Rush Hour

Worshiping Through Music: We speak about Sunday morning worship, personal worship and music in general

• RushChurch • Season 1 • Episode 8

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You’ll hear about the week in church life—Thanksgiving dinner plans, a women’s tea that’s already buzzing, a youth Christmas party with duckpin bowling and axes, and our annual Star Wars day—because worship doesn’t float above real life. It stitches it together. From Romans 12 to Psalm 150, from guitars to quiet prayers, we’re learning to turn melodies into formation and lyrics into lived faith.

www.rushchurch.com


SPEAKER_00:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Rush Hour, a Rush Church podcast. We're here today. Brittany and Ashley and myself, we're back. We have a good episode for you. I talk about Rush Church things coming up, what's been going on in life in general. And then today we have a topic about worship, worship music specifically. And we're going to be talking about just songs and people that know more about worship like Ashley because she's a professional. Right?

SPEAKER_01:

Nope. Oh, okay. Well, this will be good. She is.

SPEAKER_00:

The closest thing we have to a professional. So, but let's talk a little bit about our past weekends. We've had some adventures. Some of us have. Actually, we all have some adventures this past week. So Am I starting? Yeah, you have to start.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, good note. Um, I went to Florida last weekend.

SPEAKER_00:

Good.

SPEAKER_04:

With all of my friends. My life. Lifehood? Childhood friends? Lifehood.

SPEAKER_00:

Lifehood. Lifehood. Life was childhood.

SPEAKER_04:

Now it's lifehood. Good. For 30 years that we've been friends and we decided to go to Florida and we had a wonderful time. Had a great time.

SPEAKER_00:

Sweet. Any adventures?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

We saw dolphins? Yes, we saw dolphins. We went to a beach, a couple of different beaches.

SPEAKER_00:

Um you're all about the beach life.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

When's the last time you've been to a beach?

SPEAKER_04:

I don't know. I know that uh within the last ten years we took some vacations to like Jamaica and Punta Cana, but it was probably like eight years ago.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

So it's been a while. But it seemed like I was right at home. I'm gonna move there. Oh, good. No, it's Brittany's last episode of the podcast. Selling my home and all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

The phone her in from Florida on the beach. She'll be joining us next time on the beach. Right. So yeah, that sounds like a good trip. No big deal. No. Ashley was well while while Britney was at the beach.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Cody and I were scrambling a home without her.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Trying to keep the church running.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I'm not sure. I think we did well.

SPEAKER_01:

We did well. I mean, Friendsgiving went really well.

SPEAKER_00:

Friendsgiving was good. We had that Sunday night with the students.

SPEAKER_04:

And it was uh are we gonna you have to tell them what happened. You have to tell them.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we've already we've already talked about this once today on this podcast, except I forgot to hit the record button. So now we're just talking about all this for the second time.

SPEAKER_04:

So hard to not talk to each other until we get here. So you get genuine conversations. Yes, and everything that we just said was not recorded. No, we sat here and we're having the best conversation ever. And someone in the group didn't hit the recording.

SPEAKER_00:

I hit the record button. I did, I hit it, and it didn't work. It's not my problem.

SPEAKER_04:

It was so, anyways, I said on the last one, the non-recorded one, that I got bit by sand fleas. And that was the worst part of the beach trip, that was the worst part, and I still have marks all over me, and I'm itchy and it's terrible. But it was the best vacation ever. But like also out. Yeah, now I have been eaten alive by these the beach bugs.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what you call them.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, the beach bugs.

SPEAKER_01:

And I told her that me, myself living there my entire life, actually never experienced sand fleas. They didn't apparently like Floridians. And so I think that there's a scheme going on where Floridians plant the sand fleas in order to keep people awake.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, probably. It's like got a pile of blood.

SPEAKER_00:

But the sand fleas out, the tourists are here.

SPEAKER_04:

Run those ladies out of the room.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the theory. They saw Britney and her friends like, get the sand fleas.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. We're all texting each other because we're all itchy. They're gonna kill me. They're gonna be like, why would you tell?

SPEAKER_00:

Everyone's the world knows where you see Brittany and her friends walking around itching. So it's just they got to be a little bit.

SPEAKER_04:

Itchy right now talking about other than that, they had a good trip. It was a good time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it was a lot of sun, and I think food.

SPEAKER_01:

You told me this was your first time going away on your own, correct?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, that it was. It was a little weird not having anything or anyone to take care of. Like it was just me. I mean, because being with other moms, it was like you don't even have to say. I mean, we went into Aldi and got enough groceries for the entire weekend. I think we're in there 10 minutes because it's five moms. Like we got it. And I did feed instead of feeding other people, I was just feeding myself a lot, which was probably a little too much, but it was good. It was nice, it was relaxing, it was a nice recharge. I mean, when you're with old friends and you're by yourself, it's almost like you're a kid. I mean, you're not a kid. I'm not a kid.

SPEAKER_00:

Taking you back.

