Spring Harvest 2015
One of the Christian communities that I am pleased to call ‘home’ recently invited me to lead some worship, including songs, once a month. I already play in the worship band at a once-a-month special evening meeting, so I guess this is an extension of that.
I am old…by the standards of most contemporary worship bands and leaders…but I enjoy worshipping with Chris Tomlin, Beth Croft and Matt Redman along with the best of them (if my fingers are perhaps a little stiffer and slower than they once were). So I decided it was probably about time I had a look at what’s on offer in the way of new worship music songs…what’s out there in the contemporary praise and worship music scene.
That’s when it hit me…
It seems that everything contemporary is being written and arranged with the large Christian gathering and a large, talented (professional) band ‘performing’ in view.
The band of which I am currently a part is made up of a number of perfectly competent but highly under-confidant musicians…we enjoy what we do, and play to the best of our ability but we have to work very hard to make what we do playable and singable in our context, and inevitably we don’t have hours to spend practicing.
It would be so good if someone would think about small gatherings when writing and arranging worship songs. After all the vast majority of Christian gatherings are smaller, and those that still want to include sung worship need a resource tailored to them.
Of course, one of the biggest problems is that recordings made of a solo instrument and voice are not incredibly popular in the world of digital media (although there are occasional accoustic albums)…they don’t sell well. Consequently most worshippers come with an unconscious expectation that the song they know so well from their Matt Redman album will sound exactly like the way Matt and band play it…and I suspect musicians like me do the same. We struggle to reproduce the ‘feel’ that everyone is expecting…and why should we. I’m certain that there must be resources out there that I haven’t found yet, so if you read this and know of any, please add a comment! Please!!
So please understand…this is not a moan about big churches and worship as performance…I very much enjoy my visits to places where the sung worship is a bit more high-octane…it is simply a plea to remember the vast majority who don’t have the inbuilt advantages and person-power of larger expressions of church, and hopefully, someone will hear me and do something to help.
Only saying!
[27] Some of the , who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. [28] “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. [29] Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. [30] The second [31] and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. [32] Finally, the woman died too. [33] Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” [34] Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. [35] But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, [36] and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. [37] But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ [38] He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” [39] Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!”
They only accepted that the first 5 books of the Bible as being the pure and accurate scriptures, so any idea not found there (like the modern heresy of ‘resurrection’ which could only be backed up from dodgy prophets like Daniel) had to be wrong. They also seem to have read a fairly patriarchal view of women as the child-bearing property of men from there as well. They base their theology 
on a very small part of scripture, are quite certain that they, alone, have an exclusive, correct view of the truth. Does this sound familiar in a contemporary setting?
seems that Jesus may be suggesting that they had a very limited view of who the Messiah was. The scriptures did indeed speak of him as David’s son (in the sense of being a descendant of King David…which Jesus was) but I think Jesus is keen to point out that the resemblance to David ends there. The Messiah was not only the son of David, but David’s Lord, the son of God, who would not come like a human ruler using power and violence to win his Kingdom.In Matthew’s gospel Jesus call the religious leaders blind guides, leading the blind into a pit…
I think that the scriptures should carry a ‘Health Warning’. Just about any position you care to mention can, and probably has, been justified by scripture, from slavery to racism, from oppression to greed.
If I’m honest I’m really a bit of a loner. It may have something to do with my more introvert make-up, perhaps I find it fundamentally difficult to trust people and I certainly struggle to invest the necessary time in making and building relationships.
Friends who tell us hard truths in a caring way are taking a huge risk. They may end up being on the wrong end of a whole lot of defensive venom as they try to enact tough love on us. I confess that I don’t always cope well, at first, but these friends have gone the distance and haven’t given up on me…that gives them the right to try to reach me when they see me getting off track.
Pilgrim Traveller 