Monday, July 21, 2014

Melany's Musical Mondays:Worship

Well hello there! It has been quite some time since I have picked up my laptop and wrote a blog post-but I promise there is good reason! I have been serving out at a Camp again this summer (a post about such to come) but even more recently than that, I was at a concert festival this weekend. We got back this afternoon, music is fresh in my mind, so how fitting that it is a Musical Monday :)


This week I will go about this a tad differently-I am not going to focus on one exclusive song. The concert festival we went to had dozens of artists performing, and amidst being exhausted from a summer full of camp, I attended several. The one thing that kept popping into my mind while I watched all of the different bands was one word-worship. So let's talk (or type I guess :) ) about just that.

Recently my church has gone through changes and we've all been learning about how to recognize and present a more worshipful setting of music. Basically, even if a song is Christ centered, it can be either about performance or worship. Performance songs aren't "of the devil"-they're just not the kind you would lead worship with on a Sunday, seeing as the crowd isn't all professional musicians..aaaaand performance songs can go to a more self glorifying route easily. Worship songs are ones you can comfortably stand up on a Sunday morning and sing while you prepare your heart to hear the word of God-as opposed to standing there watching the band perform. Now with that said, I will add that you can glorify God all the same if you're a punk band or if you're a soft instrumental band. Bringing the Creator of the Universe glory and praise is not music or music genre exclusive-at all.

Being one who is currently learning these things-of course it stuck out to me while watching so many perform, and I was actually surprised. There were 2 bands specifically that I have decided I won't ever go see in concert again-and a 4 that I would go see again in a heartbeat. Reason being-some were worshipful, and some weren't. All 6 included in this were wonderful, talented, and had truthful lyrics..but the 2 that I had negative opinions of were so very full of themselves. Watching the concerts was close to irritating because they were seeking attention and putting on a show for self-glorifying reasons. The other 4 were pretty darn cool all around because they were either less flashy and humble, or gave credit to God or made it a priority to pray during the concert..the list could go on.

It has been interesting to go to such a place while being taught about worship-and I wanted to share my thoughts and opinions. Overall I would say it is usually pretty obvious to see who is glorifying who when watching these concerts. So, because I am sorry for not focusing on one song-I'll leave you with this one. (It's been stuck in my head ALL day) No surprise there seeing that I was at his concert just two nights ago. (Check off the bucket list) and wow wow wow. Here's the picture to prove it.

My best friend and I at the Steven Curtis Chapman concert
Anyways, enjoy the song and the rest of your Monday :)