SPEAKER_04:

Taking you back.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you had a good trip. Keep your sand fleece to yourself. And uh we're glad. Yeah, no, you just have the the mark, so it's okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, they get you marked with anyway. Now that you said that, I can't wait what the podcast uh uh titles gonna be. The mark.

SPEAKER_00:

So yes, we've talked about this already this morning, but you guys didn't get to hear it because they didn't hit the record button, but here we are. Um we lost it for a while.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Friendsgiving was good. We had students show up. They had a good time, we had games, lots of food, uh, and then the worship time was really good. The Rush Church worship team played for 40 minutes.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, it's my favorite thing. That's why I think I like Friendsgiving so much, is because of the worship.

SPEAKER_00:

All kinds of good upbeat songs, a couple, you know, low ones to keep the keep the mood pretty good. But it was the lights were all done well. The setting was good. It was a good worship night.

SPEAKER_01:

They were, yeah. We had we actually have our own personal light technician now, Michael Ramsey. I think he's doing an incredible job.

SPEAKER_00:

One of our students from Rush Students, Michael Ramsey. Shout out to that guy. Like we got that new light board upstairs, and he was like, ooh, look at that. And you're like, you won't let me mess around with it. See what? And then he like played with it for like a few days.

SPEAKER_04:

Did he like take a training? No. No, he's just taught himself that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, he just went up there.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, worked, you know, Westwork with him, of course. But yeah, he took the whole thing home, but this will be before kids' jam. Took it home and set it all up in there upstairs and just programmed what he thought would be cool when practiced with music. I'm like, he's dedicated. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, and so shout out to Michael for doing awesome with the lights and being good upstairs with that kind of stuff. So, but Friendsgiving was good, enjoyed it. Yeah, we'll probably do it again. But maybe Britney will stay home from Florida next year and join us for Friendsgiving.

SPEAKER_04:

We could just pick a different day. No. So I can do all the things.

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_04:

No, you choose.

SPEAKER_00:

Choose.

SPEAKER_04:

Next time I'm going to Florida. So Ashley's with me.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. So we had Britney's Florida trip. We had Friendsgiving, and then meanwhile, we've been doing the whole church. We getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We're getting ready for we got all the Christmas decorations out. Yeah, we have to do that. We had Russell Mania. The last Russell Mania happened. And so while Britney was laying on a beach joining dolphins, me and Ashley were running around the church trying to set things up, decorate, get stuff out. But it's looking good. It's all good for Christmas now.

SPEAKER_01:

It was not on Monday. Monday, it was mixed between fall, Christmas, and Russell Mania, and I could not handle the three different palettes of color.

SPEAKER_00:

Fall colors, Christmas colors, and then Russell Mania, which is bright like green, neon, pink, and blue. So it was a kind of wild week. And then it got even wilder.

SPEAKER_01:

It did. Then our then our personal lives got wilder.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Timmy was running around at church Monday night while we were doing stuff, getting stuff ready, and getting turkey stuff ready, and hit his head on the floor and got a concussion. So he's been out of school this week. And he's been, yeah, he kind of worried me there for a little bit. He was really loopy Monday night after he did say that. So we got him checked out and he got a small concussion. And then the next day, Ashley's.

SPEAKER_01:

And then Tuesday night when we're at the church, I get a call that Haley, my daughter, my middle child, got an accident, told her car in Columbus, she's okay, thank God. But then the same night also I get another call from the school that Carter fell during basketball practice and has a concussion and is now also out of school. So and his I could tell he's different because he's not playing any video games. And you know, when your son is not wanting to play the Oculus or Xbox or anything, there's something up. Yeah. So yeah. So they I just got done with that this morning. And so it has been a fun, eventful week. I will say that I'm thanking God that we're all alive and we're all breathing. But it was it was rough.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. God is good, even when it seems like the life's crazy. So welcome back, Brittany.

unknown:

Woohoo!

SPEAKER_00:

We're glad you're back. And and so that's kind of what's been going on in our lives. What's coming up next for Rush Church? What do we got?

SPEAKER_04:

Thanksgiving dinner, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, we've been talking about that. Hopefully, you guys have got your tickets.

SPEAKER_04:

I checked. I have mine. I didn't think I got my tickets.

SPEAKER_00:

Brittany's walking around last night.

SPEAKER_01:

She'll do things. Like she's at the church all the time, but like she won't register her kids for things. I know. I'm so bad at that.

SPEAKER_00:

I did that too. I didn't register my kids to Russia Mania until the first night. I was like, yeah, we have to register. Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_04:

Or BBS. I think I forgot about BBS too. But yeah, yesterday I was like, Oh, I better get all of my family's tickets. And my mom was like, I already got yours. I was like, she knows me.

SPEAKER_00:

So Thanksgiving dinner, come hang out. Mark Long, shout out to that guy. Um smoking all of our turkeys, getting stuff ready, working hard.

SPEAKER_01:

Means that during the week we get to gnaw on skin. That's for the turkey. Turkey skin.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know who's listening to this, but if you eat turkey skin by itself, you've got some friends at our church.

