A Salute to the Average Worship Leader
If you know me, you know how much I love worship. I sing in the choir at my church, and also have a spot on our praise team. It is one of the joys of my life. I spent nearly a year singing every other Saturday night with two other "background" singers and a worship leader. I loved it. I worked hard to learn the music, to be there for each rehearsal, and to be on time for sound check. It was not easy because I don't have lots of expereince singing with a microphone in front of hundreds of people. But I worked hard at it, and prayed even harder. God was stretching me and allowing me to grieve the loss of my mother in a way that I never anticipated. Worship embraced my grief and helped to push me through to the other side of unspeakable sadness and despair.
But recently our music ministry has undergone a transition. Our eight worship teams were whittled down to one, and many of my fellow worshipers were asked to take a break. Not really great news for most, but it was a move of God whether we agreed with it or not. I am one of those left standing. In part, I think, because it's not easy to get singers to commit to Saturday nights for an extended period of time, but I wasn't questioning it. I just wanted to worship.
However, I knew that with all the changes going on, my break from worship was also coming. So I started to really take a look at myself as a worship "leader" at my church. I am a good singer, but trained classically so honestly sometimes I struggle with the contemporary music that we sing. I am a bit older than some of my fellow worshipers on the platform. I sing with very kind and talented 30 and maybe 40 year olds. I am over 50. So I really grappled with this wondering if I would be able to hang in there and continue to worship at this mega church with mega ideas and goals for this glorious ministry.
I have prayed and continued to go to rehearsals although my personal schedule has required that I take a break from worshiping on the weekends during the summer months (my son's lacrosse schedule). In one of my prayer times, I decided to Google "average worship leaders" and God showed me that I'm not alone in how I've been grappling with this issue. This article speaks to who I am as a worshiper in such a perfect way. It is an honor to worship and I don't take that for granted. But thanks to God and Bob Kauflin, the author of this piece, I am reminded that there is no "average" in worship and that God is using me in ways that I can not even fathom. And isn't that really what is at the heart of worship? Letting God have His way? It is not about me and whether I can reach the highest note or sing louder into the microphone. It's about Him and how He can use any song, situation, singer, etc, to glorify His purpose. It's all about God.
I am still singing with the choir, and for now, I'm scheduled to sing with the Saturday night team in September. I continue to go to rehearsals, listen and learn music, and most importantly listen closely to God's direction for my life- on and off the platform.
Cor. 1:26-28 -For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,3 not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But nGod chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; oGod chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even pthings that are not, to qbring to nothing things that are,
