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Posts tagged ‘worship’

Oct 2

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Will We Worship?

I was asked recently to write a short article for a newsletter related to our church’s building campaign.  We are moving toward breaking ground on a new worship center in early ’09. Thought I’d post it here…. would love to know what you think about tying thoughts about worship to thoughts about a building.

Worship happens when we gather because of three things:  the interaction we each have with God in our everyday lives, God’s revelation to us about Himself, and the opportunity to gather as a family of His children. God reveals, and we respond by living in a way that brings Him glory, which includes worshiping Him corporately.

The music and worship ministry at FMBC exists to provide opportunities and environments for the gathered church to worship God.  This church chooses to gather at this location, where God has allowed us to grow.   We have enjoyed the flexibility of our current auditorium, using it to its fullest potential for our corporate worship experiences.  Will the new facility add to what we are able to do?  Yes.  The idea of more space and flexibility inspires our imaginations, because the environment in which we worship is important. We see great potential for more creativity and more varied expressions of worship as we move into this new phase of our congregational life together. 

Even as we begin to build,  know that the music and worship ministry will continue as best we can to create opportunities for all to gather and worship together. Also, know that God will continue to reveal truth about Himself.  Your experience—our experience—of the depth of worship will continue to be deepened through the interaction we each have with our Creator, every day, through all the many parts of our lives. 

The question for us is:  will we worship? 

Sep 23

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Worship Reflections 09.21.08

‘Heart Rules’ series, week two.

Guest speaker: Greg Gibbs, from this church, brought a great message, “Jesus and My Hot Tub”…. what captivates your heart?  what have you given your heart to? 

Song set:
Sing to the King (Foote)
 Awesome is the Lord Most High (Tomlin, Reeves, Pierce, Abel)
 From the Inside Out (Houston) 
 Give us Clean Hands (Hall)
 Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) (Tomlin, Giglio, Excell, Rees, Newton)

The band was really tight this week, which is always a nice thing.  I unintentionally created a bit of a transitional challenge by trying to move from Rah! Rah! How awesome is the Lord Most High! whoo-hooo!!  to what could be a dramatic ‘a thousand times I’ve failed, still your mercy remains…’ (opening line in From the Inside Out).  Musically it worked, as we began Inside Out with a little piano action under scripture being read, but thematically, and from the perspective of the congregation, we probably could have found a more effective way to make that leap.

Give us Clean Hands was perfect for the theme of the day.  I love that song.  I don’t care how old it is; it will always be in my toolbox.

Personally… it was great to play piano again with the band.  Haven’t done that in a while, not for any intentional reason; it just has worked out that way. 

Musings:
This was another week that brought questions to mind about the response we see, or not, within our congregation while we are worshiping together through music.  As the smaller group of people looking out at the larger group of people, the worship team can’t help but notice what happens in that larger group.  And it becomes a topic for us…. ‘that was amazing! so many people looked like they were responding!’ or ‘why aren’t they responding?’ and then the inevitable  ’what can we do to help them respond more?’  I’m quite sure you cannot accurately judge the state of a person’s heart by what you see them doing on the outside… can you?  should you? some people are just more demonstrative than others, right?  but then, why do we give excuses for those who show absolutely no response physically in worship, when it’s true that their body language speaks clearly in every other area of life?

I have no answers.  Just lots of questions.  I DO know that I-we-the worship leading group can’t fall into the trap of believing that it is our responsibility alone to bring responses out of our congregation. True, there are more effective and less effective means of worshiping together.  But the response… the connection between a person’s heart and God’s heart in congregational worship… has everything to do with that person’s connection to God before congregational worship, or that person’s openness to God’s activity in and around them. And it has everything to do with how God is actually working. 

Other worship leaders have written about this same idea.  Check out what Rich Kirkpatrick, Fred McKinnon, and Ed Schief have written for more extensive discussion.

So… how do YOU usually respond during corporate worship?  what is your reaction when people respond in ways you usually don’t?

This post is a part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist-a-ganza.