SPEAKER_04:

Love it. I'm gonna have to try some.

SPEAKER_00:

John loves eating on turkey skin. Ashley eats turkey skin. Yeah. I can't do it. I'm not just gonna go eat skin out of the sky.

SPEAKER_01:

And I went straight like the first night Margaret Crispy. Oh, yeah. The first night he did it, like he peels the skin and then saves it for John and I in the fridge. And so it's it's good, but it's better when it comes straight from the turkey. Like the night get it out. So that's what I've been doing the last two days. I just peeling it from the turkey.

SPEAKER_04:

I haven't got into this trip.

SPEAKER_01:

With clean hands.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, with clean hands, because that's what I'm worried about.

SPEAKER_00:

Give us clean hands. I'm speaking of worship songs, but so yeah, everything's clean, everything's safe and good. We do like, but yeah, Mark Long's been doing turkeys all week. We've been having a sample here and there, apparently. And so we would love for you to join us. I know. But Thanksgiving dinner, Sunday night. Yeah. All the fixings, all the good stuff. And then what? Oh, there's like prices right, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The game time in between. Do we have that ready to go? We forgot about that. Okay, good. We're ready to go. It's gotta be ready. Show up in between Thanksgiving dinner. I really like that.

SPEAKER_01:

Or we actually even have a really cool prize pack to give away. I love prize packs.

SPEAKER_00:

Lots of money, right? Bags of money. All right. Which no cool prizes. Come hang out with us. It'll be a fun night. And then women's tea. Women's tea. Get signed up for that, all the women.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. We are we already have 16 tables.

SPEAKER_00:

Is that good?

SPEAKER_01:

It's that's amazing.

SPEAKER_04:

My table got so full that I got kicked out of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So now I'm at another table. Right. I don't even think I'm gonna be able to sit at my table that I'm sitting there.

SPEAKER_00:

Wait, I have to serve all these tables? Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

So if you're looking for a table, I have a new table now. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

We have empty spaces at tables, but we have 16 hosts. So those hosts are, you know, are have 16 tables. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm excited for the women's tea. It's Christmas themed. All the ladies come out and do Christmasy things. I don't know. I've never been there, but I'm gonna be excited to see what's going on.

SPEAKER_01:

There's always a just a feast of charcuterie style food. So we always put shop goat cheese and dipped cheese and cheese that you spread. And oh yeah, goat cheese is so good. Especially on crackers, a little bit of jelly.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't eat goat cheese? I don't like goat cheese because it tastes like goat cheese.

SPEAKER_04:

No, there's some that has like jelly that you'd probably like.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, if you put like this hot, like like a hot jalapeno pepper jelly on coffee.

SPEAKER_00:

I've tried goat cheese and I don't like it.

SPEAKER_04:

So well, where'd you get it from?

SPEAKER_00:

The goat.

SPEAKER_04:

See, that's the problem. You got it straight from the goat. Straight from the goat. I went straight to the turkey.

SPEAKER_01:

You went straight to the goat.

SPEAKER_00:

But like, even like if I don't like something I've tried before, I'm telling you, I don't like it. Like when we got married, Erica made me eat hummus. And I was like, I hate hummus. It makes me terrible. I don't like it, and I want it in my mouth. And she's like, but you never had my hummus before. It's like the first week we're married, and she's like, You have to eat this. I'm like, I won't like it. So she like made me eat this hummus and I almost threw up on her. She was like, Oh, you really don't like it.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm like, wait, Erica eats hummus all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

And I was like, I told you, don't eat hummus. And so she's like, Oh, well.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

She tends to believe me when I say I don't like things.

SPEAKER_03:

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, if I've never had it, I'll try it. I'm not I'm gonna try food. But if I've had something several times and I don't like it, I'm like, no, I don't, I don't want it.

SPEAKER_01:

We will not spend it. Women's tea, come get some goat cheese, get some hummus.

SPEAKER_00:

There'll be lots of it because I won't be eating it. I'm not allowed to, apparently. I gotta eat in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_01:

We never said you weren't allowed to eat it.

SPEAKER_04:

No, I have. He's not allowed to eat from the table. He has to eat from the kitchen. Okay. That's a rule.

SPEAKER_01:

That is not a rule. Yeah, it is. Yeah, but you hide it in the back. Well, yes, but he's still allowed to have food from the table.

SPEAKER_04:

You can have a plate from the table if you can. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm so grateful for your generosity at the women's team.

SPEAKER_03:

This is what it's about. Generosity. Look hungry.

SPEAKER_00:

This is gonna be great. I'm gonna have a good night. I've already worked on my alternate personality for my Which is what?

SPEAKER_04:

Or is that a surprise?

SPEAKER_00:

A British butler.

SPEAKER_04:

Of course it's a British butler.

SPEAKER_00:

I've been practicing my background story and all the little sayings about British tea that I think are true.

