October Focus: Being a Team

Good teams don't just happen- they take work! Here are some helpful things to think about as you navigate being a team member! 

To be a successful team member:

(1) Pursue humility (we talked about this in another blog post)

(2) Find your place on the team:

(a)This takes exploring and knowing your strengths and weaknesses

(b) What role do you play on the team?

Skilled Musician – This role is to help the team by bringing a set of skills to the table.  This person is skilled at their instrument and has the ability to carry the rest of the team if necessary.  They can also help teach others how to play the music.   

Lead Singer – This is someone who has a strong voice that can lead the audience if necessary.  They also can sing solos when appropriate.

Administrator – Someone who can handle details.  Maybe they can free up the worship leader of some details like these (especially if Worship Leader isn’t administratively gifted).  Sending out emails, making copies of music, making sure sound system will be set up, making sure powerpoints are taken care of, etc.)

Technical Guru – This role could be someone who is able to understand audio, video, powerpoint, etc.  Maybe they play an instrument maybe not but they can help significantly to make sure sound issues run properly and smoothly 

Spiritually mature and discerning  - This role is someone who is humble, has been walking with the Lord for a while, is sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  They can be a big asset to the team acting as a spiritual barometer for the team.  They can also play the role of shepherd for the team.

Servant – This role really should be everyone on the team.  This role is someone who is willing to do whatever is needed and is within the abilities of those particular team members.

(3) Think beyond yourself

 (a)      Avoid tunnel vision – don’t just think about your own part all the 

          time

     (b)             Help others find their place

 a.   Observe strengths and weaknesses of others and take time to encourage towards their strengths.  Help others find their place on the team                     

(4) Encourage the worship leader in his or her role

(a)  Worship teams hear a lot of criticism (especially worship leaders), so find ways to encourage them.

a.     Write a note to them of what how they’ve done well

b.     Tell them in person

c.      Ask them what’s the best way for you to support them?

d.     Pray for your worship leader and the team

(b) What are ways to help lighten the load of your WL?

a.     Come on time, practice and be prepared

b.     Don’t talk or play instrument while WL is trying to talk or direct practice

c.      Don’t grumble behind any backs- all opinions about the team/music, etc. should always be spoken of directly to the worship leader.

(5) Out-serve your team

What do you think out-serving your team could look like? What are some

ways you can care for the people on your team, rather than leaving all the serving up to your leader?

(6)Be a respectful critical thinker on behalf of the team

            (a) If you lean towards being more quiet with your opinions:

a. Some of us need to learn how to voice our opinions more.  They are valuable.  You’re on the team for a reason.  We need to learn to be better debaters. 

b. Don’t wait to see which way the wind blows and then go with that.  Have enough courage to ask what is best for the team, the chapter and the Kingdom?  Then wrestle WITH your team to come to that conclusion.

(b) If you lean towards being a steamroller with your opinions:

            a. Your challenge will be to let the worship leader actually lead

(7) Great leaders know how to follow

You are still a leader as a team member.  Being a leader can simply mean having influence – be aware if your influence is constructive or destructive to the dynamic of the team and the authority of the leader!   

September Focus: Multiethnic and Missional Worship

WHAT IS MULTIETHNIC WORSHIP?


Multiethnic worship can be defined as worship to God, who alone is worthy of worship, offered to Him by as many of the multiple people groups that He has made; and whose worship to Him reflects the ethnic/racial cultures that He has also created.

- Of course, on this earth it is unlikely that any one worship team can ever reflect all of these nations of the world. Yet it is possible to mirror the hope and heart of God as His Spirit leads us when we are attempting to live out Rev.7: 9 in our worshipping communities.

WHAT DOES MULTIETHNIC WORSHIP DO?

A. Gives us a fuller worship of God

     (1) It isn’t any one culture that posses complete knowledge of God perfectly. Because cultures are
          human, they express sin, and as a result none adequately celebrate God’s glory.

     (2) As pieces of the puzzle we need different cultures to complete the mosaic that God intended   
          our earthly worship to be. Each has parts of the truth that others can miss. So we need to be open
          to being taught and blessed by different parts of the Ecclesia and then share that with those that
          we lead in worship.

B. Challenges and grows our community in ways that we can’t if we are too monocultural or monoethnic in our approach of God.

