Paul Baloche (writer of Open the Eyes of My Heart) writes,"Worship is not music, but music can be worship. God must love music, because the bible says there's a lot of it in heaven and invites us to come before his presence with singing (Psalm 100:2). ... as a Christian songwriter, especially a worship songwriter, what you do is lead people in expressing their love and worship to the Lord - honoring, adoring and venerating him. You have the holy privilege of putting words into the mouths of God's people - wonderful words that they might not have thought of saying to the Lord before..."
Check out this resource and the article Paul wrote entitled "How Worship Songs are Born" at this new resource that Koral showed me. Sign up, sign in and head over to the Frequent Thoughts on Worship section.
http://www.worshipfrequency
I found this really inspiring to write and to think about our community as I do that. I hope you guys do as well.
Just one more question - if you were at church yesterday (2/4/07), did you sense a bit of a breakthrough in worship? I really did, and I sensed that was happening congregationally, but I can never be certain, so your thoughts are appreciated.
W
1 comment:
Will
I just met you yesterday but let me comment on your post.
I think there was a good congregational response yesterday yes. Here are the reasons why I could respond:
1. the congregation was invited to stand. I think a lot of people, myself included, want to stand, but unless they are invited to do so, feel awkward.
2. communion was going on at the same time. It was a very moving service and Steve invited us to say "I am hungry" which, if you're like me and it's hard to sing in the morning, is nice because it forces you to at least TALK. Then the words might start flow. Of course it helps the song "hungry" is going on at the same time to help us really respond.
3. attitude. The whole service seemed to be an invitation to be broken and the songs matched. And before responding with our words, we were able to enter into worship. I think we can also enter into worship with song, but they are not interchangeable and worship<>song.
4. repetition. Particularly the song Fire Fall Down is very repetitive but this is a good thing. I read your earlier blog and it was talking about repetition and how some don't like it, but I believe that there are some who might sing the song without really thinking about it, but if you are forced to sing the same words over and over eventually you are going to start thinking about what you are singing. This is a good thing. Also the words "I know you are alive and came to fix my broken life" fit perfectly with everything else.
5. explanation. Last week you explained the meaning behind Fire Fall Down. I never knew it until then, and last week I just thought it was a cool song, but after hearing that last week, I could respond even better this week. Sometimes it takes awhile to process.
Probably a long post. But now 24 is on and I'm gonna go watch it.
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