Coming Attractions

This clip has been around the block a few times, but I'd like to share it with all of you for this mad dash of a weekend posting.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

It's clever, but it is a great place to launch an evaluation and discussion of how we do Sunday services. I realize the subject has many layers and is far too broad to handle in a short blog post, but if we focus on the "how" of our approach as musicians to the weekend service I believe it reveals much of the "why" in our motives.

Are we selling an experience that lasts an hour and ensures repeat visits in the coming weeks? Can this approach actually be a positive thing? Is there a need to return to "long" weekend services in order to ensure that God has room to move? Are we trendy or traditional to a fault? How big of a priority is the weekend service in our personal prayer and meditation time?

I want to be a facilitator of a worship journey in each gathering that happens on the weekend. I want to be a leader in praise and worship setting an example for the congregation to follow. I want to be passionate about the culture I am helping to create in the local assembly. I want to be sensitive to the voice of God at all times both in preparation and execution. The process by which all of this takes place is still in formation, but I want my motives to remain pure in the midst of whatever culture is being cultivated.

Get A Theme Song

Have you ever been so delusional as to pretend that you have theme music when you walk into a room? Well, I have. I once created a CD with all my favorite theme songs; like Thunder Cats and the Imperial March from Star Wars. I would play the song that best fit my mood at the time. If I was a little short-tempered that day – Star Wars. If I was in a “heroic mood” – Thunder Cats. But I must confess that no matter what mood I was in before I started the song, I felt better after playing it, and acting out my emotions in my mind as drove, walked, or just sat there. I know that I might sound crazy, but it calmed my nerves. No one was harmed and I never tried to commit super-human feats.

I don’t know about you, but I think I might have a slight touch of ADD. So sitting down reading scriptures (as much as I love sitting down reading scriptures) doesn’t always help me through some of my situations. I get distracted. Because everything that runs in and out of my mind, runs in and out of my mind at that time. So sometimes when I’m in deep thought about something I throw on some music that reflects how I feel about that and it will set a backdrop for me to play it all out in my head. I don’t normally talk to anybody during this time, as people’s feelings might get hurt (if I’m listening to the Imperial March).

Like right now, I’m pretty happy, because I’m getting ready to leave my job and go to a party, but it would sure help if I had some tunes playing and not that mild office roar going on. Because in that roar, I get distracted and I find myself inadvertently tuning into some of the things I can actually hear. So pardon me if I seem like I’m bouncing all over the place because I am.

But to sum all this up, music is an excellent tool to help us when it seems nothing else can. If I’m discouraged, I’ll play a song that will encourage me. And while that song is playing, I begin thinking about all the good things that can come after the discouragement, the silver-lining if you will.:-)

PS. I made this short so you wouldn’t feel like you wasted too much time, if it made absolutely no sense to you.:-)