Catch up for 2011

I looked back at the blog recently and I didn't realise how long I've been blogging for in comparison to how long I thought I had, I remember I started the blog back in July because of my excitement for New Wine, and now, 6 months later, it's become a raging successful blog with way over 4 followers!

I also realised that I haven't done a blog yet this year, and whilst I'm sure in the incredibly 'interesting' life I lead, there are many things that have happened, I have forgotten most of them, so I'll just talk about the thngs that I can remember.

The first thing that comes to my mind is leading worship at the Space Celebration a couple of weeks back. I hadn't led in quite some time, and I'd been getting all these ideas of what to do, but without a chance to do them. So I was very glad when I got the chance to lead. There's this song that I fell in love with by Matt Redman recently called 'This Is How We Know' and whilst there are many other songs that I love that aren't in the church folder, I felt that this one was the right one to introduce. When we played it in practice though, Ed brought up the point that it was a bit too complex for a first time, so we had to lop off the tag and mid section, I was disappointed, but I had to admit, he was right.

In the practice, the band was sounding alright, but I felt that the levels were a bit out, and the timing wasn't brilliant, which unnerved me a bit. I decided to stay behind during the evening service to pray about it a bit, and I went through some songs with Meg. And it was definitely worth it, because when we played during the celebration, everything came together, and it sounded fantastic!

Although, something happened that's made me think a fair bit. Someone (of course, I'm not mentioning names) when talking about the evening service, referred to the talks as the 'boring bit', and yet they said they love the worship. This worried me a little bit, because it made me think about how people view the worship. Because the worship as we've touched upon in a recent Space Band practice is about our response to God's amazingness and all the great things he's done, whether it's rejoicing, thanking or whatever; but the common form of worship nowadays in Church is though singing, so that the words are put to a tune, with a band playing it. And it worries me a bit that some people may be singing and enjoying the music without really thinking WHY they're singing, and what they're singing about. Because some people's music taste may just be what's played in church. And the fact that someone would say that they love the worship and yet find the talks boring makes me think that they could be enjoying the worship for the reasons i mentioned.

Now, I'm not saying that's necessarily what it is, I mean, some talks, it has to be said, can be boring. If they're about a topic that isn't necessarily very relevant to us, and/or if the preacher doesn't communicate a message very well, and rambles on about a point that only needed a little bit of attention, then the congregations attention can wander, and people can find themselves bored. But that's only ocassionally the case. There are particular preachers that I find often really make you think, and bring great point across! And of course, they're the ones that should stick in our mind, not the 'boring' ones.

Now another point that I'm trying to get at here is that if someone is worshipping someone that they don't really understand or know about, is it really worshipping? Or just a show and love of the music, without really understanding what they're doing?

Anwyay, sorry for the kind of rant, but I've been thinking about it a fair bit recently, anyway;

I'll let you go.