Today's worship in chapel was great. Great isn't quite an adequate term. But, for me, as a worship leader, worship is great whenever I sense God's Spirit moving and enter into God's presence. That happened today. And I wasn't the only one who felt that.
After chapel was over, my frustrations expressed yesterday were alleviated. I will not pretend that everything I heard was only positive, but the large majority of it was. Most encouraging to me was the excitement and encouragement expressed from the same person who made the request that gospel worship not be sung. After chapel, the comments were of wanting to hear more worship from Quincy and his team. It was a blessing.
There were also individuals challenged. One student commented in class "I come from a Baptist background, and here I am "mmm-ing" during a prayer and singing gospel music in chapel." He seemed slightly uncomfortable, but I don't think he necessarily viewed this as a bad thing. I suppose time will tell.
September 2, 2010
September 1, 2010
Gospel worship
I am honored to be asked to join a friend as he leads worship in chapel tomorrow. But I am also somewhat bothered by some comments (and restrictions) placed on him by the Dean in charge of the chapel.
Quincy is African-American and has been raised in a charismatic church which sings a lot of gospel music for their worship services. Late last year, he led a worship chapel and invited friends (most of whom were from his church) to help him. The gospel music was new to most of us, but the overall response was very positive. Two of the songs were familiar and most of the students got "into it" as we worshiped along.
On the flip side of this, Quincy did not know who David Crowder Band was prior to coming to Multnomah. Needless to say, every worship chapel is filled with "new" songs for Quincy.
But this is not what bothers me. What bothers me is that he was asked to not sing any gospel music in tomorrow's chapel. I understand their reasoning: it is the first week of classes, and they want to ensure that students know the songs and are able to sing along and participate in worship. But why must we require that he (and his friends who are also of a gospel background) learn all of our songs while we do not take the time to learn the songs he is familiar with?
I am still honored to sing with the guys tomorrow. Getting to know them this week as we've been rehearsing has been a huge blessing. And I'm thankful I was able to encourage them when they selected one gospel song that would be familiar with most of the student body. And I'm excited to give "a taste of color" to some common contemporary worship songs (such as How He Loves Us and How Deep the Father's Love for Us). I simply pray that we can embrace others' backgrounds to the same extent that they are trying to embrace ours.
Quincy is African-American and has been raised in a charismatic church which sings a lot of gospel music for their worship services. Late last year, he led a worship chapel and invited friends (most of whom were from his church) to help him. The gospel music was new to most of us, but the overall response was very positive. Two of the songs were familiar and most of the students got "into it" as we worshiped along.
On the flip side of this, Quincy did not know who David Crowder Band was prior to coming to Multnomah. Needless to say, every worship chapel is filled with "new" songs for Quincy.
But this is not what bothers me. What bothers me is that he was asked to not sing any gospel music in tomorrow's chapel. I understand their reasoning: it is the first week of classes, and they want to ensure that students know the songs and are able to sing along and participate in worship. But why must we require that he (and his friends who are also of a gospel background) learn all of our songs while we do not take the time to learn the songs he is familiar with?
I am still honored to sing with the guys tomorrow. Getting to know them this week as we've been rehearsing has been a huge blessing. And I'm thankful I was able to encourage them when they selected one gospel song that would be familiar with most of the student body. And I'm excited to give "a taste of color" to some common contemporary worship songs (such as How He Loves Us and How Deep the Father's Love for Us). I simply pray that we can embrace others' backgrounds to the same extent that they are trying to embrace ours.
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