SPEAKER_04:

It's gonna be so sad if nobody talks to you the whole time. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01:

I will make it if they talk to them.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll be in character the whole time. I'm gonna stay in character. I'm gonna make this a performance.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like, Cody, you're like, that's not my name.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, so we have lots of cool things coming up.

SPEAKER_01:

You have a youth Christmas party.

SPEAKER_00:

I have a youth Christmas party, December 14th. That's for students and our student leaders. That's gonna be in Belfounted Axe and Quacks. We're gonna do duckpen bowling and axe throwing, and they have a party area we're gonna set up for a couple hours that night on Sunday the 14th. So if you have any students, 7th through 12th grade, it's gonna be a fun time. Our Christmas party is always really fun. We do ugly sweater contests, we do a small like minimal dollar gift exchange, just silly stuff, and then we have a lot of food and we're gonna throw axes and bowling, so it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_04:

That sounds great.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it does. Oh, one more thing.

SPEAKER_04:

Sound the same, and we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Next Wednesday, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. If you are are bored or have nothing to do, or you don't work, or you don't want to go to work, you can come to the church because every Wednesday before Thanksgiving at church we have a Star Wars movie day. We put it on in the sanctuary on the big screen up there, and we watch Star Wars movies all day. So bring some snacks, bring your lunch, and come watch Star Wars with us the day before Thanksgiving. Yeah, my kids were like camped out last year.

SPEAKER_01:

So I think I'm gonna call out of work that day.

SPEAKER_00:

You probably should. Since you don't like Star Wars.

SPEAKER_04:

Nope. What?

SPEAKER_00:

Bring your lightsabers, bring your cloaks.

SPEAKER_04:

I don't know if I don't like it. I've just never watched it all the way through.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a whole nother issue that we don't have time for today. Oh my goodness. All right. Come to Star Wars Day.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, it's a great event that we host at the church.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not, it's like a little we've been doing it for years. I mean, it just happened one day. Because all the kids are out of school today. They usually just hang out and watch Star Wars, and I don't know how it started, but oh, I don't remember how it started. Yeah. Anyway, a girl that used to come to our church said she's never seen Star Wars, and John thought that was absurd. And so he was like, We're watching Star Wars on this Wednesday before Thanksgiving. And yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Did the lady watch it?

SPEAKER_00:

She thought Chewbacca was a Wookiee.

SPEAKER_04:

He's a Wookiee. Oh, okay. I'm like, I don't know if that's true.

SPEAKER_00:

So all right, moving on. Those are all the things coming up. Please come to our church. We're not crazy. You'll have a good time. All the events and things that we like to do. And all these things have meaning and purpose behind them. Yeah, we have fun with them, but a lot of us, so we can get to know each other, build relationships, and just kind of fellowship together as the church and get closer to God with one another, encourage each other. So that's the that's the main thing behind all these. But today we're gonna talk about worship and what it is specifically musical, like when it comes to songs and that type of worship. We're gonna talk a little bit about how it makes us feel. What should we be thinking about worship? Like worship on church morning services, like when we sing praise and we sing to God. Just kind of dig into a little bit what it is, what it's for, why we do it, that kind of stuff. And so I I've never been on a worship team before. I don't really know about the music all that much myself. I hit a cowbell sometimes and I can sing a little bit. I was in select choir in high school.

SPEAKER_01:

You were singing the back of the car on the way here.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I can sing. I don't sing in front of people, but but worship. I'm gonna start with this, because when you think of worship, I've asked people this before. Like when you think of worship in a Christian setting, the word worship, what do people think about? Usually think about music or singing or some kind of service where there's music involved and people are singing. But I'm gonna read you this verse from Romans chapter 12, where Paul says this. He says, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. And so the idea of worship as a Christian, you can worship in all kinds of different ways. Worship is not limited to singing songs or playing instruments or being on stage. I think worship is more of so how you live your life, the way that we choose to make decisions and react and do things. You worship God by how you actually live your life out. So Paul's saying here: live your lives as a holy sacrifice, like sacrifice the way you want to live for the way that God wants you to live. And that's how you showed God true worship for Him. And I think music is a huge part of that in our culture, though. And so we've implemented music and into our worship services, and we've had praise songs, we have Christian radio, we have Christian music, a whole like subsection of music in the culture dedicated to Christian music. So I just want to we're gonna focus on the music aspect. But when you think of worship, you don't have to think of music. I just wanted to start with that and say that worship is more of how you live, how you think about things. It's like a worldview of how we view God in our lives. And so, but today, worship as music, and what do we think about it? Our personal experiences with worship music in church, on the radio, wherever we are. Ashley, what do you think? Let's start with you. What do you have for us?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so worship as experiencing worship. I've been on worship teams since probably 2005. So it's been that's a long time. It's 20 years.

SPEAKER_00:

You've been on a worship team all the time.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh my goodness, how old are you? Wow. Wow. I am so sorry. We made a joke about birthdays earlier. I'm not actually that rude.

