Change… In Reverse…

Next semester, I have the opportunity of working under Greg Edmonds.  This will be a great experience due to the fact that Greg has been in youth ministry for many years now, even living in Puerto Rico for a part of that.  He has also been active in mission trips and relief efforts as well.  I most look forward to this opportunity because of his character.  I’ve gone to camp for years, seeing Greg on staff, and I’ve seen how much passion he has for this ministry and for the kids that he is involved with.

With this internship comes a number of opportunities as well.  I’ll have the chance to work with the youth group at Graham Chapel Wesleyan Church, I’ll also get the opportunity to help their worship team shift worship styles, and I’ll get to meet with the other youth pastors in SC as they plan for the upcoming camp next summer.  There also comes a little fear with this opportunity.  Graham is a very traditional church, who loves it’s current way of worship.  Currently it is two hymns, then preaching.  Greg told me that he wants to try and get closer to contemporary, as well as throw some talking and scripture reading into the worship time.

I was joking with Pastor Hall, telling him that Eden had spoiled me.  I’ve been going to Eden since I became a Christian, and since then, I haven’t really known anything different.  I barely know any hymns because by the time I got there, they were doing more of the 80’s style contemporary and the occassional hymns, but for the past three or four years, we have had split services, so I’ve not seen any hymns at all.  I did get the chance to lead worship at Eden, which was good, but that really spoiled me, because I pretty much had free reign with song choice.  I didn’t really have to worry about nobody liking what I chose, as long as it was contemporary.

I guess it’s hard to change what we know.  And now I’m making this change, except it’s like i’m changing backwards.  This change though is really opening up my eyes to a number of things.  For one, the more traditional people like to say they can’t worship to the contemporary style, and the contemporary people think they are wrong.  But if you think about it, don’t the contemporary people say the same thing about the traditional style a lot too.  This is something I’m beginning to face, because I was/am one of those contemporary people.  When I had mentioned to Pastor Hall that I had been spoiled by the church, he just laughed and said, “Now you get to see the real world.”  And when I thought about that statement, it couldn’t have been more true.  It’s almost like Eden is this fantasy church that I have grown to love and become attached to.  I really do think that this will be a good experience.

I had the chance to go to Eden last night for a worship service, and it was quite an experience.  I came to terms with how much I’m going to miss playing with the worship team.  Adam brought in a sick-nasty drummer and I’m sad that I won’t have the chance to play with them for a while.  I did see the traditional/contemporary battle at it’s finest though.  The contemporary team played the first song, and before they even finished that song, a few of the older people walked out of the church.  Then, the rest of the service had a sort of “Battle of the Bands” type feel to it, with the traditional team playing the next three songs and then the contemporary team finishing with two songs.

I guess this upcoming opportunity is just a bittersweet event.  I get the chance to learn from Greg, but also have to leave Eden for a while.  I think this will help me in the event that I have to leave Eden for good soon.