How to rock a worship leader's world
Here's the step-by-step:
1. Ask her to lead worship in a church that's trying to reach emerging generations.
2. Suggest that she read Dan Kimball's book, Emerging Worship.
3. Just wait until she gets to read the chapter that's all about why churches shouldn't be built around weekend gatherings.
If you've been following the personal blog, you can probably guess that I've been thinking about worship (what it really means to worship, what it should look like, etc.) a lot lately. Part of that is the gathering our church is planning for this weekend. We're focusing in on part of our mission--to build an army of worshipers. And our goal is that by the end of the gathering, people who come will have a clearer picture of what it looks like to make worship a lifestyle. So a team of people has been thinking and brainstorming about what kind of experiences we might seek to create at the gathering so that this goal is realized.
At the same time, I had posted a request from my xanga readers to ask me any 3 random questions they wanted, and several responded with questions about worship. So I've been thinking about how I got started on the journey as a worship leader, other worship leaders I admire, and what drives me as a worship leader.
And then, as I hinted, I've been reading Kimball's book. I've mentioned to a couple of people that this book is like a textbook for me (though much more interesting than any other textbooks I've had to read in the past :)). Now that we're planning a more experiential gathering than any we've had so far, I feel like a test is coming up. And now I'm cramming. :) But it's good stuff...
Here's something Kimball wrote that rocked my world. He refers to the 80-20 principle, which means that 80% of the results stem from about 20% of the work (for example, in a lot of churches, 80% of the work accomplished comes by the hands of a number of volunteers comprising 20% of the people there). But he applies this principle to the way ministry leaders spend time and resources. "Considering [the 80-20 principle], we in church leadership typically agree that 80% of true discipleship and spiritual growth occurs from mentoring, smaller group gatherings, relationships, serving, etc. I also bet (if we are brutally honest) that probably only 20% of discipleship really is a result of our weekend gatherings. So it is rather ironic that in most churches we pour 80% of our energy and resources into something that produces only 20% of long-term spiritual growth."
This really made me think, particularly about my role as a worship leader. Yes, we do tend to focus a lot of attention on weekend gatherings. In the churches I attended growing up, inviting a friend to church was seen as the pinnacle of outreach. Churches spend a lot of time and money trying to learn from "successful" (which usually means large) churches about how to improve the weekend gathering. Churches large and small allow their paid leadership to have Mondays off in order to recover from the amount of energy expended on Sunday (as a volunteer, I sure wish I could have Mondays off :)). It just goes on and on.
And as a worship leader, I know that worship isn't really all about music. But I notice that in most evangelical churches, worship through music often takes up about half or close to half of the time alloted for the gathering. And I'm aware that my musical background has a lot to do with why I've been given some of the opportunities I've been given. And even at our planning meeting to brainstorm ideas for our upcoming gathering, our group had to be redirected once or twice to focus back on the idea that worship is more about how we live every day than about something we do on Sunday.
So it just makes me think... If I'm to be a worship leader, and worship isn't really about music, or even about some component of a regular gathering, what's my role really? How exactly am I to be leading the people I serve into more authentic worship? I'm still such a newbie when it comes to all of this, but I imagine it has something to do with, first of all, being an example. I want to live my life in a way that expresses worship, and I want to be able to share that with the people in our community, especially the people I serve with most closely. And second, I think it has something to do with taking advantage of any opportunity I get to encourage people in their pursuit of God's heart in worship, whether that's writing here about worship, helping out in creating experiences like the one we'll have this weekend, having significant conversations with people about how they're connecting with God, or actually leading a corporate time of worship (imagine that :)).
Just when you think you know what you're doing in a particular role, everything changes...
Take care,
Candyce
1. Ask her to lead worship in a church that's trying to reach emerging generations.
2. Suggest that she read Dan Kimball's book, Emerging Worship.
3. Just wait until she gets to read the chapter that's all about why churches shouldn't be built around weekend gatherings.
If you've been following the personal blog, you can probably guess that I've been thinking about worship (what it really means to worship, what it should look like, etc.) a lot lately. Part of that is the gathering our church is planning for this weekend. We're focusing in on part of our mission--to build an army of worshipers. And our goal is that by the end of the gathering, people who come will have a clearer picture of what it looks like to make worship a lifestyle. So a team of people has been thinking and brainstorming about what kind of experiences we might seek to create at the gathering so that this goal is realized.
At the same time, I had posted a request from my xanga readers to ask me any 3 random questions they wanted, and several responded with questions about worship. So I've been thinking about how I got started on the journey as a worship leader, other worship leaders I admire, and what drives me as a worship leader.
And then, as I hinted, I've been reading Kimball's book. I've mentioned to a couple of people that this book is like a textbook for me (though much more interesting than any other textbooks I've had to read in the past :)). Now that we're planning a more experiential gathering than any we've had so far, I feel like a test is coming up. And now I'm cramming. :) But it's good stuff...
