Extravagant Worship
Isn't it interesting how we so often focus on extravagent worship? On giving our best? On having a spirit of excellence. What a wonderful intent! What a passion and a heart for God! To see our church turned from stagancy to dynamic worship! What a vision, what a dream. So when its time for us to lead worship, we choose songs that we think would really get the church moving and jumping. Just like the ones Hillsongs, Vineyard and City Harvest Church leads...

But there's one problem... We don't have the expertise of the bands that they have. We plan everything nicely but we forget the limitations of our musicians. And this is quite common for churches that work on a volunteer basis. So our music cannot be pulled off the way we want it to and no matter what we do, we cannot get it to sound the way it does on the CD. And so we get discouraged... We start to wonder what went wrong in our preparation. Didn't we pray hard enough? Were there some unconfessed sins? Maybe we weren't living right or missed something that God was trying to tell us. Honestly, it could be any of these things... But one important thing we could take note of is that the music just sounds like crap. People simply cannot worship if they are cringing to an out of tune singer, or instrumentalists playing the wrong notes, or a drummer going out of beat. Its simply distracting.

There are ways to minimise things like these from happening. Knowing what you want to achieve during a practice and communicating it to the band can be really effective. My personal favourite is choosing familiar songs. Although songs can be simple, it really frees up a musician to worship. Personally, I find that its better for the congregation and the musicians to worship without struggling with new chords, melodies or rhythms. Its gets people's focus off the song and onto what really matters. God Himself.

Of course, I'm not saying that we restrict ourselves to the same songs week in, week out. There are times where we can and should inject freshness into a worship set list. But there are limitations to consider. Can the band master the song in one sitting? Can the sound on the CD be recreated by the church band and if it can't will it still minister to the people? Can the congregation get into the song quickly?

There are people who focus too much on the technical aspects of worship. But focusing only on the spiritual aspect of a worship set can turn it into an aural disaster. God's grace and love may cover mistakes but shouldn't it be our jobs to provide a atmosphere of worship? Excellence isn't striving for things we cannot or have not achieved but to give the best of what we have and what we know.

Worship and the Gospel isn't driven by trends and fads. It is driven by the people who love God. Music and methods may change and evolve over the years but at the centre of it all lies a pure simple truth. Its always about who we worship. Everything is done to enhance our worship but never at the expense of our relationship with one another. There is power in worship. But the power overflows from the lives of the composers, lyricists and musicians. The music & worship is only as anointed as the lives of those playing, singing and leading. The worship session will be empty & dead if our relationship with God is empty & dead.

We have strive to improve, of that there is no doubt. But its has to be done during practice. Not during the worship itself. If the song cannot be done comfortably during the single practice that most church bands have, it shouldn't be done at all... The aim isn't to play all the songs that the worship leader prepares. The goal is to usher people into the presence of God. And if that means cutting songs, or people for that matter, it has to be done. Excellence doesn't mean impressing people with skill but giving our all in worship. When we worship while we play, we draw people in to worship WITH us.
| written by daryl - 7 May 2006 |