Everyone is in the band

Music is important to many in our culture. One of the ways to begin to know a younger person is to ask them what type of music they are into. What bands do they like?

In church, we often end up defining our 'style' based primarily around the music elements.

Last week I asked our music team to take a break. This Sunday we only sang two songs and then "everyone became the band". We set up two mics at the front of the room and opened up for a time of testimony, prayer and praise. In essence our people began to worship God without music. They began to worship Him through the lives of each other.

One after another people from the church came forward and shared what God is doing in their lives. Some came up and asked for prayer and some came just to testify that God is good and that they are thankful. One man who was deployed this morning to the Middle East came forward and told how he heard about our church. He talked about how he knew about the church as a kid but didn't know about the personal relationship side. He said that he's thankful that his family is at Focal Point Church now because his wife and children can experience the church in action. To see a big strong navy guy get choked up while thanking God for our church was a powerful experience.

I could go on about each story but the biggest thing we received yesterday was the ability to worship. The ability of our church to be transparent through praise. The band's instruments were put aside for a week and the souls of our people became the instruments used to sing praise to our King.