Real Worship

This week was our 3rd in the new venue (& we were down another band member). Our regular drummer was on a weekend away with his wife, so I played drums. This was also my week for choosing the set list & having overall charge of the worship.

Choosing the songs for this week wasn’t a problem and because I knew I would be playing drums, I had deliberately delegated leadership of all but one song to Ali. This weeks set list looked like this:

• You Light My Way (Ali Loaker) Ali
• Coming To Praise You (Loaker/Ellis) Mike
• “R-Kidz” Theme Song (Loaker/Ellis) Ali
• More Than Life (Hillsong United) Ali
• Amazing Grace (Ali Loaker) Ali
• Everlasting One (Ali Loaker) Ali
• Thousand Miles (Ali Loaker) Ali

The first two songs are both in the key of E and have quite a “rock” feel and so work well together; though leading the second song from behind a drum kit had its challenges.

Firstly, I’m not getting any younger & my fitness level isn’t yet what it should be – and so there was a degree more perspiration and puffing & panting by the end of the song than there should have been (incidentally, I only dropped the drumsticks twice this week!). Secondly, though our congregation are used to me leading from behind the kit on occasion, I’m beginning to wonder (especially for the visitors we have) whether not having the worship leader visible at the front of the band adds an element of insecurity to the congregation – or maybe just intrigue (If you have a view on this, perhaps from experience, then I’d be interested to read your comments).

We’ve re-branded our children’s church (R-Kidz) and were announcing the launch next week of their own full-service meeting to run concurrently with ours (to-date, they’ve stayed in with us until just before the last song on the set list – when they leave for their own ministry). As part of that announcement, we had the whole of the R-Kidz team and the children up to sing their theme song live with the band (complete with actions). This too has a rock feel and was really well received.

Having had 3 consecutive up-beat, rock feel songs, you may think that people would be ready to “worship” some… oh no – not our lot! So, here we go again, veering off the “planned” set list. Instead of “More Than Life”, Ali launched into a semi-improvised up-beat song in the key of A. I say semi-improvised because the “chorus” to the song was based around what he spontaneously sang last week, “Joy, Joy, Joy in the presence of God”. The verses, however, were completely improvised on-the-spot. The whole thing flew! The congregation were really entering in (& I was in need of a rest!).

Rest came when we picked up where we left off with Hillsong United’s “More Than Life”; though we only got through the set as far as “Everlasting One” (because of the earlier improvisation). One piece of good news (for me at least) was that there are no drums in “Everlasting One”. I had set up my acoustic ready for this song & so just dropped onto that – playing second guitar. It’s a beautifully intimate song that’s played stripped down with lots of “space”.

One thing that became clear today is that having delegated leadership of practically all the songs to Ali whilst I stayed playing drums made it very difficult to remain in “overall leadership” of the service. In future, if I am needed to cover on the drums, then Ali will be at the helm for that day.

Week 2 in the new venue (this time with a full band).

This week Ali had “overall charge” of the worship. The way we operate is that each week one of us chooses the set list and has overall responsibility for the worship (i.e. that person has the ultimate authority – within the band – setting the direction and leading the flow). Within each set list though, we will delegate leadership of different songs to each other (as appropriate). Here is this week’s set list:

• Here Is Our King (David Crowder Band) Mike
• Come Love of God (Ali Loaker) Ali
• What The World Will Never Take (Hillsong United) Mike
• Always (Hillsong United) Mike
• Just One Glance (Ali Loaker) Ali
• You Are God (Mike Ellis) Mike

The first two songs went well, but it didn’t seem as though many people were engaging fully. (We normally break after the first two songs for notices – everyone is familiar with this format and so these first two songs are probably viewed more as “warm up” songs). Though there is good argument for having such “openers” (where people are still arriving and settling in etc.), I personally am keen to see everyone fully engage, “right from the off”.

Before we started the first song out of the notices (What The World Will Never Take), I requested that people greet at least two others (as an attempt to try and “shake things up” & get people out of their familiar comfort zones); the attempt worked. There was a marked difference as soon as we started singing. In fact, as we ended the song, Ali started to spontaneously sing about the joy of the Lord; the rest of us picked up the beat and before we knew it, we were all dancing around in an extended time of free, spontaneous worship – great!

This meant that we skipped “Just One Glance” and sang the remaining two songs from the list (Always & You Are God); which worked out perfectly because we then went back to use the skipped “Just One Glance” during ministry after the word (which was about looking into the mirror of God’s word & seeing what “normal Christians” are supposed to look like). The song ends up with everyone singing, “Jesus, Jesus, I belong to You” and was an ideal tool for people to re-dedicate themselves to God.

This week I led the whole of the worship service, as my co-pastor & worship director (Ali Loaker) was preaching. This had a practical implication for the band because it meant we were a musician down (we’re not yet in the place where we have “spare” musicians that can cover absenses). Ali normally plays a Gibson Les Paul, whereas I play either a Fender Telecaster (which compliments the Les Paul sound nicely, but is in no way going to fill the sound in the same way), or I play a Takamine acoustic.

