“Ain’t no doubt he’s a hardworking man.”
This was my thought as I watched it go down. A few nights ago, Ashley and I celebrated a friend’s birthday by accompanying she and her husband to Justin Timberlake’s Forget Tomorrow tour. As expected, it was a spectacle to behold. One of the highest grossing tours of the year, Timberlake’s offering was a musical and technological masterpiece infusing heavy backbeat groove with mind boggling visuals. We caught the show here in Jacksonville in the later part of the touring cycle. By this time all the kinks had been well worked out leaving a seamless experience for the ticket buyer. Justin moved around the stage with an insane amount of command and comfort, smooth as fresh motor oil. As an entertainer he is in rare air. There are few that can leverage rhythmic mobility, emotion, and voice the way he can. The gross ticket sale numbers prove the point.
In all transparency, I don’t attend a lot of these kinds of shows. I can count on one hand the amount of major, international tours I’ve attended. I’ve seen U2 a couple times, which were both amazing. I almost convinced myself to buy a ticket to see them at the Sphere in Vegas during their last run and never followed through. The funny thing is, I love it. I love when people gather to focus their attention and love in singing. I’ve been involved in that for a long time in another forum. I hate to admit it, but I’m older than Justin Timberlake by a few years. We both grew up in church singing gospel songs. He went the Mickey Mouse Club/boy band/major Hollywood motion picture/international pop star route. It landed him on stage in arenas like the one he was in that night. I went the Bible college/CCM/Megachurch route. It landed me in section 110, row V, seat 13 watching him in the arena he was in that night. We are very different in many ways, but similar in others.
There’s no doubt there was some temple building going on. All of the elements were there, I recognized them from my years of big-church worship leading: The affection of the people attributing worth and value, both emotionally and monetarily. There was magnification and amplification in grand fashion. There was rememberence and nostalgia. There was singing, and electricity in the air….and dancing. Boy was there dancing. The moments in the 2+ hour presentation that were not masterfully choreographed and executed were almost non-existent. It would be hard to imagine the work that went into putting it all together. It was sensational! (meaning it appealed to the senses). One might even call it sensual. There was an extended moment in the middle of the show where the music and visual content shifted into a high gear of sexuality playing to the cravings and desires of both the performers and the spectators. The audience watched as animated figures intertwined themselves in vivid colors on the screen behind Justin as he performed the song Infinity Sex. The audience was fixated as they moved in response to the music. As I stood and took it in, I could feel the danger of the fire that was being played with. I reached out for Ashley’s hand and squeezed it tight.
Yes, it was a grand temple that was built, and in it a beautifully focused liturgy was performed. And it was absolutely impossible to miss that focus. The focus was Justin Timberlake. His face dominated the experience. He was literally larger than life. We were inundated with his likeness from the show’s start to its end. We paid money for it. It began with a dizzying cinemagraphic display of hundreds of Timberlakes in every pose imaginable on the giant LED wall as the point of view of the camera pulled back at a rapid pace. It was Matrixesque. The lights and cameras followed him everywhere he went as the showed moved from one scene to the next. The music seemed to bend to his every movement as he called hits out to the Tennessee Kids. “One time!” “Two Times!” As the show reached its climax a giant animated image of Justin’s head seemed to burst out of the LED wall in 3 dimensions mouthing the lyrics to SexyBack as the real Justin performed the song below. The band sleighed. The kik and bass thumped. The vocals soared. The portion of the LED wall that portrayed Justin’s head physically detached from its original position behind the singer and hovered over the audience by way of a pulley rigging system giving the illusion that the image was alive, making direct eye contact with the entire arena. The show concluded with Justin appearing atop the rigged LED wall as it levitated out over the audience. He was literally lifted up and exalted over the people as they sang Mirrors watching him. He disappeared, ascending into the rafters as the show reached its end. The crowd went nuts! “WOW! Amazing!,” I thought.
