Are your songs sets
a little like a malfunctioning GPS? Do you feel like some days you’re wandering
in circles, turning around unfamiliar landmarks and wondering where in the
world you’re headed and if you’ll ever arrive at your destination? This might
not be so bad if it was only you, but when you’re leading a ‘congregational
convoy’ down a serpentine trail it might be time to consider switching out your
GPS.
Hopefully these next
series of posts can help you do just that.
Many years ago,
Eddie Espinosa (writer of Change My
Heart, Oh God), and John Wimber, founding pastor of the Vineyard churches
developed a five-phase pattern for worship set design. This has since become
one of the most commonly referenced patterns for worship song set development
around the world. I want to personally
express my gratitude for the development of the five-phase approach. It’s
usually my initial foundation for developing a worship set.
Although this has
been called the five-phase approach, there is a common sixth phase that is
sometimes ignored so I’ve chosen to call it the Six-Phase Pattern.
So what is the Six-Phase
Pattern? These six phases are:
1.
Invitation2.
Engagement3.
Exaltation4.
Adoration5.
Intimacy6.
Celebration (Optional)
I’ll break these
down phase by phase. In my next post I’ll be placing practical applications to
the six-phase pattern but let’s just begin with an overview of the six phases
right now:
1. Invitation:
More traditional
churches may label this a “call to worship.” Just like the “Funnel
Approach” to worship set design we described before, the song or songs you
place here help to focus people, attract their attention towards worship and
draw people into a sense of God’s presence.
The Invitational
Song(s) are usually celebratory. (I will be covering “centering songs” in a future post which also serve this role in
particular settings)
These songs of
invitation don’t demand attention
like a drill sergeant. Instead, they gracefully encourage people into changing
their focus from the multiple distractions of their lives and onto a time of
meaningful worship.
2. Engagement:
In the Invitation
Phase, you did your best to move people from external distractions to a time of
worship. Now that you have people’s mental attention (and hopefully their
heart’s attention as well), it’s time to enter the next phase with a song or
songs of engagement.
|
Arlen and Elsa at the 'homesteader' house Elsa grew up in. |
Songs of engagement
begin to move people from grabbing their attention through a call to worship (Invitation)
into beginning to focus on worshipping God and celebrating His astounding
beauty, love and majesty.
As an “earthy” parallel,
this is similar to when I first was attracted to my beautiful wife, Elsa. She
initially grabbed my attention by her very presence (yes, it was very close to
a call to worship) and I was drawn in to getting to know her at a deeper level
as I saw her character and inner beauty.
3. Exaltation:
In the third phase, people begin to be lost in the
wonder of God’s majesty, greatness and power.
This is a dynamic phase that often naturally gravitates
to song choices with a vibrantly anthemic feel to them. Exultant expression is
often heightened in your people at this time.
4. Adoration:
In the fourth phase, the enthusiastic energy begins to
be relaxed. This begins the “release” step in the “tension-release” of any great
drama.
There is a greater draw into a personal expression of
people’s love for God. This is often very subjective. Often melodies are far simpler
in this phase and limit vocal and dynamic range.
There is an importance in handling the transition from
adoration to intimacy with a sense of great delicacy. Abrupt changes; whether
musical, spoken, visual or technical can bring your entire church to a
screeching halt at this point.
5. Intimacy:
In the fifth phase, you are moving into a sense of
Christ-centered meditation and greater intimacy. This is the most intimate
phase of your worship song set.
Although congregational worship is communal, it is also
individual. God speaks His truth with a common truth but He also speaks
personally into our hearts, our desires, our frailties and our fears. As He
whispers personally to us and assures of His deep and abiding love for us, we
express our love for Him.
Every healthy human relationship includes times of
intimacy where we can express our thoughts without fear of condemnation and
rejection. If you have built a strong sense of God’s love into your worship
set, assured them of God’s favour and built a foundation of grace into the very
fibre of your church you will have a stronger possibility of helping your
people enter fully into times of intimacy.
However, if you have simply pictured God as aloof and judgmental, having
your people enter into this phase will be extremely difficult.
6. Closeout:
This is the sixth phase, which is sometimes left out of
the worship song set. Clearly, if you have just moved into an extended time of
prayer ministry, placing a bombastic song of celebration at this point would
not only be jarring, it would be extremely insensitive.
Still, most churches will tend to end on a song of
celebration. This bookends your service in the following ways:
- ·
You began with a song of celebration
and you end the same way you entered.
- ·
You become more intentional on
supporting the theme of the sermon and the scriptural texts for the day.
- ·
For those uncomfortable with the times
of intimacy that took place in the worship service, this provides them with a
release form the tension they’ve experienced.
- ·
People’s last memory of the service is
that it was an inviting time of celebration. They want to return.
- ·
This closing song encourages your
church to have a more balanced approach to musical dynamics so you engage a
wider range of people’s personalities in your song choices. I’ll write more on
this in a future post as I address the “Jesus
is my boyfriend” concerns of many churches.
- ·
Perhaps this point is going to be
misunderstood – but I’ve lived in controversy for years so I’m going to write
it anyway. The closeout song often gives your worship team a chance to
potentially “play their faces off” and express the musical, technical and
creative chops that God has blessed them with and they have worked on for
years. When an excellent finishing carpenter builds top-quality cabinets for
the church we celebrate this as a church body. Can we also not celebrate the
great worship arts gifts of our praise team?
In my next post I want to start applying some practical applications to the
Six-Phase Pattern To Worship Song Set Design. We’ll look at possible worship songs
for each phase and talk about transitions.
In the meantime, if you are an artist, look at entering our Break Forth
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