Why Charismatic Worship Must Find a Spirit-Filled Balance

Trends in worship music seem to change almost as often as trends in popular music. And that may be part of the problem, says Pastor Jason Daughdrill of Gateway Church in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

In a recent episode of his Jason Daughdrill Podcast on the Charisma Podcast network, Daughdrill asks Spirit-filled worship leader Catherine Mullins about what he calls, “a shift.” What this involves, he says, is “some of the rawness and the vulnerability of worship leading and even worship songs are becoming maybe a little less experiential in nature or even, for lack of a better term, prophetic in nature. And we’re becoming a little more polished, and a little more broad. … Do you recognize the shift? Do you see the shift, and if you do, what do you think is the reason for it?”

Mullins, who led worship at The Ramp Church in Alabama and at the Lakeland Outpouring, answers in the affirmative. “Yes, I’ve definitely seen the shift and I’ve had questions about it. And I think really, there are multiple reasons; I don’t think it’s just one cut-and-dry answer of why that’s happening.

“First and foremost, I think it’s very easy, just as a musician, singer, it’s very easy to feel the pressure to perform, the pressure for excellence,” she says. “Right now, we have a beautiful shift in the church. And even in the charismatic world, a beautiful shift of really going toward excellence, which I believe is in the heart of God.

“You know, I like machines. I like all of that. You know, there’s a laser show going on in heaven, a light show going on in heaven around the throne, it talks about that [and] describes it in Revelation,” Mullins says. “So all that’s great and creative, and I believe in the heart of God. And as charismatics, I think we were a little bit lacking for some seasons in excellence. And so I think it was really cool that we kind of did that pendulum shift. But I think sometimes … we’ve got to be so careful that we don’t go too far.”

To hear more of the discussion about the tension between excellence in worship and Spirit-led spontaneity, click here to listen to the entire podcast. {eoa}