After having drinks with the colleagues, I've met someone who shares the same interest in all things funk, 70s disco, jazz and motown. And not only that but he gave me a whole list of Melbourne funk inspired bands and albums to give me earworms for the rest of the month. Thank goodness! I told him that I am a bit of an obscure person. An Asian dude who loves (at the risk of sounding racist) black music. He laughed it off as well. Loooove funk.
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I'm starting to see it happen a little more often in the 2pm service in church. That there's a little more emotion injected into our singing. Finally! I get excited when the song list appears on my email on the weeks that I am playing either bass or drums and attached to it are Youtube vids which are either a different/contemporary arrangement of very familiar songs to us or "new" songs that speaks truth in volumes in both music AND lyrics. More often than not, I actually think about the songs more than I normally do if it brings certain level of emotion through the music.
We have a tendency to have a lot of songs to be of a reflective kind and musically as well. But there is a difference between being reflective and being solemn, and I think it is more of the latter that we do a lot. Don't get me wrong, there is certainly a place for being solemn in our songs. But if we want to be truly reflective in our songs, we must also not be afraid of showing emotions. For example in the Psalms, a large portion of the Psalms are not happy happy in fact it's often the contrary. Yet David pours it all out to God trusting that he is sovereign and will prevail. He reflects on the character of God in the midst of all the struggle and pours it all to God, trusting that he will do what is right. From the Word in Song conference that I went to not too long ago, the song leader mention people come into church and they may have had a great week while others may have quite the opposite. Yet when all of them sing the same song, pouring out their emotions through their singing, you get to see a bigger picture of what worshipping this mighty God looks like. Sometimes I'll hear song leaders or even pastors say to the congregation to leave all your worries and cares outside the church and just come to God. God is not some North Korean dictator who executes you if you are not feeling happy in his presence. He is very much interested in the struggles that we have and bring it to him, like David. So I cringe whenever someone says that, even more so if I'm part of the music team. I'm glad though that it doesn't happen much.
I was particularly encourage by my housemate's song leading and also his choice of songs today. It was very reflective, emotional but not without substance. Not only did he gave the music team something to listen to over the week to familiarise ourselves with the songs, but I often find myself singing it from time to time because I had been thinking about the words, feeling it, and just worship. I hope that we continue to move in that direction for our Sunday services. Because if it is anything like how I experienced it, the words don't just remain inside the walls of the church or on a Sunday but echo through out the week and we don't treat God like a once a week catch-up brunch session.
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