Bob Hamp

I have been at Gateway Church for over four years now.  I can only remember two times I heard our worship band make an actual mistake.  Amazingly, one of them was my fault, and I was sitting in the auditorium.  The guitar player had borrowed a vintage guitar from me, and it had some fret problems. In a song featuring a single note lead, the guitar line just died.  

So…Four years , three months, two mistakes, one of them the fault of some guy in the congregation.   I began to think one day…and this is what I pictured.  The worship leaders must show up every week-end and talk about every single mistake they can anticipate.   They must point out to each member of the team where they are likely to blow it, and point out multiple ways to avoid this potential mistake.  Don’t modulate downward, don’t count eight here…they must painstakingly line out a whole range of the pitfalls that lay before them each week-end and rigorously plan how to avoid each and every train wreck.  You think?  I don’t.  I can’t think of a more destructive way to plan a rehearsal.  Focus on the pitfalls, plan to overcome them.  

Amazingly, this is how many live what we have come to call, “the Christian life”.  Lessons on how-not-to-sin.  Lessons on what to do-when-we-sin.  Dallas Willard refers to this as the Gospel of Sin Management, which is of course no gospel at all, and certainly not the message of Jesus.  

So picture this; each person shows up and is given their song list.  If they do not already know their part, they talk through each persons role, function and contribution.  Only acoustic here, screaming lead guitar there, soft keys and a gentle female vocal, then build to the crescendo.  As each person is encouraged to know their role, and given clear direction, the complexity of a group of individuals becomes a single entity.  Rough spots may be noted and overcome, but the focus is on each person fulfilling that purpose and role that they fulfill in the band.

We are here to be re-presentations of the Nature of God, deposited in us.  I guess we could work hard at avoiding sin, but somehow it seems much more freeing to learn how to become the person I was created to be.  Focus on the target, not the obstacles.  Relax a little, enjoy the ride.

Once again all photos by the Amazing Jillian Hamp, who plays her part well!  Click her name to see more of her amazing work.