For too long, what is considered “worship music” in evangelical circles is the result of trickle-down economics. Some multinational corporation somewhere cultivates and test-markets a “sound” with professional artists who know what will sell. Christians become familiar with this product through religious radio and other venues, and ultimately it ends up on the “song list” of a local congregation.
It was not so from the beginning, and there are signs that we’re heading back to the future. There’s something refreshing and real about worship music that emerges in the context of, well, worship, flowing out of the life of a real, palpable local church.
My friend Bobby Gilles, along with his wife Kristen, are doing their part to recover an ecclesial, rooted sense of worship. Over at their new website, which I recently learned about, “My Song in the Night,” the Gilles seek to equip our churches for worship by, for example, teaching people to write their salvation testimony, giving people guidance on writing songs, and pointing site visitors to a number of other resources.
I’m thankful for Bobby and Kristen’s genius and creativity, and hope you’ll check out their site. I hope it will help you—and your church—to seek to tap into the gifts in your church, and to empower them for the building up of the whole Body.