rcoperaguy from Mt, Morris MI

[rcoperaguy]

Hey all,
My name is Frank. Glad to be a part of this forum. Currently, I volunteer as worship leader/praise team member at Valley Church of Christ. We are an Acapella church, which makes doing contemporary worship songs interesting.
As a keyboard player, my heart's desire is to be on staff at an instrumental congregation as a full-time worship minister. My wife is a singer/song-writer and my sons are all getting involved in worship leading or being part of the worship team at our church.
I have long had a desire for worship leading and sense God's calling but not yet spiritually ready to take on that mantle. Looking forward to the discussions we'll have on this forum.
Grace and Peace

[fmckinnon]

Hey Frank!

Great to hear from you ... listen, I am totally looking forward to hearing some perspective from your "vantage point" in an all-acapella congregation. Part of the "rules" on the forum included a request that we don't get all wrapped up in various doctrinal differences, etc ... so I don't so much look for the "why" the COC doesn't do instruments .. but I think there is probably a purity and sound there that we could all appreciate and a depth that I'd love to experience some time. I can imagine that as a keyboardist, you'd love to be playing your instrument int worship, too, though.

Look forward to more dialog! God bless,
Fred

[rcoperaguy]

Fred,
Thanks for your response. No worries about discussing the why--I don't agree with them there anymore anyway. It does at times make for a unique experience especially when it's your first all acapella service. We are a more contemporary congregation so we are trying to do current worship music. The difficulty is many of our people listen to christian radio here, so there is an expectation that what we do sounds similar. We do have one advantage-at least for a COC congregation- my nephew is a vocal percussionist and is able to bring some of the drive one gets from a drum.
As a worship leader I find it very difficult to maintain a flow in the worship because we have to stop between songs to re-orient the key-much easier to change keys when I'm at the piano-we try from time to time to continue singing with humming or oohing under a prayer but that is still awkward for our people and becomes distracting.
There is a great worship conference in Nashville in October that is hosted by an Acapella congregation. That would be a great opportunity to experience acappella worship at it's best. If you are unfamiliar with COC it would also give you a perspective on where we are in the worship movement (about 10+ years behind is par for the course for our fellowship;-) Here's a link to the website about the conference
http://www.wineskins.org/page.asp?SID=1&Page=83
Look forward to more conversation
Grace and Peace
Frank