In this episode John and Gregg are joined by Evan from Virginia, the second person ever to contact the podcast. Evan found the UC podcast through his wife’s concerns about Kyle Idleman’s not a fan.
Having mentioned that he plays in a church worship band Evan joins John and Gregg to share his insights on Church worship music. Evan notes that not only the order / type of music is strategic but that, in his church, the worship players are very aware of the type of setting that they are wishing to create and take time to re-assess how well they are doing at accomplishing their goals. They also discuss how they believe that God is at work in the church and through the worship experience and how this seems to be impacting the community.
Gregg wonders about whether Christians are ever “taught” to praise or to worship and questions whether the assumption that such teaching is unneeded is valid. John then wonders, What would such instruction look like? Evan notes that the worship team typically sets the scene and that the congregation “follows” the worship team.
Gregg first wonders about the difference between “praise” and “worship.” Next, he would ask people to consider the difference between their everyday life, their acts of worship / praise, and the meaning and content of the message (the preaching) that they are about to hear. In other words, Gregg would prompt people to consider how these three things are / should be integrated and how they are / should be kept distinct.
For example, if one has a particular emotional response following the end of the musical set, should that be taken to indicate that the message that is about to be delivered is more important for that particular listener? Or how exactly should we understand the this relationship?
John sees this as an example of the need / importance to interpret one’s own experiences (and to do so competently). Gregg agrees: this is both a basic call to self-awareness and a need for Christians to engage in certain practices in order to develop particular skills.
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