Holy Week (Tuesday) – What’s a “Prelude?”

Church’s speak a foreign language! A visitor might ask, “What the heck is a prelude?” or, “Is the anthem like our nation anthem?” We ASSUME that our visitors know the lingo of our church. WRONG ASSUMPTION! How would you feel if you were invited to someone’s home for dinner and the periodically talked amongst themselves in a language you didn’t understand? That is what our churches do every Sunday! It is time we think seriously about how our worship services begin.

We use to have no music until the pianist played the one-song prelude. We now have “Music Welcoming Us to Worship.” Worship music is played through the sound system for twenty minutes as people arrive. The pianist plays one song just prior to the start of worship.

For Easter, our choir director wanted the choir to process into the sanctuary singing an Easter anthem to begin worship. We have a wonderful choir for a church our size. Most choirs have a difficult time staying on key and in time while processing. After all, the vocalists are a LONG way away from the piano. Do we want the first thing that God and our visitors hear to be out of tune and not in time? Aren’t we suppose to give God our best?

Well, our choir will begin worship singing that wonderful song from the front of the sanctuary. We will be giving God our very best… and it will sound better!