Well another semester has come and (nearly) gone and I am left to reflect on what I can take away from the experience. The first observation I have to make is that when it comes down to it, it is very difficult to memorize music and lyric, especially when you are used to performing with the words flashed on the screen in the back of the room. I have learned once again that, with the exception of God Himself, my wife is probably my most valuable asset in the ministry. I have learned that it is difficult to juggle an online course with several courses that meet in the classroom, and I have been reminded—once again—how much I dislike writing papers. That aside, I have learned quite a few very useful things in the last twelve weeks or so, but, like so many other things it doesn’t matter how much you learn it’s how well you can apply it.
In reflection I have been reminded of how important it is to cast a vision, a vision that necessarily informs us of our purpose. We cast a vision for what we want our lives to look like ten years from now, or what we would like to see our children doing when they grow up—some of us want to envision what we want to do when we grow up. Leading worship is no different. To be fair, the Worship Pastor or Minister of Music needs to be the one—in conjunction with the Holy Spirit and the Pastor—who casts that vision for the people leading worship. In fact all of our worship services need to focus on a vision. Simply put, our vision is the glorification of Jesus Christ, through music and spoken Word. Our music must always point the congregation to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; yet, it is more important that the sermon laid on the heart of our Pastor be heard. Our vision, therefore, should be to musically support the Word of God given through the Pastor.
Another point of reflection lands in our hearts straight out of the Letter to the Philippians:
Christ's Humility and Exaltation
5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God
as something to be used for His own advantage.
7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave,
taking on the likeness of men.
And when He had come as a man in His external form,
8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—even to death on a cross.
9 For this reason God also highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—
11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11 (HCSB)
Our whole vision of worship needs to focus on the gospel and this song written by the Apostle Paul explains that gospel very succinctly and to the point. Our focus needs to exemplify and glorify that sacrifice. Remember, we did not earn our salvation. Remember, we have all sinned (Romans 3:23), the penalty for that sin should be our own death (Romans 6:23), but, because of God’s great love for us, He sent His only Son to take that penalty for us (Romans 5:8) so that when we accept the free gift of Salvation, WE SHALL BE SAVED (Romans 10:9-13)! How can we not Worship Him? Our responsibility is to make absolutely certain that the people who come to Worship on Sunday morning hear this message and are given an opportunity to respond to this message.
It is true that only the Holy Spirit can cause us to Worship, and it is also true that only the ones who have accepted Christ can truly worship; however, we must never forget that in each service there are those who come who have not accepted Christ and are only with us to fulfill their “religious” duty. This makes it all the more important that we worship and allow a time of response. My warning is that when we as a church fail to allow the non-believer to respond in our worship services, then we have become no different than the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time, because even the temple had a place for the gentiles to participate even though there was not usually an opportunity for a gentile to become a believer. Our focus, Our Vision needs to be threefold: 1. Worship God with all that we have and are because of what He has done for us, 2. Direct all Worship to the Father in all we do, and 3. allow others to join the family of the living God. That is our responsibility.
For HIS Glory
Russ
Mark 10:45
Our God-given mission is to:
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