C.  MULTIETHNIC WORSHIP IS INHERENTLY MISSIONAL WORSHIP. If people who experience our communities begin to see a fuller picture of who God is and a more complete and beautiful representation of his kingdom and his people, they will want to know more about him. Plain and simple. 

HOW DO WE LEARN TO DO THIS?

     (1) Examine your own culture (what do we/I value, what’s my/our view of God, what do you like
       about your own cultural expression?)

     (2)Get to know people from different cultures (listen to their music, watch how they lead, notice how
        they interact with the group, develop partnerships)

     (3) Ask questions (process what you see/hear/do, if you don’t know something take the risk and ask),

     (4) Welcome all people (create space in your style of worship, in your set, in your structure, be 
        willing to do things differently, change how you speak to cast your net wide)

    (5) Prepare your own heart (be honest with what’s hard and confusing and take that to God in prayer,
        share it with your brothers and sisters from different cultures)

    (6) Each culture has unique characteristics that reflect the image of God. Each culture has a unique
      experience with God, a unique way of seeing him, a unique way to respond to him, and unique
      creativity that worships him and carries out his will.  Recognize this and be ok with your own
      uniqueness and others' as well. You do not have to give up who you are. There is a difference
      between incarnation and assimilation. We were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-16)

    (7) Know that together we are to fulfill the Great Commission. We want to worship Yahweh in spirit
      and in truth, rejoicing and taking delight in a variety of expression. Not just one way that's
      comfortable.

    (8) True worship is both culturally specific (God to you personally) and multicultural (God to    
       everyone around you)

    (9) Remember that worship should be a place in which people learn the character of God.  Doing it
      multiethnically is just teaching a wider vision of who our God is.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT OUR COMMUNITIES?

Understand the different cultures and ethnicities that you’re representing or reaching. (The following a VERY loose generalizations of some different worship characteristics specific of certain ethnicities. They are by no means rules and should not supplant your own personal search to know your brothers and sisters more fully in who they are and how they express their love to God.)

• Hispanic Culture:

Celebration and expectation, power of the Holy Spirit, Second Coming, Freedom and Joy, Forget your problems, not preparation but an experience, place to be trained

• Asian American:

Relationships (Father), Korean expressiveness and earnestness, Chinese scriptural focus, sense of duty to worship God, permission, corporate mindset, silence and contemplation in the Japanese culture

• African American:

Worship is a breakthrough from our trials, God is the answer to all our struggles and the freedom from bondage, physical as much as aural and vocal, directive and exhortative, free flowing.

• Native American:

Harmony through God, Jesus is the one who returns our harmony, Unity, being with one another, fellowship, couples lead, families lead, we are the people of God in the Now.

• Anglo-American:

Doctrinal truth, explanation, traditions, story.

HOW CAN BEING THOUGHTFUL ABOUT MISSIONAL WORSHIP EXHORT OUR COMMUNITIES TO CHANGE?

Sometimes our communities need something different to wake us up, to pull us out of a funk or to move us forward.

What if your community is struggling with truth? What if there is rampant sin or just a lack of focus on Jesus and what he did on the cross? You might want to sing a few hymns, they are the gospel in a nutshell.

What if your community is struggling with sadness, with despair, with being weighed down by expectations? Maybe you need to do some Hispanic music or some gospel music to lift people up and remind them they are the children of god who delights in them, who celebrates in them and who sets them free.

What if your community is struggling with discord, with broken relationships and distance from God? Maybe you need to sing some Native American songs- they’ll lead you to think about a God who is a unifier, who loves harmony and who restores the broken.

What if your community is struggling with chaos- just too many voices saying different things, too much focus on the people who are in charge? Maybe you need to sing some Asian songs and have moments of silence to be reminded that God is a God of peace, that he is the Father who is ultimately in charge.

Above all, know this: This is not easy- it’s comfortable for each of us to worship as we’ve been raised, to worship with people who hold the same values in worship. And the devil HATES this- song and dance done unto God in any cultural style threatens Satan's plan to destroy humanity and helps fulfill the Great Commission. He will do everything he can to keep us separated in the church, to keep our worship focused more on ourselves than God and to keep his plans moving forward. We have to commit to doing this- commit to being on a journey that will be hard, but will teach us so much about this God we serve and ourselves along the way.

