NCMI SA Equip (Part four)

3 things that may have escaped your attention during worship at this years SA Equip:

1. Jono Warmington forgetting to switch on his amp
-picture this...opening night, Cornerstone Church bursting at the seams, the masses pushing right up to the stage counting down (almost to the state of delirium) with the countdown on the main screen, the kickdrum and bass come in right on queue, crying babies go unnoticed, every eye is excitedly rooted to the stage AND...worship leader Jono Warmington realises that his Vox AC 30 amp which is being mic-ed in the backroom had been forgotten to be switched on!

2. Stage dives on Night two
-On Friday morning, Grant Crawford and a panel of interviewees attempted to ask the question, "what does success look like?". Probably a more pertainent question after Thursday night's wild worship would have been, "what does a successful stage dive look like?". And I would have been the first to put my hand up in shouting out the answer, "anything except Werner Derckson's!"
After the usual fare of Bruce McAlpine and 5 excited teenagers (averaging 50kgs each) leaping off the stage into the outstretched arms of the seething crowd, a moment of pure joy was when Werner (not the lightest guy) prepped himself like an olympic athlete for his assault on gravity. The corporate groans of apprehension from the rest of the worshippers was only matched by the fear in the eyes of those who were going to have to perform a modern day miracle in catching the jump. That not one of them backed away shows that Tyrone Daniel's message of being Partners and not just Friends had truly hit home!

3. The red-hot worship of the Son of God
-for three days, over 5000 hands were lifted and +-2500 voices were raised, as together we exalted Christ Jesus. From all cities and towns from around Southern Africa, from churches big and small, black, white, rich and poor, young and old, the worship of our King became our common language and theme. This is the heartbeat of our lives and our mandate. Worship, that is not contained to a moment, to the church walls or to a certain key or style, but discipling nations to bow their hearts and bend their knees to the One and Only.
"Mission's exist because worship does not" (Matt Redman)
We've always known this, but something of this was recaptured in our hearts this past week.


Flight tickets to Joburg from Cape Town and back: R1800
Food for the week: R450
Buying that pretty girl a coffee: R10
Moments like these: priceless

Worship Leading: Song Selection (Part 3)

Third part of three blogs on the basic lenses we look through when choosing worship songs for our corporate worship times.

1. Theological

2. Congregational

3. Seasonal

-Songs that carry the life of God. It may have the funkiest bass line, or the most incredible groove, but if it is not carrying the spark of the life of God then jettison it fast. Be wary of the trap that says, “it worked in the past so it must work again and again”.

-Songs that serve the church’s season. Again we must make it a priority to work in team with our local church leaders in this regard. Learn to carry a heart for the church. David in the Psalms was a man very in tune with the seasons of God and the seasons of his own soul and those of the people he lead. We are not “ra-ra” cheerleaders. Our worship times are not therapeutic pick me up times. We lead from where the people are at, and LEAD them to where God wants them to be. Again I must mention that we don’t pander to man centredness or emotions, but we do not deny them. That is Gnostic!

Worship Leading: Song Selection (Part 2)

  1. Theological

        2. Congregational

-Songs that are not just personal favourites of ours. It is vital that we remind ourselves that leading worship means LEADING! Worship leaders have a tendency (another generalisation) to have a rebellious slant that surfaces from time to time as it becomes “their ministry” and they try to push through their agenda’s. This is unhelpful and prideful. Be involved in the community of the church, be submitted to the leadership. Have conversations with them often around the culture of worship in your local church. Ask for feedback.

-Songs that are easy to sing. On a very practical note, consider the keys you are singing in. Too low and the song hardly ever gets off the ground, too high and you alienate half the congregation. Again, remember the leading is about the people who are following you!

Don’t introduce too many new songs too quickly. Most people in our congregations only sing the songs we’re singing once a week, whilst we as worship leaders play them at practice, at home, in our cars all on top of our Sunday meetings. So we definitely will get bored of them quicker. But again we must remind ourselves that this is not about us! Our aim at a base level is to get the people singing, not primarily to get their feet tapping.

3. Seasonal

 

Worship Leading: Song selection

Here are 3 criteria/lenses that I find helpful when choosing songs for our corporate worship times.

1.       Theological

2 aspects:

-Songs that are God oriented, not “me” focused. The great error in the modern church (I’m generalising here) is getting stuck in an adolescent type phase where everything is all about me. Our Christianity becomes a roller coaster experience based on feelings, circumstances and emotions when we denigrate our worship of God to what Christian Smith (author of “Soul Searching”) calls “Christian Moralistic therapeutic deism.” Worship leaders, we are not attempting to become the soundtrack to our congregations lives! Count the number of times personal pronouns of “me”, “I” and the like crop up in the songs we are singing. Make sure we are not just adding to our prevailing culture of idolatry by presenting them with an Oprah-esque type God who can fit in their pocket.

- Songs that are New Covenant in nature. We need to keep forefront in our minds that worship did not tear the heavens open, the blood of Christ did! Worship does not take us into His presence. The blood does! It is again idolatry of the grandest nature when we elevate our worship to a status that is not biblical. So sing about what Jesus has done! Revel in His goodness. Songs that remind people that we have direct access to The Father. Christ is our mediator, not our corporate worship times!

2.       Congregational

3.       Seasonal

The other two will be outworked in the next couple of blogs.