Tuning Up Our 11AM Worship!

Friends, for the past few months our Director of Music, Jason Yon; our Director of Children’s Music, Sherry Boswell; and our Pastor, Doug Cushing, with the support of the Worship Team have prayerfully been assessing our 11am worship service. After 12 years of roughly the same worship style it’s time for a tune up! Among the initial conclusions that Jason, Sherry and Doug have made are:

• Music needs to be central, not peripheral, to 11am worship at Tyger River Church.
• Those who participate musically in worship are not merely offering a gift to God. They are leading worship.
• Music at 11am worship should conform to our mission: Upward – with excellence toward God; Outward – with sensitivity to seekers; Inward – inspiring and blessing the congregation.

Currently 11am worship at the Tyger is best described as Blended Worship. Typically Blended Worship attempts to be contemporary while maintaining a core of tradition with the hope of keeping everyone (traditional and contemporary worship fans) happy. Typically the ‘blending’ of worship is focused on the music choices.

Going forward Jason, Sherry and Doug have been particularly drawn to a movement known as Convergence Worship. Convergence Worship is best described as the merging of the historic and the contemporary in worship. However, the focus in Convergence Worship is not on blending two musical styles. The focus is the blending of traditional and contemporary elements of worship around a central theme.

In Convergence Worship Sunday prayers may take a historic form like a litany or a more contemporary form like a conversation between two people. In Convergence Worship Scripture reading may be read, dramatized or sung. Convergence Worship blends hymns, praise songs, choir anthems, ensembles and children’s voices on any given Sunday.

The transition to Convergence Worship will be gradual and will not feel profoundly different. By emphasizing the blending all elements of worship (not just music) around a central theme, the worship leaders seek to meet this goal every Sunday: to connect acts of worship with everyday life so that seekers and disciples fully encounter Jesus Christ and joyfully offer themselves back to the Lord.

Going forward the worship team needs the Tyger River church family to step up by offering your gifts to God in the following ways. We are looking for people with musical, dramatic or artistic talent willing to periodically offer your gifts in worship or worship planning. Please take time to fill out the attached survey and return it to church office or the box on the welcome center table.