Let's face it - these are crazy times.
I believe that it was Pro Church Tools' Brady Shearer and co. who said we are "navigating the greatest communication shift in 500 years."
And he's been saying that for years!
I wonder what people will be saying about this time in 10, 50, or 100 years.
Needless to say, we are finding ourselves in a unique situation as worship leaders. Our stages have both shrunk and grown at the same time.
Many of us are no longer on a large stage with all the lights and full band etc.
Some of us still have the option to record something a little smaller on the same stage, but I believe most of us have to transition to recording or live streaming from our living rooms or pastors' houses.
I don't think I have to tell you how different this is for both us and the people we are leading in musical expression of worship each week.
However, I believe that this is going to be an opportunity for us to teach and lead our people into a daily practice of musical worship of God.
The church at which I serve has a Facebook community group, and our staff has created a calendar of posts that we will all be making throughout the week.
Mine is called "Worship Wednesdays with Matt," and I am using it to do a few things:
- Share a quick worship-centric devotional (usually from the Psalms)
- Share a song, album, artist, or playlist I've made on Spotify
- Lead a song or two (with my amazing wife) acoustically so we can all still sing and worship God together between weekends.
I'm not saying this is what you need to do. This is a descriptive recommendation, not a prescriptive one.
However, I believe each worship leader needs to do something to stay connected to the people he/she serves and use this as an opportunity to teach them that our worship of God is not restricted to standing with each other corporately in front of a stage.
I'm going to include a few other posts soon on this blog regarding other things that we as worship leaders can and should be doing as we shift from preparing full sets for live worship to leading our people remotely.
In light of what's going on, my song recommendation for you to listen and worship to is "No Impossible With You" by I Am They.