Jun 16

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Worship Reflections 06.15.08

Lately I’m finding myself torn between giving time & energy to designing our weekly worship experiences, and giving time & energy to our new worship service structure, which begins in three weeks.  I’ve also altered my work schedule for the summer months, and am trying desperately to keep to my part-time status, and this pull on my time is makin’ my weary.  

This week, I had the opportunity to work with a good friend, a gifted worship leader who will soon be moving into a paid staff position at another church in our community.  I asked him if he’d join me in leading worship for our contemporary service on Father’s Day.  So we met together to build a set list, worked together with our band in rehearsal, and he took the lead for most of the music.  

It was a great experience on many levels. Our congregation was able to enjoy a slightly different flavor of music, which was our intention for Father’s Day. Our band enjoyed a slightly different configuration of musicians, learned two new songs, and enjoyed a new sense of collaboration. For me personally, it was a great relief to share the load.  I always enjoy learning from how other worship leaders move through the process of creating/building/rehearsing/leading. Plus, one of my most favorite things to do is to sing harmony with a good male vocalist, and this was definitely a chance to do that. 

Set list:

Let God Arise (Tomlin, Reeves, Cash)
Filled With Your Glory (Neufeld, Neufeld)
You Never Let Go (Redman, Redman)
Fire Fall Down (Crocker)

After our set, the band met in our usual informal 5 minute debrief…. and a conversation began about how to evaluate a congregation’s response in worship.   Much was said in this conversation about how we bring new songs to the congregation,  about our church’s pattern of reluctancy to display visible, physical signs of responding in worship in general, (there are always a courageous few!),  the culture of the church, etc.  Then my friend, our leader for the week, broke into the conversation with this thought: “The thing is, we are hoping for people to be moved by God, not by a song.  Are they being moved by being in God’s presence?  Shouldn’t you be able to see that?”

His perspective has haunted me since that moment.  Not only because I’m grappling with the answers, but because I was struck by the fact that I have forgotten to ask the question.  Is our church growing in its sensitivity to God’s revelation in our lives individually and corporately, which would be evidenced in a growing capacity for response to God in worship?  Am I growing in this?

This morning, in journaling about Psalm 2, I ended up writing about this a bit, saying:

I’m thinking today of the reveal/response rhythm of worship that I’ve forgotten to think about for a while. I don’t think I’m putting myself in places where I can hear God’s revelation. I think I’ve become all about getting things done. Period. What has to be done this week? That’s what I do. No time taken to receive and hear. So while my responses (worship) are to what I know to be true of God, it is not a living, dynamic, organic process. And this while in the position of leading others in worship.

How am I missing this? What is the solution? I am weary of doing doing doing. I am weary of clutter, both internal and external. I am weary of the church rhythm. Lord, help me get in a position to hear you, to listen better. Remind me of what I am to be about. Forgive me. 

If you are reading this and you attend my church, please understand this to be not an indictment of our congregation, or a judgement of your own personal growth.  Please understand it to be my own questions related to what it means to worship as a church, what it means to ‘lead’ in that context, and what it means to respond to experiencing God personally.  I’d love to know what you think about this.

If you are reading this and you attend church elsewhere, I’d love to hear how your church grows and learns about worshiping together.  Again, the longer I do this, the less I seem to really grasp this huge thing we do when we gather as God’s children to worship Him.

May 29

15 Comments

Progressions 2: A different kind of creative.

In 39 days, the form around the worship at my church will change.  What we’ve been doing for the past year and a half (offering two ‘blended’ style services and one ‘contemporary’ style) has resulted in kids’ ministry taking a fairly brutal hit. And because of that, we’re changing the format of our worship services.  

(Read about the background to this decision here.)

