The Weekly Rehearsal

I remember a time when our church had no weekly rehearsals. For a while the only practise we got, was the hour before the actual service. Mind you, we had some very skilled musicians who somehow managed to pull things together at the last minute... but the hour before the service were mostly stressful and the songs were all done in the same old way as last time. No time to add any creativity.

Thank God we then shifted to weekly Tuesday night rehearsals. It was a huge step forward. From 7-8PM we rehearsed the AM service, then from 8-9PM, the PM service. To this day I can testify that many Tuesday nights are hard going. A lot of wrong notes are played, and the sound mix isn't always that good, and some vocal combinations don't work as well as we had hoped they would. But then, come Sunday, it's always a vast improvement from the Tuesday rehearsal. It's wonderful to see how much better things sound since everyone went home and practised their parts by themselves. Whenever we have a tuff Tuesday night rehearsal, I always tell the team; "Guys - this is exactly why we have Tuesday nights... so that we don't sound bad on Sunday."

We still use the hour before the service as a final polishing rehearsal. But after consultation with the group, we all decided to extend this to 'one and a half hours' before the service. This again was a step forward and helped raise the standard of the music.

Last year we introduced two more concepts to our weekly rehearsals: (1.)We got the music books out to the guys the Sunday before the week night practise. That way the team could look at the music before the first rehearsal. (2.) After a brainstorming session with the team, we decided to extend our Tuesday nights with 'half an hour.' This would allow us to have some "group time." - To listen to a devotional thought, sometimes to watch a related video clip, or break into smaller groups to share and pray.

The bottom line is this. Weekly rehearsals are essential to any church. It bonds a team together and it allows us more freedom to worship God with our instruments or voices, ~ because we've done all our preparation before the Service started.

Till next time

Worship Pastor Guy