Nick J Drake's New Blog

Posted by Nick J Drake on 23 April 2010 | 0 Comments

At the centre of sung worship is a person – Jesus. At the centre of authentic and true sung worship is therefore a relationship. Relationships need space to breathe, time to deepen, moments to dialogue and go deeper. They are a two-way thing. Our sung worship can so often forget this and become a ipod-playlist with normalization on and 2 second gap. This is Worship without space. Obviously sung worship first and foremost is about us communicating to God – bringing thanks and praise to Him for who He is and what He’s done. Everyone knows that. Indeed, most of our worship songs are designed around that idea. However, worship is also about God communicating with us. Changing us by His Spirit. As we lift up His name and sing of His glory, so He impresses His weight, His likeness, upon us. We sing and start to look like Him. It is one of the most amazing things about sung worship. God’s grace can not stop pouring out towards us, the presence of the risen Christ, by the power of the Spirit moving in our midst. If I say something to my wife, I hope that she will say something back. That is the moment of connection, of relationship – the moment I know that I am really walking and sharing life with another person. That is the power of creating and valuing space within sung worship. Space announces expectancy. Expectancy that God will speak to us as we speak to Him; that He will sing over us and we sing over Him. Space, whether planned instrumental breaks, silence, improvised chord progressions, or prophetic singing, invites the Spirit to initiate a true encounter between our being and God’s being. It gives our hearts, minds and wills time to volunteer themselves to God, to willingly yield and say ‘yes’ to Him. Space can re-awaken in the worshipper the need to personally relate to God through the singing rather than be carried along by the power of the band and the songs. Space allows hunger to grow, faith to rise, hearts to burn, encounter to be born. I am on a journey to try and recapture the value of having ‘space’ within sung worship. To learn in the school of the Spirit how to lead people in the ‘unscripted place’, the place of heart-to-heart relationship with Jesus in corporate settings. To learn how to encourage people to be totally present to God’s presence. To expect more than they can even ask or imagine as they come to worship. If necessary, I want to sacrifice presentational excellence on the alter of authentic relational encounter with God. I want freedom from fear of man so as to deviate from the set plan, risk ‘failure’ in order to gain true transformative presence. Sung Worship is a two-way thing. People need space to be. Relationships need space to grow. Nick J Drake nickjdrake.com

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