Today our friends at AllAboutWorship.com are featuring an exclusive article I wrote for them about a mistake that worship service planners are prone to make. In the article, I also tell about a little controversy stirred up by “Lead Us Back,” a Sojourn song I wrote with Brooks Ritter.
Read my article “Happy Is The New Boring: Acknowledging The Lows So The Highs Will Be Sweeter” here.
An excerpt:
We want people to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8) We want them to experience the joy of the Lord and to bask in the victory of our risen King. And so we craft services with one “high” after another. Happy songs, exclamations of praise, joyful sermons and prayers of affirmation.
None of these are wrong by themselves, but if we only allow space for highs, two things can happen:
1. We become numbed to them, experiencing fun moments on the surface but gradually forgetting our abiding reason for joy.
2. We unintentionally make those who are hurting feel “less than.”