Worship

 

 

 

For several years I have had the blessing to sing on the Worship Team at Radiant Church. Besides intimately praying with some of my favorite Sisters in Christ worship is my very favorite time at Radiant. We have been blessed with an amazing Worship and Media department, our Worship Pastor and the associates in that office have such a heart to serve and praise The Lord. There is something so powerful when the right combination of leaders work together in Christ, and we have been blessed at Radiant for sure.

I could go on and on about corporate worship and how powerful it is to sing with the congregation at Radiant, however my thoughts are a little different today. 

 

During the last several weeks, Gary and I have been participating in a church wide fast. We have been focusing on making more time for God in our lives. Gary and I have been fasting our lunch hours and dinner time several times a week to feel a more profound hunger for God. During my prayer time and fasting time I have learned to journal and write things down. I don’t know if it is a change or shift in world events but I have had this powerful heaviness on me and somehow it always leads back to corporate worship. I feel like we are missing it. I’m not talking about my church I’m talking about churches in general. I love to check out other churches web sites and watch services from local community churches and even nationally known services. I saw something really strange the other day, I was watching a service from one of the local churches here in the Springs area and these two worship leaders were singing and it was great but there was no glory to God, no praying no scripture just two people singing very well, not to mention no praise to The Lord. I thought this was so strange where was the worship of our King? I actually watched the entire service to just see if I missed the praise, but I didn’t. That worship set did not even involve Christ it did however involve two great singers and a fantastic band.  Just this past weekend we did something fun and played with the lighting in our own service, I did not think anything of it but afterwards I realized it was a possible distraction for those who had pressed into Christ and were in that moment with Him and here we are taking the focus off of Him and placing it back on us. Not our intention at all and thankfully my Worship Pastor addressed just that very moment in our rehearsal meeting. It was one of those moments that felt really good and we wanted to creatively honor God with playing with lighting, however those moments of well-intentioned creativity can be misinterpreted. I have also see a growing trend of a vocalist singing a well-known song and changing it up a bit. Is there anything wrong with this, absolutely not. But when you are leading a thousand people to sing a song and we the vocalist do our own rendition it’s a distraction, how can the congregation follow and sing themselves?  I myself am a huge lover of singing and dancing and shouting to the Lord but maybe I, with all my good intention of praising Jesus have also become a distraction. This is weighing heavily on me. I don’t ever want to be a distraction. I want my posture, my voice and my actions to exude Christ. I want the people at Radiant to feel as excited as I do when I get the opportunity to enter into his presence and worship him. With all my energy and excitement of the moment of exalting Christ, have I myself taken away from the Glory and Praise of Him and placed the focus on me?

 

I sing several times in this next month and I am going to change the way I worship a bit. I don’t ever want to be a distraction but I want to exalt Christ with every sound and movement I make. I am going to pray for focus and intention in worship, by following my leaders and not showcasing in any way. I want to be seen and heard by The One Who matters and not in any other form.  This does not mean I will not be having fun in worship, but I am going to be very intentional in listening to Christ, listening to the lyrics of the song and following His leading and not my own emotion with the music. I believe as a worship leader we walk a very fine line and in no way shape or form do we ever, ever want to be caught in a performance. As leaders in our church we will be judged on our actions, leading and teachings.  I am also going to make an intended plan to pray weekly for our corporate worship time,  my Worship Pastor and all other leaders and bandmates. This is so important and I have slacked off in this department over the last year. I am going to pray for our friendships to turn into family, our rehearsals to be Spirit led and for everyone to be over and above prepared for the moment of spontaneity. Above all my focus on prayer is for our Holy Spirit to lead us where He wants us to go, if that means ignore the clock then we will be prepared to do so, if it means for us all to bow and pray then we will follow His leading, I will pray for my heart and other leaders hearts to be God focused and that His words will be placed on the tip of our tongs. I’m also going to pray for a boldness to come from unexpected places, it’s time for my heart to be brave and opportunity to arise for me to lead again. I’m excited for this season at Radiant. We have an amazing Worship Pastor and team that are focused on honoring God, it’s exciting to see where The Lord is going to take us during this time of worshipping in Spirit and Truth.