Leaders, Ministry Leadership, Worship Leading, Worship Planning
Stop Comparing Yourself (Show #59)
#Overwhelmed (Video Below)
3 min read
Stressed Out?
“If we can turn back time / to the good old days / when our mama sang us to sleep / but now we’re stressed out.” (Twenty One Pilots) The secular song above contains a lot of truth. We get stressed, compare ourselves and get tired. Sometimes we think that if we can turn the clock back, there’s no need to keep up.Truth is, for the life of the worshiper, the Lord does not want us to step back. He wants us and has empowered us to move forward in faith. How can we overcome the obstacles and the lack of priorities to be become better focused His ministry, church and calling?
We conclude this week’s theme #Overwhelmed with one more example of how easy it is to compare and to become overwhelmed when our priorities get confused as worship leaders. We have looked at several examples of how we can become overwhelmed with the stresses of this world, but how can God turn our stress around so that we are overwhelmed by the mercy and grace of Jesus?
How often have you felt like you need to keep up with other churches in your area when it comes to lighting, production, introducing new songs, presentation software, audio gear, and the list can go on. Do you feel overwhelmed with trying to stay “relevant” to your community? What does that even mean? How do you stay fresh and creative, without falling into the trap of comparing your ministry to others?
Don’t spend time trying to keep up with other churches; spend time planning services that lead your congregation into worship. You lose focus when you care too much about what other people are doing.
Who Is Your Audience?
The tension here is that it is important to not fall into a rut, and become predictable and lack creativity in worship, while at the same time the focus cannot be on impressing people or other worship leaders with your “cool” services.In order to keep our priorities in order, it is important to remember who is the true audience in a worship service. When the church gathers to spend time in worship, the true audience is God, not the congregation.
The worship leaders are leading the congregation in corporate worship of the Lord. If that is the case, then our goal is not to impress the people with cool lighting systems, or the latest and greatest trends in other churches.
Our goal when we plan a worship service should be plan a service that uses our creativity and gifts God has given us to worship Him. Don’t stress out about impressing people, or other worship leaders, but instead keep the focus on designing a God-honoring worship service.
Theme of the week:
#Overwhelmed
Be Creative!
Having said all of the above, as long as the purpose is clear, our services should be the most creative, most high-tech, most culturally relevant services around. As long as the goals stated above remain the ultimate purpose, and as long as the focus remains on accomplishing that goal, the methods used to do that should include using all of the tools and technology available to us. Recently, we had a question submitted to us via SnapChat, asking how to “keep things new”.This is not the best question, though, because if we “keep” things – we are simply maintaining. The idea is to grow, not maintain. If you want your band to be better developed, things must change.
You can still have the same songs you’ve been doing for years, but honestly, becoming bored simply means that you are not growing. As musicians and artists, we are to be like trees, always digging roots deep and always spreading our branches upward to produce fruit to Christ.
It’s also about learning how to be inspired and to have God breathe new life into the old.
“It’s not worth trying to impress people, rather spend your energy to give worth to God.” @BranonDempsey
Be Patient. Be creative. Keep your head down.
What’s your Instagram moment of your worship band? You can never take the same picture twice. Creativity is key for making music new. There are colorful ways to add filters, cropping, and dimensions to your music. It’s learning how to see your music in a new way. What can you do to capture music in a fresh way?The best place to go for this is God’s Word. Go back to the Bible and try to match what you hear musically, to what God is saying Scripturally. For example, Psalm 40:3 says: “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” At first glance of this verse, we see the writer of this Psalm David, who exclaims a miracle God has done. He is on top of the world and is arrayed in wonder of singing a new song. This is a wonderful image: God’s glory, new sounds of music and colorful expressions of praise. Doesn’t that sound like an awesome worship service? The question is: how did David get there?
Let’s go back a couple of verses and you will find verse 1 of Psalms 40, David says: “I waited patiently for the Lord;” The problem is we have trouble being patient. As a band, we grow tired too quickly. In trying to stay relevant, and keep up with everyone else, we want to rip through new songs, overplay and race through the music.
Any great quality musician will tell you that patience is the greatest teacher. You don’t need to introduce a new song every week, or even every month.
Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
So, take your eyes off of what everyone else is doing, and keep your eyes on God and His Word. Use that as the basis for planning a powerful worship service that exalts the Lord, points people to Him, and challenges people from God’s Word. While you’re at it, use all of the resources available to you to do that in the most creative and powerful way. Don’t worry if you can’t do as much as the church down the road, or feel overwhelmed by your lack of resources.
Use what God has given to you to present Him with an offering of worship that is your best.
@BarryKWestman @BranonDempsey @worshiptt
WATCH SHOW #59!
Ever wondered what real personal worship ministry mentoring, customized to fit your needs, would look like? It’s not a one-sided-video, self-help book or a “here, you need to do it this way…” It’s something that’s more practical, yet nothing you can get from anything else. It came from God and He’s given it to you. Discover what Ministry Mentoring through Worship Team Training can do for you: Mentoring Program Copyright 2016 Worship Team Training®
