praise songs- keep it simple, or give it all you got???

[bulldawgu812]

i think this is a real debatable issue when it comes to leading worship. in my praise band, we used to keep it simple, because we figured that we didnt want to distract people from worshiping God and just focusing on the cool music... but now we give it all we got, because we believe that God gave us these gifts, and that if our hearts our in the right spot then we will lead them into worship regardless of the sound. so i am wondering what the rest of you who lead worship, or just have an opinion think.

[cool_E]

Keep it about Praise & Worship and you'll be fine.

 

If you make it about sounding good, or playing

killer riffs, you've lost focus and will be detracting

from your purpose. Use the gifts you've been

given to glorify Him.

[bulldawgu812]

i know what you mean, but do you think its fine to play killer riffs and stuff if as long as you can keep your focus on God, and you are worshipping him while doing that? or do you think that doing that would distract the congregation from worship?

[jadski17]

just listen to sonicflood's "sonicpraise" cd. that should answer your question. AWESOME worship.

[WattsUrizen]

I am not a religious person, but I would think that you need to keep your purpose and audience in mind. I'd think that being too musical will just lose the congregation.

[cool_E]

bulldawg,

 

It really depends on a lot of things. I perform at Christian

coffee houses, parties and churches. At some venues we

get loud and rowdy. We have lots of killer electric guitar

solos. In those situations we are their to entertain &

engage in fellowship and praise & worship.

 

 

In more formal settings, like a Sunday service, we are

much more interested in getting the congregation to

enter into praise & worship with us. We'll ax the solos

and turn down the intensity of the music and focus

more on singing and inviting others to join us in singing.

 

I did a search through an on-line Bible on the words

"praise" and "worship." Praise is generally characterized

by loud, joyful music, singing & dancing. If you are praising

get loud & joyful. Worship is generally charaterized by

a posture of submission & supplication. Think face on the

ground. If you are worshiping do it quietly and reverently.

 

Keep the faith brother...

[DTNorton]

Note: although

[bulldawgu812]

dtnorton

i am right with you, and understand completely what you are saying. i guess i just can't put what im trying to say on the computer very well. when i say give it all we got, i dont mean throw solos and stuff in everywhere, but i meant that we don't hold back on making the music sound good. because we used to learn songs with the easiest chords, and play them as simple as possible. however we keep it simple when we need to. and we do pray about our lists that we play, and pray that we would just be God's tool to lead the youth group into worship. i know earlier i sounded kinda stupid about this, but i really know what your talking about, it jsut came out wrong typing my thoughts.

[seamless]

I'd say give it your all: think of gospel, they hold nothing back, and sing for the glory of God

 

:-)

[Anson]

 

 

 

 

Free of their god, intelligence won

Go with your instinct to live as you want

No longer begging for mercy from thieves

They can't come near you, through them you can see

Keep to the outside the teachings of christ

Denounce the father, undo his disguise

DIE!!!!!!!!!!!! SERPENTS OF THE LIGHT

 

You are at one, the serpent now gone

Harness the power to refuse the son

Under the bible inherit deceit

Above it enlighten to what you can be

Savor the pleasure once known in your life

Heaven's compassion you know is a lie

SERPENTS OF THE LIGHT

 

Serpents of the light, return to where you hide

GIVE US PEACE OF MIND!!

Serpents of the light, revolting parasite

THORNS IN PARADISE!!

Serpents of the light, expelled from human life

FREE OF JESUS CHRIST!!

 

 

Bastard Of Christ

[DTNorton]

Sounds like you've got it handled fine.

 

Keep up the good work.

[Dudealicious]

the issue of praise music is DEFINETELY (sp?) the most challenging debate in Christendom today. i do not even want to get into it. pray and read your bible. if people are offended, stop. i think that's a good criteria.

 

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!"

 

Psalms 150:6

[electricmel]

I don't exactly get what you are trying to say here- being that I'm Jewish and never seen a rock band at a synagogue (that's actually a really funny thought).

 

Are you saying that you guys set your full electric band up at church and play? The sound must be awesome (In more ways than one).

