Day 2 - Planned Spontaneity

[twc_admin]

Hello everyone,

Time to discuss Day 2 of Week 5 of the "Pure Praise" Bible Study.

Today's lesson is on "Planned Spontaneity" - share your thoughts!

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

There are many leaders who pray each Sunday that "something will happen that's not in the bulletin." I know of one church bulletin that has this disclaimer below the order of worship: "Subject to change by the Holy Spirit."

Oh to have that be the case in our churches: that we would come to expect the Spirit to do something "unplanned" in our services.
Oh that I were sensitive to the Spirit's nudge.

I am blessed that my church, though fairly traditional, has a sense of freedom. We rarely finish on time, and no one seems to care. Often, things don't go according to what's printed; it may be human error, sickness, equipment malfunction, or sometimes, the Holy Spirit. I frequently feel the need to pray where no prayer is planned; I sometimes quote some of the words that were played during the offertory, or add an extra song. The pastor is very prone to changing things, too. Now, we just need to listen more closely, and act on what the Spirit says.

God, give me a sensitivity to your voice that has so far eluded me. Please come into our services and stir things up a bit. I will give you all the glory.

[MimsiGal]

I was raised in a charismatic church where the Spirit's leading was commonplace - songs were changed on the fly and unplanned interruptions were the norm. I have not been in a church like that in 15 years.

I have been given a relatively free reign to go where I feel God is calling me in regards to our services, but I'm not sure how to build this freedom into our services...

The team that I am currently leading consists mainly of people who are fairly new to playing, and very few of the vocalists have very many songs totally memorized... how do you deal with this limiting factor? If I don't have charts explicitly spelling out the order of each song each Sunday, they get lost. If I were to toss in an impromptu song they would freak out (no, they really would!)

That being said, I do think that our pastor (who is also the lead guitarist and has many years of experience) could fill in in that instance... but do the 2 of us just lead out & let the rest stand there looking terrified?

I yearn for the freedom to have more spontaneity... I'm just not sure how to build in allowances for it.

[Smitty]

I'm a list maker by nature...I have lists of lists. No kidding. Lately though, I have been doing something different. I get up early, make coffee, start a fire, and reach for my bible. I have no plan. I just read. I pray. I worship.

Mimsi...start by planning a little freedom into your order of worship. You can do this by adding an extra chorus to a song, or by rehearsing one more song than you actually intend to play - so you can change your mind if you like. I have learned that worship musicians who are new to this need to be stretched a bit...slowly...before they really get comfortable with "on the fly".

Start slow. Work with them until they have all the basics down, and then stretch 'em a bit. Then stretch 'em a bit more. It won't be that long until you have a tight little worship team that can follow wherever you lead.

Smitty

[MandoRon]

My church has been having some interesting discussions on spontaneity. There's usually not a lot of spontaneity at our church. It's usually "planned for" in advance. I.e. "I may want to repeat this a few times."

A few years ago, we had a pretty cohesive that had been playing together for a while, and a lead singer who struggled to remember song arrangements. We did a pretty good job of following his "mess ups". Now we've got a lot of new people playing a lot of new songs, and the comfort level is much lower.

The church's vision can really affect the ability to be spontaneous too. If you have multiple services back-to-back, you've really got to pay attention to getting the earlier services out on time. Otherwise it snowballs.

And when you get into a multi-site live video preaching format and timing has to be planned down to the second, I'm not sure how you pull it off...

I guess some of those are technical excuses... not justification. I think with some advanced discussions with the band and the video guys, we could deal with spontaneity pretty well.

We've been talking about practicing "spontaneity" during band rehearsals to raise our comfort level.

[Rogenia]

This one was very hard for me. I was raised in a Baptist Church and everything and everyone has order. You can count on what the service was going to be like and almost the time frame it was going to take place in. As I grew older and begin visiting other churches, I relocated my membership to a charismatic church.

When my pastor left there, I followed him, because I believe that he is an anointed man of God, and lives a holy life. I have learned so much under his leadership. We are a nondenominational church. Where the problem comes in for me is that I feel that we are going back to the trend of a Baptist Church at times; because of being able to almost time frame what and when everything is going to take place. It scared me. I feel that I have gotten what I can at the church that I am in; and yet I do not believe that God has told me to leave. I do not believe in church hopping, as per say. However, I do want to do all that God wants me to do and be all that He wants me to be for the kingdom.

My soul aches for knowledge and freedom to follow the Holy Spirit as it leads me. This is one of the reasons that I am here in this course. My soul aches to learn how to worship, praise and serve my Lord and Savior without reservations.

I believe that God is a God of order; but I also believe that the Spirit should be able to flow without reservation as to being locked in a box. What I mean by that is - if we do the same thing all the time and at the same time; then I believe that we miss out on what God has new and different for the ones that are in need of something different and more. Like me. I know that this all sound confusing and I am doing my best not to be out of order and speaking on anyone, because I believe I am suppose to keep my leaders covered at all times.

[Mike S]

What is spontaneity for you?
Do you think you are the only one who is moved into a direction?
Do you have to move everyone into a similar direction as yours?
What if the spontaneity you sense is a distraction from what someone else is sensing?
What about the realization that perhaps someone else needs a few more seconds and they will be where where you are any way?
Maybe the fact we chose not to be spontaneous is cause for more conversation and moves others to stretch in the congregation as well?

No answers from me, just questions, what are yours?

[russhutto]

Just want to open this up a bit too.

Why can't we see our "worship expressions" as more than just the 1-2 hours on Sunday. And by that I mean the church as a whole.

I believe that if we don't allow for the leading of the Spirit (not necessarily just spontaneity) then we are opening ourselves up to become idolators. When we place the order over the Spirit, it's idolatry.

At the same time, if we place being spontaneous over the Spirit, that can also become idolatry.

That being said, I do think that the Holy Spirit appreciates and even encourages pre-planning and foresight when it comes to coordinating what goes on in our large gatherings. Scripture tells us that our worship should be orderly.

Bottom line is that leadership should model sensitivity to the Spirit. A SMALL element of that is spontaneity.

[twc_admin]

Another thought I'd had one this (I'm having to catch up this week) is that this should apply deeper into our environments - such as small group gatherings .. it's actually even EASIER to have spontaneous in these small group environments.

We're in a situation where we HAVE to get things done by :10 after the first service, or we have a logistical nightmare on campus preparing for the 2nd service.

Still - I've started padding the length of our song times and transitions to allow for the spontaneous, and it's really helped for us.

[ErikaMichelle]

Originally Posted by MimsiGal

]
The team that I am currently leading consists mainly of people who are fairly new to playing, and very few of the vocalists have very many songs totally memorized... how do you deal with this limiting factor?

Mimsi, I came into a situation like this in my new church. They were very used to song books, lyric books, etc. But you have to go slow. For example, I can't stand the lyric book. If you are going to sing on the praise team, you need to have the words memorized!!!! jmho - Instead of getting rid of it right away, we took out the songs that they all knew by heart and we now have a very small book. As they get better each song they learn is taken out until . . . no more lyric book.

Work in your rehearsals moving spontaneously. Tell them that tonight there is no plan. We are going to start with "Song X", move into "Song Y" and then let's see what happens. In a rehearsal situation, you can stop and start a few times. This will get your folks comfortable w/o being in front of the church.

Hang in there. I am sure you are doing an awesome job!!!