Podcas't test?

name, date

What is worship?

"Worship is the means by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to God." - John Pritchard

"It's our response to even just the smallest glimpse of Jesus.. and as we respond in awe, in praise and action, He reveals a little more of Himself.. And we are once again ruined for anything else." - Ben Fielding (Hillsong)

"Saying Thankyou to our maker." - Martin Smith (Delirious)

"Worship consists of the words, the walk, the works and the wallet" - John Wimber

"A gifted, choice." - Eoghan Heaslip

"The starting place for worship is that we belong to the Lord. We're bought with a price. It's our joy and privilege to honor him in all things. Our God-honoring life is expressed in the way we use our time, energy and money. It's expressed in the way we treat people, both at home and in the workplace. It's expressed in how we plan for the future, how we prioritize our activities. To worship is to have an ongoing conversation with the Lord all day, everyday. Much of the time that unspoken 'conversation' will be playing in the back of our mind while we go about our business. To worship is to have a "Godward life". To worship is to be attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and quick to respond to his nudging - the ideas he plants in our mind." - Andy Park

"...to put it simply, to me worship is our hearts response to our amazing God." - Lex Buckley

"Our natural response when we realise the majesty, awesome power, grace & love of Jesus our God." - Pete Wilson (Hillsong)

"Becoming a living embodiment of our love for God, in the way we relate to him, the way we sing, we think, we speak and live." - Vicky Beeching

"Worship belongs to God - it begins and ends with Him." - Nick Herbert

"The response of the heart in revelation to the TRUTH of Jesus Christ." - Darlene Zschech (Hillsong)

"Our all-consuming response to the all-deserving revelation of God." - Matt Redman

"We worship what we value most in life...what consumes our thoughts, our imaginations, our time, our hearts... that's worship. it's all of us, every part... it's done together as a congregation and individually as well. " - Chris Tomlin (Passion)


(Source - WorshipCentral.org, '10 Questions' Blogs)

His WORD. Our words.

Speaking to a friend of mine this week about songwriting, they made a comment that got me thinking.

"Using Scripture for lyrics works when you're singing them as Scripture. They start to sound corny when you just use them as a convenient 'safe' lyric." - That really resounded with me, and stuck with me over the last couple of days.

What are we aiming for when we're writing songs? To say something new? To express a truth? To expound a Bible passage? Songs can be different. Some are personal, some are congregational. Some are anthems and some, you might say, are 'album' tracks... 'B-sides'.

Personally I've always had a hunger for the congregation worship songs which bring God's church together with one voice. The struggle when writing these kind of songs can be that we want to say something new and creative rather than always sticking with Scripture. What we can end up with, however, is a dodgy lyric which just ends up sounding obscure - we think the congregation 'won't get it', or that it might stick out like a sore thumb and spoil an otherwise 'normal' song. On the flip side we try so hard to make our songs easily accessible that we end up with typical, predictable, Scriptural lyrics which (although true) don't necessarily bring us a deeper revelation of God.

Really what we need to do is be honest when we write - striking that balance between expressing our worship in a fresh creative way, and declaring God's own words, the Bible.

I don't how accurate my friends comment was in itself, but I sort of agree with the sentiment -

We're not just singing Scripture because it saves us writing lyrics, or it makes our songs sound like 'proper' worship songs. We singing it because it is true, and it is powerful. When we use Scripture in songs it has to be for those reasons. We need to write from our own revelation of those precious words.

God, let our words and Your WORD change peoples' lives as we sing and glorify Your Name.

Rest & Reward

Ok, so I've not blogged for nearly 2 months. But what a 2 months it's been.

Since the New Year we've got back to normality after almost 5 weeks of 'church-LITE' as things dialled down for an easy going Christmas at church (something many of us were puzzled by, and are determined to not repeat this December!).

We've finally moved to 2 separate worship bands. It's been a long time coming and we finally took the plunge now that we're fortunate enough to have musicians to serve both bands. This has been a really exciting and important change.

We've all either been there ourselves, or seen others experience the dreaded 'Burn Out'. Overworking and under-appreciating people in ministry can be a dangerous combination. A few years ago our church went through a period of 4 services a day and only 1 main worship leader - and even the most dedicated leaders found it a massive struggle which inevitably ended in burn out and the need for a well deserved sabbatical. Since then we've steadily built the worship team to where we are today, and have learnt a lot along the way (some of it the hard way). But now we are fortunate to have 4 main worship leaders, several on the fridges or in training, and a pool of deadicated musicians eager to grow in their craft. Moving to 2 teams has meant that nearly everyone has every other week off.