 

And you are wondering whether or not to ROCK out spicy style like Ozzy or stay sweet and cool like Evan and Jaron? (Of course, always under the "auspices of Christianity";) )

 

If I'm on the right target about what your asking...here's my advice. GO FOR IT. If you stay tame and lame you won't offend anyone or force anyone to feel or think. Two big emotions that alot of people are missing. Do you want to change people? Lift them up? Take them, not to the rooftops, but STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN? Give it all you got, bro and you might really make an impact.

 

Or tone it down and be just a simple, run of the mill type group.

 

It seems like you are wanting to bust it out, though.

 

Follow your STAR...

[cool_E]

Great response Dave (DT)!

 

How 'bout these for some thoughts...

 

Glorify God in all you say & do.

 

If you are part of leading praise & worship your mission

is to worship AND help others to worship with you.

 

Keep the Faith!

 

And please check out my site. It's intended to be a

music ministry.

[Riff]

I think if you enter into the experience understanding that you are there to help your congregation worship, then you will do the right things.

 

In leading worship, I try to keep that in mind in all that I do. That starts with what songs we pick, the arrangements, and ultimately the service. Sometimes we keep it simple, sometimes we challenge, but always we seek to help the people in our church worship the one true God.

[krz_msgr4]

Riff, that's my idea too. I feel that worship is an expression of our hearts to God. I have heard teachings about worship that makes the point that we are not worship leaders but lead worshippers. That we have the privilege to stand in front of the people and facilitate the worship. The focus should not be on us but on God. I think the quality of the music is important, as long as it does not detract the people's attention from God and unto us.

 

He's the One and Only,

Kate

[IndyGuitarist]

Originally posted by Anson Free of their god, intelligence won Go with your instinct to live as you want No longer begging for mercy from thieves They can't come near you, through them you can see Keep to the outside the teachings of christ Denounce the father, undo his disguise DIE!!!!!!!!!!!! SERPENTS OF THE LIGHT You are at one, the serpent now gone Harness the power to refuse the son Under the bible inherit deceit Above it enlighten to what you can be Savor the pleasure once known in your life Heaven's compassion you know is a lie SERPENTS OF THE LIGHT Serpents of the light, return to where you hide GIVE US PEACE OF MIND!! Serpents of the light, revolting parasite THORNS IN PARADISE!! Serpents of the light, expelled from human life FREE OF JESUS CHRIST!! Bastard Of Christ

 

what a relevant post.

[BryanMichael]

This is a really interesting thread

I have an example for you to consider.

 

When I was young (19 I guess-I'm 32 now) I played in a band with a couple of friends. All of us were Christians, but we didn't belong to a church or really participate much in the Christian community. It was extremely closed, and we had all had varying degrees of bad experiences with various Churches-many of them still preached (to the youth anyway) that bands like Rush worshipped the devil, rock music was evil, playing cards was a sin (!), kissing was bad, etc.... depending on the church-some were not so bad and I actually enjoyed my younger "Sunday School" days-but most of this rubbish was not BASED ON SCRIPTURE, but religious, Puritanical tradition, fear, misconception, and ignorance....anyway, we (the band) wrote original material with very personal (and often teen angst filled ) lyrics, but often we wrote about spiritual struggle as well.

I wrote a song called "Words in Red" (which was a reference to the fact that many of the newer Bibles have the words that are attributed to Jesus printed in red ink. The lyrics were purely inspired by spiritual stuggle and were actually quite blatant:

 

Words in Red (Matt 16:24)

 

[The Friendly Ranger]

I think the key is to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is doing at the moment. There are times when I am led to ROCK OUT and times when I am led to put the instrument down and pray.

[jthud]

I want to encourage all worship leaders to do just that. Lead the people into worship by worshipping. When you start thinking about lyrics or G's and C's, you start to lose focus on what you are trying to do. Get your stuff together so that you don't have to think about the music. People aren't stupid, they can see and feel someone that is genuinely worshipping and someone that is just rocking out for their own glory. Take care of yourself first and the people will follow.

[Tedddy]

I think it is a cultural thing.

 

White churches and Black churches have TOTALLY different worship music styles. In White churches, the worship music is very soft, quiet, contemplative, almost melancholy. When the audience claps, they clap on the 1 and the 3 beats. In Black churches, the music is more upbeat, much less melancholy, more exuberant, and they clap on the 2 and 4 beats.

 

Sorry if I have offended anyone by painting too broad of a picture, i'm sure there are exeptions, but in general, this is what I have seen and experienced over the years.

