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Ten Recommendations
for Worship in InterVarsity
Conclusions from a study on worship

Matt Frazier,
Worship team director, Urbana^® 2000

 
Here are ten recommendations that flow from my observations and conclusions about worship in InterVarsity.

Student and Staff Values

1. Recognize the need for vital and relevant worship experiences. Don’t be afraid to give extensive fellowship time and leadership energy to corporate worship in its many forms.

Bolder, Broader Worship

2. Incorporate hymns into worship times. Update musical styles to be more culturally engaging. Talk about the lyrics of the hymn when introducing it to add intellectual content and expand the emotional range of our worship.

3. Consider issues of musical and lyrical style in worship songs. Most music that students listen to is built around a groove (rhythm is everything!) or distorted electric guitars. Encourage musicians to get to know and learn from non-Christian musicians on campus.

4. Encourage musicians to grow in their craft. For example, acoustic guitar players should learn basic fingerpicking technique, play more open chords, and become comfortable with an open tuning or two. Many guitar players should consider learning to play electric—and not just with a clean tone and acoustic guitar technique.

Keyboard players should listen to contemporary college music. Organs, strings, retro electric pianos (e.g. Wurly, Fender Rhodes), pads, and other sounds are widely used in popular music, but are conspicuously missing from our worship music.

More Ethnically Diverse

5. Strive for diversity of styles and leaders with unity of expression, experience, and relationships in worship. Talk about and explore differences in worship styles. Worship leaders should worship regularly with those unlike them.

Worshiping Communities

6. Limit musical repertoire at first. This will help worship leaders get comfortable enough with music to begin to worship as they lead. It will also help new people feel a part of the group and confident enough to sing, and it creates a sense of community from consistent, common experience.

7. Use worship resources across areas and regions. Students and staff from different campuses could learn so much from talking with each other about their experiences as worship leaders.

Teaching and Training

8. Provide good teaching on worship (Why do we worship? What does it mean? How does it connect with daily life?). If we don’t teach on worship, our chapter members will learn about worship solely by what they see (good or bad).

9. Develop a long-term plan for training worship leaders. As we would with Bible study leaders and other ministry teams, we need to put energy into mentoring and training students as worship leaders and musicians.

10. Affirm worship leaders. It’s an extremely vulnerable risk to lead worship—especially since almost everyone has an opinion about how it should be done.