Worship leaders like to complain. I know, I was one. However, whenever we gripe and/or speak in a negative sense of our church congregations, we’re simultaneously sinning and lying to ourselves. Stereotyping in general is a bad idea – that’s true when you’re talking about congregations, as well. First off, a congregation isn’t a THING, it’s a group of people. The individuals in that crowd are never 100% anything – for example, some will be committed Christians and some will be still checking everything out. If we treat them like they are a single entity and say things like “The congregation was dead today,” or “The congregation doesn’t sing well,” what we really mean is that we feel threatened by our apparent lack of success in helping all [or the majority] of our congregational members to engage in worship. We’re passing blame on to them to protect ourselves – not cool. It may seem like a minor thing, but words are important, because the words we use both reflect and help to shape our attitudes. Our job is to pastor, support, care for (and potentially correct, if necessary) – not to blame the entire group because a percentage of them don’t live up to our expectations.
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