Worship Leader Series: It's Rising Up

The Rend Collective Experiment, Bangor, Ireland:
Worship Leader with Chris Llewellyn
 

WL: Tell us a little about your worshiping community.
CL: Rend Collective Experiment was born out of a student church movement called “REND” founded by our drummer, Gareth Gilkeson, and a couple of our friends. REND was aimed at the 17-30s age group: a demographic who are often disillusioned with church and faith as they move out of the safe Christianity they learned in youth group. The harsh realities of adult life collide with their assumptions about what the Christian life should look like and what follows is often the abandonment of faith completely or a wounded and cynical approach to church. REND was then all about finding ways to keep ourselves from falling prey to this kind of negativity and encouraging each other to stay passionate for the kingdom, engaged in mission and in love with the Church.

WL: In the new landscape of the worship music industry, the model for “success” seems to be more of a communal approach to creating music than a single worship leader front person. Why do you think this approach is resonating with worshipers and/or your specific community?
CL:
I am so glad of this paradigm shift in the worship scene! I think this approach resonates because it reflects God’s dream for the Church to operate as a body with many different parts forming a cohesive unit—it’s the way we were meant to worship. The individual “worship celebrity” model, which has prevailed up until now, was based on a secular singer/songwriter model that I don’t really think meets the needs of the church, or in fact, even the worship leaders. We get better results when we pool our resources and gifts, but beyond that, we become healthier, less ego-driven people when we live and work relationally and not in isolation. We love the family approach to worship and I think the more the church service feels like a living room and less like a rock show, the better.

WL: How important is it for worship music to have a connection to a living, breathing, worshiping community? And what are some ways to make sure that connection is happening?
CL:
I think it’s critical. The role of the worship leader is a service role: providing the music that a congregation needs to help them connect with God. By definition a service role requires a group of people to serve in order to make any sense. A rockstar doesn’t need to be attached to a community of people to achieve his goals, but a servant does. Worship music is at its best when it is written to meet the needs of real people in real situations and is at its worst when it is a collection of abstract ideas, with no thought of service or relationship.

WL: How has the online world and realities of new media affected your music ministry?
CL: Technology has changed everything for us in terms of methodology. One of our lead singers was not in the same country as the rest of us when we were recording our album demos, but we used the Internet to transfer files back and forth so he could sing on the tracks without us ever having to share the same landmass. We also have made a video, “Worship on iPhone,” in which we play a full band version of “How Great Is Our God” using only iPhone apps. The fact that this video has received over 250,000 hits on YouTube is also another indicator of the power of new media, in terms of spreading ideas and music. The dispersion of our music and message owes a huge debt to Internet technology.

WL: What do you see as the future trends in music globally?
CL: It’s hard not to notice that, certainly in the UK anyway, folk is the new emo. (as our drummer Gareth has often said!). There are banjos and mandolins everywhere, and I think this is the trend that will dominate the scene for the next two years—Sufjan Stevens and Mumford and Sons have a lot to answer for. After that, who knows? Style constantly changes with fashion, but people will always gravitate towards great melodies and lyrics that resonate, regardless of the packaging.

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