SPEAKER_00:

No, okay, yeah. Moving on.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so worship, I've experienced all kinds of different worship styles, worship music, contemporary versus high energy versus you know, softer and just some things with like you know, those the drums that that are bongos. Yes, yeah, like a whole percussion set, which is really, really cool. But yeah, so worship to me, worship is my for me personally, is how I experience God the most. Everybody's life is different, everybody experiences God differently, but but during worship, that's when I feel his presence the most. And I think it's just because it it aligns my heart with his. So when I'm focusing on God, like you know, on the stage or or even when I'm not on the stage, and I'm singing, I'm literally singing to the creator of the universe, and I'm aligning my heart and my mind with him, and so I just connect better in that way. There's different postures of worship, some people worship differently, some people just listen to the worship music, and that's just their way of connecting, and that's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with that. And then there's others who move a lot, which if you go to our church, you know that I can't stand still. And I'm either swaying or just moving, or it just because and it's not it's not a show, it's it's a it's my heart posture. It's my I get excited when I am talking to God in that manner. It brings me joy. Sometimes it brings me sorrow because it reminds me of you know things I've been brought out of. And so sometimes I get a little too emotional during worship. I mean, as a worship leader, you try to contain that, but at the same time, I've learned that you have to be as real as you can with your congregation because I'm experiencing worship just like they're experiencing it, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

So it is how is that like balancing that of personal worship on stage, but also realizing you're on stage and trying to lead worship. So is that kind of hard sometimes? It can be to be like, I'm I'm in the moment of worshiping myself as I'm doing this, but then again, you're the one leading the worship.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's just a constant reminder of when you know when we're on the stage that that we are to present ourselves as an example to the congregation of how they can worship if they choose to. So it is it is a constant battle, but it's one that you learn over time for sure. It takes practice.

SPEAKER_00:

That's interesting because I've never done it before, but I always think like it's gotta be there's gotta be like a line of how to balance that when you're on stage. Like you want it to sound really good, you want it to be like a good performance to look good and to sound good, and you think a lot of time to make it look good, make it sound good, and you want to do your best, but then again, this is you know the heart behind it of actual true worship. And so I I just think that would be kind of difficult sometimes to be like, I want to do my best and and perform this song really well, but it's also worship. And so I think there'd be like a balance or like a line to to have there that you kind of I don't know. Like it you don't want to you want to be confident, but you don't want to be like it's all about me, you know. Right. Yeah and so like I don't know is that something that you've ever struggled with or for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

There were I think there's many times where I remember my younger days of my younger days like holy age you know, growing up and and maturing in my worship prior to being mature. I remember there'd be times where you know you would try different, you know, harmony, or you know, it'd be it'd be really good, but oh that sounds great. And every time I can remember every time that I would focus on that sounds good and I'm doing really good, I would immediately have a voice crack or like during like during the service, or you would you would do it wrong, or you'd get in your head. Like it's never, it has never turned out well. So that's been a long time since that's happened. Now I just get voice cracks because I start crying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, I think that would take some getting used to, like being on stage and wanting to be, you know, good at what you do, but also remembering this is for God and for the worship setting. So just interesting. Because no no one can talk about that unless you've done it, like you have. Me and Britney haven't led worship on stage anywhere before.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, I did many years. No, I'm just kidding. I'm never surprised, no.

SPEAKER_00:

Whoops. I spoke too soon. Apparently, Britney's a no I'm a sway.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Just for the record. During worship. I don't even know that I'm doing it. But I am a sway.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm more of a listener. I take in words to stuff.

SPEAKER_04:

Like Oh, I have to sing. And I I mean, I hope that sounds good for the person in front of me. I hope I'm not really.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll sing sometimes. If I'm I don't know, sometimes I just like to just listen. Like I'll be in the back and I'll just like listen into everybody together. I like I'll sing too sometimes, but like it's more of me taking in lyrics. Lyrics are important to me in songs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's in glad you brought that up. That's very important. The when the worship team prepares the set list for Sundays, we don't just choose any song. You know, we really, I mean, there's a lot of things that go into it. We think about what is the message about, what is the theme, where you know, where are we in life right now, that kind of thing. So we focus our set list on the words of the song. What are the words of the song? Is it is it elevating us or is it elevating God? Um, and so that's how you also as a team cut out songs from your playlist. Not that they're bad songs, you know, but not every song on the Christian radio is considered, in my in my view, this is my personal view, a worship song because it's to me a worship song is how many times is it speaking about God versus how many times it's speaking about me. If it's constantly like I'm in such and such, I'm this, I'm that, you know, no, God is, God is this, God is that, God is worthy, God is glorified. So, so that's it's very specific to when it comes to the words of the song and why we pick them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And so, but I mean, if it's if if a song is not a worship song, that's still not a good song. Like you be Christian a song and still listen to it and still enjoy it for different moments in your life, but specifically to worship God, I think it's gotta be a certain a certain type of lyric, certain kind of if you want to sing it at church on a Sunday morning, we're here to praise God, not talk about whatever else might be going on. But I think that's important to know.

