This is another re-post. Soon I will have some new words, but this is a good one for a Sunday morning. Today is about both private and corporate worship. How one feeds into the other.
I recently read a book called The Worshiping Artist by Rory Noland. If you are involved in the worship team at your church, I highly recommend it. It echoes a lot of the things that have been on my heart for a while. Here’s my story of an experience from a few months ago that was birthed from the study of this book…
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Something was different. I could feel it. Although I noticed the same things, they didn’t matter. Somehow. It was almost a subconscious thing. I could feel myself thinking about the issues, but somehow that thought process was on a different plane.
Things were not perfect on Sunday (starting with my own boo-boos), but none of it even mattered. Things are never going to be perfect. What mattered in my mind was that I knew the hearts of the people on the platform. Their hearts for seeking God’s leadership, for serving Him, and for leading others. And it was the best corporate worship experience I’ve had in a long, long time.
Why? Because the only thing at the forefront of my mind was finding Him and leading them to find Him.
My heart was prepared for worship, and it made all the difference in the world.
Maybe this doesn’t make sense to you, but it’s been on my mind since that Sunday in June. As members of a worship team, it is our responsibility to not only prepare our instruments, but also our minds and hearts… before we even come into the worship center. If we spend all the time in the world practicing the music, but neglect to have our own private worship times, we have failed. When we come in on Sunday, if the thoughts consuming our minds are about getting the notes right, singing right, what we don’t like about the worship set, tech issues, the person standing beside us, etc. etc. etc… we have failed.
God is calling us to something higher. He is calling us to worship Him throughout the week so that we can lead the people on Sunday.
We have to let it sink in to our hearts that Sunday should not be our worship check box for the week. It’s not about us. It’s not about “our time” to worship. It is the time for believers, who have been worshiping throughout the week, to praise Jesus TOGETHER. And we have a responsibility of being prepared to help seekers find Him. Sunday should be an outpouring of what God has been doing in our hearts throughout the week.
When we have that mindset ingrained, our Sunday morning worship experiences will be closer to what God had in mind.
Have an awesome Sunday!
About 31 Days of Worship
Every day in the month of October, I will be posting here about worship. Will you join me on this journey? Maybe you are interested in discussing specific topics within the area of worship. If this is you, I’d LOVE to hear from you! You can leave a comment below or send me an email.
At any time during the month, you can see all posts in this series by clicking here: 31 Days of Worship. Also, if you would like to subscribe to Grow Where You’re Planted and receive these posts in your email, you can do that here: Grow Where You’re Planted Updates.
Thanks for stopping by! I enjoy being on this worship journey with you! My prayer is that God will teach all of us to become more focused worshipers throughout this month.
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