sing a new song
07/28/2010
supersimbo posted a good blog today. if you havent read it then it is worth have a gander. its sparked me off again.
If you havent seen what some other churches are doing with music then check out this link:
To get the awkard bit out of the way, yes this is Mark Driscoll’s church. Love him or hate him, I would appeal to you to look at the site for what it is, and leave out ‘but he told this bad joke, or he said this about that group of people’ for a minute.
here is a whole collection of music by people within his church; some new, some covered. but what is fantastic about it is the way in which the people are dedicated to creating music and sharing it with the world.
often music ministries can become a group of session musicians, some only playing when they really really have to, and dont make the practise longer than it should because thats not what i signed up for. well, what did you ‘sign up’ for then? as a leader in a church, my own understanding is obviously subjective. it is limited for i have only been doing it for a few years and only in two churches, with a few christian unions along the way.
but what strikes me is that 1. we elevate ourselves. at one of our laser (small group) groups, we were talking about music and worship in our services. we remarked that it seems funny that the group of musicians that is to lead the church has hammered into them from the beginning (and rightly so) that we are not to think of ourselves as better than others in the congregation. Yet, before each service, we stream in from the right in a line almost with the logo ‘the musicians are here! now the service can begin!’ we huddle away before the service to pray instead of meeting with those who are entering the church and shaking their hands, chatting to them- seeing how the people we are to lead are feeling. i understand the need to pray, more and more i know that we need to rely on it more during our services, especially in music, but i think we need to go further and interact much more with the congregation. we use our big terms and put on our speaking voices when we lead but im not sure theres any value in that. if your congregation is filled with farmers, dont act like you’ve just come out of a shakespeare play in front of them. as far as i know Jesus met people on their level.
2. we dont give ourselves. this is slightly controversial. yes we give a sunday here and there, but if worship, and specifically worship leading, is a calling, then do we switch the call off 6 days a week? does a minister switch his call off except for a sunday? i would sincerely hope not. we need to be worship leaders/ worshippers every day of the week. and remember, the bloke/bloke-ess standing at the front is only the lead worshiper out of a band of worship leaders and a congregation of worshippers. each of us who play should be taking this more seriously as a call. do we follow the call to sing a ‘new song to the Lord?’ or do we love that we get to play our instruments in front of people and its mainly easier than secular music so it makes us look good? and again, do we think of ourselves as ‘that guitarist asked to fill the gap in that band?’, ‘that one who can pull it together’, or ’the missing link for this sunday’? are we session musicians? if we are then im greatly saddened by that. time and again iv seen people who are so passionate on a sunday when they get to play the style they want, but ask them on a tuesday to do the same and its gone. folks, don’t be session musicians. Dont duck out of playing if you can, dont see it as a hassle. play every day. write music, write songs. dont limit it to songs. worship is not limited to praise.
your passion is your call- if your passion is only here and there then maybe it isnt your call.
worship is the 21st Century feels as if is starting to whither and dry out. those who are leaders need to address this. dont fob it off to someone else as their responsibility. its not.
start living your passion as if you believed God called you to play for him. start infusing songs with honesty and an earnest desire to seek His face rather than the latest and ‘greatest’ songs. yes that will please the younger ones, but it does a great disservice to the pillars of the faith who make up the back rows of your church.
i know there are many many more aspects to worship. again, see allys blog post at http://supersimbo.com but these are the few that are weighing on my mind at the moment.
we can get so stuck in the ruts when it comes to worship. lets start singing a new song, from a shared sheet. God and God alone.
