Over the last few weeks, I have had the opportunity to lead worship in many different settings and situations. I was reflecting on these and the amazing numbers of ways and styles that a group of faithful believers can gather to worship Jesus. It’s a reminder of just how large, vast and diverse the kingdom of God is and I’m privileged to be involved in it. So, I’ll just list a brief description of each – mostly written from a technical, statistical view point – but all of them were really awesome opportunities!
– Ignition Middle School Conference, four in the band, 80 in the congregation, great sound guy at the church.
– Small local church, projector and screen, me and two others (two acoustics, one percussion) no sound really, I sang and spoke for the worship time.
– Fire-Up Conference, 7 in the band, 400 high school students and leaders, lots of video and sound stuff.
– Three kids events – all with great sound, about 6 people in each band, a total of 767 kids and leaders between the events, great sound operators for the events and great video set ups at each location.
– Smaller church lock-in, but a huge crowd of kids! A local guy brought in the portable sound system, which was great, the room was a small gym and the night was great. There were four in the band.
– Preschool Chapel – Every once in a while, I’m asked to lead a few songs for worship during our church pre-school chapel. Me, one guitar, no sound and about 60 kids. It’s a riot.
– A closing service for Upward Basketball – four in the band, the congregation was a mix of families, kids and leaders from the Upward Program for the season.
– Revival – four nights of leading at the same church, good sound, great congregation, there were 11 different people in the band that rotated throughout the weekend.
– Worship at our own church – my seven year old daughter and I sang a special during one of the services. At Easter, I played percussion along with a 7th grade guy who played and sang a song on guitar – he did a great job. I also led our worship band there for the Easter worship services – a dynamic team of people and servants at Troy UMC.
– During 8:00 church one Sunday I sang “Lord of The Dance” and played it on guitar. It’s one of the few times I’ve actually done a song in a different tuning.
– Led worship for a group of pastors at a Thom Rainer event – there were four in the band (all from our church) and it was a great day of music, learning and worship.
– Last week, we did special music for one of the services – five guys from our worship band played one guitar for a song. There’s a video on youtube of a group doing this and we thought we’d try it! We got this song together to play for the offering during one of the days when the theme was “everyone has a part in ministry in the church”.
– Beautiful U Girls Conference – the bass player, percussion player, keyboard player and vocalist were females and the crowd was a mix of moms, daughters and female ministry leaders! A great day of worship and learning.
– Being in worship and not playing – I have had that over the last few weeks too. Because my gift is music in the congregation, I typically don’t have that kind of opportunity very often.
It’s fun to think about and I am grateful for the opportunities! I’m also struck by the fact that there isn’t one way or style to worship – it can be in lots of settings, using various configurations of instruments, style of worship, etc. The Lord is seeking worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth.
Thanks to all these places and events that invited me! It was a privilege.
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