because of jesus
Freedom & Confidence
As a worship leader I try to instill my my fellow servants in our church these thoughts about the two words, 'freedom & confidence' when preparing and leading our Sunday gatherings.
Freedom:
One of the joys of learning to live and work with God is the freedom to fail. We are given the freedom to try something new, knowing the grace that is there if we completely foul it up. But as well as this freedom, there needs to be a freedom to stop, to listen, to wait, even in the midst of a gathering. It would be quite easy to use accomplished musicians to create a slick, well organised and well run event, but what we long for is to meet with God and create a place where others can too, and to learn from Him, about living with Him and working with Him. We can strive for excellence in our musicality without compromising the willingness to be open to Gods leading and the freedom to wait on His leading in our gatherings. Our musical ability will in fact assist in this endevour to wait on Gods leading.
These two thoughts lead into two thoughts surrounding 'confidence'.
Firstly, as much as we're not trying to put on a slick 'show', our musical ability and compentence will assist in the leading of God's people into His presence to meet with Him, as it allows the musicians to focus on God and just let the music kind of happen. Afterall, we are 'lead worshippers' [as Matt Redman would say] and what we long for is that the folk on the other side of that front row would simply follow us as we enter God's presence together to meet with Him, worship Him, learn from Him and be changed by Him together. We should have no shyness in being confident in our musical ability.
As well as this, there is confidence in God. A deception we often believe is that God is somehow relying on our ability to do a great job for Him to accomplish His work [this does not just apply to us as worship leaders, but also in the Monday to Saturdays of our lives]. The truth however is this, how small and powerless would God be if us messing up stood in the way of Him accomplishing His purposes, God can turn all things to good and through Jesus, we can be confident that God will use our offering to bring glory to His name and work in peoples hearts no matter how frail or otherwise that offering is. Afterall, all our offerings are frail and flawed and even when we 'do a great job' our offering is still in truth flawed and frailand we are still completely reliant on Gods power to actually accomplish the purpose of changing peoples hearts towards Him and His plan for their and our lives and the work He has set aside for us to do for the advancement of His kingdom.
Freedom & Confidence
Freedom:
One of the joys of learning to live and work with God is the freedom to fail. We are given the freedom to try something new, knowing the grace that is there if we completely foul it up. But as well as this freedom, there needs to be a freedom to stop, to listen, to wait, even in the midst of a gathering. It would be quite easy to use accomplished musicians to create a slick, well organised and well run event, but what we long for is to meet with God and create a place where others can too, and to learn from Him, about living with Him and working with Him. We can strive for excellence in our musicality without compromising the willingness to be open to Gods leading and the freedom to wait on His leading in our gatherings. Our musical ability will in fact assist in this endevour to wait on Gods leading.
These two thoughts lead into two thoughts surrounding 'confidence'.
Firstly, as much as we're not trying to put on a slick 'show', our musical ability and compentence will assist in the leading of God's people into His presence to meet with Him, as it allows the musicians to focus on God and just let the music kind of happen. Afterall, we are 'lead worshippers' [as Matt Redman would say] and what we long for is that the folk on the other side of that front row would simply follow us as we enter God's presence together to meet with Him, worship Him, learn from Him and be changed by Him together. We should have no shyness in being confident in our musical ability.
As well as this, there is confidence in God. A deception we often believe is that God is somehow relying on our ability to do a great job for Him to accomplish His work [this does not just apply to us as worship leaders, but also in the Monday to Saturdays of our lives]. The truth however is this, how small and powerless would God be if us messing up stood in the way of Him accomplishing His purposes, God can turn all things to good and through Jesus, we can be confident that God will use our offering to bring glory to His name and work in peoples hearts no matter how frail or otherwise that offering is. Afterall, all our offerings are frail and flawed and even when we 'do a great job' our offering is still in truth flawed and frailand we are still completely reliant on Gods power to actually accomplish the purpose of changing peoples hearts towards Him and His plan for their and our lives and the work He has set aside for us to do for the advancement of His kingdom.
Freedom & Confidence
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1 Comment
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Comment by Pete Brower on May 15, 2008 at 9:06pm - Wow, very nice perspective. I'm kind of new to worship leading and have really been struggling with some issues. "Performance" versus "Worship" and the feeling that the weight was on my shoulders to be near perfect to lead God's people into God's presence. This posting was just what I needed. Thanks!
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