This weekend (Friday and Saturday) I attended the Christian Musician Summit. I attended a worship conference sometime this past summer (wow it seemed so long ago!) and since Chris Tomlin was ending his Indescribable Tour at this conference, I thought heckles why not! Well, that was actually a secondary reason - I wanted to learn more about what it means to worship and how to lead worship effectively since I'm thinking of serving in that way out here - if only I can find a worship team willing to take me in.
First off, I had never thought about media as a topic or form of worship before but they had a bunch of workshops on this topic so I decided to check it out. At first I thought it was about taking pictures or films of say, your congregation or church events and what not, and putting it together into a short motion film (like what Chris and Jon did for the PDL way back in August). It actually turns out that a lot of churches are using projectors to display the lyrics to the songs and in the background of these lyrics there used to be still photos or shots and now they are upgrading and moving towards motion films (wow, either CPC's getting old and behind times or churches in the US have way too much money to spend). There was tonnes of stuff on this topic - short films that help introduce a topic so the pastor can move right into his sermon, short films that lead into a worship song, countdown films to play while people are still arriving and filing into their seats, films for Christmas or Easter... on and on. This was very new to me but was interesting to learn about and see the differences between the churches that are here and and those of back home. It actually does seem like US churches have more to spend. I'm not sure why that is.
I was able to attend Vicky Beeching's workshop on Women of Worship. I missed this workshop in the summer so I was please to find that she was teaching it again at this conference. We looked at Miriam - Mose's sister - and how she lead in worship to God after He had delivered them across the Red Sea. She took up a tambourine and lead the women in worship. Three things we could learn from Miriam - 1) She took what she had and used it to worship God. She didn't wait until she had gotten to know a few more chords on a guitar or a bit more practice, she took up a tambourine and just gave it what she had - 2) Since she had lived in slavery for so long you'd think her reaction to the deaths of Pharoah and his army would have been one of justice or something they deserved. Her reaction though is nothing like that. You don't hear any sort of bitterness in her worship. She had a pure heart of worship -one of gratitude and thanksgiving - 3) Her offering of worship was unique. Mose had just lead the group into a worship song that was about 20 verses and it was after this performance that Miriam gave up her one verse of worship to God. Even though her worship song was much smaller and simpler, she gave it to God anyway - not caring about what others thought. Everyone is unique and therefore everyones offering to God will be unique. If there is one message that has been repeated over and over again this weekend, it is that we are worshiping an audience of One.
I felt this workshop touched me the most. My excuses for not joining worship team here so far have been that I'm inadequate. My keyboard skills are primitive. I need more practice. I compare myself to other people and I think there's no way I could lead in worship. I'm not good enough. I need to remember that I'm not performing for the church or congregation. I'm performing for God and He's the only One that I'm worshiping for.
So Saturday night was Tomlin's Indescribable Tour Concert. My camera ain't that great taking low lighting pictures (or else I don't know how to do it) so here's one of the pictures from the worship team at my church (the people I went with). The tour included Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Louie Giglio. The worship was awesome - Tomlin, i'm sure you'd have thoroughly enjoyed it. The three of these leaders made a huge emphasis before the concert that their purpose was not to receive any glory themselves but to help others come into a place of worship to God and any glory that is directed their way, is to be reflected to God. I think the most memorable moment during this time of worship came at the very end. The worship center was packed. There were just about 5000 people in the room from all across the US, Canada, worldwide even. Chris Tomlin led us to sing How Great Thou Art at the end of the concert. The lights were turned off, the instruments stopped playing, I closed my eyes and all I could hear was a little bit of heaven. People all around me were singing their hearts out to God. I could hear the unity, the harmony, the beauty of so many people come together for the same purpose. The sound of this brought me to tears. The hymn ended and I opened my eyes. The band was gone. They have made their exit at the precise moment when the entire room had been united in worship and they had not wanted to receive any applause or praise. Everything was for the glory of God.
I've learned so much this weekend and it's my prayer (and I ask it to be yours too) that we don't forget the reason why we worship and that every aspect of our lives is for the glory of God. Everything we do is for Him.
(btw, photos are courtesy of Armand Vasquez )
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