Look… I’ve got two music degrees. I’ve played for thousands of recitals. I’ve seen piano majors lose their shit because of a botched run on a Rachmaninov sonata. I’ve put in who-know-how-many-hours in the woodshed. I understand that when it is “Go Time” that you want everything to go off perfectly.
You know what else I understand? The Law of Diminishing Returns. If everyone did their due preparation ahead of time, there is no need whatsoever to run your three-four song worship set 500 times. Once is fine. Twice is more than enough. “Practice is perfect” but it can also bleed the life right on out of the song.
A better use of the time – if you actually have it – is to take a section of a song and jam out on it. Give the band time to actually groove. Tell the singers to play around. Vamp it out and maybe give some thoughts to the meaning of the song.
Running down a song in search of elusive “perfection” ratchets up the stress level. Jamming out flips it over on its head.
You aren’t going to get good worship if everyone is too wound up to do anything.
Again… I’m not suggesting you adopt an “anything goes” approach. Paul warned about letting 5000 people speaking in tongues at once. That’s not going to look any better on stage set to music. Someone still has to lead… but you don’t have to adhere to a rigid format or aim for perfection. There needs to be chill time, too.
