How Great Thou Art

Wednesday night saw the start of something new. How Great Thou Art, a final year project for 6 of us, and an alternative worship event for the rest of Leeds, took up the challenge of showing a God of ultimate proportions to the world. It was done through more than just song. Split into 3 sections the evening moved closer and closer to a revelation of God, which many wished had never drawn to a close. It was something new in the face of worship begging questions of how should we worship God? Is it more than singing soft rock songs? and Why have I never done this before?

Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to try and explain why worship to God is not an isolated event in a day, but something that should be done continually, and consciously throughout our lives. The first stages being set out by this event I will share my reaction to it and first steps from that.



First the feedback:
Two main themes come from the people who attended, or who helped out. First was the venue and the other was the concept.

The venue, usually a place for drink and non-God-glorifying noise, became a place of worship; a church community from the North that made the evening take a different perspective. The floor space being used, not to cram in as many screaming fans as possible, but as a place for stations of various types of worship made all involved move around in a different way. Freedom to move, I think, helped come to terms with what was going on. As the band opened I felt 'You have a new freedom now.' What better way to open an evening knowing you have freedom to do what you like? The introductions from my video, and then Craig and Chris, put the whole evening into perspective, and, though it took a while for people to feel released, I could see, from the back, a real sense that they could worship God in this place. No holding back. For the Leeds Met students there I felt so thrilled for them; 'this is your university,' I thought, 'worship in this place, come alive, don't feel limited by your surroundings, God is so much bigger.' The evening unfolded and I knew that this venue should be used again because the reaction from everyone involved showed that the change of attitude towards this place was totally groundbreaking. Worshipping God through singing in your own university is only an aid to how we should worship God on our courses.

The concept was refreshing. This felt like a pilot over what was to come. God was moving, and is in Leeds, and the evening took a stance that said 'God is Great. Sing and worship, dance and draw, relax and mingle, here I am starting something new.' The band opening and closing the overrall event was like an easy way to draw people in. The majority of people there were used to a song and dance style worship - words on the screen and we follow the crowd. This is far from where we wanted to take it, and as the atmosphere relaxed, and people felt free to worship in their own way, through song, the second stage (that of worshipping God through the Arts) meant that the relaxation of starting with the comfortable and moving to the uncomfortable was taken in full stride and people began to get involved. There was no need for the stewards to make sure people were doing something, the delegates were finding people to enjoy the evening with and were naturally moving from section to section to section as the hour moved on. The atmosphere stayed, as well. In my experience, in the past, tries at this kind of thing have lost something in the transition, but this time was different. People were continuing their concentration on God the great artist and creator and the mood was only filled with excited people realising there was so much more to worship than singing soft rock songs (so that answers a question).

It's exciting, I'm excited, and the move forward in this movement, I cannot wait to see.