so why do we do that? worship music

Why do we do what we do at GFMC?  Let's think about worship music this week.

Sundays are a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The practice of Christians gathering together for worship on Sundays began solely because Sunday was the day of the week that Jesus was resurrected.  Since our times of gathering are meant to be a weekly celebration, our music is upbeat and energized.  We aren't at a funeral and new life is nothing to mourn, so each Sunday is designed to lift our spirits and keep our feet tapping to the beat.

During their gatherings, Christians have historically used the predominant style of music of the culture they live in.  In fact, John and Charles Wesley, from whom we Methodists received our heritage, wrote new lyrics to express the Christian faith and sung them to popular bar tunes that the people of England already knew.  That's right!  BAR TUNES!  Imagine writing Christian lyrics to Beatles' tunes!  That's what the Wesleys did in their day.  At GFMC, we strive to follow in the Wesleys' tradition, using a style of music and the same instruments that you hear used by your favorite current bands.  After all, we want anyone who comes to us for the first time to know that we are serious about serving others, even with our praise music!

Every church struggles with issues of tradition and what to do with them.  At GFMC, we believe that the worship traditions we cherish should be broad and few so that we can be more flexible and adapt more easily to new opportunities to minister and serve.  Here are the worship traditions we hold to:

1) We will give worship to Jesus through music.  Yep, that's vague, isn't it?  Exactly!

2) We will be relevant with style and sound, and adapt as necessary.

3) We will bring fresh life to timeless truths of Scripture by adding new songs regularly.

4) We will use Scripture as the 'final word' of whether a song is appropriate or not.

5) We will strive for quality, giving the best of our abilities, time and energy.

That's about it!  Pretty simple, huh?  Simple is good!  We hope you enjoy giving praise to God through the music of GFMC.

Next week, we'll think about our Sunday messages.