Is corporate worship too predictable?
Ive been tossing around some questions in passing for a while now, without thinking too much about it though - until during a conversation at work when I heard a comment about worship at church.
I’ve been wondering if worship has become more routine as opposed to an act. I guess there will always be some amount of routine during corporate worship, but how much and how long are the questions I guess. What sparked this train of thought was on a Sunday after our team played the first set, the congregation sat down in unison and it was nothing big, but something just bugged me that pretty much everyone was in deep worship (I believe) and then they all sat down.
Because the set is fast song, fast song, slow song to just acoustic guitar and while us as a worship team try to fade away… it also leads to some sort of subconscious routine - the slower the songs get, the closer it is to the set ending. Or at least there was some sort of unspoken routine that everyone understood.
This might not be a bad thing, but something to chew on for me at least!
So fast forward to today. At work we have quite the bunch of musicians and we are planning a little concert with musicians from the office - along with the boss on bass.
The set list was finalised to about 30 songs and one of the musicians (plays in a worship team) said that that was too many songs and the boss jokingly said that that was because he was a church musician - a musician who is used to playing 3 songs and on the fourth one everybody cries and it is over.
Now I find that funny and also enlightening. Someone who is not who we would consider a “christian” who visits church now and then also noticed a pattern.
That single commentary on worship is pretty much true. Not only corporately but personally. It might not be a big deal and it might be just me who likes changing things up and getting dangerously creative.. but that is one area that I would love to see different. I am sure we as a people need to be “led” or “coaxed” into a place of worship and fast to slow progression seems to have worked for many years. Too many years, that we forget if we are just following a routine of meeting with God or an experience or we are moving to a place - conscious of our journey to meet with God.
I guess noticing patterns is not a bad thing, neither is the pattern. But I guess if we (in other words I) notice it or it is pointed out, it is worth questioning it and then continuing in either the same path or making a few changes - with a deliberate decision.
What are the noticeable patterns in a church service?