Real Worship

I love what God is doing in our midst lately.  He’s beginning to train us to consistently expect and move in the demonstration of His miracle working power (and not just on Sundays either); and for that to become a natural and ordinary part of our normal Christian lives.

As part of that training, this weeks service began with Pastor Mark asking who needed healing.  There was no hype; no music playing; the hall was cold (the heating didn’t appear to be working); and numbers were down on normal.  Despite not having any of the normal “crutches” (please forgive the pun) to lean on, God still healed (for example, one lady who was struggling with asthma could breathe normally).

As you may imagine, it was easy and natural to launch into praise off the back of that.

Ali had prepared the set list this week and had chosen 8 songs with a view to select from the list as appropriate, depending on what which way the service went.  The songs we actually got to sing were:

• Set Me Free (Mike Ellis) Mike
• Lord You Are Good (Israel Houghton) Mike
• Be Thou My Vision (Eleanor Hull & Mary E. Byrne) Ali
• Be Lifted Up (Paul Oakley) Ali
• I Run to You (Ali Loaker) Teash

All of the songs were sung in the key of E, which meant that flowing from one to the other was easy.  I’ve said before that I find it seems to provide a far more stable platform for worship when songs are grouped together in the same key (where possible).

Both “Set Me Free” and “Lord You Are Good” are similar in feel and style; and both were sung with equal fervour and energy.

During “Be Thou My Vision”, Ali was operating in his “sweet spot” when part way through he began to  encourage the congregation to battle against the things that were opposing them.  It was like when General Maximus, William Wallace, or Aragorn gave those rousing speeches to their men just before leading them onto the field of battle.

“Be Lifted Up” was both intimate and passionate.  Teash (Leticia) sang Ali’s “I Run To You” really well; she led with confidence and it was probably the best I have heard her.

I’m glad to say that we learned from last Sunday’s lessons (see, “redemption church, stevenage, herts, 25/11/2007“). This week was absolutely amazing.

I led the whole of the worship today as Ali was recovering from a throat infection. We had deliberately changed the order of things around slightly. The plan was to have 2 songs, then straight into the teaching from Pastor Mark, followed by a time of worship. So, the “planned” set list was as follows:

• God of Wonders (Third Day)
• Indescribable* (Chris Tomlin)
• —(Word)—
• Who is there Like You (Ali Loaker)
• Facedown (Matt Redman)
• We Bow Down (Viola Graftstrom)
• More Than Words (Mike Ellis)

_______________________

• Your Grace is Enough (Chris Tomlin)

*New song this week

We were “in position” and ready to go a couple of minutes before start time. Pastor Mark started the service by praying while we played the chord progression to “God of Wonders” (slowed & stripped down).

We launched into the song proper and I could see people all across the hall actively entering God’s presence – to quote Charles Wesley, “lost in wonder, love and praise“. The fact that the second song was new this week did not seem to deter anyone from passionately praising God. The great thing about both of these songs is that they declare God’s greatness and firmly focus everyone’s attention on Him.

Pastor Mark spoke about the gospel being the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16); and as he was still ending his sermon, God began to gently, quietly, but visibly demonstrate His healing power over individuals.

The band got back up on stage & began to play Ali’s, “Who is there like You” as others began to stream forward – receiving from and responding to God. That’s as far as we got with the planned set list.

We stuck with Ali’s song while people were receiving from God. It’s such a beautiful, anthemic, minor sounding song (chord progression in the verse is Am G/Am F D) which again, brings everyone’s attention to God, His greatness and ends up in the chorus crying out, “Holy, You are holy, You are holy Lord“.

By the end of the ministry there was only enough time for one more song and Pastor Sandra leaned forward and suggested we sing Chris Tomlin’s, “How Great Is Our God“. This was so appropriate; and wow, the song totally flew! Everyone was giving everything they had, as they sang with all their hearts, with hands lifted and faces lit up.

Mark 16:20 says that “the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.” (MSG). Another translation says with “miraculous signs following” (MKJV).

When God said that He wanted our Sunday morning service to be a “shop window”, I didn’t realize it at the time, but He meant for everyone to be able to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8) and to be able to “tell…what you have seen and heard; that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is proclaimed to the poor.” (Luke 7:22)

Wow, what a rollercoaster ride!

There were a lot of good learning experiences this week.

Ali was at the helm. He had chosen 6 songs for the set list, but we only got to do 4 of them. The songs that made it through were:

• Lifesong* (Casting Crowns) Ali
• Kingdom Come (Mike Ellis) Mike
• King of Glory* (Chris Tomlin) Mike
  
• Hallelujah (Jonas Myrin/Marty Sampson) Mike

*these songs were new this week

Everything appeared to be “going to plan” until the end of the second song. Remember what I was saying last week about God & the Senior Pastors having full liberty to step in at any point and change things? Well they did.

God had specifically told Pastor Mark that He wanted to demonstrate His miracle working power early on in the service – without any “hype” or “warming up”, or having to wait until the end of the service. God wanted us to learn to accept the demonstration of signs & wonders as freely as we do the forgiveness of sin (after all, we have no power of our own to provide or deliver any part of God’s great free gift of salvation); and to expect it during the service as normal as giving the notices.

So, without any “atmosphere” to speak of and out of nothing but sheer obedience to God’s word, Pastor Mark stepped in and gave an “alter call” – asking for all who wanted to receive from God to step out from there seats and come to the front of the hall. Virtually all of the congregation came forward!

This was where the “fun” (& the learning) began. As Pastor Mark began laying hands on people, we played the chords to Ali’s, “Your Love is a Burning Flame” and God started to move in power. With the numbers of people involved, we were there for quite some time. There was a flow of people being ministered to, testimony & exhortation – all the while we were playing. The challenge for us in that situation is being able to know how to flow with the ministry i.e. how to continue to “lead” the congregation in worship while there is ministry happening without cutting across it.

However, instead of “taking the bull by the horns” and actively leading the worship during this time, we chose to wait and watch (lesson No 1 – don’t stop “leading” during ministry times). This created a vacuum which Pastor Sandra filled (as is her prerogative as Senior Pastor). What I hadn’t seen coming was the offense that I found myself battling with throughout this time (lesson No 2 – don’t be intimidated, put off, distracted, or affected either by the atmosphere or by what you can see going on around you). There were also practical lessons to learn about communication & the logistics of making such times “work”.

There was an obvious strategic attack of the enemy to try and divide us by getting us to be offended. In talking with the other band members, every one had similar battles. The good news is that god used what the enemy had intended for harm & turned it around for good (Rom. 8:28).

We had a training evening on Monday where I was teaching about the power of praise. We looked at the fact that the worship team is often at the forefront of battle (especially on a Sunday morning) – from the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chron. 20. We talked specifically about what happened on Sunday and saw how we need to arrive prepared, having made a decision to take the pathway of praise into the presence of Almighty God; and how we need to cover each other. We spent time worshiping and had a totally awesome time!

Don’t you just love how God is so Good? Even though Sunday seemed more like a war zone at times, people were healed and set free – they encountered God in a very powerful way and were changed by that encounter; and He even used the mistakes we made to teach us and cause us to grow stronger as a team – closer to each other & closer to Him.