CHANGES

The group has been struggling with worship.
There are 4 of us in the worship group, plus one other working the overhead projector makes 5.
Sometimes, allowing for late arrivals, there are 3-4 young people only in the 'congregation'!
Some of them - especially the guys - are a bit self conscious to sing along.
Last week, we started the Alpha course. I remembered some of my Alpha training from previously in the UK. In the early weeks of Alpha we had just one guitarist, three songs and no 'open worship' because, many attending were un-churched and just not used to it. I realised that, this was the problem. The majority of the group (of about 12-15 number) either, don't go to church or, have just started attending. So, everything is very new & different for them.
This week I implemented change to the worship. We had just one guitarist, I encouraged (made) everyone sit on the front three rows and, we switched most of the lights off except, the ones right at the front over the guitarist. I had also primed those who do usually go to church to make a lot of noise singing & clapping. After all, scripture tells us to make joyful noise unto the Lord (Ps 98 & 100) rather than to be expert singers!

Anyway, it really worked. Several people made positive comments including several of the un-churched members.
As the course progresses and we all get more used to each other and singing together, then I will slowly move us from simply singing three songs to worship. Soli par solim (step by step).