How to Speak Tatooed (3 of 6)

This week I am having a guest blogger - Forefront's worship leader: Joe Heilman. He is fantastic at what he does and you can learn a lot from him. So here he is:

Christians who don’t get it don’t get that they don’t get it. This is especially true of worship leaders. I meet this cool ordinary worship leader in the church lobby but as soon as he gets on stage with his guitar he starts singing and saying things only the most initiated of Christians understand. What's up with that?

So if you wanna reach the tattooed I'd go through ever worship song you have and take a good hard look at the lyrics. Would they make sense to who you’re trying to reach? If not, bag it.

And not only the lyrics, it's also what you say and how you say it during worship. On Monday mornings at Forefront we go through almost every sentence spoken on stage from Sunday morning and evaluate it. We wanna be sure that the seekers never feel like they don’t know the language and are therefore not in the club.

As a worship leader this is tough because there are certain words and phrases, used by countless leaders we’ve admired, that we now instinctively say. So I challenge you, before you throw out your next “hallelujah” or “praise the Lord” or proclaim that he is “exalted on high,” stop yourself and in your mind translate it into modern speak. It’s not always easy. It will come more natural as you discipline yourself to remain yourself on stage. Because the truth is you don’t talk like that to your buddies or wife right? So why put it on when you get on stage?

Trust me, I believe in biblical terms. I believe in bible language for bible things. I have nothing against the words “hallelujah” or “redemption” or “propitiation.” I have nothing against them in their proper context. But if your not gonna define or translate them for the uninitiated, don’t go there. Use the creative mind God gave you and find a more culturally relevant way to express it. If you don’t think you can be objective about this get someone to help you! You don’t have to dumb it down or be overly simple. You just have to communicate in a way that makes sense and pulls people into what you’re expressing.

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