Leonard Sweet‘s message at the National Worship Leader’s Conference was incredible, as you would expect. He’s got a way with words, well, as he would say, images, since we don’t live in a Gutenberg world anymore but a Google world. Our culture is changing so rapidly, it’s hard to believe that Google will be 10 years old this September, but look at the impact it’s made in our world.
Len began by asking us for a biblical image of Jesus singing. He sang after the Last Supper. But we don’t usually consider that Jesus sang Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” which is the first line of the Psalm, like the title that brings to mind the entire song. Keep in mind that you don’t quote the Psalms, you sing them. Psalms is a hymnbook.
Metaphor is metamorphosis. We think in pictures, not words. Think of your dreams: they are pictures, not words. So, as we help paint new visual pictures, God changes lives. For the Christian, image is everything. Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God. We are to perform brain surgery, or soul surgery, as we put truth to song and image. Our mind is composed of metaphors.
A worship leader’s role is to put images and metaphors to sound. We are to “Keep Austin Weird” by making the familiar strange. What we are familiar with needs to be reexamined so we can see it in fresh ways. The Russian word is “ostranenie“.
Jesus was a master at metaphor ministry. He always taught with pictures and stories. He always said, “You’ve heard it said (the familiar), but I say to you (the strange)…”
- 1 billion people live on $1 a day.
- 1 billion seconds ago, the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan.
- 1 billion minutes ago, Jesus walked the planet.
- 1 billion dollars ago, was a just a few minutes ago that our government has spent.
- 1 billion Cokes ago, was yesterday morning.
7 Metaphors for the Future
1) Design – we design everything, even our toilet bowl cleaners. Style is substance today. We need designer lives, designed by Jesus.
2) Transformation – the image of the pearl in the oyster
3) Pilgrim – Followers. We’ve had 30 years of “leadership” but a better Biblical image is of a disciple who is first a follower of Jesus. We lead from behind Jesus. And sometimes you’re called to the front of the line, but you still follow.
4) Connection – The image is the web. (I especially like this one.) In 1973, the first cell phone call was made. Today, half the world’s population has a cell phone and then in addition, some in third world countries have a small sim card and share phones.
5) Organic – the image of the apple. The past was like an orange which you peel and it’s segmented. Life used to be segmented. Education used to be segmented. (A professor is seminary actually had me diagram the parables, which flies in the face of what Jesus’ teaching was all about.) You eat an apple whole, peel and all.
6) Wind – the image is the Spirit. You build a church from the sound up. We are sound theologians. Spirit comes first. The Word became flesh.
7) Harmony – When you sing harmony, you sing different notes, different rhythms, different times, different words, sometimes different pages but all to sing the same song of praise to the Lord. Don’t think in terms of job descriptions but in terms of making music together. The different parts bring harmony. How well does your spirit fit together with others?