The Worship Leader RPG (Role Playing Guide)

The Worship Leader RPG (Role Playing Guide)

    The purpose of this series is to walk you through 4 things that I believe are crucial to becoming an effective, annointed, Spirit-filled worship leader. Now, remember, I am using the term “Worship Leader” loosely. I am speaking to singers, guitarists, bassists, drummers, percussionists, keyboardists, organists, pianists, and even the triangle-ist (I know someone out there plays this :D ). I also want to include those who lead all of the back of house equipment. I want to personally thank you for everything you do. Many times the ladies and gentlemen jumping up and down on stage are the ones that get some recognition, and even though Jesus should get all the recognition (#JesusJuke), I want you guys to know that we couldn’t do what we do without you. So, mad props to you guys running sound, lights, cameras, slides, etc. You guys are superstars.

The Worshiper

    The first role a worship leader must play is the role of a worshiper. You might say, “Come on Matt, duh!” But I cannot tell you how important this is. I have seen countless worship leaders “wing it”. This is a problem because I believe that God is honored in excellence. Let me define this for you. Excellence does not mean perfection. Perfection is the absence of mistakes. Excellence is a position of the heart. It is doing the best you can with what you have been given. “Winging It” isn’t doing the best you can with what you’ve been given. Excellence is saying, “I don’t want to just get by. I want to be the MOST prepared to bring my absolute best for God.”

    Several years ago, I had the privilege of being the contemporary worship leader at a Methodist church. In this context, worship leader meant I handled all of the worship for the contemporary services. They asked me to come in because they didn’t have someone to lead, and they were ready to amp up their contemporary service. I agreed and had a band there at the church with me. I had made a rule that if you didn’t come to practice, you could not participate in Sunday worship. I learned quickly that the drummer was not going to come to practice, and that he had no problem “winging it” on Sunday. He was a very talented musician, and a great guy to be around, but unfortunately, he didn’t appear to have the heart of a worshiper. Excellence was not one of his priorities.

    So I told him he could not play on Sunday. He apologized to me, and while I didn’t let him play that Sunday, he showed up for practice the next week and began playing on a regular basis. Since deep down, he knew that he wanted to lead worship, this ended up a good scenario.

Excellence isn't perfection. It's a position of the heart.

    I believe that those who are called to lead worship must be worshipers themselves. It doesn’t matter if you are leading on stage one Sunday or in the congregation the next. If you are only able worship to when you are on the stage or standing in front of people, you will always need a stage and a congregation in order to worship. If a person cannot worship without being on the stage, they have no business being on the stage to begin with.

    It definitely goes beyond the outward expression of worship, however. Worship leaders need to live a life of worship. Worship leaders should continually work on their character. Your quiet time, daily devotion and worship when no one is looking is much more crucial than leading others. If you consistently lead others without being filled, you will find yourself consistently leading on empty. I hate feeling like I’m empty, but I also know you won’t make it very far without breaking down on the side of the road. Most of the time it is an emotional break-down… and it usually affects those around you. We must be developing a personal and intimate relationship with the One that we are worshipping.

    I have to say that King David is a great role model for those wanting to be worship leaders. I recommend reading David’s story in 1 and 2 Samuel and the Psalms. David’s initial worship experiences probably took place while he was tending his father’s sheep… when no one was watching. Here he developed that intimate personal relationship with God that he would need later on in life. No matter the circumstances we know that David was always able to make his way to God by worshiping. God referred to David as a man after the Lord’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14). 

    It is impossible to be a worship leader, or even a worshiper without being after God’s heart. We want more than anything to touch God’s heart with our worship for Him, both in private and corporately. If we can’t touch his heart in private, how can we ever lead others to that place? It is much easier to take someone to a place that you’ve already been, especially if you go there regularly. If I don’t know the way somewhere, I can’t effectively take someone else there. This is very true for leading worship as well.

Prayer:

“God, I want to be after Your heart. I choose to begin a life of daily devotion and worship to you right now in this moment. Help me to lead others into your presence as I walk with you in your presence in private. I want others to know You like I know You.”

Posted by Matthew Long @mthwdlong

First Fruits

Are you kidding me?

Did you know that citrus fruits have a chemical in them that if eaten every day can lead to melanoma? That is just crazy to me! I love my Orange Juice!

Anyway, today I want to talk about fruit. (I guess it kind of goes along with that fun… or not so fun fact.) Fruit is mentioned a TON in the Bible. Fruit from the tree of good and evil, the fruits of the Spirit, Jesus says that a good tree bears good fruit, and trees are know by their fruit… but today, let’s talk about “First Fruits”.

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

1 Peter 1:18-19

Firsts have always been important to God. In the Old Testament, God commanded the nation of Israel to observe several feasts or festivals. One of them was the Festival of Harvest. It was also known as the Feast of Weeks and Day of First Fruits. Later, the early church identified it as Pentecost because it occurred fifty days after Passover. During this festival, Israel was to offer the first crops of their wheat harvest as a voluntary offering to the Lord (Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10).

The Apostle Paul, in writing to the churches he helped to establish, refers to the early converts as first fruits of his labor (1 Corinthians 16:15; Romans 16:5). James portrayed all believers as first fruits when he wrote, “He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation became his prized possession.” (James 1:18) In the footnotes for “prized possession” it says in the Greek “we became a kind of first fruit of his creatures”. This means that once a person allows the redeeming work of the blood of Jesus to take affect in their life, they become a first fruit of Christ's labor.

Some translations of 1 Peter 1:18 use the word “redeemed”, which in the Greek means "to go to market, purchase, or buy." Everyone is born with a sinful nature that is against the laws of God. All have sinned and fall short of his glory. The only way one can be redeemed is by “the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth (the market place if you will), lived a sinless life, died a sinner's death, took our sins upon him and with his blood purchased or redeemed our souls for the Father. Many of you already understand this, and understand that the first step to becoming a true worshiper is to acknowledge Jesus’ work on the cross for the forgiveness of sin, consent to his Lordship and allow him to take possession of our life.

As Christians our lives are not our own, we have been bought at a price. We have been redeemed from among men and are first fruits to God. The Greek word for first fruits used in the New Testament means "a beginning of sacrifice." A sacrificial life is characteristic of those who have been redeemed and have becomes first fruits to God. Only those who practice sacrificial living become true worshipers.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m a first fruit to God, then I want to obey him and give Him my first fruits in everything… My time, my money, my life. I don’t want to live a spiritual buffet lifestyle. Call me a sell-out.

“Father, teach me and allow me to be a living sacrifice to you in every area of my life.”

Posted by Matthew Long @RevMattLong