Worship is a vital part of the recipe of The
Alpha Course. The big question is: How on earth can you ask a bunch of people
to worship a God they don’t believe exists?
If the main purpose of the
human race is to be worshippers, then worship must be at the heart of our
gospel message: worship and evangelism go hand in hand. Plus, we are the church, we worship, and it’s what we do! And people know this
about us. When people come wanting to find out about what we believe, we don’t
start pretending the things we really value aren’t important to us. That would
be lacking in authenticity. So we don’t need to try and pretend we don’t love
to worship, because we do. However, we do need to stop and think about how we
introduce people to worshipping Jesus.
2) What are we doing when we worship?
When we lead worship we are using the gift of
hospitality. We are being hosts of the Holy Spirit and helping to create an
environment where people feel safe and relaxed enough to bring their prayers
and song before the Lord.
BUT! This is an awkward behavior. Particularly when leading worship on Alpha, you should get comfortable with awkwardness! The best way to prepare for this is to sit down and watch 10 episodes of The Office in a row. This will help you get completely relaxed with the idea of awkward silences, strange looks, and moments of embarrassment.
It is important to keep in mind that the people you are most concerned about like the truck driver at the back who probably only ever sings in the shower, often are the ones with the most surprising and positive responses. So though it may not feel like it, worship can play a large part in people’s experience and enjoyment of the Lord. It is a noble aspiration and worth tackling the awkwardness.
BUT! This is an awkward behavior. Particularly when leading worship on Alpha, you should get comfortable with awkwardness! The best way to prepare for this is to sit down and watch 10 episodes of The Office in a row. This will help you get completely relaxed with the idea of awkward silences, strange looks, and moments of embarrassment.
It is important to keep in mind that the people you are most concerned about like the truck driver at the back who probably only ever sings in the shower, often are the ones with the most surprising and positive responses. So though it may not feel like it, worship can play a large part in people’s experience and enjoyment of the Lord. It is a noble aspiration and worth tackling the awkwardness.
3) How to introduce worship on Alpha?
The aim is to introduce worship both gradually
and sensitively - a couple of songs for the first few weeks. A key governing
principle of the Alpha course as a whole is respect for the individual. Don't
force anyone to do anything with which they feel uncomfortable.
We introduce worship on week one of Alpha. The course leader should introduce the evening with a welcome, a joke and the schedule of the night. Then he or she will introduce whoever is leading worship on the course. Here is a recommendation on what the leader should say to introduce worship:
“In a moment we’ll have a time of singing. People often ask, ‘Why on earth are we singing on the first night of Alpha?’ At the end of the course we ask you to fill out a little questionnaire to help us run the course better. Two of the questions are ‘what did you enjoy least’ and ‘what did you enjoy most?’ Time and time again we get them back and the thing people enjoyed least was the singing. People write ‘I hated the singing on the first night; it was terrible’. For the question ‘what did you enjoy most’, people write the singing, “By the end of the course I found my voice had a purpose, I love the times of singing.’ The strange thing is that these are not different people; they’re the same people! So in a moment we are going to sing. Please just be yourself, stand or sit, sing or don't sing; do whatever you feel like.”
Then the worship leader stands up and we recommend this little joke: “Hi, my name is ______, I am your worst nightmare: I am a Christian and this is a guitar.” And they roar with laughter, because it’s true!
Then say, “Would you like to stand, we’re going to sing together…?” Sing two songs and say, “would you like to take your seats.” That’s it.
We introduce worship on week one of Alpha. The course leader should introduce the evening with a welcome, a joke and the schedule of the night. Then he or she will introduce whoever is leading worship on the course. Here is a recommendation on what the leader should say to introduce worship:
“In a moment we’ll have a time of singing. People often ask, ‘Why on earth are we singing on the first night of Alpha?’ At the end of the course we ask you to fill out a little questionnaire to help us run the course better. Two of the questions are ‘what did you enjoy least’ and ‘what did you enjoy most?’ Time and time again we get them back and the thing people enjoyed least was the singing. People write ‘I hated the singing on the first night; it was terrible’. For the question ‘what did you enjoy most’, people write the singing, “By the end of the course I found my voice had a purpose, I love the times of singing.’ The strange thing is that these are not different people; they’re the same people! So in a moment we are going to sing. Please just be yourself, stand or sit, sing or don't sing; do whatever you feel like.”
Then the worship leader stands up and we recommend this little joke: “Hi, my name is ______, I am your worst nightmare: I am a Christian and this is a guitar.” And they roar with laughter, because it’s true!
Then say, “Would you like to stand, we’re going to sing together…?” Sing two songs and say, “would you like to take your seats.” That’s it.
4) How to select songs?
If you look at the fifty top songs your church sings, they will fall into two loose categories: objective songs, which are songs that describe who God is and the goodness of the Lord (ex: He is good), and subjective songs, which are songs celebrating how we feel about God (ex: I love You, Lord).For the first few weeks, we recommend a mixture of well-known hymns and contemporary songs that are objective. Subjective songs, like I love you Lord, don’t make sense for a non-Christian to sing the first night of Alpha. But a song about who God is, in a way, is teaching the guest about God and they come away knowing a little more about God than they did before.
By the weekend away, begin to introduce some of the more personal songs from church life, as people now have an understanding of what a personal relationship with God looks like.
Click here is a selected songs list >>
From then on we tend to repeat this stuff, with perhaps a couple of new songs that are coming through the church at the time. We try and keep the songs in step with the course, so ‘Here I Am To Worship’ tends to come the week after Nicky has spoken about Jesus being the Light of the World.
We used to just lead with one acoustic guitar and voice, maybe with some percussion thrown in, to avoid over-complicating things. We now use a well-rehearsed band, as the group is a bit too big for just one guitar.
People often ask us what should we do with a small Alpha Course, if there are just ten of us in a front room. Of course there comes a point where it is just not practical to do worship, but if you can do something to reflect the values I’ve been talking about here, it will really help ground people in worship. Perhaps see if you can borrow a worship leader? Perhaps play a DVD or song, or have worship playing in the background, just to introduce people to the concept of worship.