i am an offering

Today’s post was going to be on the importance of being healthy as a worship leader (both physically and spiritually) but I need to put that on hold.  Look forward to those things tomorrow.

Today, however, I wanted to ask a question: How does your example (especially in ministry) affect how others worship God?

Desiring Invisibility is Much More Possible than Actually Being Invisible.

When we get up to lead worship, my hope is that our prayer and desire is to disappear so that God will be made more clear in people’s minds.  We study about who He is so we can give an accurate picture of the God we’re worshiping to the people we’re worshiping with.  We study encouragements from Scripture so we can encourage those who are worshiping with us and make them feel at home and welcome in God’s presence within the church.  But if we do all of those things and make unwise decisions or run over those we’re working with (even unintentionally) - we will not disappear.  Try as they might to get past the distraction that they see in us, the people that we’ve hurt or misled or ignored won’t be able to see anything but our mistakes.  Even if they put the best construction on things that they possibly can - in the back of their minds they’ll remember what happened.  As much as we want to disappear and make God the only thing visible through us, we’re always in the spotlight - faults and all.

A dear friend of mine in ministry and I just had an email exchange where my friend openly admitted that there was a struggle because of the way some parts of the music ministry was being handled.  My friend was very courteous and gracious (and very right, I might add) in addressing an issue that needed to be addressed.  I hope that I responded with humility and as much grace and courtesy as my friend showed me, but it got me thinking:  What we do affects how others worship God.

As much as we’d like to be invisible, it’s just impossible.  And as mature as many people within the church are to be able to forget about faults for a while and just worship God - more than likely even a small issue will nag at us when we see someone in leadership who we’re struggling with.  Even more so if it’s someone you see every Sunday or multiple Sundays (in the case of worship leaders and pastors.)

We Can’t Attain Perfection - But We Can Discipline Ourselves with Humility

We could spend our lives trying to make sure we never hurt anyone.  That would be impossible.  Even something that we feel wasn’t a big deal in the least could be a huge stumbling block to someone.  We are human, and we will fall.  But, God calls us to humility in everything we do - including our relationships.  He also calls us to think of others much more than ourselves.  Philippians 2:3-4 says this:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It goes on to talk about having the attitude of Jesus - God Himself coming down to earth in the must humble form possible: the Creator of the Universe becoming a human.  Not just a human, but a human that came to serve us!

We can pray for humility and pray that we can look out for others’ interests much more than our own.  In everything we do, let’s do it as Peter suggests:

Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.” 1 Peter 4:11 (emphasis added)

Let’s live our lives as worship leaders (especially in ministry) “so that in all things God may be glorified.”

I have to make a confession today.  What I’d like to confess is that I want this blog only to be used for the glory of Jesus Christ and to lift Him up.  What I’d like to confess is that I don’t want to use this blog to spread my name.  But, what I’m confessing is actually the exact opposite.  My human nature is fighting, fighting with the fact that I know I need to give up my thoughts of spreading the word about what I write.  My human nature is fighting the fact that when I look at my stats and see them rising I know that it shouldn’t matter.  My human nature is fighting pride.

God’s Name or Our Name?

Especially as bloggers - we tend to do what we can to build our followers, promote our blogs, trade links, whatever - but why? Are we truly doing it so that God’s glory can be known and exalted through our blogs - or are we doing it so that our name can be known?  I don’t know about you, but I am fearful that there will be a constant struggle for me as I write and continue to make new acquaintances that I will want more and more to promote myself.

I pray that God is always rightly exalted through me and that I would continue to decrease while He continues to increase.

I guess I just wanted to confess this to the world today, ask for prayer - and encourage us all to keep things in perspective.  Is it wrong to want to promote ourselves?  If it’s under the guise of “oh - I’m doing this so that Jesus will be lifted up” but really, deep down we just want ourselves promoted - yes, I think it’s wrong.  If we truly have the desire to lift Jesus up more than anything, maybe not.

What About You?

So, those of you who are bloggers out there - what do you do to remain humble?  Are you justifying self-promotion because “it’s all about Jesus” but it’s really all about you?  For me, thankfully, God used a couple of different circumstances to say, “Hey, Ryan, slow down - this is about me, not you.”  And it was right when I needed it.  God’s Word says,

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5) as well as

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

My prayer, for all of us, is that we would have humility and wisdom before everything else.

I have one chapter left in Worship Matters. I will be posting an extended review on Thursday of this week. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some highlights from a chapter in a section on “Right Relationships” dealing with the relationship with “Your Team.”

Creating Culture that Has Lasting, Positive Impact

Bob Kauflin shares “five ways to think about your team that will help you ask the right questions and pursue the right solutions.” They are:

• Establishing your team - creating a culture.
• Encouraging your team - creating a culture of gratefulness.
• Equipping your team - creating a culture of growth.
• Evaluating your team - creating a culture of humility.
• Enjoying your team - creating a culture of joy.

What can be Done?

For those of you on our team (I use the word loosely, as we haven’t officially established one yet, but you are all team-members, nonetheless!) at Living Word, how can I improve in any of these areas? I know I don’t encourage you nearly enough, and there are definitely untapped opportunities for us to just enjoy each other more often, but how else can I help in these areas?

For those of you with your own teams, what have you done in these areas that has made a difference?