Last Saturday a small group from the church set off from Haywards Heath station, at the bleary-eyed time of 7.48am to catch the train to Luton. Upon arrival we hailed a taxi which took us to Stopsley Baptist church, which was hosting the ‘2013 Engage Worship Day’ a self styled event of inspiring, training up and resourcing.
Engage Worship is a fresh expression of MWF (Music and Worship Foundation) and it aims to resource local churches for creative, innovative and world-changing worship.
The day kicked off with some great worship and singing courtesy of Sam and Sara Hargreaves and the band. Sam and Sara head up Engage Worship and have written songs such as ‘Come, you thankful people come’ ‘Jesus, lead us to the Father’ and ‘Let us kneel at Calvary’. The variety of music and singing was reflected in the variety of people who attended; different ages, races and denominations all worshipping God together and coming to learn about exciting and creative ways to be using our skills to worship and praise God.
The morning’s programme included planning and leading services, band rehearsing, orchestral ideas, worship tech, art, vocals, PA techniques and guitar skills. While the afternoon sessions where done in the format of what Engage call ‘Count Me in’, this required everyone joining a group, whether that’s a percussive band, a Gospel-style choir, a scratch-orchestra, a group of artists or by expressing yourself through creative writing. The result that followed was an act of worship which incorporated each person’s own gifting into a unified service of praise. It was really great to see everyone working together using their skills to praise God. This expressed in a small way the kind of unity in worship I think we see in Acts chapter 2:
‘All the believers were together and had everything in common. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’
Tim Gage
Engage Worship is a fresh expression of MWF (Music and Worship Foundation) and it aims to resource local churches for creative, innovative and world-changing worship.
The day kicked off with some great worship and singing courtesy of Sam and Sara Hargreaves and the band. Sam and Sara head up Engage Worship and have written songs such as ‘Come, you thankful people come’ ‘Jesus, lead us to the Father’ and ‘Let us kneel at Calvary’. The variety of music and singing was reflected in the variety of people who attended; different ages, races and denominations all worshipping God together and coming to learn about exciting and creative ways to be using our skills to worship and praise God.
The morning’s programme included planning and leading services, band rehearsing, orchestral ideas, worship tech, art, vocals, PA techniques and guitar skills. While the afternoon sessions where done in the format of what Engage call ‘Count Me in’, this required everyone joining a group, whether that’s a percussive band, a Gospel-style choir, a scratch-orchestra, a group of artists or by expressing yourself through creative writing. The result that followed was an act of worship which incorporated each person’s own gifting into a unified service of praise. It was really great to see everyone working together using their skills to praise God. This expressed in a small way the kind of unity in worship I think we see in Acts chapter 2:
‘All the believers were together and had everything in common. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’
Tim Gage
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