Wednesday, October 1, 2008

THOUGHTS ON WORSHIP

Hello my friends!
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As I was talking to a few friends of mine from Whipple Creek Church, they said that they felt like the heavens were opened up during the time of worship this last Sunday. Did you feel that way? I felt a tremendous amount of freedom in worship as I played guitar and sang (maybe too much freedom as Brett was trying to get my attention for offering when my eyes were closed) from my heart. Isn't it neat to be so inundated by the Holy Spirit that everything else in this world just fades away. I love it! What a sweet, sweet time of worship we had...and the theme of gratefulness tied in so well with the message. Thank you guys so much for doing this with me week in and week out. You guys are awesome!
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Couple of things I'd like to go over:
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(1) For the sake of aesthetics, I think I am going to ask that we limit drink containers that we have on stage with us to water bottles only. I have heard some comments that it may be a distraction to have all of our different colored coffee cups (mine included) and drink cups up on stage. I just don't want to take the chance of being a distraction during our time of worship. It is fine to have our coffee cups and drink cups during practice, but then changing over to water bottles (same brand...provided by Whipple) when the service starts. I think that we also need to try to be sensitive and tactful as to when to take a drink (I know that we need to for our vocals and such, but just trying to go as long as we can without would be sweet). Any comments, thoughts on this?
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(2) For the sake of practice going smoothly and finishing by 10:00 am promptly for our pre-service prayer time, I would like to again remind us to be at the church by 8:00 am if possible. I know that we all run a little late at times. I'm just trying to get as much time in on practice and as little time as possible on sound checking and such. I will also watch our time for devotions to keep us on schedule. We did pretty well this last week, but the weeks previous we were running pretty late. Also, I know that all of our opinions about sound, tone, volume, etc., are all valid and important, and you all know that I don't like to be some weird "iron fisted" leader, but I would like to set a precedent of giving the WORSHIP LEADER and the SOUND TECHNICIAN the freedom to make a quick decision for the sake of time with all other worship team members supporting decisions made by these two people. Believe me when I say that we are all a TEAM and should all have creative license to play or sing what is fitting and appropriate for any particular song. I really believe that we all just need to serve with humility, and not arguing, for the sake of unity in spirit as well as having the big picture in mind...our decisions can and do effect not only ourselves, but other team members and the entire congregation. Along with this I would like it if we DID NOT CHANGE any settings between practice and the service, unless the WORSHIP LEADER approves of it. If there is a discrepancy or disagreement from a member of the worship team as to what decision the WORSHIP LEADER or SOUND TECHNICIAN makes, I would appreciate compliance to these requests for the practice and service that Sunday morning, and then we can have a discussion about the disagreement after the service. Thank you guys so much. You know that I hate to "make a bunch of rules" for us to follow, but I really am taking into consideration everyone involved in the worship service if I ask for something particular. I am also trying to build in this precedent for the worship leader coming after me so that there is no confusion on who has the final word on such things. Any thoughts or dialogue on this? I want you all to know that I VALUE ALL OF YOUR OPINIONS and take them all into careful consideration.
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I love you all very much. Please pray for Bill Christina as he wasn't feeling well last week. Let's also remember the other prayer requests from last Sunday. If you have any new prayer requests, please let me know so I can pass them along.
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Blessings,
Christian

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