i am an offering | blog tips for worship leaders in the local church

Yesterday was another fantastic time of worship where God’s Word was proclaimed and Christ’s body given for us.  Pastor John spoke to us about the fact that everyone, everywhere has a breaking point, but that God would not let that breaking point destroy us.  John shared from 2 Corinthians 4 the amazing limits that God puts on our breaking points.

“We are hard pressed on every side, BUT not crushed.  We are perplexed, BUT not in despair.  We are persecuted, BUT not abandoned.  We are struck down, BUT not destroyed.”  This is reason to worship God!

The music came together very well.  In light of Bob Kauflin’s recent post on how important it is to have skill within a worship team, I was very excited that Pat, our drummer, nailed the tricky celtic rhythm for the song “His Forever.”  It was awesome!  Thanks for practicing, Pat!

One glitch however, leads me to the title of this post.  Our music ministry has been around for a long time, but the tech teams have only just recently started.  We have not gotten into an established routine of what to do every Sunday morning which caused a bit of a problem.  Last week, we had a guest pastor who must have used a different belt pack than Pastor John, which caused the label on the sound board to get moved.  It didn’t get moved back to Pastor John’s original channel.

Now, John hadn’t used his microphone until prayer time in the service as the elders are now doing announcements.  I started to strum a bit on the guitar while John was praying and realized very quickly that his microphone was not on.  I started playing as softly as possible (and thankfully our sanctuary is small, so that he could be heard by most of the congregation.)  John’s gain was down too low for any signal to register on the board, and the sound tech wasn’t sure which channel John should be on.  It eventually got fixed, but not until close to the end of the prayers.

This is why it is so important that we always do a sound check on every microphone, especially the pastor’s!  The most important thing about our worship services is that the message of God’s love and grace which leads us to a more Godly life be proclaimed and proclaimed so that it is heard. Paul puts it so well when he says,

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!…Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:14-15; 17

Earlier I said that thankfully our sanctuary is small, so that he could be heard by most of the congregation.  That’s not good enough.  The Gospel message must be heard by ALL.  We’ll try to consistently do microphone checks for the pastor.  Will you?