What We Bring

I'm going to start this first post in a new series by doing something smart bloggers the world over will counsel you that you should never do in blogging…something shockingly inefficient, something so ill-advised that I specifically did not seek out an adviser to advise me on the matter because I knew the advice would be, “Do not do that!”

I’m going to tell you not to read this unless you are involved in worship ministry. If you don’t know what worship ministry is, then you are not involved in worship ministry.

Worship ministry includes worship leaders as well as worship team members, which includes folk who run sound and those who operate the slide presentation. Pastors, you may read this. Deacons...the jury's still out. Ushers, get lost! (j/k, you can stick around, you know, if you want. We're heading to Denny's after)

Okay, so it’s not that world-shaking. And now that your expectations are as low as possible...

To quote the late, great Dennis Hopper (didn’t you just love him in Waterworld?), “Pop quiz, hot shot…”

It’s Sunday evening. The year is 2020.

Your favorite choice for president has just been elected (I understand you may have to resurrect Lincoln in this analogy and that's okay). The newly-elected Commander in Chief has run across a YouTube video of your worship team leading sung worship at your church and has personally called you to request you play at the party to celebrate the election. The new POTUS is a hardcore Christian (we can dream) and would like there to be a time of sung worship, just like church.

The event is in one week.

What do you do? What do you do?!

Don’t answer yet. I have a second analogy, because who doesn’t love analogies?

You’ve gotten a call again but, this time, your favorite worship band is on the other end (Hillsong United, Bethel, Elevation, etc.) and they are coming to your church! They want you to play/sing/run sound/run slides for them.

Again, they will be at your church in one week.

What do you do? What. Do. You. Do?!

Before your brain explodes trying to figure out what the right answer is from an innumerable pool of options floating around in that gray matter inside your skull, allow me to narrow your choices for you:

1. You do the exact same thing you do every week for your worship set. You prepare/practice the exact same amount you do any given week.
2. You prepare/practice less than you do any given week.
3. You prepare/practice more than you do any given week.

My guess is, if you’re anything like me, you will have chosen number three. Why wouldn’t you give your absolute best? Bring you’re A+ game? Why wouldn’t you go above and beyond what you normally do, seeing that someone so important, be it your new, beloved president or your favorite worship band, has requested you to utilize your talents and skills?

It’s the only logical answer.

Until…

I give you one more analogy. Just one, I promise (That’s the James guarantee, Jack!)

You’ve gotten another call but, this time, the ringtone is Handel’s Messiah and the name on caller ID is simply, “God.” You don’t remember ever downloading that ringtone…and have you ever programmed “God” into your contacts, like maybe as a joke or something? Anyway, you pick up and the voice on the other end is like rushing waters. The voice identifies Himself as the King of the Universe, the Uncreated One, the Creator and Savior of everything.

A prank?

Hallucination?

You are inclined to hang up, but something within, a still, small voice, tells you this Guy is legit. God is on the phone.

Before you even have a chance to ask Him whatever question has been burning a hole in your brain, He interrupts you. “I’ll tell you when you get here,” He says. “Now, I have a request: In one week, A large group of people will be meeting together to celebrate me and I want you to (insert your role here – lead worship, play guitar, run sound, lights, etc.) What do you say, Jack, are you in?” (I’d imagine God is a pretty great Jack-tagger)

What a privilege?! What an honor?! The Creator of all things and Savior of your soul wants you to play a part in leading His people in celebrating Him! In all your years, you never imagined this would happen, and now—

Wait…

It has happened. It happened the first time you got asked to sit in with the band, to turn nobs on a soundboard, to lead worship at a youth group, to…to…to. Whatever it was, that first event that sucked you into worship ministry, that was the Call.

And you get the Call every week you are scheduled to serve in worship ministry.

Every week you are asked to drag that big old heavy amp to the church, to rearrange the drum kit again because that other guy always messes with it, to read some Bible verses and attempt to craft a worship set around a very specific message theme, to be choosy about your dinner on Thursday evening and your breakfast on Sunday morning—or skip like I do—because you have delicate vocal cords, to fight with the lighting system which seems to have become self-aware and doesn't like any of your choices, and on and on.

Every time you are scheduled to serve, you would be right to treat it as God—not a pastor or worship director—asking you to serve.

So, why did you and I answer the above pop quiz with number three? How could we possibly see getting a request from anyone, even a president or famous worship band, as more important than our Call from God?

Next time, we’ll move from the “pop quiz” section of this series to the foundation—from God’s written Word—of why our answer should have been number one, not number three.

Until then, peace, love, and a third thing.