One thing that I am pretty passionate about is that, as a church, we are on the cutting edge of modern day worship music. Lately, I have fallen in love with some older hymns and I don't mind playing older style music, as long as it has flavor that is conducive to the people at our church. I envision Netcast Music to be Christ saturated and focused on the Gospel. With me as the senior pastor, we will be mostly reaching people between the ages of 17-37 years old. The rule of thumb is about 10 years older and younger than the lead guy. Unless God does something very unusual, statistics show that will be the case. Because of that, we will want our music to be engaging to that demographic. Some may disagree and that is OK.
Honestly, in my sin, I am pretty critical of worship sets. I hate bad transitions, a worship leader who feels the need to crack jokes or preach, and the worse is when a leader is more interested in doing a concert than he is of leading God's people. The worship leader is a key player during the corporate gathering. He's responsible for leading the group into an engaging experience with the Lord. That takes preparation and a gifted team. I honestly long for the day at Netcast, where unbelievers come into a worship set and God saves them without a preacher ever saying anything. Where people are healed and set free during a worship set. I long for the day where the presence of God in worship is so thick and real that even the unbelievers wont want to stop. Things like this are happening overseas everyday; why not now?
This is just my opinion and what God has placed on my heart pertaining to corporate worship. I am not saying that it is right, I am only saying that this is my heart. I thank Christ for the churches who are different than what I described above and in no way am I trying to put my preference above anyone else's. You're open to disagree.
Honestly, in my sin, I am pretty critical of worship sets. I hate bad transitions, a worship leader who feels the need to crack jokes or preach, and the worse is when a leader is more interested in doing a concert than he is of leading God's people. The worship leader is a key player during the corporate gathering. He's responsible for leading the group into an engaging experience with the Lord. That takes preparation and a gifted team. I honestly long for the day at Netcast, where unbelievers come into a worship set and God saves them without a preacher ever saying anything. Where people are healed and set free during a worship set. I long for the day where the presence of God in worship is so thick and real that even the unbelievers wont want to stop. Things like this are happening overseas everyday; why not now?
This is just my opinion and what God has placed on my heart pertaining to corporate worship. I am not saying that it is right, I am only saying that this is my heart. I thank Christ for the churches who are different than what I described above and in no way am I trying to put my preference above anyone else's. You're open to disagree.
5 comments:
I to like white hot passionate Jesus centered singing. But, When you say extravagant worship, are you talking about the music and music set, or something more?
In the post, I am talking specific about the time we have in corporate worship through song. However, we know that that is a very small portion of what Jesus calls us to and deserves from us. Worship is a minute by minute stirring of the heart towards Christ and glorifying Him in all things. But in my post I am talking specific about the 20-30 minutes that we are led in worship of our creator through song and music.
Did that clarify? Great question.
Matt,
I loved your comment about poor transitions...My (least) favorite line is, "In this next song..." hahah!
Food for thought...I totally get the 17-37 age range. You need to aim at something. On the other hand, I think the local church is at its best as a "well-balanced diet". Most 20 somethings I know are longing for fathers and mothers in the faith, not just brothers and sisters. The generations feed off of each other.
In a world that is so sharply divided and niche-marketed, I wonder if having a mixed bag of demographics, all worshipping in one place, could be a counter-cultural demonstration of the gospel in action. We do, afterall, have a ministry of reconciliation.
Sturge,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I think the best demonstration of the gospel is a diverse group of gathered worshippers. Authentic, biblical, gospel centered Christianity is best demonstrated when people who would normally never gather together, gather as one body to worship the one true God. Stats say that I will reach 17-37 yr olds as the lead pastor, however, our God isn’t a statistician; He is Lord of the universe. Pray with me that he creates the kind of community that we're talking about on here. With the type of diversity we see in Beverly and the North Shore, I am praying that Netcast has equal diversity. Pray that however God orchestrates the Netcast corporate worship that it is able to accomplish the reaching of a diverse group of people. Young adults are great when it comes to creating movements, but I would rather grow deep than just wide. I think that’s the heart of God.
Bro, how cool would it be to have 60 year olds and 20 year olds worshipping together and making disciples of one another. I pray that one day God will give us the grace to see that.
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