The Lost Chord

As I am sure avid readers of fp's blog will know this Sunday evening is the monthly joint service between the Methodist church we attend and the local Anglican church. The Anglican church has recently had a new vicar take her place at the helm and in the services we shared together over the Easter period it seemed that the great relationship we have will continue to grow and get stronger.

One of the "quirks" of the last vicar was that although the monthly joint services are "run" and organised by the Methodists one month and the Anglicans the next, the little music group from the Methodist church (Piano:FP, Bass: Son of FP, guitar:Methodist church treasurer) would always play for the services and in fact would always choose the hymns, even if we had no idea what the topic of the service would be if the Anglicans were organising the service.

Whether it be due to the standing tradition being passed onto the new vicar, or maybe the hope that if we pick the hymns they might actually be ones we can play reasonably well, it seems that the new vicar wishes this to continue and we have been asked to pick the hymns for this coming Sunday evening even though it is an "Anglican" service.

Whilst we obviously have no problem at all with picking the hymns it did get me thinking, as I have a lot quite recently, about how so often we can miss out on just how effective a tool music can be in our acts of worship.

As fp mentioned in one of his posts, at the last evening service we had at the methodist church I led the prayers and we centered our thoughts around the Michael Card song El Shaddai, and particularly the lines "to the outcast on her knees, he is the good who really sees, and by his might he sets his children free." There was a real atmosphere that was created by just listening to the song and having the space to center our thoughts on those we felt really needed our prayers and needed to be "set free" from something, whether it be illness, loneliness, or even oppression and potential war as in the case of Zimbabwe. The atmosphere led to one of the members of the congregation speaking in tongues and there being an interpretation of the message given, something I have never experienced before in a Methodist church.

In the morning service that week the preacher who came to our church taught the congregation 2 new, more modern worship songs, although one of them was based around Amazing Grace with a chorus added that I had never heard before. The preacher had a run through of both of these songs before the service as fp was playing the organ and the preacher was leading from the front and playing guitar. After hearing them I asked the preacher if he would like me to add a bit of bass to the proceedings as I has my bass and amp in the car and he great fully accepted. I can honestly say that playing in that service was a truly spiritual experience for me and I am glad that I can use my God given talent to give glory back to God. It also made me chuckle that an acoustic guitar, an electric bass, and a church organ could create such an effective trio in leading those songs, the organ adding a real gospel feel to Amazing Grace that I found almost sublime. Who says that the old and the new are incompatible!!

So, why the lost chord? Well, I have to say that I so often find that preachers and worship leaders can brush over hymns and see them as almost a lesser part in their organising of a service. When the group that organises the acts of evening worship at our church get together to plan the service we very often spend longer picking hymns than any other part of the service.

Hymns and worship songs can be such an inspirational way to give our glory to God. The words and sentiments expressed in many hymns and songs are stunningly beautiful and potent and the emotion that can be created from a church really reaching up to sing out its glory to God can be something totally inspiring to be a part of. And yet, moments of softness and a real intimacy with God can easily be created with just the right music as well. The recent evening service still brings a feeling of God being close with me when I think back to that time of prayer. Sitting with 7 thousand other young people (and probaly quite a few not so young) in the church at Taize and repeating a simple chant as we sat with candles at the foot of a large wooden cross in the center of the church remains one of the life changing moments in my spiritual journey.

I know I may be biased as being a trombone and bass player means that music has always been a large part of my life but I feel I must say that maybe some preachers and worship leaders should be paying more attention to an act that often takes up nearly a third of services and can be just as effective a tool in worshiping God as a well written sermon or stunningly potent and meaningful prayers.

So, a plea, lets take our worship up a key by giving music the space it so often deserves and nearly as often does not receive.

Day five - last ten!

Well here we are the last ten points from the list - we have put them on the church notice board along with a blank page in case any of our members want to add anything they may have forgotten or if any who were not present want to add any points.

Good hymns, particularly a good uplifting closing hymn
A mixture of old and new hymns
Hymns and worship songs that we know (and like)
Good hymns and choruses
Rousing hymns
Cafe style worship occasionally ( this was from a table of our more senior members)
Respice Prospice (motto of Blue Coat School which I am told means 'Look backward, look forward'
Giving oneself in worship as well as receiving
A time of reverence as well as fun and fellowship
Tolerance of and sharing in other peoples ideas of worship.

Here we are then at the end and no sign of 3 points and 5 hymns - I just hope my readers aren't too disappointed by this.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and found it interesting, the service was very interesting and everyone present joined in with the conversations so that was good too.

Three of five!

