Worship Articles
How To Practice Being Spontaneous...
Roma Waterman
Lately I have been receiving an enormous amount of requests to speak/workshop moving in the spontaneous during worship. There is a new season of people burning for a shift in their worship expressions. This is exciting because it means we are pressing in to Jesus, and the more we press in, the deeper we want to go. The more we know Him, the more we want to know Him! It is not that we have had a shallow experience of Him before, but rather that we want to know more of who He is because of our past encounters in His presence. This is a great place to be!
In response, I thought I would briefly give some practical exercises/thoughts you can use to facilitate the spontaneousness in worship over the next few blogs.
The only rule is: Don’t practice on your congregation – use your rehearsal times to learn more than just chords and melodies – use it to practice being spontaneous. It sounds like a paradox, but exploration away from the time pressures of a service helps us become more comfortable with the ways of the Spirit. The more comfortable we become, the more we can get out of the way and let God move.
Here’s an idea to get you started:
1. Moving in the prophetic is more than just speaking or singing out prophecy. Its more than just words. It’s the ebb and flow, the dynamics, the sound of an instrument or many instruments. Instead of looking for words to sing, ask this question: “If Healing(or salvation, or grace etc…you fill in the gaps) was a sound, what would it sound like?”
Ask the Lord to speak to you as a team and give you the sounds from Heaven, then base the ideas around a couple of chords. Keep it simple and begin to play what you feel. It could be some sort of musical motif, or it could just be one chord or note. It could be creating space, it could be something rhythmic from the drums. Play until you feel to stop. Listen to each other – is there a particular instrument that is capturing something? If so, allow room for it to speak and shine.
I have played what I thought healing would sound like over people who were sick, and then asked for their feedback. They have said they felt heat over their bodies as I began to play the piano, or felt better at the end of a song. This is not a new concept. When David played his insturment over Saul, it would bring peace to his soul. Why? We could say, if peace was a sound, that sound was coming out of David’s harp. He played something that allowed God’s peace to speak into distress. We can do the same! You are playing more than notes – listen to His voice, ask Him what he wants to say, then be intentional with your playing.
The other important aspect of this exercise is to allow time to discuss and review thoughts. It’s important to be honest. Create an environment where it’s ok to ask questions and ok to make mistakes – this is how we learn! Ask questions like: “Did anyone feel the Lord speak then? Did anyone see a picture or a vision? If it didn’t work, why didn’t work?” You will find a lot of times people see and feel the same thing corporately, which is quite amazing! Open discussion like this also helps unify you as a group which is vital for flowing together as a team.
Let me know how you go!
Part 2
This week I am going to continue our study on some practical ways you can become more spontaneous through music and worship.
Something I have found really helpful to me is ’singing what I see”.
Often when we are playing or leading in corporate worship, we get a sense of something happening. For example you may notice that the congregation is not engaging, or you may notice that the spirit of joy is about to break out, or maybe there is an anointing for healing – what do you do when you sense this? Most of the time, we can sense something, but then don’t know what our part to play is in the whole experience. So we let the moment go, and rely on the structure to keep propelling us forward – hoping that God will manifest himself somewhere! (Structure is good by the way – just not when it replaces the fluidity of moving as the Spirit moves- when they work together it’s a wonderful thing!)
When you find yourself in that situation, ask the Lord some questions. A good question to ask is “Lord what are you trying to say?”
Let’s use a certain situation as an example. Maybe you are sensing there is a breakthrough moment about to erupt in the worship–a moment where the band gets it, the singers get it, the congregation gets it- it’s like all of the sudden, everyone is on the same page. I love when that happens! In this instance, the Lord might say “There is a spirit of breakthrough–if you press into this, people will be released into freedom and the burdens they have carried will begin to dissolve in my presence”.
I have found most people who have a close relationship with the Lord will have these conversations during worship or in their preparations to worship lead. But we are lost as to what to do next. I have found what helps me is asking the follow on question: “Lord, if there was breakthrough, and people were released and set free, how would that look? Can you show me a picture?” Then close your eyes and imagine how that would look. We often have faith for God to speak to us – we should have faith for God to SHOW us as well!
Maybe in that moment, in this particular scenario, you might find the Lord showing you a picture of people beaming from ear to ear, giving their whole hearts in worship, arms raised in abandonment and surrender. Maybe people will be dancing (if that’s the kind of church you go to!). For some, it could mean people coming and kneeling at the altar with tears streaming their face. Or maybe you would see complete silence as people bask in the awe of our wonderful God. When you can see things through your spiritual eyes, you activate the miraculous –you call into action what you cannot see.
When you can see a picture of what is about to take place – you pull the future into the present. That is faith. You bring what is the substance of things hoped for – into reality (Heb 11:1). We often don’t activate our imagination because we are afraid that we might just be making it all up. But we can often miss what God is doing, just because we lack the confidence that what we are seeing is actually from God. I want to encourage to go with what you see.
My opinion is that if it is an image of something good, that helps others connect with Heaven, then it is ALWAYS going to bring blessing and release. If we would learn to have the confidence that the Lord can show us, just as much as he can tell us – we open up another portal for Him to communicate his will for His bride – the church.
Romans 12:2. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will”. NIV
I love this scripture. I have heard it said that in the original text – the word ‘mind’ actually means “imagination”. Wow!
Today, be changed by the renewing of your imagination – learn to dream that which you hope for in your services – you will not be disappointed.
What is Prophetic Worship?
