We have had a weekly worship time on Friday for quite some time (it was suspended through August), though it's not quite what you envision above.

Let me be blunt about my view of the relationship of music to worship: music is not worship any more than wheat is bread. Wheat is an ingredient in bread, and in wheat bread the main ingredient. But wheat, by itself, isn't bread.

If it's about musicians sharing music, then it's a jam session. Those are fun too, one of my favorite things to do -- but it's not worship. Maybe that's exactly what you want: a jam session, where the focus is on sharing and learning worship music.

If you want worship, then the focus has to shift from the music to God's presence; where the music becomes the lens and God becomes the focus. Then you want to invite worshipers to lead others in worship. This can also be a learning time, but that wouldn't be the focus.

For this to work, you need to be very clear about what you envision, lead the effort, expect resistance and (some) apathy, go forward anyway, call and invite people to come, keep calling until they do, and when they do keep the focus on what the vision is. That's generally what it takes to do anything new in a church setting -- unless the momentum is already there.

My church has a monthly evening worship service that we call "Third Thursday" or 3T.  We do it in sept, oct, nov and feb, mar, april.  The summer and winter months are typically too busy to keep it going during those times.  Each service consists primarily of a time of singing praises, though there is also prayer, Bible reading, and a short (usually about 10 minutes) message.  I have to disagree with Richard above about music being only the wheat of the worship bread.  I do agree, however, that performance is not worship.  We may have one song that is a performance piece, but usually all of our music is meant to be sung and participated in by the attendees and the focus is squarly centered on God.  We enter His courts with praise, and that is the goal of the 3T services, to help each individual enter His courts by facilitating that praise.  Of course its a personal and individual journey, but the atmosphere, fellowship, and music is a catalyst for that.  Based on my conversations with attendees, may leave spiritually refreshed and recharged for the week. 

I strongly encourage you, Jennifer, and would be happy to talk to you about it more.  Thanks to dedicated musicians and staff, this was not that dificult to pull off, and attendance has been better than our regular sunday night service.  Additoinally, we have had more visitors during these worship services.  Also, we have started providing a soup dinner or tying in youth taco and spaghetti dinner fund raisers before, and this has really become a great mid-week opportunity for fellowship as well.

One other thing, we have always felt that quality is important for these worship services.  This is not an opportunity for everyon who wants to participate to get a chance to play guitar or sing in church.  In my opinoin, if the songs cant be done on a professional level, it would be a distraction and not conducive to worship or praise.

I pray that God will bless your efforts!

-m

Well put Richard,  I like where you are going with your input and would like to see more of the focus on God's presence.  I pray in our Sunday AM pre service prayer time for the manifest presence of God during worship.