Remind me of an episode of Star Trek where all the 'baddies' were a number of another number such as three of one or two of six. In case you are now confused here are the next set of point from our service on Sunday - just realised some of you may think I am making some sort of cryptic comment about sermons and hymns in the title of this post. Might tonight be the night for three point sermons and five hymn sandwiches? Here goes.....
Offering and tithing
Christ centred
Helping and praying for each other
People leading worship clear and concise
A good relationship between the congregation and the preacher
Active participation
getting involved
Sharing testimonies
Sharing your ideas with others
Preaching

Watch for more tomorrow - still no 3 point sermon or hymn sandwich but I can say there will be mention of sermons and hymns in tomorrows ten points.
I was pleased to see preaching has made it on to the list particularly as there was no preaching element on Sunday - you never know the congregation might have said they liked not having any preaching now that really would have been an interesting result.

What is worship 2!!

I have been asked following last nights post if a 3 point sermon or a 5 hymn sandwich is on the list of points and you know what? I am not going to tell you - you will have to read this post and the next three to see what else is on there.
Here are the next 10 points and it might be worth saying that these are not listed in any particular order and there may be some things that appear more than once or are broadly similar but that is the nature of the type of exercise we did on Sunday.
On more thing to note is that in 9 years of attending this church I think we have only sung the Lord's Prayer about 6 times - hopefully this will put one of the comments into perspective.

Leaving church feeling happy
Worshipping the Lord with all your heart and soul
A challenge
looking both inward and outward
Child friendly
Open mindedness
Doing the best at whatever it is you are doing
Keeping relevant
Fellowship
Companionship and laughter
Singing the Lord's Prayer occasionally

No mention yet of hymn sandwich or 3 point sermon but who knows what may be on here tomorrow?

Worship is!!

Following on from my previous post and the feedback at Church Council last night here are the first ten points from the 50 that were written by members of the congregation on the theme of what makes a good act of worship - others will follow during the next few days.
Hearing the scriptures
A time for prayer and reflection
Praying for people
Prayer
Being still and knowing that You are God
Making time for God
Being brave not being afraid to embrace change
Something for everyone
Fun
Leaving church feeling happy

The worship leaders did not actually contribute to the discussions so these are all from the congregation.

What makes good worship?

Just a quick note following on from my previous post. The worship group at my own church led worship this morning cafe style with tea and biscuits in the middle of the service, and asked the congregation what makes a good act of worship. The congregation were encouraged to discuss in their tables groups and write their thoughts on post it notes to put up later in the service. It was very encouraging that there was a 'buzz' of talk around the church as people obviously got into the discussion and there were lots on notes being made. There was quite a lot of feedback and I think there will definitely be some food for thought among the comments made. One of the worship leaders is going to collate the comments for us to discuss at our Church Council meeting this week and who knows we may even feed the information back via the Preachers Meeting to those who lead our worship (This may be helped by the fact that I am LP Secretary).
I hope to post more details during the week of what the feedback was but for any who may be interested this was the format of the service this morning:-
Introduction/Call to worship
Hymn Be still and know.
Prayers of adoration
Psalm 111
4 songs - For I'm building a people of power, My Jesus my Saviour, I've got the joy,joy, joy; Jesus is the name we honour.
Reading - Hebrews 10 v 1 -25
Hymn Come now is the time to worship.
Discussion/Refreshments
Hymn O for a thousand tongues to sing
Feed back - people came and put post its on flip charts
Prayer of confession
Hymn God forgave my sin
Round up of comments from post it notes
Prayers on intercession followed by Lords Prayer (sung - we normally say it)
Hymn You shall go out with joy
Grace shared by all.

34 people were present with ages ranging from 3 years to over 80 and the majority being over 50 years old.

Hello Again!

Been emailed today by one of my readers asking where the blogs are so thought I better write one in case any one else was missing it.
I have had a couple of busy weeks what with going to Borth on the Beach Mission where we had a great time, met some wonderful children and what a night we had on the Friday when a lot of folk came down from Walsall to join us in a praise concert led by Acts 2:15.
I then seemed to be busy planning two services for last Sunday including the Circuit Service on Sunday Evening. I was really pleased with the way the circuit service went and for those who know me I actually managed to keep it to the hour even though there were 8 hymns three video presentation and a talk based on two of the presentations. My son John-Mark did a talk around two clips from the film 'The Matrix' which was very well received by those present. The band which was made up from members from various churches in the circuit led the worship exceptionally well and I believe the worship was certainly God honouring. Many of those present stayed for tea, coffee and biscuits after as well as a time of fellowshoip so this was good as well. From a purely personal point it was good to see a fair number of folk from the church I had been at in the morning at the evening service as well.
Well got to go as I have to do some work on a hymn for the service I am involved in tomorrow evening at St John's church in Pleck along with the worship leaders from my home church.
Have a good Lord's day - may post again tomorrow evening!