Roma Waterman
Prophetic worship is a term that is very misunderstood. For me, worship that is prophetic, simply means honest worship that is spontaneous. For something to be spontaneous, it has emotion and impulse attached to it. Yet, how often have we been in a worship service, reading words off a screen, completely disconnected with what we are singing? We have become used to the program of church – it’s structure and forms, which are mean’t to help enable us to worship, yet can sometimes make us numb to what Christ really did for us. In fact, if we truly meant half of the songs we were singing, our lives would possibly look a lot different. For example, “Lord I give you my heart, I give you my soul, I live for you alone”, or “open they eyes of my heart, I want to see you” are powerful and life changing statements. Is your life being changed as you sing them?
To be spontaneous means we are passionate, we are driven by the moment, we are connected with what we are singing/saying, and who we are singing/saying it for – Our wonderful Jesus!
This spontaneity can come in many different forms. The three major forms that come to mind are:
a) A new song to the Lord that declares who He is – a song that is sung that is free and inspirational – i.e. you are writing it as you are singing it. It is impulsive and comes from our heart. It is worshipful and declares who He is and how much we love Him; (Ps 40:3 “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord”)
b) A song that actually carries a prophetic word for the congregation. It could be a word of encouragement, or something you are seeing or sensing in your spirit – and the way of expressing that is through a song. This can also happen musically with musical interludes and also through dance and other art forms. It could be a declaration – for example, standing against the enemy, or having a word burning in your heart about a specific situation, and being able to express that through singing/playing that brings freedom. Recently in Singapore I sang over a congregation about how the Lord was wanting them to be a church that moved in His signs and wonders. I sang about how people were going to be healed during the service. At the end of the service, several people got healed – one lady who comes to mind had recently had a stroke and lost the ability to write. After the service, she was able to write! When asked out of 100% what was the improvement, she said 90%! Singing what you sense is so important – because it can bring freedom to peoples lives.
c) A new song to the Lord that is personal. It is how you are feeling about who He is. This is very raw and can be inspiring and beautiful. My daughter has recently been singing these types of songs. Yesterday she began singing spontaneously, and it moved me to tears. She was singing, “Jesus is with me, and He loves me so much! He loves all the children and He loves all the mummies and the daddies! When I need to find Him I can look to the mountains He is there, I can look to the sky and He is there!”. A beautiful, spontaneous, personal song to Daddy Jesus. It is appropriate to do this in a corporate setting, because it encourages others who may not have this type of experience with God. I also feel that the demonstration of honesty and raw love for the Father in public is much needed. After all, it’s His love that changes us and those around us. If we can reveal that in our musical experiences, it can release it to others who need that experience of who God is in their own lives.
We will explore in more detail each of these spontaneous forms in future blogs, but let me end with the meaning for the word spontaneous from the Websters dictionary:
1. Proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint;
2. Arising from a momentary impulse;
3. Controlled and directed internally;
4. Produced without being planted or without human labour;
5. Developing or occuring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment;
6. Not apparently contrived or maniptulated; natural.
Artist Profile
Roma Waterman
Roma Waterman is a well known Christian Artist in Australia. She has won several songwriting awards and released 5 albums and two books. After years of touring and writing contemporary pop songs, she has found herself drawing back to her roots with a passion for worship. Her heart is for the spontaneous and the prophetic in the arts, that transforms culture and brings refreshing. She now travels the world training others in how to activate the prophetic through the arts.
Website: www.romawaterman.com Blog: www.propheticworshipandarts.com
Performance - A Dirty Word?
Marty Mitchell
Is performance in worship wrong? I’m sure many of us are familiar with Kierkegaard’s famous quote “we perform for an audience of one” and that one of course is God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The majority of us engaged within the worship ministry, be at church, cell groups, schools, bible colleges, wherever we are in ministry, would agree that we are not doing this for ourselves, but for God. I’m sure many reading this do realise that we are not there to perform for our own ego’s sake, attempting to ‘WOW’ a congregation with our extraordinary musical gifts, instrumental abilities or our vocal gynmastics. It’s a real turn off when the worship leader, choir, band, music, song, sound, person, CD, recording artist, church, pastor, leader becomes the centre of attention and not the Centrepiece of Creation Himself.
But there still is an element of performance that I believe is necessary for us to embrace – authenticity. If we are not engaging with God sincerely and from a genuine sense of connection and relationship with Him, how can we expect our congregations to follow where we feel led to go? So, let me pose the question – do you believe in what you are singing about?
Great performers make you feel every word. They take you somewhere, untap emotions and stir passions from deep within. Energy, effort and preparation has gone into every word they sing in every song they perform. Keith Urban, the Aussie country music artist who has conquered the US market said he strives to make every word and every lyric that he sings to be full of meaning and sung from a genuine expression of his heart.
If we are striving to do that, then I propose we are on the way to leading our congregations in worship. The skill of the experienced performer is worthy of consideration – they believe what they are singing about.
As worshippers then do we really believe what we are singing about? Do we really believe in who we are playing for? Is the Word of God changing our worldview in such a manner that causes us to worship Him in fresh genuine and heartfelt expressions of praise and adoration? Is your worship whether private or public – your performance to ‘The Audience of One’ – sincere and genuine or has it became a matter of tapping to the rhythm and mouthing the words, singing the songs?
If it has become that, then we fall into peril, a people who worship with their lips but whose hearts are far away from the Lord. If that has become the case, then take some time right now to realign your heart and reorientate your gaze toward Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
Artist Profile
Marty Mitchell
Marty Mitchell is the Associate Pastor and Worship Pastor at Park Ridge Baptist Church in Logan, Australia. Through his anointing as a worship leader, guitarist and songwriter, he is passionate about revival and the importance music has to that end. Marty is called on as a session guitarist for various live and studio events and has a rich musical and ministry experience from which to draw from. Marty is also the director at the Logan Holy Fire School of Ministries where he coordinates and teaches.
Email: worship@parkridgebaptist.org.au Website: www.prbc.org.au
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