Sunday, January 14, 2018

New Experiences

The past three Sundays, I've led worship at church. Not because it was really planned that way but because my dad has been voiceless. It started with a cold or something, but I've never had him without a voice for so long that I've had to lead worship for so long. Usually it's more along the lines of " my voice isn't great, so you may need to help me."

Let me say I love worshipping but I'm not a great leader. I tend to get so caught up in organizing and mentally arranging and leading the musicians that worshipping becomes secondary to making sure the songs don't crash and burn. So this has been a learning experience for me and here's what I've learned and God has showed me:

1. It's okay if things aren't perfect. I'm not saying at all that you shouldn't practice or plan for worship, but I am saying that as far as leading worship goes, it is more about worshipping yourself than conducting the band and singers. I can be a bit of a perfectionist and I get frustrated when things don't go in real life as I planned in my mind or when I practiced alone at home. And it derails me, especially when I feel that is my fault as their leader. But I've learned to make inviting God's presence my priority and then not only am I not as concerned about when the songs have hiccups, it also doesn't affect the rest of the song set.

2. I tend to think leading the musicians is more necessary than it really is. Maybe because I want to be led, but the musicians really could mostly follow me with or without my clues. I still gave clues when we were switching sections of songs, but did a lot of verbal clues and it worked. Surprisingly well actually!

I think I got to lead enough that I gained some confidence and I think God was pleased. I enjoyed it even if it wasn't perfect.

New year with new experiences. Exciting stuff!

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