“Worship Musicians - Rehearsals and Worship Services are a celebration of each person’s private investment throughout the week. Not a time to start thinking about investing.”
I typed that one night after having a very lengthy praise and worship rehearsal at our church. I realized during that rehearsal that many people feel as if they do not need to learn the songs before actually showing up to rehearse or play. Funny enough many of these people will use terms like "I'm a professional" and "I've played these chords for many years." I have come to the conclusion that there are many reasons for these attitudes and statements but I am always amazed by the people that I meet who will say to me “someone who wants to constantly rehearse or practice is making it more about themselves then about God!”
Really? Is that really the case?
Below are a couple of examples, I would love to hear your thoughts on.
a. You hear a worship song and then decide that you are going to learn and play the song to the best of your ability so that the song sounds exactly like the original song. You download chord charts, transpose keys, learn all the guitar licks, practice the vocal harmonies and then produce some backing tracks for the day of worship.
or
b. You have heard the song before, you really don’t practice with it but you know the general structure of the song. When it comes to specific notes you will play something similar in the right key but from there you’ll improvise.
Just curious, who do you think in the above examples is making the Worship Service more about themselves ?
I would love to hear your answer and the reason why.
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I know I'm a little late to the game on this one, but I think "a" and "b" could be about themselves with the wrong motive. I would say b is lazy, and is perhaps trying to use "spirituality" to excuse themselves. So in that sense, "b" is possibly mostly about themselves.
"a" could be about themselves if their motive is to have a rocking band or to impress everyone.
Honestly... over the years I've been "a" and/or "b." Recently I've tried to develop myself into a "c," which is not picking "cool" songs, but putting an extremely high importance on the lyrics... and in some cases, I've found myself doing a couple of the CCM oldies of the 90's that I use to refuse doing. The change has been me trying to serve the congregation. Bob Kauflin's book Worship Matters really influenced me last year. He has a 10 year rule that asks the question "if people came to my church and built their doctrines and theology based upon our songs... what kind of doctrine and theology would they have?" I know that's more on the text of songs rather than the production of it... but I think it's in the same boat. Is your heart motive to play the newest and best songs with a kicking band... or is it to serve the congregation?
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