It’s Sunday morning and you’re scheduled to sing during the Sunday morning service at your church. You awaken refreshed and spend some time in prayer to ask the Lord to go before you and use you as you sing. You meet your family at the breakfast table. Peace and joy fill your home.
Everyone is dressed and ready to go. You enjoy the ride to church, sing praise choruses together, and arrive in time to get a good sound check before the church service begins. You stand to sing feeling God’s presence surrounding you.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? If it does, I’d love to know your name! Maybe you can relate more to this:
It’s Sunday morning and you’re scheduled to sing at your church. You oversleep and look in the mirror to see dark circles around your eyes – the result of a stressful week and not enough rest. And, your throat hurts! You quickly ask the Lord to help you get through the morning as you rush to get you and your family dressed. One of the children has a meltdown over what to wear and the toddler, who was already dressed, has completely undressed himself diaper and all! But, wait! The toilet overflows and floods the bathroom.
Tension rises, and by the time everyone is in the car, I can assure you there are no praise choruses being sung! Because you’re late, you don’t get a sound check. Then, you stand to sing and feel completely distracted. Can anyone relate? I’m laughing as I write this because this describes more than one Sunday morning in my home over the many years of being involved in the music ministry.
Why do Sunday mornings often seem so chaotic when you’re scheduled to sing? One answer is that the enemy wants to distract us and make us ineffective in what God has called us to do. Are stress and distractions causing you to question if you should continue to sing in church? Maybe you need a Purpose Statement for your music ministry.
I have claimed Psalm 104:33 “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.” (ESV). When the distractions and chaos come, I can stand on God’s Word and the commitment I made to sing for Him as long as I live. As Christian musicians, we have the awesome opportunity to stand before others and declare the praises of our God, to sing truth into the hearts of the listeners, and to prepare hearts to receive God’s Word.
God has called and gifted us to sing. So, let’s dig deeper and commit our musical gifts to the Lord’s service not just for today, but for the long haul. Let Psalm 104:33 be your purpose statement for your music ministry and determine to sing for the Lord as long as you live – no matter how hard the enemy tries to distract or how crazy your Sunday mornings get!