Worship is the most important thing that we do for God. It involves far more than just singing songs on a Sunday. It is about everything we are and everything we do. It means surrendering our will to His – completely. Having said all that, in the context of church worship, singing makes up a big part of it!

And what shape does it take at Cranleigh? Well, it’s:

Lively. We mix contemporary choruses from the likes of Soul Survivor and Hillsongs with traditional hymns – with a strong bias towards the former.

Loud. (at times!) We like the drums (as well as guitars, keyboard, violin, flute and trumpet!), and why not? After all, the Psalmists repeatedly call on us to ’shout aloud’ to our Creator.

And, most importantly, it’s:

Led by the Holy Spirit. We try to create space in a service in which God can speak to individuals, and the congregation as a whole, and draw people closer to Him.

‘The melody that God hears is of a heart that is living for him and loving his people’
Chris Tomlin (contemporary songwriter)

But, to try and define the essence of our worship, I go back to the opening  quote from Jim Elliott: ‘wherever you are, be all there’. To be ‘all there’ in worship, we inevitably find ourselves before his throne of grace.

There, we’re overwhelmed by the extent of his love and mercy. The focus is taken away from ourselves and we seek him in all his glory and majesty. Our only response can be to worship.

And our prayer is that we would constantly find new ways of doing this – during our services at Cranleigh. And in the rest of the week.