Okay, following on from the post I put up a couple of days ago. Our prayer cell met up last night and we spent a little time on the subject of worship, and some more thoughts are brewing which lead on nicely from the last ones.
A while ago I had a chat with someone who questioned me as to the amount church has moved forwards over the last number of years. Now, this is an interesting question. In my time at Orangefield things immediately seem to have moved on in a huge way. I have been there for twenty-four years, taken part in the leading of worship for eleven years and been leading worship for about six years. Jump back with me to the turn of the millenium...
There is a set team of musicians who lead every service, along with a praise group (choir) of around twenty-five singers. The songs we sing are from the Presbyterian hymn book with some additions from the Mission Praise collection. These books are found in the pew in front of you and most of them are simply led by piano/organ and voices.
Now we move forward through time and things begin to change. We jump from one set group to four different worship teams, people happily sign up to take part in the leading of the congregational worship. Each team is bursting with eleven or twelve participants. We move into our new building where instead of hymn books or acetate sheets we have powerpoint and cameras on screens the whole way through the service. We have a hugely updated repertoire of music, with filing cabinets full of modern worship songs including the latest tunes from the CCM charts. Our worship on a Sunday is louder, more energetic and freer than ever before.
Things have come a long way, right?
Well, I'm beginning to wonder if our attitude of worship has come the same distance that our exterior aesthetic has. All of these changes, while important and exciting, are much more to do with the way our worship looks and sounds than to do with the heart behind it. And it begs the question, if that is all that changes then is it worth anything? Don't get me wrong, I think steps are being taken. We are starting to include times of corporate prayer and lead in a more personally focused way; things which would not have been present in the past and which encourage a greater focus upon God during our time gathered together. But this small step forward is miles from where we could be.
When you lead from the front of the church you spend a great deal of time looking out at people during the worship. Sadly, like every church, there are people you see whose minds are totally elsewhere. They don't sing, they don't get involved, they stand up and sit down when they are told and stare blankly ahead the entire time. That is a separate issue down to the individual needing to make the effort to come to church prepared. However, you also see people who are genuine worshipers. You can easily tell when someone is singing the songs not just as words but from their heart. They understand what they are proclaiming, and they are honest as they proclaim it. This is wonderful, but it is scratching the surface of what worship should be. By this I mean that it is all one-way. They pour out their praise to God and make a joyous noise, but absolutely no time is given to allowing God to respond and meet with His people. As soon as the last chorus is sung we are to sit down and something else in our programme immediately starts up. Instead of a time where we meet with God, we write Him a letter and don't bother with the reply.
This strikes me as the major change we need to make but have not yet pushed for.
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