Here's something Kimball wrote that rocked my world. He refers to the 80-20 principle, which means that 80% of the results stem from about 20% of the work (for example, in a lot of churches, 80% of the work accomplished comes by the hands of a number of volunteers comprising 20% of the people there). But he applies this principle to the way ministry leaders spend time and resources. "Considering [the 80-20 principle], we in church leadership typically agree that 80% of true discipleship and spiritual growth occurs from mentoring, smaller group gatherings, relationships, serving, etc. I also bet (if we are brutally honest) that probably only 20% of discipleship really is a result of our weekend gatherings. So it is rather ironic that in most churches we pour 80% of our energy and resources into something that produces only 20% of long-term spiritual growth."
This really made me think, particularly about my role as a worship leader. Yes, we do tend to focus a lot of attention on weekend gatherings. In the churches I attended growing up, inviting a friend to church was seen as the pinnacle of outreach. Churches spend a lot of time and money trying to learn from "successful" (which usually means large) churches about how to improve the weekend gathering. Churches large and small allow their paid leadership to have Mondays off in order to recover from the amount of energy expended on Sunday (as a volunteer, I sure wish I could have Mondays off :)). It just goes on and on.
And as a worship leader, I know that worship isn't really all about music. But I notice that in most evangelical churches, worship through music often takes up about half or close to half of the time alloted for the gathering. And I'm aware that my musical background has a lot to do with why I've been given some of the opportunities I've been given. And even at our planning meeting to brainstorm ideas for our upcoming gathering, our group had to be redirected once or twice to focus back on the idea that worship is more about how we live every day than about something we do on Sunday.
So it just makes me think... If I'm to be a worship leader, and worship isn't really about music, or even about some component of a regular gathering, what's my role really? How exactly am I to be leading the people I serve into more authentic worship? I'm still such a newbie when it comes to all of this, but I imagine it has something to do with, first of all, being an example. I want to live my life in a way that expresses worship, and I want to be able to share that with the people in our community, especially the people I serve with most closely. And second, I think it has something to do with taking advantage of any opportunity I get to encourage people in their pursuit of God's heart in worship, whether that's writing here about worship, helping out in creating experiences like the one we'll have this weekend, having significant conversations with people about how they're connecting with God, or actually leading a corporate time of worship (imagine that :)).
Just when you think you know what you're doing in a particular role, everything changes...
Take care,
Candyce
posted by dvineworshipteam at 11:39 PM
5 Comments:
:))
I have always wondered about this particular style of writing; should I end parenthetical statements with a smiley face? If so, won't there be double end brackets and how would that look? would me reader's be smart enough to know that I am a master of the smiley face concept and I know that there is only one closing bracket denoting the smiley face, and the other is for closing the parenthesis? Would they doubt me and mock my smiley face abilities, thereby resulting in me losing total credibility. Cos I would hate to turn people away from my sweet sweet, message and instead have them distracted by the thorny issue of the smiley face. Oh, it pricks at my heart! The smiley face conundrum
;-)
I do have really smart readers, thanks. :)
But seriously thanks for stopping by. It makes me sad when the only comments I get here are from people wanting to tell me about some random commercial site they want me to visit. It's good to know someone's reading the posts. :)
Well this is my idea. Have a service series about royalty. Royalty and kingship of the highest order. Starting out with a scrolling list of every warrior, philosopher, kings throughout history and their accomplishments. Really, hype them up and tell them how this people distinguished themselves and stop. Then some might ask you if you have left anyone off the list. You might say, well there is someone else but you are not sure whether to include him on the least. For several reasons. For one he was born in the equivalent of a pigsty, violating several health codes all at once. He never conquered territory, he was not very well educated, his palaces, lands, and feats were nil, in fact he didn’t have his own house and had to rely on people, basically bum off them. By 25, Alexander the great had conquered the world, at 30, this guy was still living at home with his mom making tables.
But the other reason you would not include him in this list is that it would be unfair. For one, he was born in manger but his lineage was pretty impressive. He could trace his line directly to the great king his people had ever had, David. For another Alexander, Achilles, Augustus ceaser, and countless others believed they came from the gods. Well this person did come from god directly. The holy sprit impregnated his mom and viola, he was here! Top that Zeus! Moreover, while he never did march with huge armies and demonstrate awesome military skill in battle and never really carried a sword actually. The only time he used a weapon was making a whip out cords and striking the temple merchants, a far cry from King Arthur with the sword of Excalibur or Achilles, the greatest warrior ever known. His kingdom moves on love, and love alone. He conquers not nations, but people’s hearts, one by one. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of his kingdom. He is the king we worship now. Another difference is all this great men are dead and buried. He is the only one to face down death and win! He still alive today, still available to day, for everyone to come avail themselves of it.
Ok these are rough thoughts, I am sure the team can do better but I felt prompted to do this. Take care and keep doing your thing.
Thanks. I passed the idea on to some other members of our leadership team.
it was either that, or back to the smiley face conumdrum again. joking!
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