RM Worship Training Day
“Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.”
Psalm 33:3
On Saturday 9th May, members of the Redeemer AV & Worship Teams attended a Worship Training Day with other Churches from our wider Relational Mission family at Hope Church Ipswich. It was a great day of worship and equipping as we looked to grow not only in technical skills but also in our primary roles as worshipers.
In the morning session we had a great time of worship singing songs of praise to God for who He is and hearing from Maurice Nightingale, who spoke about the importance of worshipping in spirit and truth. In particular, he challenged us to think about the truth we are singing about and ensuring that the songs we sing focus on all of the apostolic foundations he shared with us at the weekend away:
1) Repentance and faith in Christ
2) The now reigning Christ and His kingdom
3) The people of God
4) The temple of God
5) The blessing and uniting of all the nations
In discussing what songs we could use in each category, we found it got harder as we went down the list. The challenge moving forward is to find (or write!) more songs for all of these areas.
Following a break after the morning session we had a choice from a variety of culture seminars on topics such as ‘Discipling Young Worshippers’, ‘Hosting the Spirit’, ‘Effective Team Leadership’ and ‘Song Writing’. I attended the seminar on ‘Discipling Young Worshippers’, which was a really useful and practical session on how we encourage everyone in the church to grow in their worship of God as well as effectively building up and training new members of the worship team, particularly young people.
After lunch there were more seminars focused on practical areas. These included a series of instrument masterclasses as well as seminars on backing vocals and PA skills. I was privileged to be invited to lead the bass guitar seminar and it was great to spend time with some fellow bassists from churches in the RM family. I hope I was able to pass on some useful tips and skills but also the importance of being comfortable on our instruments so that we become free to worship and be moved by the spirit. As Psalm 33 verse 3 says, we are to ‘play skillfully’ but in the context of 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31 where Paul says ‘whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’.
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 a wonderful time of singing praise to God and spending time being ministered to in His presence.
Days like this offer so many benefits. They allow us to spend time praising God, but also to spend time together as a team and also meet others from around the Relational Mission family. It was a wonderful mix of refreshing, encouragement and challenge.
By Redeemer Elder, Carl Barker
