This week has almost passed me by without writing about last weekend’s services. It was a solid weekend all around with a few potholes.
Our Saturday routine now is to start practice at 2:30p and rehearse for a good solid 1 1/2 hours until our 4:00p full production run-through. Saturday’s rehearsal road has produced a couple of potholes. We have been pushing for 25-30 min of worship each week, meaning around 5 songs. But to rehearse 5 songs in an hour and a half with the goal of keeping a high level of execution is proving to be a tough road to travel.
Rehearsal becomes like a touch and go landing strip for the songs where we touch on one song and go on to the next without really executing transitions, specific parts, or finding the groove. The goal is to get it “good enough.” That begins to bring a conflict of our principles when we want to execute at the best of our abilities. This isn’t our best.
So we are going to try fix this pothole by cutting down to 4 songs and keep a simple song like “Our God Reigns,” “Here I am to Worship,” ect.
Sunday’s will be the same routine even though the dynamic is different with having a Thursday night rehearsal where we go 2+ hours and have 2 days to put the polish on the song before the Sunday run through at 7:30a.
Okay, that wasn’t a reflect on the weekend other than that Sat was a little rough having 5 songs and an hour and half to rehearse. The Sat. team did a great job executing the songs with the rehearsal time they were given.
The Sunday team had the advantage with extra rehearsal and they sounded great on Sunday. I got the opportunity to lead on Sunday and the band made it easy to step into the lead worship role.
I am always weary of Monday’s after leading on the weekend because that is when we watch the service and every mistake is obvious. I was really encouraged with what I saw. I would say that it was the best Sunday and most fun I have had leading worship at Westside.
The set was:
Sing, Sing, Sing
What I Need (Troy Kennedy – No Recording)
In the Splendor
Be the Center (Vineyard: Hungry)
Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee
