My favorite time in the Sunday worship service isn’t communion. It’s not the prelude, or the sermon, or prayer. It’s not the benediction, scripture reading or passing the offering plate.
No, my favorite part of church starts an hour before the service.
It’s rehearsal.
I’ve sung on my church’s worship team on and off for the past 15 years. Post-college, this meant real sacrifice: getting up before 6:00 on Sunday mornings to rehearse before the 8:00 a.m. service.
And I wasn’t gung-ho about church back then. No, I was struggling through serious doubts about my faith.
I got up, week after week, because the practice was filling me deeply; in a way, even more than the service.
Even now, I feel like I’ve missed an important part of the worship when I’m not involved beforehand.
Now that I’ve realized how much I meet God in that rehearsal space, I’ve started wondering why.
And I came up with four lessons I’m learning about worship before “worship” even begins.
1. Worship is a work in progress.
When they’re practicing, the musicians bring the songs into being; they create, they experiment. Each participant tries different things as they play.
Participating in a creative act before the Creator feels intensely worshipful. The sense of taking risks and trying new things brings a vibrancy and expectation to rehearsal.
2. Worship depends on everyone’s participation.
In a small worship team, everyone is affected if someone’s absent. If a drummer’s sick, or a singer is late, the whole team suffers.
It’s hard to be passive before the service starts. When I’m sitting in a pew, I sometimes forget that my presence is just as vital as when I’m standing in front of a mic.
