The Association of Disciples Musicians Meets The Way

By Greg Nunn and Chrissy Bird

The Way was privileged to be part of this year’s gathering of the Association of Disciples Musicians (ADM) in Tulsa. Our experience there was fantastic—inspiring, life-giving, challenging, reinvigorating—as we taught several workshops and led one worship service. Below are two reflections on The Way’s participation at ADM. Greg Nunn, ADM’s current president, wrote the first one about the worship service we led. Our own Chrissy Bird wrote the second.

By Greg Nunn
Using a guitar acoustical accompaniment to “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” brought the congregation easily into the spirit of the worship service. Then, I stood to share in the several unique worship experiences offered to us. I had a lump in my throat wondering if these diverse, respectable, educated, veteran worship planners would embrace the opportunities provided. Lighting candles? Certainly. Meditation while prostrate on a pillow? Possibly. Creating art? Maybe.

I decided I would be the lone dancer leaping with streamer sticks across the narthex. I slowly cracked the door to accept my fate and had to dodge a leaping ADM'er and felt streamers gracefully brushing across my forehead. Then another dancer twirled passed with joy painted on her face. I had to pirouette while grabbing for my streamers to keep myself—and several others—on our feet! I found myself actually rejoicing in dance! Soon I returned to the sanctuary where people were in worship; quietly moving between stations, sitting in reflection and prayer with crayons in hand, building stained glass, lighting candles, all sharing a smile and a nod as they passed.

I had comments from several people about how nice the worship experience was that Tuesday. I had several friends come to me and tell my they were surprised by how personally moving Tuesday's Emerging Worship experiences were. It surprised me too. The evaluation sheets have circles around 'emerging worship' with short phrases applauding the experience—lots of nice responses. One person expressed concern that ADM will continue to address contemporary music. There was however, one critique: the person liked the emerging worship, but said the crayons had to go. Personally, I was too busy dancing to notice.

By Chrissy Bird
Question or Statement: How Great Is Our God

“How Great Is Our God” was one of the songs that we sang as we led Tuesday’s worship for the Association of Disciples Musicians Convention. Wow – a room full of musicians praising God with their gift of song. The Way was honored to receive an invitation by the ADM to come join them to teach and lead this amazing group in a style new to most of them. The weekend was filled with incredible workshops teaching about Choral singing and music, Handbell ringing, Organ playing, leading youth in music, and also about the new comers – those of us bringing “Emerging” Worship.

Our own, Jennie Churchman and Kristal Seid, led many workshops covering the gamut of, what we prefer to call, Experiential Worship. Bringing Back the Easter Vigil, Special Liturgical Worship, Enhancing Worship with Technology – these are some of the 17 workshops that Jennie and Kristal prepared and presented during the weekend. I watched them in action as I participated in their classes – I cannot adequately express with words how proud I am to be associated with people of their caliber. It was truly a blessing to be able to say, “Yes, I am with them.”

After learning about Emerging Worship, 150 music and worship leaders came together to experience worship and as Jennie did what Jennie does best, the Holy Spirit was clearly present in that room. Some of the attendees were apprehensive, as the majority had never experienced this type worship before, and we weren’t sure exactly how it would be received. But we gave them a full-on The Way worship experience. Wow – did I say wow, ‘cause I meant WOW!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!! We sang songs – traditional, contemporary, and blended, we had a sermon on Getting Lost in Worship and then we did just that – with 6 prayer stations to get Lost in God’s Wonder, God’s Love, and in Praise.

We prayed by watching images of His creation and creating for Him a graffiti wall of images and words that came to us to thank Him for this gift. We prayed with Acrostics – writing a prayer to thank God for his Grace. We prayed with joyous music and dance. We prayed with traditional candles and silence. We prayed with the scents of anointing oil, reading the story of Mary washing his feet, preparing him for what was to come and thanking God for His willingness to give the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be forgiven. We prayed with mandalas, an ancient form of worship where a circle representing our whole self is colored and designed as we were by our creator.

The sanctuary was covered by grown men and women draped on the chancel and sitting on the floor – coloring! Opening themselves to God in ways they may not have done since they were children! But one of the most incredible experiences of all was the joint formation of our community mandala. When we planned out our service of senses and experiences, none of us could have imagined how beautiful this creation would turn out. Together we designed a tangible symbol of our community – a circle representing all of us, separately and collectively.

Traditional vs. Emerging Worship – Mindy Cunningham said it best when addressing our Christian Women’s Fellowship – neither is better… they’re just different. Both offer an experience with our Lord and I am so thankful that we were given the chance to offer an additional approach to enhance each one’s journey to the heart of God.

So, the answer is yes. How Great is Our God… it is both a question and a statement.
It is a question that we are asked by a world of believers and non-believers and a statement that we must show the world everyday.