Statistics:

  • attendance at our contemporary service vs. our blended services has been split nearly 50/50
  • style preferences of our congregation (as reported through a survey in 2007): 14% prefer traditional worship, 37% prefer ‘blended’ style, 41% prefer contemporary, and 8% don’t care.
  • the 14% who prefer traditional are never offered worship opportunities in their comfort zone.  Talk about growth and ‘it’s not about you’ all you like, this still matters. 
  • Because of our worship style split, 86% of our kids attend Sunday School at the same time. This amounts to nearly 250 kids.  The goals of kids’ Sunday School had been to adopt a ‘small group’ approach, which is impossible with that number of kids and the configuration of space available.
Solution:
  1. Begin a ‘classic’ service that meets at 8:30. 
  2. Offer 2 identical services later in the morning which, over time, contain elements of both contemporary & blended worship.  We do face a vocabulary issue with how to refer to this service.  We’ve landed at simply ‘contemporary’, although the highly attractive term ‘blendemporary’ has been wryly tossed about. (Tech Director remarked that if we’re going to use that term, there should be an ‘a-palooza’ in there somewhere.) 

 

How is this a creative solution?

  1. It really does solve the kids ministry situation.
  2. Starting a traditional service. While we have not experienced the full-force ‘worship wars’ that other churches have, we continue to hear from people who really do value a traditional form of worship.  And after a while, the argument that ‘all forms of worship are pleasing to God’ starts sounding hollow against the assertion that ‘we’re still not going to do anything traditional’.  There’s another vocabulary issue here…. what does ‘traditional’ or ‘classic’ mean?   Are we worshiping in caves? cathedrals?  will there be acolytes and robes? or acappella singing and lots of silence? The history of our denomination is not liturgical… it is a simple service of hymns, scripture, giving offerings, prayer, and a Biblical message.
  3. A new view of contemporary.  Historically, our church has valued choral & orchestral music.  Over the past five years, the love of a more contemporary, informal worship setting has grown as well.  I work alongside a woman who is gifted in her ability to use choral & instrumental music expression for the purposes of congregational worship.  The two of us have created a scenario which includes each style of music that has been a part of our church’s worship.  One week, we may worship through music led by a band with a few vocalists (a typical ‘contemporary’ form).  The next week, there may be a choir leading alongside the band.  The next week, there may be a large choir & orchestra providing music.  Song selection, musical arrangement, configuration of instruments will vary from week to week, which is a greater degree of creative freedom than we’ve had before.
Sometimes sacrifice of preference is a greater act of worship than the perfectly arranged 3-song set.   We’re asking our congregation to sacrifice for a greater good of collaboration, creativity, and variety with the unified goal of providing effective tools for worship.  We have 39 days to prepare for this adjustment.  Stay tuned!
This post is a part of the Creative Chaos at Ragamuffinsoul. Check it out!

Mar 26

5 Comments

Easter Sunday part 2: Worship leader confessional

I’m going to be honest with you.
As a worship planner & leader & a believer & a parent, I struggle with how to celebrate Easter and Christmas.
I believe these events define the reality in which we live. I believe Jesus was sent to earth by God to save us. I believe it’s important to retell the stories, to remind each other of the simple, powerful truth found in God’s deafening act of love.
But personally, I struggle with what these celebrations mean in terms of extra hours spent working, hours my kids spend with an assortment of childcare people during these seasons. And too often I let that struggle have more focus than the heart of what we’re celebrating. I find myself wondering if this is the sacrifice required of me and my family. And I always get stuck on this: is it worth it?

The day before our Holy Week Journey was completed, just days before Easter, I spoke that question out loud to my husband who, quite appropriately, told me I had to stop talking and thinking that way. He went on to say something about calling and ministry and opposition and taking thoughts captive…. all of which I barely could focus on in my attempt to try to keep myself from being wrong and ignore his ‘rightness’.

What never ceases to amaze me is that God uses what we offer. I came to Easter morning knowing we had a solid ‘plan’…. knowing the reality we were going to celebrate is the greatest news there has ever been… knowing God is on the throne… knowing I had shadows of doubts and disappointments and questions and resentments all around the edges of my spirit. I have learned that when I take a second to stop reveling in these negative thoughts that are oddly addictive, I remember with clarity that there IS opposition to our message, I AM asked to sacrifice, and I WILL still stand and worship despite those realities. So in prayer, I did just that.

I do, by the way, get it. I know the work is worth it. I know the sacrifice I make is very small. I know the worship celebration of the church is powerful. I know where I am weak. I hope that through it all, the truth of God shines.

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