I love it. I’m finally (back) in a denomination that cares, supports and teaches its local church leaders. My own background is Anglican, but I’ve been wandering for years. Now I'm finding people from my home area, others from all over the US with similar interests and issues, cool people.
There's room for a variety of approaches here. No insistence on narrow orthodoxy or (even worse) a narrow method. We come from such a diversity of contexts, cultures and current situations, and meeting together is refreshing. Most people I've met come back year after year because of that dynamic.
There's a congruent set of issues that always come up when pastors and worship leaders meet each other, too. Overwork, impending burn-out, the weight of local criticism, all these and more a re typical of the well-meaning, hard-working servant hearts of my colleagues. The phrase used in the King James version of the Bible about Martha - that she was 'distracted by much serving' - comes to mind. I'm praying that we'll go home refreshed, encouraged, renewed; with a better and more balanced perspective on our life. ministry and call.
I'm enjoying the sessions; I find it difficult to keep quiet, and did a poor job of it yesterday.
Main sessions are interesting. Worshipful, instructive, contemporary but with a context that's wider and nods to our history as well as the work at home. We're led by a superb goup of musicians, not afraid to 'get out of the way and led the Holy Spirit work among us. Preaching is apposite and relevant, without too much self-conscious 'style'.
There's always going to be a gap between music that works in a conference or stadium and music that works at home - some of the gap is subsatntial, some of it a matter of arrangement. I think we could offer more help on bridging that gap (see suggested workshops below). We need to hear more harmony than a good, contemporary mix can really give us with this line up. That's a truth of contemporary arrangement.
The songs we're learning are following current fashion - simple repeated motifs with a change of harmony that combines 'easy-to-learn-on-the-spot' with more than just a 'three-chord-trick'. Matt Lundgren and the band use dynamics well, too. (That's a difficult thing to do in a world dominated by audio compression.) Not just a simple song statement - we're led through reflective, meditational parts of a song into triumphant choruses. Love it.
Why am I writing, sometimes critically? As a new boy here, I don't want to presume, but I'm going to throw myself into this culture, so anything I see while retaining objectivity is worth noting. I need to aboandon objectivity in order to get the pastoral support and encouragement we all need to "keep calm and carry on".
Sharing regularly is vital, too. It's hard to keep up the momentum of sharing, but I'm finding it's a necessary part of as connected life. Try to maintain the conversation, please. It's a healthy spiritual discipline. The good people behind Worship Connect know that, and are doing it for our good. We should see more comments, feedback on Worship Connect. It's good for us.
A list of suggested workshops for next year:
a) Connection Choir
could be as small as 12-16 voices. It would be fun, and would help fill in the harmonic context of the new songs, which can be difficult to hear in the main sessions.
b) How to make these new songs work at home
c) What about our history? How do we integrate that into post-modern multi-culture?
d) Representing the whole gospel in weekly worship
(How do we ensure continued a balance of doctrine while following the emphasis, CMJ for instance)
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