SPEAKER_04:

There's different styles of um it makes me think about VBS. VBS, our worship was wonderful. I mean, I really, really enjoyed that. And I think the kids really enjoyed that too. But I was thinking about I was standing in the back and trying to videotape, trying to take pictures and that kind of thing. And there were two different songs, one was praise, which it's a great song. I love that song, and just hearing all the kids felt that song at the top of their lungs, like together and with Michael's lighting, you know, all of it together. It was just amazing. It was so it was so good. Like it it definitely moved, moved me, and I think you guys did the blessing.

SPEAKER_01:

We did. Yes, I still remember that.

SPEAKER_04:

That was that was awesome. Both of you up there, arms stretched out, singing that song over all those kids.

SPEAKER_03:

I think I actually might give it a right now. Yeah, that was incredible.

SPEAKER_04:

First of all, if I die, play that song at my funeral. Okay. Everybody knows that now. Yeah, that song is amazing, anyways.

SPEAKER_01:

There's something about see right here, it's a spiritual weapon. To me, when I'm declaring, like for instance, the blessing, I'm declaring a spiritual blessing over these kids and over our congregation. We just sang it last Sunday too. Yeah, the words of our mouths matter. So in our in our worship, we're we are literally praying protection and blessing and future over those kids.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, it was it was an incredible moment, movement. I've experienced that at Friendsgiving as well. Friends giving all those kids together. I don't know how it was this year, obviously, but the year before, so many teens in there worshiping together, and I thought that was amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, worship for me, music wise, I can only really get into it. Like to worship God through music and song, I have to be with a group of people. Like I can't just I don't really listen to a lot of Of Christian radio when I'm in the car or worship style songs. It's just on my own. It's just not, doesn't I? It's not for me. It's not how I like to do things. But I do love a worship setting with a congregation or a huge group of people. Growing up, I'd go to camps in the summertime. And it's some of my favorite memories of some of the songs that we would sing together, and I just hearing the whole, like, you know, a thousand kids singing the same song and it's praising and worshiping. It really, there's something to it. And that you can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, I think.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

In a room where people are all united and they're singing to God and they're praising Him and It's genuine and it's real. You can feel it. And that's when you know you get the emotions start to fill in. You gotta be careful with emotions sometimes and feelings and stuff. But I think those are true, genuine feelings when you can do that. And so for me, worship has always been I enjoy it at Friendsgiving or in a big setting like that, or on Sunday morning, sometimes when you know it's it's I can stand back and listen to all the people together. So I like worship that way. I I don't really do it on my own through music that much. I'm not really that sometimes I do, but it's not like your typical worship style songs. Like you can worship God in so many ways through different different things. That's my kind of my experience with worship as a whole. Like I'll lay raise my hands up in the air once I'm in those big settings, but usually I'm like more of a sway back and forth, keep, you know, taking it in, just processing listening to it. I'm still praising, I think. I'm still worshiping if I'm not showing it on the outside. And you can just taking it in.

SPEAKER_04:

And so if that's not for you, I would say like you know, if you haven't tried specific postures or there has been times where I'm like really feeling the song, you know, and maybe I'm just like swaying, and I will just turn my hands over in like an open and I have to put them back down because I'm like, oh, I'm now I'm losing it. Like I'm crying so much. Like it's like too much, too quick, and I'm in public.

unknown:

I put my hands back down.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's a big part because I don't know what that worship is. It becomes this personal thing with you guys, and then you realize you're around other people, and like sometimes which I'm getting better at now, where I'm like, okay, now this is like right in yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of self-consciousness when you're worshiping God in a group set and you're like, Well, what are the people like you can't help it? We know we shouldn't be like, Well, what are they gonna think if I put my hands in the telephone? What are they gonna think if I you know do this or do that or see this that I'm doing this when I'm worshiping? And so I think that's just natural. It is to but to get past that for some people is a big deal.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm like, Ashley, are you gonna scold me?

SPEAKER_01:

No, never, no, but that's I always want people to have the freedom to worship the way that they worship. Not in a you know, you know, not in a spectacle. Yeah, I use the word correctly. Um vocabulary is working on my vocabulary. Me too. Yeah, it's just not you know, it's not a show, but to just have the freedom that that worship can bring. But your hand posture, that that's it's important. Yeah. When I have my hands raised and my hands are you know forward and reaching out to God, that's a posture of I'm praising you, God. You are worthy, you are honorable, you know, I'm giving you all the glory. But then there's times where I have my hands down and I have an open. And that's the time where in my worship I'm focusing on God, fill me, fill me with your presence. And that that you do, you break down because the spirit is just moving and it's just you're encountering his presence.

SPEAKER_04:

It's like, whoa. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there are.

