The Heart of Worship

Worship Workshop By Nick Marucchi

• What is the meaning of life?
• What is worship?
• Why do we worship?
• Worship is a lifestyle, not only singing and dancing etc. We’ve been called to be a generation of worshipers, to worship God in spirit and in truth and with everything we are. We are called to worship God through how we live our lives. We are to put on garments of praise and worship the King of kings.  For this is what brings joy and happiness to God, this is what pleases Him. This is what we were created for. When He sees our hearts in the place which He created them to be, He is pleased. For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also (Luke 12:14). Wherever your heart is truly at is what will determine your lifestyle (Luke 6:43-45).

Where can we worship?

We can worship God anywhere! It’s all about God, not at all about us. We must have true acts of worship, not false or suspicious ones.  A church is only a physical building where a body of people meets to worship God. Worship can and should also be done in our homes, schools, groups of friends, communities, in places which seem dark and ungodly, in places which seem good and God filled, when we’re busy, when we’re alone… We can worship God anywhere and anytime!

God also loves spontaneous worship (free worship or prophetic worship), where the Holy Spirit “takes control” in a sense.   -  Examples

Aspects of Worship

• To provide an atmosphere/seedbed for the expression of the gifts of the spirit (prophecy, words of knowledge, praying/speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues)
• To open up “channels” to God
• Enhance the sense of unity within a body of people
• To minister to one another
• To teach and reinforce spiritual truth
• Provides believers with an opportunity to profess their faith and love for God before others
• To declare and celebrate the glory of God and who He is
• To foster a receptivity for the word
• A verbal expression of the feelings in our hearts
• Worship increases our faith
• To grow in holiness
• It inspires a greater commitment to a life of worship
• It prepares us

Practical things to understand and remember

As worship leaders (the team as a whole), we must not think of ourselves as “worship leaders” as such, but rather as the “lead worshipers.”

The importance of practice is often overlooked, as a team and individual team member. Our hearts may be in the perfect place, but there’s no use in having the talents God’s blessed us with and not practicing them and stewarding them correctly. Therefore, practice diligently at home, pray to God to help you grow in your musical ability and when at worship practice as a team, don’t take it lightly: submit to the team leader, listen to them and all try be punctual for practice. It is indeed fun and bringing Joy to the Lord but at the same time it’s also spiritual warfare in a sense. We are constantly on the spiritual battlefield under the command of the Lord, and if our sword blades are blunt and our skills aren’t up to scratch we won’t be able to fight as well. In the same sense, we must diligently practice our musical talents and steward them properly in order to do our best for the Lord.

Praying before a practice and a service is of crucial importance and sometimes (given the circumstances) is maybe more important than the practicing of the actual songs. Prayer consecrates the time ahead to the Lord, it’s a way of letting God know that you’re open to have His Holy Spirit move how He wants and that you’ll be lead by Him. Prayer works miracles, big and small, ad shouldn’t be forgotten nor neglected.

Service is extremely important. When someone decides to join the worship team, there are many more things to take into consideration than the fact of playing an instrument or singing in services. There is the commitment to your specific team, being there when scheduled and if there’s a valid reason to be excused to let the team leader know well in advance so he/she can make adjustments. A big thing that is overlooked is the setting up and packing up of equipment at practices and services. Being part of the worship team means a lot of service in this aspect: rolling up cables, folding up mic/music stands, neatening up the stage, filing songs, etc. If you seem to have nothing to do, ask the team leader how you can help out. Serving in the worship team is an excellent way of serving God. It says we should have servant hearts for the Lord:  story of the “bond-servant”.

The choosing of songs:

When choosing songs for the practice, try choose generally the same spread of songs that your team will do at the next service you are playing for.  This is practical for obvious reasons to practice intro’s, lead pieces, special variations in the song, harmonies, breaks in the song, timing, unity as well as the general feel of the song and playing it together as a team. When learning a new song, definitely use practices to get to know it well  as a team, as well as individually at home. (it’s also a good idea for the team leader to try give team members an audio to listen to and play along with to practice with at home)

Also when choosing songs week on week, try have some change in the the song list from the week before. DON’T KILL A SONG!!! If the same song has been played for more than 4 consecutive weeks in a row, rather choose a different song so that it doesn’t get killed and its actual meaning is lost: If a specific song is being played very often, it does not necessarily mean it’s losing its meaning, but use your discretion so that it doesn’t get sung too often and run the risk of losing its meaning.

When choosing songs try incorporating a specific theme. Pray before you choose songs, ask God to show you what type of songs He wants you to choose so that His will can prevail. Don’t just choose songs at random or by what is fun to play or sounds cool. Find out from God what type of songs and what the theme of them are meant to be and then choose. You must of course be able to have fun and enjoy them and be lost in the when you play them, but it’s a great idea to have them in line with the will of God too J

Some themes are: Thanksgiving, praise, high praise, celebration, worship, declaration, forgiveness, etc.

The difference between Praise and Worship:

Praise songs are songs about God, Worship songs are songs to God.

Getting songs to flow

Getting a sense of flow within and between your songs is important. The transition between each song is sometimes tricky to attain. The reason why it is very important for the songs to flow well is so that it doesn’t sound “bitty” and disjointed. When the worship flows well, it brings about a much more powerful sense of connection with God and His presence because it helps eliminates distractions of the music stopping and starting abruptly which interrupts the general flow.

Helpful ways of getting a smooth transition between songs is choosing songs in the same key. Therefore the guitarist/pianist can simply just keep playing the same sequence of chords which are the same or similar to that of the next song, creating a smooth transition between the songs and not interrupting the worship with a sudden stop between songs. Obviously this method cannot always be used, for example when songs are in totally different keys. If this is the case, make a subtle change to the new chord sequence.

Praying in between songs is another way of helping the worship to flow, as well as help lead the congregation in the direction that God prompts you to lead them in. Pray in between songs when you feel lead to. Be careful not to pray too often (after every song) because this could also have an effect of breaking the flow of the worship. Pray as you feel lead to by the Holy Spirit.

Making the transition between praise songs (which are usually faster) to the worship songs (which are usually slower) is done by playing medium paced songs between the two. (example) Therefore, also creating flow in the time of worship. When moving from a more faster song to slower one, a good way to get the actual music to flow is to play a part of the faster song (usually the chorus) slower than usual, therefore slowing down the pace of the music in order to change over to the slower song with ease and continuing the flow of worship. Then when changing from a slower song to a significantly faster song, once you’ve finished playing the slower one, start off the faster song a slower than usual and gradually build up the speed to the normal speed of the faster song to maintain the flow of worship.

Ultimately, being in the worship team in your church is an awesome way of serving God. It’s a great way of learning things about God and life and why we are here and what our purpose is.  It’s a way to use and grow in our amazing talents and be blessed with more new ones, while using them to glorify God, the one who gave them to us. Being in the worship team is an awesome privilege, not a “job”. It’s a place to serve, to use your talents, to enjoy fully and to lead others into worship.