August Focus: Humility

Our job as worship leaders is to model for those you’re leading the correct posture for entering the Lord’s presence. You are the lead worshippers. This means you must model humility before God by giving Him due glory and honor.

Sometimes it’s easier to humble yourself before God on stage than it is to humble yourself before people off stage.

Humility before God is empty worship without humility towards others: this is the kind of worship God wants from us as worshippers.


Jesus’ Example of Humility - Philippians 2:5-11

(1) Jesus’ humility before God the Father led Him to make Himself nothing and humbly serve others

(2) His humility before God led Him to humble Himself and become obedient to death

(3) To give glory to God the Father meant living a life of humility before others.

Our Call to Humility and Unity- Philippians 2:1-4

(1) True worship is reflected in how you are humble with each other

(2) It’s when you consider others better than yourself

(3) when you treat each other with compassion and tenderness

(4) when you deny your own selfish ambitions for the sake of others

(5) taking up for each other when someone’s been unjustly wronged



Facing Challenges with Humility

Hardest challenge you will probably face next year will not be learning new songs, figuring out chords, finding time to practice/plan, or even getting over stage-fright…hardest challenge: learning how to humbly work with and love each other well.

Understanding the Importance of Long-suffering

(1) The fact is, we will hurt each other and sin against each other

(2) Bearing with each other is an act of worship

(3) Being committed to each other no matter what says more than the perfect sounding music set

- God is not pleased when we choose to put a great worship set together at the expense of being humbly patient with each other!

God will reject our worship; Listen to Isaiah 58:3-4

‘Why have we worshipped’ they say ‘and you have not seen it?’ ‘Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your worship, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your worship ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.”

What else is true worship?

(1)Humbly confronting someone about their sin because you love them

(2) Standing up for truth if gossip is making it’s way in

(3) Honestly confessing your sin to each other when necessary

(4) True worship is pursing unity which requires humbly serving others

The kind of humility and worship God is looking for is a life filled with active humility towards others.
The only way we can live this life is through Christ’s strength in us working through us.

FOR SEPTEMBER: We’ll post some detailed information about delving into Multiethnic or Kingdom worship as well as provide some discussion space to hash out our successes and failures from the first few weeks of school.

July Focus: What is Worship?

Worship of God is:
(See Colossians 1:15-23, Psalm 8, Psalm 18, Psalm 29)

(1) A response to the revelation of God that attributes Him glory.

(2) An acknowledgment of God's pursuit of us

(3) Done through words, actions and affections.

Created to Worship

(See Romans 12)

We are created worshiping- there is always something we are looking towards, ascribing worth to and finding our identity in.

Our worship needs to be daily working out of our understanding God better and conforming our lives to reflect His perfect plan.

How do we worship?

(See John 4, Matthew 6:5-15 and Revelation 7:9-10)

(1) In Spirit and Truth - we need His spirit to teach us how to approach him and worship him and we need to know the God we're worshiping, the truth of who he is and who he has called uss to be, continually growing in our understanding of who he is, how he pursues us and what it means to live a life centered on the cross.

(2) In Right Community- it is a chance for us to come together as a community that reflects God's kingdom in a way that will magnify the fullness of who God is.



What does this worship look like?
(See Revelation 7:9-10)

(1) Our worship should be a bridge, ushering in the kingdom of God here in the earthly realm as a reflection of the heavenly kingdom.

(2) Multiethnic worship can be defined as worship to God, who alone is worthy of worship, offered to him by as many of the multiple people groups that He has made and whose worship to Him reflects the ethnic/racial cultures that he has also created.



What does multiethnic worship accomplish?
(See John 17)

(1) Gives us fuller worship of God - there's no one culture that possesses complete knowledge of God- as pieces of the puzzle, we need different cultures to complete the mosaic that God intended our earthly worship to be.

(2) Challenges and grows our community in ways that we can't if we are too monocultural or monethnic in our approach of God.

(3) Missions-oriented- If people who experience our communities begin to see a fuller picture of who God is and begin to see a more beautiful representation of His kingdom, his people, they want to know more about him.



FOR AUGUST: We'll focus on how we can understand all of this better and implement it on our campuses as well as revisiting the discussion on humility.