[otc-wt-admin] Re: OTC Musical Repertoire

Amen Mike. I think many of us have had similar experiences while growing in the 
faith. When I first truly dedicated my life to the Lord, the church was a  
spiritual "hospital" for me. And it was the simple songs that touched my heart 
then; Oh Lord Your Beautiful, Light the Fire Again, I Worship You, All Who 
Trust, Change My Heart, I Stand in Awe, Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down... I 
could go on and on.

Of course since coming to OTC my musical tastes have expanded to grow to love 
the messianic songs, their particular music progressions and styles. When I was 
leading Worship prior to OTC I thought that Praise Adoni was a messianic song! 
Well, now I know better and I'm still learning.

I think you touch on a key element of worship in your "two cents" dialogue.  I 
tried to express this in our meeting last Saturday. While style is important, 
some important questions we should be asking ourselves as worship team members 
when we consider a song is "Does this song honor Yeshua and reflect the mission 
of OTC?". To do this it must:

 1.) Be scripturally accurate (not necessarily directly quoting scripture, 
though that is always nice).

 2.) Reflect the heart of OTC. The quote below is from our website.

You will notice a definite Jewish sensibility in our worship.  Shabbat 
services<http://olive-tree.org/page.aspx?id=88688> begin with the blowing of 
the shofar (ram's horn).  Our music is frequently from the 
Psalms<http://olive-tree.org/page.aspx?id=352983#Psalms> and includes 
traditional Jewish melodies as well as contemporary praise songs.  The Jewish 
roots of our faith in Messiah 
Yeshua<http://olive-tree.org/page.aspx?id=352983#Messiah> are important to us 
and we want Olive Tree to be a place where we can worship in a culturally 
Jewish setting.

 3.) Be constructed in a way that makes it "congregation friendly"; that is, 
easy to sing and follow for our fellow Olives so we can all praise Him together.

Is then every song that honors Yeshua and reflects our mission right for OTC? 
Not necessarily, but it must pass these tests first, before it should even be 
considered.

The brothers and sisters that put together out worship line-ups do an excellent 
job of selecting songs and finding a balance that works for OTC. When we 
consider a song to add to our repertoire, we are simply adding options to our 
song collection from which our arrangement masters can then choose.

Tom



  _____

From: otc-wt-admin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:otc-wt-admin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Hammond
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 9:43 AM
To: otc-wt-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [otc-wt-admin] Re: OTC Musical Repertoire



My musical background was largely formed while growing up Catholic.  My dad was 
the organist; I spent every Sunday morning on the organ bench surrounded by the 
choir and the music around me.  Interestingly, owing in part to my dad's 
background as a college DJ, the music gravitated away from classic hymn-type 
tunes towards relatively recent songs - a large chunk produced by the S.J. 
(Society of Jesus - A.K.A. Jesuits).  The songs were wonderful and uplifting 
and scriptural (and almost exclusively in major keys).



I fell away from church life in college and didn't return until being 
introduced to a seeker-sensitive non-denominational church years later.  They 
were all Contemporary-Christian, all the time in their worship, and I was 
captivated (it was the first time I EVER saw a drum set in a church!).  The 
worship team poured their hearts and souls into what they were singing, and 
that really helped draw me back into church life, and a reengagement with my 
faith.  Looking back with a decade of hindsight, I can see that some of those 
songs were... pretty shallow, spiritually.  But the music was fun!  
Compulsively singable songs got stuck in my head all day.  The format called to 
me, "Come see how exciting life with Jesus can be!  Be part of the joy of 
relationship!"



When we stopped growing spiritually at that church, we found OTC.  As a 
gentile, it took me a LONG time to be comfortable singing anything in Hebrew - 
it was just nonsense syllables for quite a while.  For many months, I'd sing 
the English, but just listen to everybody else when the Hebrew came around.  
I've come to appreciate the Hebrew much more, in part because I'm understanding 
better what it says.  I do believe that in many ways the OTC repertoire is more 
worshipful than most CCM - OTC seems to me to sing mostly about how great God 
is, not about how great I feel about being a child of God.  There's musical 
benefit, I think, in the latter approach - there's cause for great joy in the 
realization that we are saved from eternal destruction by a God who loves us.  
On the other hand, I can see how that rapidly becomes selfish - look how great 
I am because Jesus saved me - which is of course just wrong.



So anyway - my two cents.



Mike

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