AndyRogersMusic.com - Blog

At the end of our set we did an impromptu version of Amazing Grace and a spontaneous song, partly in French - it was quite a charged moment!

I’m just back from Nice in the south of France. Shirley and I were leading a team invited by the local Vineyard church led by Alan & Sandra Gage.

Our time there coincided with France’s national day of music - La Fete de la Musique - and we got invited by the local town hall to be their musical contribution to this cultural event.

Now that in itself was quite a miracle! Sandra informed me that for a civic authority to sanction anything that had spiritual or religious element to it was unheard of in French culture yet they were willing to allow the local Vineyard church to bring in this little known Irish band to entertain the town.

It occurred to me that there were some striking similarities to the trip we made to Lithuania in eastern Europe last year. In both scenarios a significant door opened up for the church in the local arts, music scene and we got to be the first to walk through it.

So what do you do when faced with these opportunities? For me as a worship leader I’m looking for ways to lead people in worship so that they experience the presence of God even though they may not realize that’s what’s going on. The expectation is that we are there to entertain the audience but for me it has to be that and more.

So here’s what we do in these circumstances. We bring some music that has some Irish/Celtic culture to it, some cover songs that we like and infuse the set with some worship material that works in these contexts. And, where possible we get the crowd to participate.

One of the songs we do in these non-church settings is ‘Only in your love’ that Shirley & I wrote and, on this occasion we taught the crowd to sing the chorus in French. It’s a worship song that talks about searching for fulfillment that can only be found in the love of God - you can see a snippet in the video below.

We were talking about it on the plane on the way home and it was Karen, one of our team members, coined the phrase ‘Guerrilla Worship’ to describe that process of leading people into His presence without them realizing it.

I love the idea!

It’s part of what Jesus commanded us to do when he said ‘Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations’. Interestingly he didn’t say go and make converts but disciples.

The point at which someone exchanges their life for the Christ’s doesn’t have to be the start of the discipling process, people can experience the goodness of God as part of their journey before coming to faith and that’s where ‘guerrilla worship’ can help folks connect with the One who loves them like no other!

Anyway, enjoy these snippets of ‘guerrilla worship’ from La Fete de la Musique in Falicon, Nice in France.