Recently my wife and I attended a local praise/worship concert type of thing. We haven’t been to a worship event in quite some time, and thought it would give some good insight from a different group. Upon arrival, we were greeted and asked to fill out a registration card. Everything was organinzed and setup well. However, at this point I would like to explore the field of common sense.
Matt Redman touches on spontaneous worship in the video “Band & Heart.” I believe there is a time and a place for spontaneous worship, and Matt Redman encourages us to practice spontaneous worship. This is where I have found the problem, and I believe Mike Pilavachi connects spontaneous worship and common sense. Allow me to clarify. Spontaneous worship is only conducive to certain church cultures. For instance, Mike Pilavachi encourages worship leaders to use common sense in evaluating there congregational gatherings. He later goes on to challenge three questions. The first question is “think about who you are leading.” Secondly, “worship leader, know when to stop.” The last question is “worship leader, know when to finish.”.
I’m all about spontaneous worship, but it sounds like it goes hand and hand with common sense. My church does not do well with a lot of repition and spontaneous worship, but I would be open to spontaneous worship in a more contemporary demographic.
Let’s return back to the worship concert that my wife and I attended. Like I said, we walked to our seat and waited patiently for the worship to start. Well, we knew the first song and never heard of the other two. I thought the band was amazing, but they would not stop singing this one part of the song. ”One thing remains” we sang for at least 15min. Well, by the time the worship leader stopped singing, I was hypnotized enough to do anything they asked me. I’m just joking, but Pastor Mike really helped me to realize that sometimes we just don’t use common sense. After the song my wife leaned over and asked “can you tell me what one thing remains?”
In conclusion, I don’t see spontaneous worship being affective unless there is some good theological meat present.
Joseph H Toft II
I got a little chuckle out of your wife’s reaction to the worship time at the event you attended.
The Pilavachi video was very enlightening! I loved hearing the perspective of a pastor in regards to worship leaders. I have to constantly remind myself who I am leading. I would love to camp out on the bridge of “Came to My Rescue” or the chorus of “Made Me Glad”, but common sense tells me that the older crowd that I lead just doesn’t connect in worship that way.