Ok, to be perfectly honest, I'm not a "rock out" kind of girl. As a matter of fact, the only time that I recall ever using those words together in a sentence was when I (proudly) told people that "My husband took all of the rocks out of the flowerbeds."
All that to say that I may use the term incorrectly. So let me tell you what I don't mean. I am not suggesting that you:
- ...trade in your I-want-to-be-trendy-but-not-look-like-I'm-trying teaching outfits for black leather pants and chains around your neck, including a ginormous glittery cross with enough diamonds to buy gas for ten families with SUVs for 20 years.
- ...stalk David Cook and convince him to come to your singles class to sing Billie Jean as part of a lesson on abstinence.
- ...get a fog machine going in a corner of the room, put the overhead light on a dimmer, and teach while you're standing in a spotlight.
- ...make "Jesus Rocks" t-shirts and distribute them to every class member, including little t-shirts for the kids.
Ok, that last one was pretty weak. And so was the one before that. But hopefully you get my drift.
All I'm saying is that it's a good idea to include music in your class someway, somehow. I've talked before about playing music before class starts, and I still stand by that, but it can be especially powerful to make music part of the class itself. For example:
- I used to go to a class that had a guy play the guitar and sing some worship songs before we got into the lesson, and we all sang along. I wouldn't classify this particular guy with the guitar as metrosexual, but he was still very good. Sometimes there were even bongo drums, which made us all feel very with-it and cool.
- I once led a Bible study in my home where we studied the lyrics of a different Christian song each week and looked at the Scripture that the lyrics referred to. The idea was to sing the song actually knowing what it means. After we were done we would listen to the song, but we didn't sing along because we were not with-it and cool and were afraid of sounding stupid.
Your choice of songs doesn't really matter, as long as they're Scripture-based. Maybe your idea of rocking out is a lively rendition of Rock of Ages - I'm cool with that. Rock on. Or you may lean more toward David Crowder or Delirious music. That's awesome too. Just keep it clean, my friends. Biblically clean, that is. (Ha! I crack myself up. An no one else.)
Just do me a favor and don't give the floor to a guy with a guitar that can't play. People will end up thinking, "Lord, come quickly!" and not for the right reasons.
Now it's your turn - what's a good way to incorporate music into a class?
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