Have you ever practiced like this?
Because we have. A few different times.
You put in lots of time and effort to be torn apart. Blah...it's not fun.
Alicia and I have both taken classes on church music and conflict in church music so we’re writing this blog together! She's studying music at Azusa Pacific University and I'm studying Communications at Moody. We realize that we're just students with limited knowledge and experience, but we are studying and have had some experience. So here we go...
Though it would be nice, the Church is not exempt from the conflicts that come up in the world. And often a significant amount of these problems and criticisms are directed at the music department for an array of reasons. The music is too loud. Too quiet. Too new. Too old. Too planned. Too spontaneous. Too...anything.
Our encouragement for you if you find yourself in the middle of this conflict is to... NOT GIVE UP!! Remember that’s it’s God you’re serving. Now, we’re not saying that if you go to a traditional church that you should bring in electric guitars and drums with the excuse that God will be pleased! Remember your setting and the people you’re facilitating in their worship experience. But also know that you can’t please everyone. It's just not possibly in any area of life. Especially areas where there are so many different personal opinions and beliefs.
We thought we would reminisce for a few moments about a few of our favorite times on stage together...
Alicia: Alicia’s memorable worship leading moment was back in high school. We finished out our senior year in the youth group under not so favorable conditions. Our last Sunday leading for the youth group we ended the set with Blessed Be Your Name. This was a favorite song of the youth group and was a "go to" song. The bridge “You give and take away, You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, ‘Lord blessed be Your name’” stuck out to us that time. We were standing just a few feet apart but we looked at each other and repeated the chorus and bridge. It was a great reminder that all the challenges that we’d been through and all the hard work we put in to be prepared to lead was for a worthy cause. It wasn't in vain.
Andrea: I wrote about singing BarlowGirl’s Psalm 73 and how it impacted me. God used each duet Alicia and I sang to teach me a lesson, to reveal something about Himself to me, or to put words to what I was going through. Although I haven’t always enjoyed the songs we’ve sung, there’s always been a line or a phrase that caught my attention and made me think.
Together: We communicate in a variety of ways. (That's what happens when you've been best friends for like...forever.) On stage when we can’t exactly interrupt everything to have a conversation, it’s mainly through our eyes and body language that our messages to each other are transmitted. We've grown closer to each other through being in a leadership position together. We've learned a lot about working with other people as well as with each other. And all the communicating that has to happen when two people are working together.
It’s been such a wonderful experience for the two of us to lead worship together! Although we’ve both been through times of trials involving church music stuff, we both say that it’s been worth it. We wouldn’t trade any of our experiences, as miserable as a few of them were, for anything. On the flip side, most of our favorite memories at church were created while doing music related things together.
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