The Hands Who Helped Shape The Clay

In Isaiah 64:8 we are described as clay in the hands of God. He is our potter constantly molding us and shaping us to be more like the image of Jesus. While God is the Potter in my life and has shaped and molded me and continues to do so he has brought many men and women in and out of my life to aid in my spiritual formation.

The first of these people helped to physically bring me into this world. My mother is the largest and most significant influence on my spiritual formation of all others. From before I was born she prayed over me in her womb and after I was born taught me much of what I know even to this day about prayer and tithing. She led me to Christ at the age of six. If I were to pick up the phone and ask her I know she has prayed for me even today. She helped to make Christ come alive in my life.

The second major influence on my spiritual formation is my good friend and who I consider my pastor, Darien Gabriel. He was my youth pastor from the time I was in 7th Grade all through High School. It was under his leadership and direction that I took leadership roles in worship. He taught me what it means to be a worshipper off stage. There was one night where he actually washed my feet along with some others in our youth group as a sign of servant leadership. I had the privilege to do a youth internship under his leadership during my college years and to this day he is my close friend and mentor. He was never afraid to let me fail in order to learn. He pushed me hard to live in the image of Christ, to walk in the dust of my Rabbi if you will. I am ever grateful for his help forming me spiritually in the areas of leadership.

Though I don't know where he is now or what he's up to, a youth intern named DJ Miles shaped much of what I know about corporate worship leading during my junior and senior year of high school.

The pastor I currently serve with in the PowerSource, Middle School ministry I'm apart of, Jeremy Rader, has taught me more about living a life of integrity by his example than most men I've known. Integrity flows through every part of his life.

My wife has taught me much about how to be less selfish. I grew up practically as an only child since my brother and sister were both out of the house and grown by the time I was around I was handed a bit of a silver spoon. She grew up with a brother and sister in house and is far more generous with her things than I am.

Finally the most recent and one of the largest spiritual influences on my life has been my current mentor Matt Wilkins. He invests so much in my life specifically to shape and mold me to be more like Christ. He challenges me with tough topics and exemplifies the type of man I want to be as interact with my wife and family.

There are many more men and women beyond these listed here that have helped in my spiritual formation processes. These are just a few that have really made specific deposits into me. They are such a blessing and I'm thankful that the Potter chose to bring each of them into my life for those times.

The Role Of The Worship Leader Pt. 2

Part 2 of my friend Michael's posts on the role of a worship leader. It's really been beneficial reading for me to check my own heart and life. Am I lining up? 

A good worship leader…

1. Has the ability to lead people.  Leading worship requires leadership skills.  It’s not all notes and guitars and chord charts.  A worship leader needs to have people skills in order to lead a band.  A worship leader needs to inspire people.   I truly believe that if a person has the gift of leadership, then he could fill a variety of roles in church.  How can a person lead a church in worship if he can’t lead his family or lead a small group, or lead a Bible study, or lead a meeting, or lead her friends.  I’m not saying that all these things are required, but leadership isn’t just for administrators and pastors.  As we look for a worship leader and explore different avenues, the ability to lead in general will be one of the qualities that rises to the top.
2. Has presence.  Maybe this is the ability to not look dazed and confused in front of people.  You can tell after a few minutes or a few chords if a worship leader has stage presence.  You can work on this to a certain degree, but for the most part, you either have it or you don’t.   Worship leaders with presence know how to stand before a crowd and shift the focus onto God.  They make eye contact with people, not just have their own private worship moments on stage.  That’s all well and good, but I want our lead worshipper to recognize the responsibility of leading people in worship.  I don’t speak with my eyes closed.
3. Has talent.  I know this won’t sound very spiritual but when it comes to leading worship, heart and passion are not enough.  There are a lot of passionate singers and musicians who really want to make a difference who should not be singing and playing in public.  I know everybody has to start somewhere.  But good worship leaders posess a certain amount of talent.  They learn from other worship leaders,  go to concerts and get ideas, figure out how things are done, and practice.  While it’s hard to teach presence, you can grow in this area.  
4. Doesn’t talk too much.  This may be a pet peeve of mine, but I also believe it can kill a service.  There are times that a song requires an introduction, or when a worship leader needs to share thoughts on a subject.  But that can’t happen before every song and during every break.  For the most part, that’s just wasted time because people are checked out.  People can only process so much.  They can only listen to so much talking.  There is a communicator who has put hours and hours into preparing a message.  As a worship leader, you wouldn’t like it if the speaker got up to speak, picked up your guitar and launched into a few more worship songs. 

