All right. This will be my first really introspective blog, so get ready. Are you ready? You don't look ready.
Leading worship is an interesting thing. Being a worship leader with a performing artist's personality is even more interesting...recently, the band in Summerville did a special appreciation dinner/concert for all the volunteers at our campus. We did different stuff, like a Tom Petty song, "Ain't No Sunshine," "I Will Survive"--the whole works. At the end we did a few really fast, peppy praise songs ("No One Like You," "Not To Us," "My Glorious") that we don't normally do and the people went CRAZY. I mean, they were jumping up and down, cheering, genuinely getting excited about praising God...and I gotta admit, the band had more energy than probably should be allowed. ;)
Now, doesn't that sound like something we should be doing ALL THE TIME? And yet, on Sunday mornings, we are all much more reserved. We're careful to do a seeker-oriented service, but sometimes we tend to hold back the necessary amount of energy we need to: A) engage the people, and B) engage ourselves!!
The people are still talking about this event. Why is that? Why did they respond like that?
It's because that night, they saw life. They saw a band who was having a blast and enjoying what they were doing. Not to say that our congregation doesn't see life every weekend, but a lot of times, we get bogged down with the fact that this is work--and it is! It is not an easy job. The point is, that night our folks saw a different kind of energy that they don't usually witness in us every Sunday. And my challenge to myself (as I think I am the only campus worship leader on this thing currently) and my band is to translate that energy to the weekend. That no-holes-barred, we're-going-for-it energy that people love.
We get scared by the unresponsive faces in the crowd: the coffee-drinkers, the late attenders, the people with crossed arms and blank looks. We think that we have to monitor our energy by the moods that certain members of our congregation are in. But listen up here---WE are the leaders!!! We can only take people where we've already been and where we're currently going. Meaning, we can't get up there on the stage, half-heartedly and intimidated, and expect the people to be excited about following us. We have to say, "We are going full-blast into the presence of God, and we are excited to worship Him! You can either come with us or you can stay there, but we're going."
People respond to life. They respond to energy and excitment. We are the leaders here, and they're ready to follow. Let's take them somewhere!
1 comment:
Good question (and by the way, we need to get Rick and Eric on here...). There's kind of a balance we have to maintain. We have to practice and do our jobs to pull songs off the best we can during services (since we've been given these talents, we don't just mess around-we have to work and develop them). This stuff is definitely work! But I know from experience that if you take something too seriously, it can be detrimental to the very thing you're trying to do (and not to mention your health and well-being). We bring energy and fun to it because we enjoy it, but we also do the job we've been called to do. And also, as we've seen, each situation is different. There are different time limits to consider, age groups, etc. But we can still bring the energy we know is in us...I think that's part of our job too. I just wrote an entire blog in response to your question.
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