I’ve been involved in the mystery of the worshipping church since the day I was born. That is not an exaggeration. My mom tells the story of her water breaking as she sat on the bright teal upholstered pew in the Pentecostal church where I grew up the night before I was born. I’ve been there ever since. For the last two decades much of that time has been spent crafting set lists and learning lyrics, melodies, and chord changes. I’ve sat behind drum kits and piano keys and have had guitar straps slung over my shoulder. For most of it I’ve had a microphone in front of my face. After all this time I can honestly say that there is nothing else in the world like the phenomenon of the worshipping church. Where else can you go and experience a group of people of their own will singing passionately, in unison, and aloud to Someone they can’t see? The answer? Nowhere. Which makes the following statement equally true. There is no role quite like that of a worship leader in the local church. Big or small. Lights and haze or candles and robes. It is unique, and costly. It requires emotional presence, theological attentiveness, spiritual vulnerability, pastoral care, musical skill, and most importantly….and by grace alone…completely transparency to the object of worship. The church needs these precious people to assist them in giving voice to their well directed affection, and the world desperately needs the worshipping church. It’s like salt, preserving and flavoring the sacredness of the life we’ve been given by pulling it into its deepest purpose. The culture in which we live is not kind to these folks as it operates under the persuasion of the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2: 2). In a world dominated by cell phone cameras and insta reels, where self promotion is the primary language, they are called to faithfully steward the attention of God’s people to its proper place. Their calling is decrease but they must accomplish it in the plain sight of the congregation. Most of them don’t do this once and then move to another location and do the same over again. Instead they do it consistently and in regular rhythm with the same group of people over and over again, reminding them of what is true and right. This is the mystery of the worshipping church and the importance of the leader who guides her.
A thought: We are natural born temple builders, every one of us. We were designed to give and receive love and admiration and to attribute worth. We were designed to be captivated by glory, stunned by beauty, and awed by majesty. We were created to respond in adoration. Believe it or not, we were also designed for euphoric sexuality. All of it on purpose, with purpose and specific design. But the focus of our love, the source of our admiration, and the subject of our adoration makes all the difference in the world. Misplaced adoration and awe can satiate temporarily but will eventually end in lack and disappointment. It seems weird to say, but I loved watching Justin Timberlake dance. Every once in awhile he would land an intricate vocal run that would make my heart leap. “He’s actually singing that,” I thought. It’s fantastic. He’s fantastic, and so are the Tennessee Kids and their dazzling production package. But here’s the thing…
Dancing feet age and get less nimble with time. The purest voices grow wide with vibrato as they get older. People lose their hearing. LED walls with the most outrageous content are powerless when the get unplugged and packed back into the production semis. The instruments get put back in their road cases. The tour ends. The buzz that comes from indulging in the idea of limitless sexual experience hits the reality of how sexual fulfillment is actually discovered, nurtured over time and exclusivity. The money (mine included) gets spent on the tickets, and then spent again by the ticket sellers and content creators on yachts. It all stays here while we wait to breath our last and go somewhere else. None of it is eternal. None of it was designed to hold the weight only real glory can hold. In the midst of all of this the church continues to gather together in every shape and size and worship the unseen God who rewards those who diligently seek him with His eternal Self.
I don’t know Justin Timberlake. I’d love the chance to sit and talk with him. I think he’s amazing, a truly remarkable human. I wonder what the dialogue in his head sounds like when the show is over, and the tour has reached its ¾ mark. I’m very aware of what the conversations sound like in my head after 20 years of leading worship in the local church setting. I’d love to compare notes. It’d be an interesting conversation. I wonder how he would express what its like to have people hang on his every move, listening intently to his every note. What words would he use to describe that? Or, how would he describe what its like having his face animated and blown up to superhuman proportions over his head every night? I wonder where he goes when he feels like he needs to get away from all that…if he’s got that place. There a couple songs on his latest record that hint at the pressure he feels. I appreciate the honesty in them. I wonder what is mulling around in the deep recesses of his heart. There’s no doubt he’s got soul. I wonder how its doing.
Ashley and I enjoyed the show, and we enjoyed the company of our friends at the show. Its hard to believe, but I even caught my feet moving and head bopping to Suit and Tie up in section 110. Kudos to you your team JT for all the hard work. As I watched it all unfold, watching those wonderful gifts being exercised…I couldn’t help thinking…
“Man, I wonder what the temple this guy would build to the unseen God would be like…”
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