Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Purpose of the Worship Team


The worship team at FXCC exists to strengthen & edify the church. Our key verse is I Corinthians 14, which is basically one of the few passages we have in the New Testament that describes what should happen in a corporate gathering of Christians. Verse 26 is our motto..."all of this must be done for the strengthening of the church."

We hope that which excites us (singing to God about His infinite power & awesomeness & majesty & greatness...) will be contagious, so that those who gather with us on Sunday mornings may do the same.

Basically we sing on songs which are not yet firmly in our church's repertoire (aka familiarity bucket). We hope the 'group' form of leadership will enable more people to have access to these wonderful new songs. As a song leader, I can start songs & sing one vocal part. Nothing wrong with that. But as a team, we can sing all the vocal parts, and encourage others to join in more readily.

When I moved up here from Dallas 2 years ago {Nov 1, 2003 was my 1st day on the job here...happy anniversary to me}, I had been working within a worship team framework for 13 years. It's important for me to be able to state the purpose of the team so our church can best benefit from this format. I'll be writing more about the vision/mission/purpose of worship teams in days to come.

Thanks everyone.

Baby Sanderson is kicking like a mule [the last time I'll ever compare our little genius to a barnyard animal], and we get more & more excited everyday. His/her room is mostly ready. Jaime is doing a fantastic job preparing our home for the baby. I feel so blessed to be her husband. Organizing closets, drawers, clothing, she seems to have endless energy now, with fewer naps needed. Amazing! I think she feels the best yet, at 33.5 weeks! Jaime put the new handles on the dresser we are going to use, and let me just say, that hardware makes ALL the difference on vintage wood dressers. We got a ceiling fan/light installed this past weekend in the nursery...there had previously been only a lamp with no overhead light at all. It's shaping up! Thanks for your continued prayers.

3 comments:

Jenni said...

I cannot believe that you have been gone from PRCC for 2 years. I speak for myself (but probably many others) in saying that I really miss you! But I'm so glad that you and Jaime are able to be a blessing to Fairfax!

jaime s said...

It's me again. I spoke with a dear friend today who shared with me her desire to have the worship team sing on all songs, (not just the unfamiliar ones) as it would help her stay on tune! I think I was assuming that once we teach a song, then EVERYONE should be able to sing it well. That's not reality. An interesting thought. I don't want the worship team to become like a loud overbearing organ that drowns out the congregation, yet I want everyone to feel perfectly comfortable singing their hearts out to God, regardless of how talented they are...

Anonymous said...

The worship team is simply totally wonderfully AWESOME!!! It doesn't even come anywhere close to drowning out anything at all. (Although I suppose it could if the team weren't sensitive to that issue...for even though I love to hear BACH on an organ, I don't ever want that organ effect when we have our beautiful a capella going on). The great thing is that the team gives my ear a place to tune, instead of having to eyeball the pews for a good alto so I can try to sit in front of them. Plus, just like people will sing a lot more enthusiastically when they hear their favorite song on the radio, so too will people sing enthusiastically when they hear the gentle backdrop of the WT to encourage their unabashed participation. Thus my wish would be to hear the WT on every song. But understandably, some folks may prefer otherwise. p.s. Nov 1, your anniversary at FXCC, is my son's birthday. 21 yrs. oi. Boo hoo hoo. I want to start back in the delivery room and enjoy it all over.