Not a Camouflaged Soul

Category: Leadership

  • A Title too Broad?

    Smee: I’ve just had an apostrophe.

    Captain Hook: I think you mean an epiphany.

    Smee: Lightning… just struck my brain.

    Captain Hook: That must’ve hurt.

    I have been referred to in many ways during my ministry…

    Choir director.

    Minister of music.

    Song leader.

    That singer guy.

    But there is one title I am not entirely crazy about.

    Worship leader or worship pastor.

    Why?

    The title isn’t specific enough.

    What is it that I do? From a technical standpoint, my purpose during a worship service is to coordinate the music and media-related elements, to rehearse and sing/play with the praise team/band, and to guide the congregation as they take part in praising our God.

    Once this is done, is worship over? Hardly.

    Then why is this variation of my title so all-encompassing? Does a senior pastor of a church not contribute to the worship? Furthermore, is the music guy solely responsible for the offering, the public reading of scripture, obedience, prayer, serving others, confession of sins, or the fellowship of fellow believers together? (not meant to be a conclusive list)

    It just seems to me that, when you call yourself a worship leader, you imply that non-musical aspects of a church service/worship service/worship experience/faith brouhaha are NOT worship.

    Is this idea solely about semantics? Not to me. It has made me recognize anew what worship really is. And it reminds me yet again that words mean things. And just because terminology is popular does not necessarily mean that it is accurate.

    THIS IS JUST MY OPINION.

    What are your thoughts? Ministers of music, I’d love your input. Have you ever thought about this before?

    quote from the movie “Hook” via Wikiquote; photo via mistral.com

  • Apologizing for the Holy Spirit

    I am sitting in the sound booth at church, furiously babysitting the CD burner. I’m making rehearsal CDs for the choir of our Christmas musical.

    I’m thinking about outreach. We had a good turnout last night for GROW (God Rewards Our Work, for the uninitiated).

    As we always do, we prayed before we went out. I led the prayer last night, asking God to bless us and for the Holy Spirit to work ahead of us, preparing us for the visits we were about to make and for the hearts of the people we were visiting to be open.

    And off we went.

    The family my partner and I went to see were not home. Same thing happened to another team.

    Then I got to thinking.

    When that happens, I have made it my practice in the past to apologize to folks for them having to come out without finding people at home.

    Did I mean what I prayed?

    Didn’t I pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our visits? Was I sincere in my desire for Him to work ahead of us as we ventured out? For what was I apologizing?

    I often forget (read, ignore) the fact that God knows best. For whatever reason, we weren’t supposed to see those people last night. If we were, they would have been home.

    So, GROWers… if I apologize to you in the future like that… don’t accept it.

  • Botched Prayer

    Have you ever really botched a public prayer? I did this past Sunday.

    A few minutes before Morning Worship starts, I get the choir together in the choir room to warm-up on the song for the day. Then I pray and we walk out to the platform.

    This particular prayer did NOT come out the way I intended. I started out OK, but by the end I had to correct myself. Somehow, I ended up asking God to save people “if it be Your will.” OOPS! Obviously, it IS God’s will for people to be saved, otherwise the entirety of the Gospel was a COLOSSAL misstep. I corrected myself, and, not knowing what else to say, I said, “AMEN!”

    All my choir members indicated that they understood, but it was still kinda funny.

    Have you ever had a Public Prayer Incident? How did you recover?