Every church is different and sometime it's hard if the leaders and musicians in your church are few. Even so, it's good to make sure we look after those we are working with, and ourselves. Schedule time off, weeks when you can join the congregation to worship, and even take time out for yourself and your family, and in those times seek God's face and rest in His presence. Be renewed and refuelled. That way you can keep the fire burning bright, without burning out.

"I love playing this song!"

This evening we started preparing the carols for this year's Christmas services. This is always a time people enjoy, and the worship team is no exception... although I always seem to find myself playing the role of 'Scrooge' - no, not in a theatrical sense, rather in a 'Bah-humbug-voice-of-reason-and-festive-pessimism' sense.

Those who know me well can testify that I've never been a big fan of playing traditional hymns myself. Saying that, I do love hymns. I love the words. I love the theology, and I adore lots of contemporary versions of classic hymns. (Chris Tomlin's 'Amazing Grace'. Soul Survivor's 'How Marvelous', etc)

My problem, however, is this:

We never seem to break though the 'gimmick' factor when we do Christmas carols.

This isn't through lack of trying. God knows, we try! I think the problem is a little thing I've started calling the 'internal backing track'.

The Internal Backing Track is the disease of the over-enthusiastic musician and occurs when he/she attempts to play a very familiar song. We can play all sorts of stuff, week in, week out, and have a lot of fun playing it. But there can come a point where what we think we're playing and what we are actually playing drift apart. You can be having a great time playing something but in reality it only sounds good because you can hear that amazing album version still ringing in your mind... no-one else can hear it!

This problem can occur on any song, but I find Christmas carols to be worst. It's such a novelty doing carols that we can have really fun time trying to play them. So much so that our internal backing track quickly drowns out the cheesy, gimmicky, dreadful sounding din we're actually making.

Tonight someone in the worship team said "everyone will be singing loudly anyway, so the music doesn't have to be that good". WOW! REALLY?? ... I was speechless. That attitude is wrong on so many levels. We should be pursuing excellence with our worship. Yes, it should be fun as well, but it must sound good!

"Let's do Hark the Herold. We always do Hark the Herold."

"Let's do the middle verse with a big organ sound to make it seem festive."

"Let's do a jazz-funk Away in a Manage. That'll be fun!"

"Can we get a snow machine and all the band can wear Santa hats?"

C'mon people! We're here to celebrate the Saviour of the world becoming flesh. Bring back the awe that we pursue for the other 51 weeks of the year. Please let's stop doing our cheesy festive routines that make us feel warm and fuzzy and full of mince pies. Surely there's a better way.

Take time to decide what you're going to play, and what you want it to sound like. What are you aiming for? What do you want people to experience? How can you achieve it? Be deliberate about the choices you make, and assess your work to see if you have hit your targets.

'Sometimes the songs we have the most fun playing don't necessarily make the best worship songs.' - Tim Hughes.

Our God is not a God of chaos. His Spirit in us is creative, but not by accident. Work at it. Refine your craft and your musicianship. And above all.... listen.

Guitar Hero

Psalm 33:2-3

Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs!

(The Message translation)

'Restore factory settings'... D'oh!

A couple of weeks ago I thought I'd spend a bit of time refining the electric guitar sounds we use in our worship band. Although I rarely play lead guitar on a Sunday the Line 6 board (POD XT Live) our guitarist use is one that I bought five years back. I'd spent a while setting it up a long time ago, but thought it could use a few tweaks. So anyway, I took it home and rigged it all up when, part way through backing up the tones, it wiped itself! Ahhhh! 5 years of setup GONE! We were 'back to factory settings' (head in hands)!

There was nothing I could do. So, after a had a little sulk, I spent the following four hours meticulously and painstakingly creating a fresh set of 12 patches for us to use that Sunday. What a headache!

Over the following couple of weeks we've never had so many comments complimenting the electric guitar! Seriously, God works all things together for good.

What I would say is that it really pays to spend time honing the sounds that we use during worship and listen carefully to the music that we make. It's a vehicle of a lot of our corporate worship, and a precious thing. Worship isn't just the joyful shout, it's the hours spent getting there. Careful preparation and time spent crafting our music is so important. Four hours perfecting delay settings, tremolos and reverb is worship too. God deserves our best in all things.