I thought I would now write a bit about the worship at the Together on a Mission conference. I’ve even included a 12 second video clip for you to get a feel of it:
On the day I was there we had two times of worship led by South African Evan Rogers. Many songs were in an African language (Afrikaans?), and involved a lot of dancing and actions. The antics of those on dancing the platform got increasingly extravagant, culminating in them diving off the stage into the arms of the worshippers below towards the end of the evening! I wonder what Chuck Colson would say about Bambelela?
When Terry Virgo recommended a book on the cross that defends the doctrine of “penal substitution” a stifled ripple of laugher went round the room, presumably because people thought he had accidently said something rude. I noticed a lot of the new songs included lines affirming this view of the atonement, which shows an admirable intent to ensure that our songs are theologically instructive, although in places singing about the wrath of God to such upbeat music did seem somewhat incongruous.
I think that there are three key groups of newfrontiers worship songs at the moment:
- Church Songs - there are loads of new songs being written about the church as the agent of God’s kingdom purposes. These are serving to remind us that we are a people on a mission, rather than worship focussing entirely on my personal salvation / relationship with God.
- Modern Hymns - people such as Stuart Townend and Keith Getty are writing some good new hymns with real depth to the lyrics, which I think is a much needed addition to charismatic worship, as most of the older hymns have been long forgotten.
- Multi-cultural songs - We are learning songs from other cultures, usually with a ‘celebration’ theme. People from all cultures dancing together in worship is a good expression of the unity in Christ.
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