i am an offering

I’ve been realizing lately just how amazing it is to actually get paid to be on staff as a worship leader - because I don’t anymore.  After four and a half years of being paid to lead worship, organize volunteers, plan services, pick music and live and breathe all things music and worship and after working a new job and volunteering to do many of those things now, I’ve come to realize just how much I took my last job for granted.

I never realized the time and effort and dedication that volunteer worship leaders who oversee an entire ministry put in.  As I’ve begun to balance planning and vision in the local church with working a job and making sure I honor and put my family first, I’ve come to realize how amazing volunteer worship leaders really are.  So the purpose of this post is two-fold.

First - Thank You Volunteers

Thank you for working an entire day at your “real” job and still giving the energy to pick music and lead a rehearsal all night long for church.

Thank you for having vision to see what needs to be done in two places (both at work and in the church.)

Thank you for supporting your pastor and your team members even though you are probably running out of energy.

Thank you for your selflessness in deciding to make time available to the church instead of your own pursuits.

Thank you Jordan Volk, for your tireless passion at Abiding Savior.  Thank you Paul Stigge, for the time and effort you spent developing a worship and music ministry at Lord of Life.  If you know a volunteer worship leader that you’ve never thanked for their time, stop right now and figure out a way to do so.

One word of caution - however, as someone just mentioned to me the other day - it’s easy to burnout if you are working full time and leading a worship ministry as a volunteer.  Be careful, prayerful and intentional about keeping yourself healthy and epsecially keeping your family healthy.  I need to remember to heed those words as well.

Second - An Encouragement to Paid Staff

Those of you who are privileged to be on a staff as worship leaders - don’t ever forget that is what it is - a privilege and an honor.  You are given the privilege to:

• Plan services so that there will be minimal distraction so that God will be exalted
• Pick and suggest music for the local church
• Love on, encourage and recruit volunteers for the team
• Serve God completely as your profession
• Help others live lives that glorify Jesus Christ

The best privilege of all is that we, staff and volunteer alike, get to honor and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ - together.

So what happens when we think we don’t have the right people in place to raise up?  It’s time to ask some questions:

• Are you praying?  If you aren’t praying for a person to train and raise up, chances are that God’s not going to give you one.  It’s possible that He would, but much more likely that He will if you ask Him.
• Are you looking?  Or are you just saying “There’s no one available” when you haven’t even looked?
• Are you asking?  It’s very likely that your pastor or another ministry leader would know of someone with the gifts and abilities you’re looking for.  Ask them!
• Are you equipping?  Surely you already have several volunteers involved in your music and worship ministry.  Have you been training all along, with the intention of raising up someone out of that group?

In summary, the best way to avoid burnout in your ministry is to let go of our selfishness and our fear, learn how to train and equip, and pray, look, and ask if there is anyone available to raise up.  Once that person (or persons) is found, the burnout we would face from trying to do everything ourselves will go away, and a new leader will emerge.

This week we’ll finish looking at some reasons why we might be afraid to raise up new worship leaders, which eventually causes us to burn ourselves out.

One of the reason that we don’t want to raise up new worship leaders is that we don’t know how.  This is a very valid reason with some potentially easy solutions:

• First of all, learn how.  This might seem obvious, but many times we rely on our own talent to get us through things.  Because we rely on our own talent, we don’t know how to teach and train others.  It is our responsiblity to continuously learn and train ourselves.  I believe the most important training we could ever go through is that of learning how to equip others.
• Recognize that you might not have the gift of teaching.  The Bible is clear that certain gifts are given to certain people.  Perhaps you can play and instrument, sing, and lead worship really well but you have no idea how to teach others how to do it.  Find people who do.  Find music teachers within your church or even within your community.  Find people that can teach you how to be a better leader, and let those people teach your volunteers as well.
• Make time to teach.  So often in the world of church music we are constantly rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing.  Schedule some time for teaching.  Come up with a monthly workshop time to teach your volunteers.  If that is too often, do it quarterly, or even twice a year.  Make time to teach.

Tomorrow we’ll look at what happens when we think we don’t have the right people in which to pass on leadership.

So, we want to raise up new worship leaders and avoid burning ourselves out, but we’re deathly afraid of what might happen when we “let go of the reins.”

The first problem is that we really shouldn’t have been holding the reins in the first place. When we place our own control of a ministry over God’s leading of it, we are really creating an idol out of our own ministry. A certain amount of control is good (making sure that the ministry is Biblical; having control of who is involved in the ministry, so that lifestyle is consistent with the ministry, etc.), but when we refuse to step down from leading worship for a Sunday and let someone else do it because we want things “perfect,” we are bowing to the control idol.

Instead of thinking, what if this goes wrong, or what if that goes wrong, have you thought of these what ifs?

• What if the young teen who plays guitar is allowed a chance to lead worship in youth group or a small group, and eventually becomes a dedicated, God-honoring, worship leader, devoting his life to training, teaching and leading others?
• What if the classical guitarist who has been seen as playing an old-fashioned style is allowed to use his talent to play one of the most beautiful musical intros heard in quite some time? (I know the author of the post definitely didn’t see the guitar player in that way, but I’ve always wondered what to do with classical guitar in contemporary worship, have you?)
• What if the young lady with not much formal vocal training is mentored, trained and given the opportunity to be a vocalist on the worship team? Will she be able to one day glorify God by be involved in recording vocals for worship CD’s?

You get the point, hopefully. So often we’re wrapped up in the negative what ifs that we don’t even think about the possibility that the what ifs could be absolutely positive. In fact, they could change a life for God’s glory.

So, how do we deal with the fact that we are by nature selfish and don’t want to relinquish the recognition that comes from being a worship leader?

First, let’s recognize that certain recognition is okay, but not in the way you might think.  Instead of wanting to be recognized for what you can do, or how you can lead, be recognized for who you are:

• You are one who has been purchased by the price of Jesus’ blood on the cross.
• You are one in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
• You are part of a holy nation, chosen by God for His own posession, a royal priest and king. (See 1 Peter 2)
• You are no longer dead in your sins, but alive in Christ.
• You are one who is becoming more and more like Jesus every day.

When we begin to recognize who we are (especially after realizing who we once were), we realize that we we do doesn’t matter nearly as much.  The things we do are only in gratitude to who we are.  Once we realize this concept, our selfishness for recognition goes away because we realized that everything we do is to promote the One who made us who we are.  In this way, we are willing to share ministry.

So, how do we deal with fear?  More on that later today.