Worship leaders are so crucial in the life of the church.  It’s a crucial role.  Some people judge a church by the quality of the music or the personality of the worship leader.

The Role Of The Worship Leader

My friend Michael Larkin posted this on his blog and I really enjoyed it and wanted to repost it here. Enjoy. 

“The relationship between a lead pastor and worship pastor is very important for our style of church to operate. It is almost as if we are married. Our children’s pastor can be doing something that doesn’t totally jive with what we in the worship center are doing and it really doesn’t effect us. The same is true with our youth pastor. However, when it comes to a worship pastor, it is of utmost importance that we are on the same page. We basically play in the same sandbox and what we do better jive.

The worship leader who filled in today was very good and he is very talented. Matter of fact I would go as far as to say he could LEAD worship in many of the churches I have visited. He has a strong voice, he led the crowd well, and he connected with our people. To someone who has been attending RSC for a short time, they probably noticed very little change.Matter of fact, they might have even noticed a slight improvement in the vocal area. I on the other hand noticed several things that made me appreciate the job that Tim does here even more.

I am convinced a church plant will never be what it could be until it has the right worship leader. Matter of fact, I would say this should be the first hire for a church planter maybe even before you bring yourself on full time. In today’s culture, music is that important. When Tim leads worship for us, I am at peace and I am comfortable. That makes my job of teaching much easier. It seems like everyone I know is looking for a worship leader and they are hard to find. I thought today I would just give you some things I learned in the process of looking for a worship pastor:

1.) Make sure their style fits your style. We went six weeks without a worship pastor. During those six weeks we rotated some very gifted worship pastors in on Sunday mornings. All of these guys could lead in a lot of churches but not at RSC. Our worship pastor is a good fit for us because he compliments my style of teaching very well. He is energetic, he has a good time on stage, and he keeps the crowd up beat. That goes very well with my style of teaching. It is important that the crowd is alive when I come up to teach. This week for instance, the worship was good. But, it was much more “worshipful” then normal. The music was a little slower and it didn’t have the edge that we are used to. Though it was good, I found it very hard to get up and teach after worship because our crowd today was much more mellow then normal.

2.) A Worship leader doesn’t have to have the best voice – I was not looking for a singer, though Tim sings very well. I was looking for someone who understood what corporate worship was about and could lead our people in worshipping God on Sunday morning. I was looking for someone who could gauge how to lead by how the crowd was responding.

3.) Make sure their philosophy fits your philosophy – We are very stubborn in the way we do church on Sunday morning. We understand there will be a lot of seekers there and we keep that in mind. I don’t want a worship pastor who wants to free flow or worship in song the whole service. I needed someone who understood our philosophy and had no problems with that. Think about your philosophy and make sure your worship pastor has the same one.

4.) Be VERY specific in letting them know the style of worship you want – Everyone is doing “contemporary” church today. No one even knows what that means anymore. Buy some CD’s of current guys whose style you like, buy secular CD’s of guys you like and let your worship leader know the style you feel God would have the church to be.

5.) Define their role – Everyone has a fancy title for the worship person: Worship pastor, Worship leader, Creative Arts Pastor, Creative Worship Pastor, etc. I could care less what you call it but, define the responsibilities. For example, our worship pastor not only has the worship band under his leadership, but all the media ministries as well. This includes, sound, CD table, audio visual elements, etc. Because we are portable he is also responsible to see to it that those elements get set up on Sunday mornings. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you place under them, just make sure the role is defined.

6.) Make sure they want to lead worship and not be a rock star – I find so many pastors who settle on a guy because he has led a band and they think he can lead worship. I know several worship pastors who really don’t want to lead worship but that is what puts food on the table. What they really want to do is travel and be in a band. Nothing wrong with that but not a good fit long term for a worship pastor.

7.) Make sure they can lead a band – There are a lot of guys who can lead when it is just them and a guitar. Playing with a band is a totally different story. In our type of church, a band is a must. So therefore he must be able to play with a band.

8.) Make sure they are open minded – They last thing I want in a worship pastor is someone who isn’t willing to change because they are so stuck in their “art.” If I hear another worship pastor who is not willing to do what is necessary to reach the lost because of their “art” I am going to scream. I want someone who could care less about style, I want someone who is willing to do what is necessary to connect with their target.

9.) Make sure their heart is in the right place – Do they want to lead worship because it is “cool” or do they want to serve the people of their church? This is a question that must be answered.”

I love all of this. What do you think?