I recently recieved the following msg:
—————– Original Message —————–
I would be interested….
to know what some of your ideas and philosophies about worship are. I like a lot of what you are doing and honestly i dislike some of it but it is different and that peaks my interest. Not that I’m an authority. Just interested.
———————–REPLY————————-
right on bro. well, I don’t know what you want to know.
I lead worship for a SWEET youth group and a in omaha called “lift.youthchurch”
The band is made up of mostly high school or recently graduated students that pretty much rock.
Every saturday we have several hours where we practice, pray and worship together as well as take time to learn about how to ‘lead’ worship, understanding that they are more than musicians, but are each leading worship with their instrument.
-This time is called theFIX School of Worship.
We base everything off of John 4:23-“the TRUE worshipers worship in spirit and in truth.” We worship God in the SPIRIT:
Flowing in spontanious time of worship, using our creativity to write new songs and make new sounds, and just taking it where it goes
but also in TRUTH:
Never deviating from the model of worship given to us in the psalms and the early church. Listening to the voice of God through His word and making sure that is the FOUNDATION for every move the spirit takes.
I personally am a strong believer that worship is not a musical style or genre, but in the christian culture we have made it that. Most of the time when someone says “worship music” we all know what style we think of.
While I believe worship often DOES NEED to be congregational, it doesn’t have to be the same style and 4 chord progression we’re used to.
Worship has 2 elements: US and GOD, not music. I encourage theFIX to use whatever their personal style, taste or genre is to worship God. There are a lot of different styles and tastes in our youth group. Generally, these styles are considered boundaries the chruch does not cross. But again, worship is about giving God what you have inside of you-whatever you have-that’s what God wants.
We try to cross as many of those boundaries as we can.
Indie accoustic, rock ‘n roll, electronic beats, ambient, screamo—can all be heard on an average wednesday night.
This is most of what we base theFIX on and part of what I believe are essentials of worship ministry.