What We Have to Offer

Last Saturday we played at a small church service. It was mostly focused towards an older demographic, and we had a very simple setup. It wasn’t ideal, but it was appropriate for the venue.

I love stripped down sets. They offer a totally different feel to songs we know so well, there’s a lot more room to be creative with the instrumental parts, and there’s less to setup and tear down. They’re wonderful, but it’s harder to manage volume levels. We still had a large room to fill, and few instruments could be adjusted for volume. The ones that could didn’t run nicely through the soundboard that usually resides within arms reach of me. Not a problem, I can just scurry back and forth between the main speakers and the pews, unless the service starts shortly after setting up.

The service started, and after we played our first song, I was a bit frustrated. The sound levels weren’t right, and I didn’t have to be with the congregation to know that. But there really wasn’t much I could do about it, acoustic guitars only play so loud without amplification.

As I sat there in frustration, I began to look around the church at all the church-y decorations. The stained glass, the altar with the opened bible, the cross, the giant organ, and several other things were scattered around the sanctuary. It quickly reminded me of what we were doing in a church we’d never been to before. Like all those decorations and things around the church, our music is there to bring glory to God. Our purpose is not to have the perfect mix, and even if it were an objective, achievable thing, I would still never get it. That isn’t the point of us being there. We’re there to share of an awesome God who loves the least of us.

The same lesson appeared the next day. We were playing for a morning church service and I was having a couple of issues. Afterwards though, it was clear that the concert went great. Many people were telling us how much they enjoyed the music and that they loved having us there.

We aren’t traveling to share our musical abilities with the world. Not only do we have nothing new to offer the world musically, but music isn’t the most important thing we have share. The love and salvation of Jesus is.

Sunday afternoon we led a youth event for high school kids, and through that concert everything clicked. These kids were truly worshiping! Not because we aimed big ol’ speakers at their faces but because of where their hearts were. It was so clear that they were being moved by all of the messages given by the verbal transitions, the drama, the testimony, and the mini-sermon. On top of that, each and every song tied the message together so beautifully.

The message of that night is the only reason our teams got together for a year in the first place. That message is of redemption from our brokenness through Jesus, of salvation by grace through faith, and of the undeserved love we have from our savior. This is what we (we humans, not we CTI) need to remember as the most important thing we have to offer.