Our first NavNite of the year was last Monday, and from a musical standpoint we had a few challenges. The room we meet in is currently being remodeled and just earlier that day that had put in some drywall. Because of the construction we had no sound equipment-no speakers, no moniters, no tvs for powerpoint and no mics.
Worship at that particular NavNite was "unplugged"-we had two acoustic guitars and a djembe (as well as some printed out lyrics for everyone). This is not the ideal setup for leading over 80 people in corporate worship, but we definitely made do. It helped that many of the songs were familiar ones.
One of the highlights of the night happened before worship even began-as we were warming up and practicing Abby Chi, the 6 year old daughter of some of our staff, danced her little heart out to the music! It was a powerful and striking reminder of what it looks like to be so caught up in and unashamed of our worship that we go for it completely and without reservation.
We opened with a single song and then had a five song set after announcements, which seems to be the setup that we'll be going with for the foreseeable future. Especially for the first few NavNites of the semester, we felt it'd be good to wait on having times of reflection or response.
Worship Set:
1. "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall-(G)
2. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman-(A)
3. "You Alone Can Rescue" by Matt Redman-(A)
4. "Lord, I Need You"-by Chris Tomlin-(A)
5. "Forever Reign"-by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(C)
6. "Everything"-by Tim Hughes (C)
When leading an acoustic set, it becomes very obvious very quickly which songs people know, which songs people like (i.e. sing along to), and which songs fall into both categories. When you have a sound system and mics, any songs people don't know or don't sing along to can be compensated for. Everyone can at least hear the music and the lyrics. However, without that "safety net" of louder sound, it can be a question of projecting so people can hear or a fairly awkward couple of minutes until the next song.
That said, an acoustic set can also lead to incredibly powerful times of corporate worship where you find yourself not leading the worship but participating as everybody sings together. Last Monday we definitely experienced that at various points, but it was undeniable during "Forever Reign" that there was something special/unique going on. No sooner were the first two words ("You are...") out of my mouth than I found myself not leading the song anymore. From the third word of the song ("good") till the end, the room was filled with everyone's voices as we sang about the truths of God's attributes and the response of our hearts to His love. "Forever Reign" is a song that is near and dear to my heart and I couldn't be happier that it's a song that people in our ministry have really latched onto.
Thematically, I wanted to start the semester just dwelling on our need for God-He is the one who rescued us, He will remain faithful to us, He is all we need, and He is the one that we must run to and make our everything. Jesus is the only answer-there's a reason we're focusing on Him this semester in our times in the Word together!
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