1. Keep in mind that our Sunday service is a foyer environment. That means that not only do we want to provide a place for believers to worship and learn, but we also want to provide an environment where someone can attend church for the first time and have such a great experience that they want to come back. We call it being sensitive to the “folded arms” principle. Outsiders often come to church with “folded arms.” A funny video clip and a top 40 song can immediately release one or both of their skeptical folded arms. Very few of us have ever laughed every week at church, and/or heard a top 40 song that related to the message or theme of the day. Remember, we want to create a church that unchurched people would like to attend, so on Sundays our focus is on making outsiders feel welcome. Foyer simply means, that if you relate that to a home, the foyer is the place where people stand while they chat, and begin to get to know you.
2. We want to create an environment that is familiar to an outsider. When a person attends church for the first time, we want them to recognize the feel of the place. They may have never been to church, but they’ve been to a concert. And most of the concerts they’ve been to are even louder than Origin! So when they walk in and see drums and guitars, and when they feel the bass thump them in the chest, they immediately get a familiar, welcoming, and positive feeling about the place.
3. We want to make sure the average person (who is uncomfortable singing) can sing and still feel like no one can hear them. Let’s face it, lots of people don’t sing in church. Why? Because they don’t sing well, and they know people around them can hear them. And usually the lights are up so high that they know everyone can turn and see who is singing so badly. When the music is loud, people tend to sing more and forget about the people around them, because they know no one can hear them. And with the lights low, no one can see them either. Louder music actually encourages people to sing.
3. We want to maintain a volume that makes the band comfortable. We have some of the best worship leaders and musicians anywhere around here coming to Origin, and we do that intentionally. We like presenting people a variety of worship leaders that can use their gifts to take us all one step closer to Jesus. It’s almost as if we have all of these worship leaders as adjunct parts of the Origin Church, because they ALL believe in the vision we are trying to accomplish. They fit our fabric. In fact, can you imagine what heaven will be like in this regard? We want them to play like they mean it, and that means letting them rock it. Because if the musicians are comfortable, then their music is going to be even higher in quality.
