Overwhelming isn’t it? Worship is a great calling unto the body of Christ. Worship is a great responsibility to the congregation, to the praise team, and to you. It’s hard to perform every single week, and feel satisfied. After you walk off stage, your mind starts racing about all the things that went wrong and it’s hard to focus on anything that went right. Right here and now I would like to carve out a quiet place to simply converse and meditate on some of the media that we all took in.
As a young worship leader, I often struggle with what Andy Park touches on as the “Ecstasy Factor” in “The Most Important Thing”. Andy hit me personally with two things that I could improve on, teach on, and pray about. “The Ecstasy Factor” is so amazing and fun. What more can there possibly be? We are standing in the presence of Almighty God, and people are responding. Indeed this is an amazing place to be, but we need to learn that, whether one person raises their hand or zero, we are going to serve the Lord. This also brings us to the second pressure point, “I’m loving people with all of my heart, I’m trying to serve people the best I can – And that is the most important kind of worship – (Andy Park).”
I’m having a hard time interpreting this next point of conversation. David Ruis states in “A Word to Worship Leaders”, that “If we really care about God hearing our worship, and receiving our worship – It’s got to be anchored to care for the poor.” We are so disconnected from third world poverty and America’s definition of poor is poisoned, and corrupted. I realize that I am young, and to be honest I want to grow in this area. I am especially weak in this because I work full time at a church and I experience firsthand people asking for help with their mortgages, heating bills, and gas for their cars while they are smoking a cigarette and texting on their cell phones. I do realize that there is a great need for helping the poor, but I’m not sure that I can completely jump on board with the previous statement.
Nothing has described worship as good as Brian Doerksens when he states that “Leading worship is the most sacred, delightful responsibility in the church.” That statement has been the most simple but accurate way of defining worship to me. He also goes on to say that worship leading is an “interweaving of being a servant, but yet brings life to you.” Servant sometimes feels like an understatement. How about kicking post or work horse? I’m just joking, but in reality it is hard work. Everything from setting the stage up, processing chord charts, transposing, spiritual teaching, prayer, and planning gets exhausting, but somehow God continually gives us enough life and desire to press on.
Lastly, I would like to touch slightly on Dan Wilts six great worship leader traits. This video is where the rubber meets the road for me. All too often, we get tons of general information that every worship leader should know, but that information isn’t always helpful. Dan’s careful preparation into each step helped me draw out what I was lacking in and what I was thriving in.
Joseph H Toft II
I work in our church office part-time. One of my responsibilities is to handle the benevolence requests. Sometimes it is extremely hard not to judge a situation. A person comes in asking for food, but using a really nice cell phone. I had to come to a point of realization that it is not my job to judge, but just to meet the need, if possible. In the last couple of years, my eyes have been opened to real injustice around the world. I feel responsible to do my part in answering the cry for help.