This was the second week in our ‘Made’ series. Week one was incredible as Michael Franzese came and spoke, drawing quite a crowd.
Josh talked this week about how we were made for this moment. God has made each of us with a unique gifting. Within our individual design we can live out who we were destined to be. It was a challenge for everyone to lean into their personal life calling from God.
Our overall attendance was down this week at 80, with 65 people in the main worship experience and 15 at The Kids Station. I’m discovering that consistency in numbers is not something we’ll probably see for a while as a new church start-up.
The worship set went great. Even with several new players in each week’s configuration, the band is really solid and these folks are worshiping as a team. Our technical set-up and run-thru is getting smoother as well.
It’s an interesting journey to help define the worship culture of a new church. I’m finding that it’s more ‘uncovering‘ than ‘defining‘ the unique worship culture with the people that are coming every week. Our worship expression as a church is evolving and developing. It will be for some time. I’m finding my challenge is to be at peace with the unknown and to embrace (and gently lead) this complex assortment of people who are gathering here to worship.
Kingdom Come |Â Elevation Worship
Our God | Chris Tomlin
Forever Reign |Â One Sonic Society
All Things New | Elevation Worship
How would you define the “worship culture” at your church?
Leave a comment below…Â
Andy, first of all, I really like how you describe “uncovering” rather than “defining” the unique worship culture of your new church. I totally agree with that. And as a worship leader at a newly started church (we started one year ago), we definitely saw a change in numbers each week as well as an initial inconsistency with people coming one week, then not again for a couple weeks (maybe trying out some other churches?)then coming back.
Anyway, to answer your question about the worship culture at my church – I am the worship director at two churches, one morning, one evening, that are related because of the same missionary/church planter couple that help both. One is a Spanish language church service at an English speaking church in Phoenix. The other is a Spanish only mission that has a Spanish language church service in El Mirage. Our culture is multidimensional. First of all we have many who are non-believers (initially anyway) and unchurched. Others come from religious backgrounds but never learned the connection of Jesus being God or read the Bible. We have all ages. And just because they all speak Spanish doesn’t mean they are culturally the same – we have people from all over Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Argentina, to name a few. People from those countries not only speak Spanish slightly differently, but may have very different educational backgrounds (some of our adults have never attended a school or learned to read or write in Spanish, while others have high school or university backgrounds in their countries.) So– when you put the words in Spanish up on the big screen you can’t assume everyone can read them. Nor can they read the Bible, even in Spanish. So I do a lot of repetition of songs. Also with so many unchurched folks I can’t assume they know any Christian songs. People from different countries may have different opinions of each other which adds to the mix, plus they have different philosophies on what constitutes being married which differ from the USA. But even with all that, both congregations are the friendliest, most welcoming people I’ve ever known. They will try any style of music (from traditional Mexican or Central American to Hillsong Argentina to translated Tomlin to himnos tradicionales) never complaining about the sound or style or volume. And they eagerly give testimonies of thanksgiving to God, welcome everyone, and ALWAYS fellowship with a full meal afterward family-style. Song selection can be a challenge though because I want the long-time believers to be able to worship fully, but I stay aware of what the lyrics are teaching both the non-believers and believers about God (since in their culture, most have never read the Bible for themselves, so scriptural songs can teach a lot about the characteristics of God, His love and grace, and salvation.)
Would love to hear about other people’s experiences.
Barbara…thanks so much for your input here. Kudos to you for all the hard work you’re doing and the effort it’s got to take to reach out cross-culturally. Be encouraged in the good you’re doing!