It’s a glorious Sunday morning. You are standing on stage singing a beautiful song for the congregation of your church. It’s a song that you love; it has a beautiful melody and great lyrics. You are confident that you sound good singing it. Suddenly, you really hear the words you’re singing…
I feel like a hypocrite standing up singing when my life is such a mess! Have you ever had that thought before? We all have our “junk” that we carry. We all have struggles. And yes, we all fail. We are a mess. However, none of us musicians, believers in Jesus Christ, washed with His precious blood and redeemed can stand to say that we are living perfect lives and are worthy of being a minister of the Gospel through music. Our lives are big messes, but praise God, through the work of His Holy Spirit…
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45 (ESV) What an overwhelming truth that Jesus, the Son of God, left His heavenly royal throne, and putting on human flesh, came to earth not to rule and reign, but to serve. Philippians 2:6-7 says, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.” (ESV) Wow! Here’s my question for you…
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? You know the story from your childhood. The character behind those words was filled with a drive for control and a drive to be the most beautiful. In that fairy tale, the character is known as “the evil queen” – the “tell me I’m the most beautiful” queen. Have you ever taken a good look in the mirror and wondered what others see in you? If you’re in the music ministry you’re likely in front of people…
I want to ask a hard question. And believe me, I’m asking myself this question first before I ask you. Here it is: Is your music ministry about Kingdom building or about self building? Ouch! If we get completely honest the answer may hurt a little. If you’re feeling a bit conflicted about your answer to that question…
It may seem like an elementary question but if you’re involved in the music ministry then it may be helpful to be find the answer to this question in God’s Word. The answer is deeper than “that’s just what we do” or “we’ve always had music in the church services”. It’s much more than “talent show” time for musicians. And music isn’t included just to fill some of the time. There is truly a deep purpose for music and I’d like to give you several Scriptures passages to answer this question…
What exactly is worship? If you had to write out a definition, what would you say? Some would answer that worship is what we do on Sundays when we sing together in church – during the “worship service.” Yes, part of our worship to the Lord is gathering together and corporately lifting up our praise and worship to Him. What a joy as musicians in His service to have the opportunity to lead that time of worship. But worship is so much more than just singing…
Does this sound familiar to you?… You are standing on the stage performing a song. Right in the middle of the song your mind goes blank and you completely forget the words. You do not have the presence of mind to make up some lyrics so you just stand and stare at the congregation for what seems like an eternity until your brain kicks back in and the words come back to you. Or in the midst of your song you go to belt out that beautiful high note and instead, an awful cracking, duck quacking noise comes out of your mouth. Let me just say from experience…
Have you ever gone to church thinking you were going to just enjoy sitting in the congregation, but you soon found yourself standing on the stage singing the special music? It was supposed to be your Sunday off from singing, but the scheduled singer was sick and you were asked to step up to sing instead. One of my jobs as the worship leader at my church is to schedule the special music for each service. I have a master calendar and try to plan ahead. But when it comes down to it, the plan always changes…
You’ve been scheduled to sing for the upcoming church service. What song will you sing? You wade through the sea of great songs out there to choose the one that’s right for you. As you look at all the songs available, you may feel overwhelmed. So, how do you choose the right song to sing? Do you choose by lyrics, sound, style or popularity? The Lord has definitely blessed the Christian music ministry. There are so many great songs that have been written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit…