The Industrialization of Worship

We love to point at record labels and big marketing budgets when we talk about the “industrialization” of worship.

But if we’re honest, the assembly line isn’t just out there.

It’s humming in our churches on Sundays.

We’ve made worship efficient. Repeatable. Consistent. Excellence is good. Structure is good. But there’s a line where structure stops serving presence and starts replacing it — and most of us don’t notice when we cross it.

The Hallmark Card Test

It doesn’t matter how beautiful and well-manufactured your card is.

What makes a card valuable to the recipient is the note inside.

Your heartfelt expression.

Imperfect. Personal.

Filled with inside jokes only they’d understand.

That’s what we need to do personally with our worship.

And that’s what we need to help our congregations do.

The setlist, the arrangement, the lights — that’s just the card.

What God treasures is the note.

What Makes It Unique

The expression that springs from your relationship is what makes it unique to the Lord.

Not what Elevation would do.

Not what Chris Tomlin would do.

Not copying someone else’s ad-libs or spontaneous moments.

He’s already heard from them.

Abba wants to hear from you.

Your worship team.

Your congregation.

When God Experiences You

Worship isn’t just when we experience God — it’s when God experiences us.

It’s when we walk boldly into His throne room, unafraid, and climb into His lap.

It’s when we speak to Him in the language of love that only we share.

The most powerful moments in worship can’t be mass-produced.

They can only be sought out & offered.

We should be spending rehearsals learning how to do this as a team, and how to lead the congregation into that.

Relational moments cannot be replicated or reproduced. You had to have been there.

If your rehearsal and your service go the exact same way… you may think you hit a home run, but imagine if every hug or kiss was exactly the same… who even practices kisses… and what does it say about the relationship if you did?

Interestingly, the Greek word προσκυνέω (proskyneō), which is often translated as worship in the New Testament.

It’s a compound word:

• pros — “towards”

• kyneō — “to kiss”

Worship means to kiss towards (the one you love/worship)

Takeaways

• Industrialization happens when the relationship becomes optional.

• The card matters — but the note is the treasure.

• Presence over polish.

• God wants to experience you.

This Sunday, don’t just give God a card anyone could hand Him.

Write Him a note.

In your own words.

From your own heart.

Relational worship is the highest kind of worship - it is the kind that the Father seeks. Why offer anything else?