I was listening to a podcast from Willow Creek Community Church. If Bill Hybels is preaching, I always listen. If someone else from their team is preaching, I usually listen. If there's a guest, I sometimes listen. This particular week they had a guest. I was intrigued by Bill's introduction, so I decided to listen to Dr Gary Burge, New Testament professor at Wheaton College. I'm glad I did. No need for me to revisit the sermon here, you can just listen for yourself. But there was one tiny phrase he used that I'd like to unpack: "Preparation shapes celebration."
Interesting, eh?
I thought of how I prepared a celebration recently--for our 25th wedding anniversary. I didn't have much of a budget, but I had some time. So I spent about a month putting it together, probably requiring more than 40 hours of my time. If you know us personally, ask Jackie about it. She'd love to tell the story. For our purposes here, though, I just want to tell you that the length of time, the depth of thought, and the attention to detail in my planning led to an amazing celebration. (Did I mention I had a very, very small budget?)
And I thought of some other celebrations I wish I'd prepared better. A birthday party here, a banquet there. My lack of significant thought, my decision not to dedicate a great deal of time, and my disregard for details is now embarrassing to remember.
Perhaps you can identify with me?
Then another thought emerged--one of terminology. While I was serving as Pastor of Worship Arts at Memorial Baptist in Frankfort we decided to stop calling our mid-week get-together practice and started calling it preparation. Semantics? I don't think so. Consider the differences.
Practice is about accuracy. Preparation is about attitude.
Practice is about repetition. Preparation is about inspiration.
Practice is about rehearsing. Preparation is about worshiping.
And the more we were able to move from practicing on Wednesday nights to preparing on Wednesday nights, the more our preparation affected our celebration.
Sundays weren't just right, they were dynamic.
Sundays weren't just "tight," they were free.
It made a huge difference.
In other places I've served briefly--without the luxury of shaping the language of a ministry--I have simply encouraged people to practice more than music; practice worshiping... which has helped us prepare better... which has helped us celebrate better.
What do you think? Is your weekly preparation shaping your weekend celebration of Jesus?
Rod, I agree that "preparation" is a much better word in terms of the necessary attitude, but I'm not sure that I would call the weeknight meeting of musicians, etc., "preparation" because that seems to limit the preparation to just that two-hour period. For my church, the preparation period begins anywhere from ten days to a month in advance when, sermon topic in hand, we outline the service for a given weekend, The next steps are scheduling musicians and technicians, organizing materials, and pre-rehearsals. Then we get to Wednesday night rehearsal, which at my church can be a production unto itself. Then, Thursday-Saturday, the music leaders are continuously emailing about and praying over what happened on Wednesday to refine what happens during the worship service.
ReplyDeleteAll that to say, I definitely agree with your argument that practice is only part of preparing to lead worship, but also I think that "Wednesday night" is itself only part of the preparation.
Great to hear from you, Eric!
DeleteAnd I couldn't agree more. My goal is to open up our thinking away from "accuracy and expression" is enough. You just sort of blew the walls out of my remodeling project! Great stuff!!