My time at Nexus is going to be SO valuable to so many other people as well as me. The knowledge and skills I will gain, and awareness of how to effectively put these into practice are going to be so priceless for my future. And this future isn’t just for me, it’s for the Church and everything God wants to do in and through me.
Simply put: my experience at Nexus will benefit more people than myself alone.
Our Biblical study classes, along with ‘Discovery Groups’ (homegroups) and being connected with local churches, are no doubt going to ground me even more firmly in the Word of God. I am SO in need of delving deeper into His Word, learning about it more (and remembering what I learn!) and figuring how to apply it to my life and my ministry. I know I won’t get it all straight away and there’s a lot to still learn throughout my life about the Bible, but I know that this direct teaching and more disciplined/productive study (as opposed to simply reading my Bible and not thinking too much about it) will be invaluable.
As I come to know the Word more clearly I will be able to involve this more in my life and experience, and share it with others. And who knows, one day this sound theology I gain may produce some songs (*gulp*) that you could end up singing in church!!
Musically, my skills are so far from what they could be. In learning different styles and techniques, and the theory behind it all, my playing will become increasingly more efficient (meaning I can improvise better if I mess up so it sounds like there’s nothing wrong at all!). This will also help in keeping musical worship in the church fresh. Personally, I think it is vital that we keep coming up with new and creative ways to worship God (through different mediums, but also within the musical side of things) as He is a creative God who remembers the past but is continually moving forward too. So I believe that, while traditional hymns are amazing (don’t get me wrong, there’s some I absolutely love!), we don’t have to stick to playing songs in the same style we’ve always done them in. For those of you who came to my fundraising Praise Party on June 1st 2011, you would’ve noticed we didn’t do ‘Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah’ in its traditional style all the way through. We started it traditionally and then moved into more of a funk style to switch it up a bit. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about – putting a new spin on a familiar song to keep it fresh, stopping some of us feeling like ‘Oh no, not this song again! It’s so slow and just drags. I just switch off. It’s so boring to sing so I don’t bother and don’t really think about the words either.’ I know I’ve felt like that before and I’m sure many of you may have too, and I really want to stop people feeling like this in Church! Church should be fun and we should enjoy worshipping our amazing God in amazing ways. And through the musical worship this can be so achievable and powerful when the band is versatile enough, and this versatility comes from the initial training in different styles and techniques, and the theory behind it all.