SPEAKER_00:

Usually when I lift my hands during worship time songs, it's because it's feeling God's presence. And I like to lift my hands and like I'm surrendering all this stuff to you, or like I'm I'm gonna do my best to give up what I want and let you just take it. And I'm trying to surrender myself to whatever you want, God. And so that's really powerful when you're singing a song that you know is about that, and you can kind of match the posture of the the worship at that time. So if you if you can't, if you've never done that before, if you never really let yourself just worship God and lift your hands or do something, you know, I would suggest not caring about the people around you and just focusing on you and God and and see what it does for you. Because I think there is something powerful about it that can happen uh if you if you let it. So, what else we're talking about in worship? We got anything else?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, do we want to talk about songs that are not your typical worship songs? Yeah. Or no.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure.

SPEAKER_01:

It's still worship, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like I said, you know, worship is a lot of things to many different people.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think you can worship through all kinds of different music.

SPEAKER_01:

Right here, Psalms 150 says, Praise him in everything and in every circumstance. So worship is obedience and and not an act of love.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, we were listening to music on the way here. Yes. And we were listening to songs about fear and doubt and not knowing if God put things in our life or not. And to some it could be, well, that's not you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Just because it doesn't sound like a worship song.

SPEAKER_04:

Pretty and with a bow on it.

SPEAKER_00:

Just because it doesn't sound like a worship song to somebody like who does worship music. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Just because it's not a Chris Tomlin song doesn't mean it's not a worship song.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm so bad at who people are that sing Christian.

SPEAKER_00:

Worship through all different types of songs. If it speaks to you and it reminds you of who God is and what he's done in your life, I think you can worship to it. I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I mean it it seems right.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, how we can't have everything in our lives all the time to be rainbows and sunshine. Yeah, and also be how do you want to word that? Like the typical things that are from God. But if I take everything and I seek God through it, then right? Is that the way you should say it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think it's like a big picture of worship. Of worship is a a a mind stuff, mindset. Uh you know, Paul says, This is your true and proper worship when you give up your life for God and you live your life as a sacrifice. And that can be all kinds of different things. Um worship God and having him on your mind. So when you hear a song that might not might not sound like a Christian song, it might not even you do something, you're at an event, or you over here, and it might not even be a quote unquote Christian, you know, thing, but you see God in it and you it reminds you of who he is and what he's done in your life, you can I think that's yeah, a worship type thing. I like I watch movies, I love movies. I watch movies all the time, and I'll watch a movie, and I'll be like, wow, I saw a lot of Christ in that movie. And there's no mint, there's not even a Christian movie. It's not like about like like I see like different things like that, and I'm like, that reminds me of God. Reminds me of how God deals with us or how God loves us or different things.

SPEAKER_04:

And so which is like kind of what I said, but in a better way. I'm just kidding. Well, I'm just trying to elaborate. No, you do so good at that. Yeah. Take what I want to say. He knows what I want to say. He's like, Let me help you, Brittany.

SPEAKER_00:

Sometimes I do that too much though, where I'm like, Oh, what you meant to say was this.

SPEAKER_04:

No, I'm sure everybody, like people, I talk like there's like three million people on this other end of the microphone, but I'm sure they're like, What is she trying to talk about? Cody's like, let me help you. Let me put it in English.

SPEAKER_00:

Brother's gonna go with you when you go places and translate for you. What she meant to say was this in a nicer way, you know. She said she didn't mean it like that. And you're like, Yeah, yeah, that's what it meant. That's what I meant by this.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, I didn't mean a way that way that. I know.

SPEAKER_04:

I know it always has love behind it, even if it's not so lovely. Well, I do think that we should encourage people to. I know we've already talked about church, but that's a big part of church. It is worshiping together in a group. I with music.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it's not just something that we do because we think music's cool now. It's something they've done since the early church. I mean, you have this all this in the New Testament, you know, in the book of James it says, Is anyone among you suffering? Then let them pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise, you know, and so sing praise songs. And then you have all these different scriptures from the New Testament and these letters that Paul writes, Ephesians 5 19. Address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. This is like something that's not just for our culture. Like music's been around for a long time, and they've been, you know, even in the Old Testament, you see in Psalm 50, like Ashley referenced before, all these different different ways. And so even Psalm 150 says this praise him with the sounding of trumpets, praise him with the harp and the lyre, praise him with the tremble and dancing, praise him with the strings and the pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals. So, like we're all we're like full orchestra right here, like in Psalms, like praising God with your whole all all you are through music and through sounds, and so and all this different things. And in Matthew 26, Jesus and the disciples, when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. So Jesus is singing hymns with his disciples and just like praising, praising God through this, all these different so I just like, yeah, music's a big part of who we are. It's a big part of who the church is, I think. And so, and like if you're not a musical person and you don't like to sing, you can still take it in and listen and just absorb and be like, pay attention to the words. Tell listen in that time to what God's trying to tell you. Because I know some people are like, I don't like to sing, or I don't really don't it maybe not be your thing. And that's okay. Which another question is like, what do you do when you go to a worship service and they play a song you don't like? You're like, that's not my song. Yeah, you're like, and then you gotta really remind yourself to be like great.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's right here. It's not worship is not based on our circumstances, it's based on God's worth. So no matter what, wherever like I've even gone to other churches before, and like, oh, I don't know this song. I can't, I don't can't feel like I can't worship. It's not based on me, it's based on him. It's based on what is what has God done, not if I like the song or not.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I had this question of how do you maintain a posture of worship even when the musical taste is not what you want it to be, or the song isn't really what you like. And then you gotta remind yourself it's not about me. It's about worshiping God or bringing him praise. And and you can still do that even if it's a song you're gonna do.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I feel like now we have so many genres of Christian music that it's not all the same anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true. There's a little bit of everything for everybody.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You like metal, you like rock. There's some Christian bands that are really good out there that you like. Disciple and Skillet. Skillet just came out with a new Christmas song.

