A Call To Worship

A few weeks back my parents (who are wonderful) bought me a collection of works by John Wesley. These are not tiny books. Each of them is about 800-1000 pages, and there are eight books. It would take me a while to read them all, unless I go Harry Potter on them and read them to completion in one sitting, which won’t happen.

That this part of divine worship may be more acceptable to God, as well as more profitable to yourself and others, be careful to observe the following directions

Wesley then goes on to lay out six themes for worship. Those six themes will each have a post of their own in this series. I want to explore what Wesley says, but then apply it to worship today. There are things that I can improve on, and things that I want to point out from the perspective of an admittedly amateur worship leader.

I think that worship should be pursued with passion and zeal, not something we should have to stand and endure. Do we get more excited about a football game or a political race than we do about worship of our Savior? Ask yourself that question and truthfully answer it. I can say that I will often be that way. I’m always amazed by the amount of passion and vitriol we can direct at the rivals of our favorite teams, but on Sunday mornings we stand there with no emotion whatsoever.

As a worship leader, my job is to lead people to the throne room of God on Sunday mornings, to provide an avenue that helps you in the congregation to give glory to our Creator. I’m still learning how to do this effectively. I’m on a constant search for information about how to be a better worship leader. I was praying about it this last week, and God showed me that I’m trying too hard to be right, and not just being. Rather than being a worshiper myself, I’m too worried about the music sounding right, or what people are thinking of the songs that I’ve picked out. I need to let that go and just worship along with everyone else.

The best compliment that I can receive from someone is nothing, that I and the worship team became completely transparent and they focused on God.

So, let’s all journey together and listen to this call to worship. Share with me what you think of the series as we go along, or even what I’ve said here. I look forward to sharing this with you!