Spontaneous Song [Al Gordon]

Ever tried singing a spontaneous song in a time of worship, only to crash and burn?!

I've had some shockers over the years, from singing out 'spontaneous songs' that are so tuneless and irrelevant, that the whole congregation seem to stop worshipping and start staring in astonishment, to trying to get phrases to rhyme only to realize that the word I'm trying to rhyme either only rhymes with very rude words. But for every time things seem to go pear-shaped, there are those sweet times when a phrase or lyric pops into your mind that seems to capture what the Holy Spirit is doing, and is picked up by the congregation and suddenly the whole place explodes, each person responding to God.

After reading the great thread in the forum, I've been thinking through the theory again. We want our worship times to be led by the Holy Spirit: we try and be those who 'worship by the Spirit of God' (Phil 3:3) in everything we do, from the way we choose our songs, to what happens in the times of worship. Our objective is to be a people who don't just make music, or sing to entertain each other, but to be a dynamic, responsive community that are a blank canvas for the Holy Spirit to create and lead worship in us.

There's a little classification of songs that Paul uses twice, which is very helpful for understanding this: 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs' (eph 5:19, col 3:16), meaning the Psalms (the Old Testament hymnbook), hymns (new songs written for the church) and the 'spiritual song', a song that is led by the Holy Spirit, inspired, released by cooperation with what the Spirit seems to be doing.

Practically, I wonder if there are lots of ways this works in our times of worship, including: making up a totally new song on the spot, or repeating a phrase, scripture together so that people can carry it and worship with the phrase. I find this sometimes works a little bit like giving a word of knowledge: you get a sense as you're leading of something the Spirit is saying to the church, and then you perhaps sing a little phrase off mic first, then if appropriate, on mic so that people can join in. Like all aspects of the prophetic, we need to do this stuff in community, in conversation with our friends ('what did you think was happening this morning?') and we also need to recognize that it's a learning journey. We're going to mess up, but we're not going to give up.

I also don't think we should get too mixed up worrying about whether something is rehearsed or fresh out of the heart, but rather the question is whether the Holy Spirit is leading or not. The most prophetic worship leaders I know lead you into that place of spontaneity because they spend hours cultivating worship on their own, and seeking to be obedient to the Spirit in private before they are in public. I have to admit I find this challenging - I'm so often at my most reliant on God when I'm on a platform doing 'ministry', whereas I should be just as open and hungry for the Spirits leading in the supermarket.

Other times, spontaneous songs can be little ideas that the worship leader has been playing over in their quiet times, but now feels like the right time to drop them into the congregation setting. For worship leaders to rehearse a little phrase or idea or song that God has put on their heart for the meeting, is a good biblical thing. Paul writes, "When you come together, everyone has a hymn..." (1 Cor 14:26). We should expect to bring songs that the Spirit has been laying on our hearts. Sometimes, the most prophetic spontaneous songs can be old gems that someone starts singing in a quiet moment at the back of the room.

The key is that we open wide our gathered times of worship to the in-breaking of the kingdom of God, that we step out in faith a little more, trusting that the Spirit will lead our worship. This will mean times of awkward silence, songs that bomb, but it will also mean a fresh dependance on the Spirit in our worship, and a fresh hunger to see Jesus glorified.

Taken from: http://worshipcentral.org/blog/al/spontaneous-songs