Ranges Community Church

Yesterday I settled in and listened to the mp3′s from the NSW Vineyard get together called ‘home grown’. There were two speakers – Casey Corum from the USA and Malcolm Baxter from Australia.

What struck me with it all was how music was central to worship. I can appreciate this coming from a Vineyard get together. It is and still is a very important part of my heritage and how I still worship God.

Yet the more I listened the more I found myself thinking that this was limiting. Limiting in regards to what a church may look like. If you look at the majority of Vineyard Churches, the ‘Worship team’ stands out. It is the firstthing that engages with with you. It is limiting because if you want to plant a church you need to have a ‘Worship leader’ and team. Limiting often for the participant, they may not engage with a medium like singing, or others struggle to sing in the key the song is been sung in. It becomes religious in format – fast songs first, slower songs later, the actual placement of the band on the stage. What is the priority for the church budget. Music or worship? Are they synonymous? The focus of adoration has actually shifted, from worship in a holistic sense to the narrow medium of instruments and voices to deliver worship. I can’t help thinking that we are underselling what it means to worship God! How often does our commentary after ‘worship’ focus on the songs we liked, how it sounded, technological glitches etc. Or even how good we felt during it. Is that what worship is about? The most limiting thing is that God can be worshiped in so many more ways.