It is an uphill struggle to undo the work of years of misguided thought - that worship stops when the music stops. At Encounter we aim to get rid of the ‘musical statues’ approach to worship - our worship must flow seamlessly from everyday life into our gatherings, meetings and between the songs we sing. To us it is important that people meet with God, are refreshed, recharged and bring Him a genuine offering of praise but that they then leave our time together, worshipping Him just as much as they were when they were singing. Their worship should flow into walking home, going to school or interacting with friends.

At Encounter we promote an atmosphere of freedom and an ability to express your worship in a way that suits you. If you enjoy singing, the songs are provided as vehicles for you to use in your worship. If express yourself better through creative arts, we hope that you can find your place in using those to glorify God, and if you find you connect more by praising God through reading the bible, praying or writing poetry then we hope you find Encounter open and accepting enough for you to feel free to do this.

Music and singing also plays a large part in what we do, as it is a very useful way of expressing our worship as a group. At Encounter we encourage creativity in worship music and a freedom that allows us to worship in a way that connects with this generation. We believe that our music is, in itself, an offering to God and that the effort we put in to preparing it and using our gifts is an act of worship to Him. Finally we also believe that music is only a tool used to help us worship and so it is ultimately disposable – meaning that style, volume and the use of music is essentially irrelevant as long as God is worshipped.