SPEAKER_01:

I saw that. It's pretty that might not be for everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

It gets a little heavy at the end, but if you like that type of music, then you'd like that. Christian rap has come a long way.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, Christian rap. Jesus. I'm like bumping through Bell Mountain with the kids in the car. I'm like, okay, that's a little mud.

SPEAKER_00:

I always have. And when I was growing up, like Christian rap wasn't very good.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it was KJ52 thinking about it. Do not do not tell that story.

SPEAKER_00:

Do not drag KJ52 through the mud. He's great. He is good.

SPEAKER_01:

He's great. He didn't start off great.

SPEAKER_00:

But like cheesy Christian rap music, it was kind of like, nah. So it's gotten a lot. If you like rap music, hip hop music, there's all kinds of Christian artists that would be really good to listen to. LeCrae has come a long way. He's better than he used to be. KBNF is one of my favorites. And so there's just like all different kinds of different things.

SPEAKER_04:

It's a guy with a really deep voice. Is it Alex or something? It's that Matthew 1820 song.

SPEAKER_00:

I have no idea. Don't know that one.

SPEAKER_04:

Anyways, my kids love that song. It's very low. Like his voice is like Yeah. I'm like, oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, there's different types of styles music. It doesn't have to be a certain style. Like no style is in itself bad. Like rock and roll is not from the devil.

SPEAKER_04:

Rock and roll is wonderful. I do have a son named Axel, though, so I can't really.

SPEAKER_00:

It's all about what you make it and the intent behind the like no music by itself is not bad. It's what you do with it. And if you use it to worship God, then it's just fine. So yeah, I think that's a lot.

SPEAKER_04:

I think we did a really good job talking about music, which I didn't think I could talk about. I can talk about music.

SPEAKER_00:

Everybody loves music. But like I I just don't know. I can't talk too like worship. We need Ashley, yeah. I'm glad we had Ashley to tell us about what it's like doing that on stage and kind of that perspective of things. So but yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I will I will say that there are some times that you get as as a children's minister who also leads worship, you can get distracted sometimes because you're like, oh, did that teacher show up? Oh, did you know, did they run out of goldfish? Yeah. Did I remember to do everything? You know, so sometimes you get on the stage and you're like, wait, you gotta center yourself all back, you know, especially going from first service to second service because first service is so full. And when the congregation sings and it's so full, I mean the worship band loves it. And then second service is about well, this week is about like half the size. So it's still still good, but it's just not as full. And so sometimes it's hard to focus more because they're all spread out. We still love it, but it is, it's it's because when we come in the morning, we prepare ourselves, you know, we pray over you guys, we we prepare our hearts, we get ready, and then sometimes things will happen in between services and it distracts you, and you have to get up there and be like, wait a second, what am I doing again? Like, no, I'm I'm worshiping God. Yeah. So it is it's a it's a constant struggle and a battle, but I have passion for it. I will never give it up unless God tells me to. Um, but yeah, I love leading worship.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go. It was a good conversation, a starting conversation. There's lots we could talk about, I think, with this whole idea of music and worship and stuff. But this was a good starting point kind of behind the scenes of the worship team a little bit, which is cool. But yeah, that'll do it for this episode, I think. As always, if you have suggestions or comments and stuff, let us know. Uh you can email me at codyc at rush church.com. In the description, wherever you're listening to right now, you can click on the text button and you can just send us an encouraging note or a suggestion. And so, yeah, thanks for listening to Rush Hour. And I think we're gonna try something this time. We're gonna pray us out. I'm gonna say a prayer, and then that'll be the end of the episode. So this was a suggestion we had from one of our listeners. I thought it was a really good one. He was like, maybe you guys should just pray at the end, and that'll be a like a good stopping point each time. So we'll start closing with a prayer. I think that'd be good. So let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for these opportunities that we have like this to talk about you, to learn about you, to grow together. I thank you for worship. I thank you for music. Thank you that you give us that gift of listening to people sing and their voices and instruments and just uh all the creativity that you've given us to be able to use to worship you and praise you and and give thanks to you. So we're just blessed with that. And uh, I just pray for all those listening that you be with them. You open their eyes and give them opportunities to go closer to you, uh, love others around them. And we just thank you for Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. All right. Thanks for listening, guys. That's been Rush Hour this time, and we'll see you next time.