As worship pastors what we believe about God is key. Yes, we need to know the God we’re leading our people to respond to, but also who we believe God is has a profound effect on how we lead.
1 John 4:8 makes the radical claim that “God is love,” but God is by no means a desperate ex, begging people to love Him back. In fact, God doesn’t really need us at all. “God is love” reflects a truth threaded throughout the Bible: God is a relationship – three in one – the Trinity. From before time began (remember: God invented time) God has been happy by/with Himself – the Father loves the Son loves the Spirit, & that love goes full-circle – a perfect relationship which overflows to our benefit & the benefit of all creation!
We are made in the image of the Father, clothed with Christ, & filled with the Spirit – we have God on us, in us, & around us. How could God NOT love us? We serve from a place of perfect acceptance & confidence in our position before Him because we are all wrapped up in God’s perfect love which began before anything even was.
Without this in mind, we are tempted to start in the wrong places in our thoughts of God. If we think of God first & foremost as a judge, we are tempted to live & lead from a place of guilt & condemnation. If we think of God first & foremost as a creator, we’ll be tempted to live & lead as though God is far off & no longer active in our lives today.
But God was God “before” He created. God was God before there was anyone to judge.
God was FATHER before anything else existed – a Father in love with His Son. God was Son before creation – a Son enamored with Dad. God was Spirit – moving & working in beautiful response to the Father & Son – before there WAS anything. Before everything, God IS LOVE.
God is a Father all the way down, & everything God does He does as a Father: He judges as a Father, creates as a Father, & rules as a Father.
Since God, before anything else, is Father, everything He does is “fatherly” – He doesn’t “do” being a Father as a job, only to kick back at other times & have his time off as merely “God”.
NO.
God is a Father all the way down, & everything God does He does as a Father: He judges as a Father, creates as a Father, & rules as a Father.
Suddenly the lyrics to “Good Good Father” seem even more profound. Our Dad is the King & as children of the King we lead & speak from a position of power & authority. Lead with your people this & every Sunday with confidence & conviction in response to the love of our good, good Father!
*If this topic hits close to home, let me encourage you to read the book Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves, which has recent helped give structure to many of my existing thoughts on the subject.
Shannon Lewis is “The Worship Community Guy“. Passionate about helping others respond to God, & training people who are passionate about the same, Shannon also blogs at SaintLewisMusic, where you can grab his free eBook, UNSEASONED: How to see Godly Growth in an Inexperienced Worship Team.
