Pressure Cooker

  I don't pretend to understand how much stress today's worship leader is under.  Here's to you modern worship leader.  (me raising my coffee cup)   You are expected to play not too loud, not too soft, not to rock, not too gospel, not too country, not too traditional.  Smile, be friendly, virtuous, inviting, outgoing, charismatic.  Be on your game every single week.  Make a rag-tag team of volunteer musicians sound like a tight, professional sounding band.  Use sparsely trained volunteer tech teams to achieve unrealistic, ridiculously ambitious productions - on a weekly basis.   Mentor and even pastor the people under your leadership.  Maintain and replenish the volunteer staff.  Research new song ideas, new equipment, put together holiday programs, special events, write new music, teach music, network, settle disputes.  Maintain your marriage, family time and often a full time job elsewhere because you are receiving a small stipend or volunteering your dang self.  If you are lucky enough to serve at a fiscally robust church, you may be actually be paid a competitive full time salary.  Which only elevates all the above expectations.  

  This makes me kind of glad I can't sing.  I would not want to try and fill those shoes.  Oh and don't forget, this is a ministry that for some reason, satan loves to target.  Maybe because he is all too familiar with that weakness that seems to plague every talented worship leader.  PRIDE.  Sometimes the line is blurred between confidence and pride.  If you start to drink your own kool aid, you can fall into the trap.  

  I know this makes it sound like it's all bad but the pursuit of the Lord's presence is an immensely rewarding task.  I would venture to say it's worth all of the stress.  The bottom line is if you want to know how to to really serve your worship leader pray for them, pray for them and keep on praying for them.

All things to all men? Part 2

   Trying to please the masses, churches will sometimes try to be something they're not.  You may have seen a retirement aged worship team absolutely destroying a modern worship song in an effort to to "be relevant".  And on the flipside the 22 yr old worship leader trying to put some jacked up twist on a hymn "for the older folks."  There are many talented worship teams that can do both really well but even Clint Eastwood would tell you "A man's got to know his limitations." 

  I think the same goes for the sound crew.  To that point, if you only enjoy classical music and an occasional polka romp you may not be the best suited to help create a guitar-driven rock sound for your church.  If your sound person is not musically inclined whatsoever it may be impossible to accomplish everything you desire.  People that never even listen to worship music outside of church can't be expected to re-create the sound in a church service.  I would love to expand on this subject more but it deserves it's own post so I'll save it for later.

  The bottom line - we need to be of one mind and have the same goal if we are going to be successful in a ministry that can't hope to please everyone.  Don't worry about pleasing everybody, please God and the rest will fall into place.  When Paul said he was all things to all men, it was his method to find common ground with anyone and everyone so that they could hear and receive the gospel.  I don't think he tried to please everyone in the process as evident by the amount of persecution he received for his efforts.  But he was faithful and fulfilled his calling with obedience to the end.

Unequally Bloked?

 Should you have a non-saved person on the worship team?

 Should you have a non-saved person on the tech team?

  This subject has been covered a lot in  resource sites pertaining to the worship ministry but it seems everyone has a differing opinion.  And not that you asked, but I am going to throw in my two cents.

All things to all men? Part 1

Mmmm, donuts and fish!

I don't know about you, but when I try and please everyone I usually please no one.  Yet worship leaders today are often expected to try and appeal to every demographic out there.  You have culture, age and the huge variety of musical tastes that a worship leader will attempt try and satisfy.

  Sound teams can also be expected to please everyone.  Some like it loud, some people's teeth hurt if the volume is above 80db.  Some just want to hear the vocals and could care less about the instruments.  Some don't believe in having electric guitars and drum sets in the church but "tolerate" it for one reason or the other.        

I made the team?

I pity the foo!

Hopefully you are coming to the realization that just because you might sit in a booth all the way in the back of the room and hide behind a console or computer screen, it doesn't mean you are off the hook.  You are no longer that mysterious guy who knows what all those pretty lights and buttons do.  Yep, you are on the team.  The team that helps God change lives for generations, forever.  The team that helps people not just learn about God but helps them experience Him.  The guy (or gal - whenever I write guy, I am thinking (or gal) in my head, ok ladies) who is responsible for people to hear from God.

Spirit and Truth

(My first guitar, 1983 Gibson spirit)

John 4:23  New International Version 
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks


I have to admit before taking a worship class from the local "mega-church" (which was awesome BTW) I had always passed over this verse as something I already had a firm grasp on and needn't consider any further.  I thought Jesus simply meant that we should worship with a spirit of truth when we worship God.  In other words we should be sincere and forthright in our intentions.  Which of course is good but that's not at all what He is saying.  He says God is looking for people who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Does that mean he wants us to worship Him in our spirits?  In our truth?  I don't think so.  Simply put, our spirits and our truths (on their own merit) aren't worth squat.

So whose Spirit?  Whose Truth?  Or is it more like Who is Spirit?

What is worship and who's on the team?

 I'll go to any and every worship/tech conference or training that I can and have attended the local "school" of worship because I want to know true, authentic, spirit and truth-filled worship for myself.  I am a junkie for worship leading, church tech, guitar playing blogs and I follow a quite few of them.  Most of them being Christian bloggers and most of them at some point cover the subject of what worship truly is.  I also listen to podcasts from worship leaders from around the world and something bothers me about the prevailing perception of what is worship and who is considered a part of the worship team.

Epiph

  A long time ago my pastor said in a sermon that he had something just short of an epiphany - it was more of an epiph.  I loved it and I am shamelessly stealing it.  Thanks PB.  This is the origin of my epiph.