Teaching about Worship

By Anthony:

Recently I was asked by a PAG pastor in Soroti to teach the church's worship teams about general principles of worship.  Drawing on my notes from seminary and experience as a pastor leading worship, I was able to put something small together.  I ended up teaching it at Soroti PAG main church, as well as our local church that we attend, Pamba PAG.  It was very much appreciated in both places.

One of the fun things was that Sara joined me for the two teaching sessions at our church, Pamba PAG.  At the end of each of the sessions, Sara taught the worship teams a new song.  The first time she taught them, "They will know we are Christians by our love."  And the second time, "Revelation 19" which is the "Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory" song.  The song has 3 different parts that are sung at the same time and it can be quite challenging.  What I found is that in another life Sara could have been a choir director.  She did a great job.  You would not believe how much fun these praise team members had.  They started timidly but by the end they were practically shouting.  Some of them were dancing or marching in place as they sang.  It was so fun.  We didn't get a video of that, but Sara got a video a week later at their choir practice when they tried it out again, much more calmly.

During the teaching we assured them that they don't need to sing American songs, that it is good to sing songs from their own culture, language, and style of music.  It is actually an issue that some Ugandans are wanting to only sing newer American songs and abandon the Ateso songs.  So we made sure they realized we were only teaching them new songs for fun and for appreciating what we can learn from the way other cultures worship.