The set list this week was as follows:

Evermore (Hillsong United)
Kingdom Come (Mike Ellis)
From The Inside Out (Hillsong United)
How Great is Our God (Chris Tomlin)
Facedown (Matt Redman)
Passion (Mike Ellis)
Love So Strong (Mike Ellis)

During the first two songs I used the Telecaster and for the rest of the set I used the Takamine. Having to compensate for a missing electric guitar meant changes. Firstly, we had to tweak my amp settings to thicken up the sound of the electric – which was especially required for “Kingdom Come”, where we start with a distorted Em chord “chugging” over bass & kick. Secondly, it meant changes to the way we played some songs. So for example, in “From The Inside Out”, there was no electric guitar riff leading into the verses, and the solo was taken by our flautist instead.

Along with these changes, we were having to meet in a different hall to normal (we hire a building for our Sunday services & the hall we normally use for church was being let out to another organisation). The new hall was across the corridor from the old, but all of our equipment (PA, chairs etc.) was stored in the old and had to be moved back and forth. We are going to be meeting in the new venue for another 3-4 weeks. What was it I said last week about “blessed are the flexible…”?

Anyway, (for me personally) this week didn’t feel as though the worship flowed particularly well – that is the time we spent worshipping before Ali brought the word (“The pursuit of holiness” – whoa!). The fact is though, the songs we sang all fitted with the theme (I had heard from God & brought what He wanted); and there were people in the congregation who engaged in the worship and gave themselves to it. When it comes down to it, worship is not about how I feel, it’s about how worthy He is. In the words of Matt Redman, Paul Oakley (& others I’m sure) – “It’s all about You, Jesus”.

Even King David told himself, “Why are you cast down, oh my soul and moan within me? Hope in God; for I shall praise Him for the salvation of His face.” (Ps 42:5); He also told himself, “Bless the Lord oh my soul…” (Ps 103:1,2). Note to self – don’t trust your own feelings, they can deceive you; and certainly don’t be led by them. Put them in their proper place – sometimes you just have to tell them what to do!

The pinnacle of the whole service came after the word, when the congregation were invited to respond personally to the call to holiness (the purpose of which is to share relationship with a holy God – motivated out of love and not of works). During this time, we were gently playing the chords to “Love So Strong” in the background (just keyboard & acoustic). After a short while, as I began to sing the first part of the lyric…

A love so strong that spans all time
And reaches out into this heart of mine
That sets me free, now I can sing
Of all You have done for me, my gracious King

It makes me cry Holy, Holy are You Lord
And I cry Holy are You Lord

…you could really sense God’s manifest presence as He and his people were doing some very real business.

As I write this, I’m reminded of the scripture in the book of Proverbs, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Prov 3:5-6) – which includes directing your worship service.

In this section I intend to publish reviews of our worship services (whether they be the regular Sunday morning services or other events). This will include the set list and also the highlights or any other points of interest. So, here goes the first one.

The planned set list for this week was as follows:

God of Wonders (Third Day version) Mike
Here is Our King (David Crowder Band) Mike
Love So Strong (Mike Ellis) Mike
Thousand Miles (Ali Loaker) Ali
Who is There Like You (Ali Loaker) Ali
Lord You Have My Heart (Delirious) Ali

I say “planned”, because things changed part way through the service. The first two songs were amazing; by the second song, I could see some people in the congregation punching the air as they chanted “Here is our King, Here is our Love, Here is our God…” etc. There was a real sense of excitement & passion that filled the hall.

The next song we were due to sing (Love So Strong) is a more worshipful song, but it wasn’t right to go into worship at that point. In fact, one of our senior pastors approached me and said, “I think we’re supposed to praise some more”. So, we quickly put in Ali’s song, “It’s A New Day” (which has a straight ahead rock feel, in the key of A) and Hillsong United’s, “The Time Has Come” – minus the long guitar intro (we normally play the intro when we use this song, but it wasn’t right for this occasion).

Now we were ready to worship, so we started with my song from the planned list, “Love So Strong” – which flew! We ended up spending a while around this song. The tag at the end of this song says, “I could sing for all my life of how you set me free”, which we repeated for a while before going into a time of free worship (over the same progression). It was powerful!

We went from that into Ali’s song from the planned list, “Who Is There Like You”, which is a passionate, minor sounding song with an anthemic chorus of, “Holy, You are Holy, You are Holy Lord”. Normally I’m on electric for this song (playing second guitar – adding riffs & melodies), but my B string broke during “The Time Has Come” and so I had to stay on my accoustic. The song still worked though.

We certainly had church this week! I like it when we hear God & follow His lead (even if it means messing with the set list) – especially if we’ve heard right. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not break (even if their guitar string does).