Worship Team Training Day
Worship Training Day 17th May 2025
A day to train and equip our worship ministry teams in how to best use their gifts to lead their churches in worship, both in ability and culture. Here's what Calum, who serves on the Redeemer Church Worship Team, had to say about the experience.
“On Saturday 17th May, Ten of us from the Redeemer AV & Worship Teams attended a Worship Training Day with other Churches from our wider Relational Mission family at Hope Church Ipswich.
In the morning session we had a great time of worship singing songs of praise to God for who He is and hearing from Mike Betts, who spoke about his experiences of local Church worship. A couple of points that stood out to me were:
1) How we start our meetings – looking to God and worshipping Him for who He is, taking our eyes off our circumstances with times of intercession to come later in our gatherings.
2) Intercultural worship – we have more to learn in this area, developing variety in the songs that we sing.
Following a break after the morning session we headed to instrument seminars hearing how we can best serve each other within the band and PA teams, but also our congregations.
After enjoying spending time together over lunch we had another seminar session. These sessions covered ‘Hosting the Spirit’, ‘Songwriting’ and ‘Everyday Worship’. I attended the ‘Hosting the Spirit’ seminar led by Peter and Angela Vincent from Hope Church Ipswich. They made some very helpful points about our songs and exalting Jesus in worship, challenging us concerning set lists that often focus on what God can do for us rather than on worshipping Him simply for who He is. The more we magnify Jesus, the more the Holy Spirit draws near and the more powerfully we know His presence among us. There were other helpful points raised about recognising His presence (manifestations), acknowledging His presence (meeting leaders doing this to encourage and build faith in the Church) and waiting in His presence (not rushing and distinguishing between full and empty silence!). Other team members enjoyed the other seminars coming away armed with helpful tools and practices to grow in everyday worship.
After another break we joined back together for our final session. This was a session purely of worship with people bringing spoken and sung contributions throughout. It was wonderful to spend unhurried time together in God’s presence. We then journeyed back down the A12 to Colchester in time for a relaxing Saturday evening (I trust it was for others as well!) having had a good and busy day.
To conclude, I felt this was a great time of equipping for us as a team and I am grateful to God for the wonderful people that I serve alongside, not just a worship team, but a team of worshippers who are looking to grow in all that God has for us as a group and as a wider church family. So, thankful for what we have, but I also came away thinking about how much more God has in store for us during our times of corporate worship. Let’s be those who long for a deeper sense of the Holy Spirit’s presence and to see Him move profoundly in and through us as a Church.
Please join me in praying for our Worship Team that we would be those that seek his presence above all else in our daily living and through that we will be better equipped to serve our Church and help bring us corporately into His presence. Let’s also be praying for our Church as a whole that we would experience a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit.
Excited for all that God has in store for us!”
- Calum McDonald
RCC Worship Team