 

I went to an AG church, and they let anyone play in the worship team who wanted to. It sounded pretty bad, but that wasn't the point. The point was too let everyone make a joyful noise to God who wanted to. Ladies in the congregation would bring their own tambourines and castanets and stuff and play them from their seats in the pews. There were some old men playing trumpets and saxes, and the drummer was about 9 years old (he was pretty good though.)

 

Conversely, in other churches, you have to have a masters degree in music to play in the church. Even in churches with more contemporary praise bands, certain instruments are considered innappropriate. Worship teams playing Vineyard or Hillsongs-type music would never permit someone to play a banjo or mandolin in their band, because they are aiming for that slick, polished, highly produced contemporary adult easy listening FleetWood Mac soft-rock sound.

[RiffKing24]

Our church (me and bulldawg) youth group plays a very modern sound of praise. a real soft rock sound mostly but it has gotten to a nice almost hard stuff. we both play in the band and our band sounds nice. most instruments are welcome (for example i play harmonica) but we do practice so we can rock out while focusing on christ. and we really ROCK OUT. i don't remember how long Bulldawg has been playing but he is an insane musician. it blows my mind when our band rocks and he pulls an eighties solo.

[palthegiraffe]

I agree with some of the posts above that solos or other showboating can remove the focus from worship and turn it to the performer, which is probably wrong within the context of a church service.

 

I do beg anyone within the realm of contemporary Christian music, however, to try hard to expand the parameters of the above term. After years of sitting through services featuring electric-piano pop songs with predictable lyrics and tired arrangements, I became completely irritated with the whole genre, and can now only attend services with traditional, organ-and-choir music. Too many repetitive refrains of "We Exalt Thee" to the point of it sounding like a Hare Krishna chant drove me away from it all. It is ironic for me, as an electric guitarist and longtime fan of punk and other rock, to admit that I run screaming from any church service featuring a "rock band" or "praise team" or any other vestige of modern music; but it's true.

[bulldawgu812]

wrong within the context of a church? it depends what church you go to... its my personal preference that you play modern stuff, simply because we are all teens, and kids will be drawn more into it if its the kind of music which they like. however, i can see if you played for a large audience of older people... but really it just depends on the church.

[frais_cafe]

I'm writing my thesis on worship now, so I could go into a lot of things, but I'll keep it brief:

 

A key to do as Jesus said: worship in Spirit and in Truth.

 

As previously said, keep focused on the Holy Spirit. If you are led by Him to give a ripping solo, great! I know of people who have been healed in services by a drummer who played a solo. I've even heard of deaf people being told to put their head inside the bassdrum and, when it was played, they could hear! That's ONLY something that can be done by the Spirit.

 

When you do something that's not by the Spirit, then you lose the flow and purpose for the worship. It has to go somewhere, and the Spirit knows what He wants to accomplish in the service (remember, the worship is not the only part of the service...if Spirit-led, it will link up with everything else and be EXTREMELY effective in setting people free, teaching people, etc.). This is a main part of flowing prophetically in worship (like Morningstar, who do solos if I remember right)

 

The other side of the coin is Truth. Jesus is the way, truth and the life. Jesus is also the Word, so the Word = truth. Simple. You have to have the Word in the worship. If what you're doing or singing doesn't line up with the Word, then you're off. The early church followed the apostles doctrine (teaching) and THEN signs and wonders were done by the Apostles.

 

The thing is, like a coin, you can't have one without the other. Check what David did in his time with worship. People prophesied on their instruments! That means that they were following some sort of flow of the Spirit, hearing what the Spirit was saying (or playing, so to speak) and playing that. That will be FAR more effective than just saying, "Hey, lets shove a solo in here cuz it's neat!"

 

Worship MUST be in Spirit AND in Truth. Jesus said it. So, if you're led to play a solo, fantastic! Then God must want to do something through that, set people free, etc. Play it and play it with all you've got. If the Spirit says to be quiet and not play, then don't do anything. It's all part of orchestration and, if they could play with tons of instruments in Davids time (hundreds, actually), then the Spirit must know how to orchestrate. Just be obedient to Him and you'll see the reward. Obedience is another key.

 

Hope this makes things more clear. Worship in Spirit and in Truth.