach consulting nearly a decade ago. I want to help churches make Sunday mornings great, culturally engaging, and transformative.

And all of those are things The Voice purports to be. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Maybe that's why America likes it so much!