The Heart of Worship

What can we five young adults teach about music ministry to people who've been singing in choirs since before they were born? Apparently a lot, Massive Worship led an Encounter Day for the music ministries of Annunciation of Our Lord parish in Ottawa on September 26. Some of those in attendance had over 30 years experience singing in the choir. Still, they opened their ears and hearts to us and our message.

As musicians, we tend to place value on ourselves based on our relative musical abilities, being confident when we're the best at what we do, and thinking we're useless when someone else sings or plays better. It is a lie, but commonly believed without investigation. This lie leads only to pride and despair, and many people go through life not knowing there is another option.

Heather and April showed the music ministers the peace found in knowing your value comes from God alone. When you take your identity as God's child, through the adoption of Jesus' redeeming love, music, like any talent, is simply a gift to be accepted, exercised, and given back to others. Suzi explained true worship, that it is our response to who God is. And Jesse gave some practical tips for different ministry situations, i.e. Mass, youth events, Eucharistic Adoration.

The people at Annunciation responded graciously, sharing what they soaked in from the encounter with us. Rob felt rejuvenated, and joyful at the possibilities of a musical shift in the Church. Jeanette, a choir director, was pleasantly surprised that we were in line with the Bishops' liturgical Summer School she went to recently. And a high school student named Andrew, said he was filled with hope for his own ministry in Peterborough. He was inspired to find more musicians to join him in his band for Mass. I honestly didn't know what kind of change we would see in people over the course of seven hours, but I was blown away by their honesty, their hope, and their new spark.

God Bless

Sean Flynn
Massive Worship Band

NET at 40 days for life

Hey everyone! I'm Shayla Doucette (I'm on the left), I'm 18 and I'm on NET this year. I come from a small town called Alfred in Ontario, and this year I'm going to be on a parish team serving in the Smith Falls/ Perth Area in central Ontario.

Training so far has been amazing! It's been really intense, especially the first two weeks, I've learned so much about myself, bassicly that I am, a beautiful child of God. This brings me to what happened last week at the kick-off night for the 40 Days for Life in Ottawa, on parliment hill.

When the night started I wasn't really excited because I was tired and I felt like I had to be there. Then a few people went up to the stage to give some speeches, they all spoke to my heart. Everything happening that night challenged me to take the Pro-Life movement more seriously. After the talks there was a candle-lit procession to the Abortion clinic. The atmosphere the whole way was prayerful and peaceful. It was during this time that the Holy Spirit really flowed through me. I fell to my kneses, eyes closed, and I began praying the rosary. When I was done the rosary I couldn't bring myself to stop praying so I sang the hail mary to myself until I had to leave for my host home.

That night the Lord really showed me the unborn need our prayers. We have to fight for them even if all we do is pray. I just want to challenge all of you who read this to take an hour to pray for the unborn and to try to get involved with the 40 days for life. The children need your
prayers.

God bless,

Shayla Doucette
Team 5 Smith Falls/Perth

Massive Worship's First Gig!

Hello everyone, my name is Sean Flynn (second from the left,) and I am a NET Canada alumni from Arizona. I now work with Massive Worship band. Well, as long as you consider drummers musicians, that is. Our Massive Worship Band played publicly for the first time last Sunday at Divine Infant Catholic Church in Ottawa. For Mass and Eucharistic Adoration we led the people in about 15 songs, including the old favorite "Here I am, Lord" and new classics like "Your Grace is Enough."

We were advised that the church produces a serious echo, so using the full drum kit would have been an acoustic nightmare. Instead, I chose to play percussion with a combination of a snare drum, using brushes that produce a softer sound than regular sticks, and a djembe, an African-style drum played with the hands. I never practiced with that set-up before, so I let the Holy Spirit move me, just improvising while praying along with the congregation the whole night.

It went better than I could have imagined. The sound blended better than I expected, nothing echoed out of control, and the younger people in the Church really liked the sound of it. One young man active in the parish youth ministry came up to me after the prayer with a huge smile saying, "SNARE DRUM! AWESOME!" and gave me a high-five. An older woman we'd never met also came up to us as we were cleaning up, to thank us all with a big hug. That night definitely taught me not to be afraid of being unprepared when it comes to prayer, because God is always there, and he has a plan for each person's prayer experience. So I challenge all of you in turn to be open to the holy spirit especially when your leading whorship, you never know what the Lord has planned when you do.


God Bless

Sean Flynn
Massive Worship Band