SO N GWR ITI N G MUSIC
T I P S //
BY
J E R E M I A H
J O N E S
WRITING WORSHIP FROM A REVIVAL HEART
I
’ll never forget the experience of leading worship for close to 1000 college students crammed into a hot and sweaty warehouse just off the campus of Clemson University. It was the late ‘90s and we really had no business calling
ourselves a church, at least a respectable one anyway. The warehouse was an upgrade from our previous humble beginnings, an elementary school cafeteria. From the school we decided it would be a great idea to have church in a bar. So thanks to South Carolina blue laws, Charlie T’s was closed on Sunday nights and allowed us to schlep our gear in and set up shop on concrete floors that were still sticky with beer from the previous night. As our little ragtag group grew, we moved to a hotel ballroom and then on to the sweaty warehouse nestled at the foot of a large, earthen dike that held in the waters of Lake Hartwell. But it wasn’t so much the novelty of doing church in a bar, or the cool factor of being in warehouse that made that experience so special. It was the idea that being a church had nothing to do with external things, like buildings or how we dressed. It had everything to do with a collective hunger we had for the very real presence of God. The euphoria of singing song after song, people lining up and down the aisles to take communion, seeing my friends on their knees in repentance—that was truly, without any hype, a revival.
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