Guest Blog: Brian Rush Pt. 5

Good Monday morning to everyone. I trust your weekends were great; we had an awesome weekend here at People’s Church!

Today, we are going to continue our look at worship and what it looks like at People’s Church. A question that we get asked many times is: How do you do praise and worship in a diverse church with so many music styles, genres and preferences? Everyone ready? Good, let’s dig in.

Before you even get into music styles and such, you must look at the example you set for your church every week. What I mean by this is: Do you only worship to songs that you like? What kind of attitude towards worship have you built into the DNA of yourself and your church? Do you ever talk about it from the platform—that worship is worship, no matter the song or genre? Let’s be honest, all of us have certain preferences that we like more than others, but the fact still remains that my worship is not dictated by a song, it is an outward expression of an inward commitment and love for God. The more people that understand this truth, the more harmony you will have in your church.

Musically, our sound has definitely evolved over the past 5 years. When we first started, it was me playing keyboards, leading worship, running sound with my right arm in between songs, a drummer and a couple back-up vocals. As we have gone along though, there are some things that we have always tried to do:

1. Make the stage reflective of who you are reaching. Our church is a multi-cultural church, so our band should be multi-cultural. This has been the case, literally, since the church began, and it will always be part of our DNA to be a multi-cultural band. If someone comes to our church knowing we are multi-cultural and then everyone on the stage looks the same, that doesn’t really make sense.

2. Make the song selection reflective of who you are reaching. Don’t be afraid to try some different songs and music. We try new stuff all the time (some work, some don’t). There are some songs that just naturally work well for a corporate worship setting (all types of genres), and some that don’t work at all. I try to look for songs that can easily be sung along with and are pretty easy for people to learn. Some songs we do are more difficult, but that is not the rule.

3. Be true to who you are. I realize I can only be Brian Rush, so I don’t try to be other people or worship leaders, etc. What this does not mean though is if you already know rock that you only do rock or if you already know gospel, you just do gospel. It simply means that I know I cannot sing like Fred Hammond, but I can certainly work really hard to learn his music (and any other music) and expand my musical repertoire. What is so amazing about a multi-cultural band is that you have people from all different backgrounds and specialties that come together, and as you explore where each person fits best, you develop a sound unique to you. The challenge is to take all these creative individuals and lead them to the united, unified vision of the church. This is not always easy, but the end result is worth it. You and the band members have to be committed to a lot of communication, flexibility, willingness to learn and adapt, etc. I know I am still learning and growing in this area, and I so appreciate my team allowing me to lead them while I’m still learning.

Before I leave, I must say, People’s Church, you all are awesome!!! Thank you so much for always being behind us and supporting the vision. Your passion for worship and specifically for worship in a multi-cultural church is amazing.