What is worship? Why do we worship? How do we worship? What is our role a worship leader/musician?

1. the glory of God
is a human being
fully alive
Irenaeus of Lyon

2. Worship in CC, South & Centre
Programme of Jan 24th 2010:
• What is worship, why do we worship?
• What is your role as a leader/musician?
• What do you long for, what is your aim?
• The worship dish
• Sharing experiences & best practices
• South and Centre group: practicalities

3. For you to consider...
1.What is worship?
2.Why do you worship?
3.How do you worship?
4.What is your role as leader or musician?

4. Notes from the meeting: sharing what we considered
1. What is worship?
- Doing things God likes
- Honor and glorifying God
- Communicating with God
- Adore someone who is greater than me, actually, is the Greatest
- Putting God first
- Praise Him for His great deeds
2. Why do you worship?
- Do what I was made for
- To strengthen our relationship with Him
- Get away from every-day life, lifts me up
- We love God, He is worth it!
- It is a command to worship Him and He takes pleasure in it; it is fun, God and I both like it
3. How do you worship?
- In being silent, thanksgiving, praying, singing, playing (making music), in doing things you’re good at
- In our whole life and lifestyle, in giving our best
- Baking cakes: in every-day life, in ALL we do
- By obeying His commandments
- Actually everything that we do should be worship
4. What is your role as a worship leader/musician?
- Being an example for the congregation: in attitude of serving, offering, commitment etc.
- Facilitating and supporting role: help congregation to sing/worship
- Not stand in de way, focus on God, pointing to God
- Bring the message across

5. Bible txt (1)
Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous
for praise is comely for the upright.
Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with
the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a
loud noise. For the word of the LORD is right;
and all his works are done in truth.
Psalm 33:1-4

6. Bible txt (2)
Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
Sing forth the honour of his name:
make his praise glorious.
Psalm 66:1-2
Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any
merry? Let him sing psalms.
James 5:13

7. Bible txt (3)
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ;
Submitting yourselves one to another in the
fear of God. Ephesians 5:19-21

8. Worship is about two things
1. Focusing on God and giving God the honour,
glory and thanks God deserves.
2. Encouraging, building each other up.

9. What is worship?
Some parts of dvd about worship
by church and worship leaders

10. Notes from the meeting: conclusions from the dvd
The dvd Worship shows songwriters and famous worship leaders who explain how they see worship and how
they write, play and lead. It exists of tow main parts:
1. Introduction about what worship is and why and how we worship
2. Impact of worship in these areas: Corporate, Personal, Prayer, Holiness, Proclamation, Compassion,
Family, Church, Future, Character, Truth, Wholeness.
The chapters (1-3) we watched conclude:
- Worship is NOT a show.
- Worship is our response to God's love, because He loved us first.
- Worship is about honoring God's character: His faithfulness, truth, holiness and pureness.
- Worship is committing and giving ourselves to this God.
As Romans 12:1-2 describes this (translation from The Message):
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, your ordinary life - your sleeping,
eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God
does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit
into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”
> You can borrow the dvd from Matthijs.

11. Values of worship in CC (1)
Worship should:
1. Focus on God and honour God.
2. Engage people and build them up
3. Reflect the diversity of people in church –
style and cultures
4. Help us experience God’s presence.

12. Values of worship in CC (2)
Worship should:
5. Be simple – not too complicated
6. Enable the people leading the sung worship
to worship.
7. Work well with the overall structure and
theme of the service.
8. Be led by and open to the work of the Spirit.

13. Our roles
How do we...
• live?
• prepare?
• lead and play?
What is our aim, what do you long for?

14. A healthy worship dish?
Familiar songs New songs
Hymns Contemporary
David & Korah & ... Tomlin & Hughes & ...
Me, Myself & I Our, Us & We
Emotional Rational
Horizontal Vertical

15. The worship dish (1)

16. The worship dish (2)
Themes of song:
• Life/faith experience
• Adoration of God
• Thanksgiving
• Praising God's works
• Confession of sin, love or affection
• Supplications???
• Action

17. The worship dish (3)
Song analysis:
• Communication line:
• Liturgical function: Easter/H. Supper
• Style: gregorian/contemporary
• Action: invitation/thanks/witnessing

18. Notes from the meeting: worship analysis
Simple example of a song analysis.
Song: Light of the world You stepped down into darkness
- Communication line: me to God
- Liturgical function: intro for worship (“Here I am to worship”)
- Music style: contemporary
- Action: adore Jesus, offer yourself
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Some churches do song analysis regularly for all new songs. This
delivers a database with all the songs they use in worship to assemble
a right variety and balance of songs.
During the meeting we discussed other dimensions and characteristiscs
of songs we could add, like:
- familiarity: how well known is it?
- emotionality: personal/corporate experience/expression
- ‘biblical connection’: is the text taken from a psalm or other Bible text, or is it inspired by other sources?

19. Experiences & best practices
How do you experience playing/leading?
Share
• Challenges
• Annoyances
• Best practices
Can we introduce a framework for feedback?

20. Notes from the meeting: feedback and coaching
Feedback:
Most of the partakers liked the meeting and think that we should meet again.
Another meeting could be about these themes:
- Song analysis
- Forms of feedback
- Exchanging best practices
- Place of children songs in the service
- Bible study on worship
- Use of psalms (in a contemporary way)

21. Separate group discussion
• How to introduce new songs?
• How do we know what songs are known?
• How does the sound system work?
• Do we need extra sound equipment?
• Do we need extra music equipment?

22. For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God,
duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of
God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body
seven times round with elegant
quickness.
Robert Pinsky