Get Real

This week I'm leading VBS Junior Highers through worship and it's been a blast so far. The students are with it and they seem like they really want to get in and have fun praising God. It's definitely nice to see them singing and being a part of the worship.

As a worship leader, I encounter experiences every week that are different and I want to be sensitive to those situations. Sometimes the place is rocking and the kids are engaged, just like today; other times, it's like people are waiting for something to happen and not with it, sitting on the sidelines of worship, despite standing right in the middle of the room. I know I've been there myself, as well, where instead of seeking God I'm waiting for a signal; some sort of event, cue, prayer, scripture...something, anything to magically help me to engage with God. I know there's a reason for it; often it's ourselves.

It seems like with all our hearts, we want to live that abundant life and experience that abundant worship, but we wait for others to take that first step. We're afraid of the people around us thinking we're bizarre if we really feel desperate and demonstrate that desperation to God. And the person who does end up stepping out either senses that others will not do the same and feel like a fool, or others will look to them for leadership and responsibility in worship they didn't sign up for. So everyone kind of looks around the room and wonders why the band is so loud as they perform the songs that are intended for everyone's worship.

Let's all think for a minute - we're in a church; a place where people generally come because they know they can't do life alone - a place where the broken can find restoration, where the wounded can find healing, and where the sinner can find salvation. ...and yet, we're weird if we think we really need God THAT badly to outwardly admit it and demonstrate through our actions our need for God and His leading in our lives. Our culture fights against any notions of dependency and submission; both of which are necessities for Christian faith to exist. If church should be different - and it should - we need to create, develop, and be the change; a change that says it's okay to acknowledge our brokenness, it's okay to be desperate for God's presence, and it's okay to let God set us free in worship.

I'm not saying you need to do any outside of what feels comfortable but we need to be willing to accept people within our church whether they're raising their hands, jumping up and down, or even deciding to sit in their chair or pew because they don't get "this Christian thing." It starts with us.

Worship Leader Training

Worship Leader Training – Session 2

Reflection

This session isn’t so much about the product of worship leading as much as the process. It’s important that our hearts and minds are in line with what God is doing and how He is cultivating us, as followers of Christ.

How we are spending our time, money, and energy – moving beyond the Sunday morning worship set and looking at the other 167 hours of the week – is a key question to answer. As I stated in the last session, it is not so much about what we’re doing but about what He’s doing.

What He has done

 

Now, I am going to be completely honest here: I don’t think I pray as much as I should and I don’t think I read the Bible as much as I should. I know I fall short from God’s standard. However, I so greatly desire to demonstrate God’s glory through how I interact with others: to be a support, to encourage others, and to use the gifts that I have to reflect Him in all ways. I know God well enough to understand that His grace covers my deficiencies, inadequacies, hang ups, and goofs. He accomplished that 2,000 years ago on the cross.

Don't forget Him

It sounds silly that we'd forget the God we serve but so often we leave Him out of the equation. When things go wrong, as I stated before, you can trust God and what He’s doing. It’s not ours to worry about. Worship leaders, pastors, and people in positions of authority can lose that. People look to them to lead; they look to them for answers and to understand certain events and circumstances. It is their job to be at their best - however, all pastors and leadership are subservient to our God; while everyone knows this, we can be so quick to forget. While I’m not saying that we can’t plan or execute or work hard to improve and equip, I also am saying that God is sovereign.

God told us to seek Him first – the vertical relationship is most important to Him. Nurture that relationship first. Then He said all the other things – conditions, relationships with others, belongings, comfort – will be given to us. There is nothing about our relationship to God that’s “set it and forget it.” It has to be a self-sustaining movement towards transformation, which is why the Bible tells us that God makes all things new. That statement includes Christians as we go in life; if my faith looks the same now as it did a year ago, I’ve overlooked something of great importance.

Looking Ahead

I apologize that this session has much of the same themes as the previous session. The first was an overview; Worship Matters discusses the similar themes in the first couple chapters, as well. In the next session, I’ll be looking at chapters 3 and 4 in Worship Matters and talking about how having a grasp on theology and musicianship are indispensable parts of worship leadership. Next week, we will begin to hone in on our responsibilities and how to apply ourselves rightly to the God we serve.

Some ideas have been inspired by the book Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin.

Worship Leader Training

In my new position, I have the privilege of helping disciple young worship leaders and I thought about how I could help them grow and learn about what we do on the platform and how to engage the congregation in fresh, new ways. I put together this little introductory lesson and, along with our talks, we're going through Bob Kauflin's book "Worship Matters" together. I figured this would be a great time to get back to blogging (it has never been my forte), and use our talks and reading together to inspire this part of my life more.

So often I don't spend the time to really think about what I'm doing and just do it, especially when it comes to time on the platform. I can get "in a zone," which can be good for me, but then what often happens is I put the blinders on and stop responding to the group in front of me; a group who wants, so desperately, to be led. Here's what I shared with these awesome guys last night:

Worship Leader Training – Session 1

In a nutshell

Helping believers connect with Christ in a tangible way, using:

1. Prayer
2. Readings
3. Meditation
4. Lyrics and Music
5. Multimedia

What we’re not doing

We’re not performers; performers generally have a set list, don’t have much interaction outside of the music, may occasionally share stories about their songs (i.e. invention, creative inspiration, an event) which can be good, but many times it is done for self-promotional reasons. We are to be Christ-promotional at all times. If we see ourselves as performers, we too easily get in the way.

We’re not the mediators; if we think we can be the channel or conduit, we will simply get in the way; we must be led by the Holy Spirit to make any kingdom impact. Christ is our Great Mediator. The Bible tells us he prays for us on our behalf, He took on our sin at the cross, and paid our debt once and for all. If we think our worship is enough for the congregation we’re missing the point of worship leader. We will burn ourselves out faster than anything that way.

What we ought to be doing

We are ambassadors for Christ in all ways and all times. We are to be living vessels for Him; living missionally, demonstrating Christ to embolden Christians around us and witness non-Christians to understand what Christ would look like if He walked with us today. Up on the platform Sunday mornings, our goal is just the same; but this time, we really do have the opportunity to put that to words and music. It’s what we do with that opportunity that helps worship leaders become “good” or “great.”

Matt Redman, Louie Giglio, and Paul Baloche have okay voices but they communicate the mission and vision of being Christ followers so well in their songs and with the words they speak that people will be able to find God in it; they are truly “great” worship leaders.

Do your best, forget the rest

We want to be able to help people find Christ and be encouraged when they leave to continue to live for Him. As much as we can rehearse, prepare, and pray, things sometimes will not go our way on a Sunday morning. We can trust though, that it was God’s choice; if we honestly can say that we made our best effort - when things are awesome, we give God the glory and when things seem weird or not in sync, we know that God just chose that route, as well. There’s a no lose, no stress situation for us. It’s a blessed place for us worship leaders to be in.

Free blog by Bob Kauflin:

http://www.worshipmatters.com/

Free Passion blog:

http://268generation.com/blog/

Free worship together blog:

http://blog.worshiptogether.com/