Day 4 Bethel School of Worship

After the worship (awesome) my first lecture was by Danno McCollam.  When this man speaks everything in me listens. He is the man I told you about that talks like the clappers.  He is so fast that there is steam on my pen as I try to write it all down.  Hi stalk was amazing.  I have now been and changed my classes so I will be in more of His.  He is so inspiring to listen to.  Here is my recording: I hope the sound is audible on it.

I have been recording his classes ask I cannot write fast enough to keep up.  In this class he was talking about redeeming sounds for God.  God says in psalm 150 that we should praise him on all kinds of instruments.  It says then the earth will yeild it's harvest and all the people on the earth will respond.  He said that our song has an authority over the earth and is linked to the bringing forth of the land. 

What power does your song have over your land?  His talk very much reminded me of one I heard Godfrey Birtil Say.  Maybe that is why I love his music so much: it speaks over the land. 

He spoke a lot about the responsiblity of a worship leader to lead people into God's presence.  He said that we need to meet the people where they are at, bring them to where you are at and then take them to where God is at.   He said:

• We need to go where the people are.  The best fishing is where there is loads of fish.  
• We need to abide in God in private so that we know when he turns up in church
• You need to know where God is leading His people.
• There is no point leading people to where the spirit is not at.
• Just like an ambassador in another country, we need to be ambassadors for God in the earthly realm.
• When an ambassador in another country you speak the county's language.  We have to do the same in the earthly realm.  Why not have music that glorifies God written in the genre or style of the popular music in that country or that generation?  
• Western worship does not reflect the music in the world.  You need to write worship music that is in the style of your country.  Don't copy, we are unique.
• When you sing songs written for your generation, or for your country, or for your church, you will see things shift more in the spiritual atmosphere.
• Sing a bout what you see around you, sing about what is happening in your church, sing the prophetic song over your country. 
• Sounds of your land will have the greatest impact on the territorial spirits of that land
• We want to write songs that make demons cry like little girls.

Then I went to Jenn Johnson's class on prophetic and spontaneous songs.  She gave lots of tips about how to lead worship in a magnifying and exhausting way.  How not to be miserable in our praise. 

• Instead of saying 'I am weary' .. sing 'You are our strength when we are weary'.  
• Even when you are not leading worship or are in the team you should still be praying over the church and leading them in worship by example.  
• We need to pray for our team and ask God to show you what their gifts are so we can encourage them in their giftings and place them in the worship team.
• If God gives you a prophetic word for someone and it is a rebuking word it is best to tell the pastor and get him to deliver the word.  Pastors are nice soft people, prophets are normally a bit loud and often don't have the tact.

Then I went to 'Finding your song' by Danno McCollom.   Yes 2 of his lectures in 1 day (in fact I went to 3, no wonder it is taking me so long to type up).  This was a great lecture explaining the different types of worship song and where to start to write them. 

I am really sorry to interrupt my flow but my room mate is doing stretches with an enormous elastic band and she looks so funny I really cannot concentrate.

Ok back to the flow.  His talk really encouraged me as I have already used some of his principles. He said

• The best place to start is with scripture (it is already anointed!)
• Music engages more of the brain and is really good at helping people remember scripture.
• Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, meditate on it and write from that.
• When singing the psalms find 2 or so hook lines to sing over and get the congregation to sing them between your verses.  It helps keep them engaged and you focused.
• Record your personal worship times so that if a song comes out you can capture it.
• When the church is given a prophetic word, turn it into a song and sing it over the church.
• Write down the themes of the most used 25 songs in the church.  Do they cover all the major theological themes?  Are there any gaps?  Do you need a song for that gap?
• Turn the main theme of a sermon into a simple song to sing at the end of the service as a response song.
• Write about what God has been doing in your life - it could help someone going through it too.
• Every song has a season - most songs take 6-7 years before they reach out over the world.  A lot of the 1990's revival were written in the 80's.
• Declarations have power and your church will rise to the power of the declaration.  Write where you want to be.
• Songs of lamentation need to rise to declaration.  "life is hard" - "Yet I can trust in You"
• Be a good steward of a song God gives you.  Work on it so that you can offer it back multiplied. 
• Write a song that people can run with you on.  Don't make it difficult for people to come with you... it will not bless them or God.

Next I went to a class taught by Kathy Vollottan.  She talked about how the devil plants seeds in your garden and you don't notice them until they are huffing great plants with deep roots.  She said

• we need to watch our garden so that we notice when the seeds not of God are sown.  
• Find out what God has created you to be and then be it.  Don't try and be anything else.  
• If you put a plant in the right environment it will grow, like carp in a large pond.
• In life we have to go through processes and if we try and rush or skip the process we will not turn out the way God wants us to.  Just like in how making bread has a process and if you skip a step you will get hard yucky bread.

 Quote of the day....

"Humility is not thinking less of you, it is thinking of you less"

My day was so packed.  I am only up to Dinner time now with still 2 more classes to write about.  I just want to give up now as one of the classes is another Danno McCollam class...

OK brief summery just for my husband who asked for details:

• There is a difference between a prophetic song and a spontaneous or spiritual song.
• There are 3 ways to sing in a  Ephesians 5 v 19 way.

1. Sing with no words at all, just sing a melody.  We practiced this in the class and the sound was awesome.  No tongues , no words just a melody.  It was awesome (so want to do this in church)
2. Sing with understanding: Sing out something like ' I love you Jesus' or 'You are King of Kings'
3. Sing in tongues.  This one brings more freedom than singing with understanding because it says in scripture that when you sing in tongues you unlock secret of the kingdom.

My next class was with Gabriel Wilson.  He was talking about his journey as a worship leader and how God had placed him in a church where the holy spirit was not present and how God showed him how to make breakthrough in his church in the spiritual realm.  It was awesome and he emphasised how important the language you use is.  He said that if you can find a scripture which talks about what you are asking the congregation to do it will help the people to setp out in it.

I was encouraged that he prepares for a Sunday morning on Sunday night like me.  Asking the Lord to show him where he wants the church to be the following week so he can pray into it all week.  He says that he prophesied over his church all week so that when Sunday morning came the spiritual atmosphere had already been broken through.  He said whatever time your pastor gives you for worship, be obedient to that but make sure that the time you have counts.  I also loved how he said he modeled how to worship from the front.  As he was from a non hand raising church he asked his band to raise one hand whenever they could, if they were not playing at all to get on their knees and pray for the church or dance or something to worship God.  He said to keep a prophetic journal so that you could see what God was doing and be ready to sing about it.  He said that as leaders we should tell the church where we think God is taking us so that they can expect it too.

God had been speaking to me all day with prophetic stuff for my home church.  It was awesome how he said the same thing in so many ways.  I am excited about getting home now and seeing God move in the way he showed me.  Bring on the glory Lord :)

And that was the end of the 4th day.