Christian Music Online

Worship takes center stage at Lifest

July 12, 2005 – 1:07 pm

Worship takes center stage at Lifest - It looked like a sea of clapping hands before the main stage at Lifest.

Thousands were on their feet, clapping their hands over their heads, singing along during the Sunday morning worship service.

On stage was singer, songwriter and worship leader Peder Eide, with the words to the song projected on the jumbo-tron at stage left.

“The reason we live,” the lyrics went, “is to give God glory.”

Christians say worship — like the singing — is the way they glorify God. And while music helps many worship, the act isn’t confined to churches or times of singing.

“The Bible makes it clear, that’s what we were made to do,” Eide said. “It becomes more than just a Sunday gig.”

Candy Herman, of Appleton, said worship, for her, is a daily activity.

“As you worship you grow closer to God,” Herman said. “It’s a personal experience and helps you understand who Jesus is.”

Worship music has increased in popularity and visibility since the late 1990s, with many Christian recording artists releasing worships albums.

It has also sparked a kind of subset of Christian music for praise and worship albums by artists like Eide or Chris Tomlin, one of the most well-known worship leaders.

Tomlin – who looks like a rocker with wide sunglasses and frosted spiky hair – led worship twice on Saturday at Lifest. Many of those worshipping Saturday night at his performance didn’t need the words projected on the screen because Tomlin’s songs, perhaps the hymns of this generation, are used in many churches and played often on Christian radio.

Worship, Tomlin said, is “what do you put the most value on in your life. Every person who breathes worships, worships something.”

Getting the audience involved, Eide said, helps keep the worship times from becoming rock concerts.

“When you ask people to participate, that whole stage thing disappears,” Eide said.

And the worship leaders likely feel the same thing as the worshippers, as Theresa Graves of Green Bay described it, “like I am in touch with the Lord.”

During the last chorus of the old hymn Amazing Grace, Tomlin stopped singing, letting the crowd carry the song, placed the capo on his guitar for the next song, stepped back from the microphone, and raised his own hands to heaven, like the hundreds on the other side of the stage.

By Bethany K. Warner
of The Northwestern

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