Our music team is going through a bit of a rough patch.
Our church has no building, no office space and gathers on Sunday mornings on a basketball court at a YMCA. We’re allowed to get into the Y at 7:00am to start setting up for our 10:00am service, so we have just enough time to get everything up and running and to roll through our worship set for the day.
You may be asking: how do you rehearse? Great question. Without a building, office or even a home to use, we are currently practicing in a garage in my apartment complex. We had to buy an electronic drum kit because we have to keep our volume down. We can’t use guitar amps, so we run our electrics through our pedals and straight into the sound board (#KnowYourTone). Also, I’d like to mention that we live in Tampa, FL and we practice at 9:30am on Saturday mornings…
All this to say: our weekly practice doesn’t open up the door for creativity to thrive. More often than not, we gather at 9:30am, set our stuff up and do our best to be out by 11:00am. That’s what it was like this past Saturday. Summer is coming. Florida is getting hot.
Our pastor was planning to preach a sermon about joy infecting our city as it did in Acts 8:4-8. I planned for our team to lead “God of this City” by Bluetree after the sermon as a part of our response time. My initial thought was this: “The pastor is preaching about joy and life (through Jesus) happening in Tampa, so it’d be cool to proclaim the chorus of ‘God of this City’ together as a church family.”
And that’s a good thought, right? On the heels of a powerful sermon about living on mission and seeing the Gospel change our city, we would stand together and proclaim, “Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city!”
That’s how I prepared the song and that’s where I completely missed it.
The worship set I planned was building around a main idea that “greater things” would happen in Tampa. It would leave my congregation with the thought that some “greater thing” would take place and that they should feel like it’s something worth singing about.
This was the disconnect. As a worship leader, I failed.
At practice on Saturday morning, our lead guitarist threw out an idea. He said, “At the end of the song, let’s go back into the pre-chorus instead of the chorus.” So, like we usually do, we gave his idea a shot and everything changed. His idea led me back to worship of the one who is worthy of it: God Himself.
We immediately made the change. Instead of leaving our congregation with the thought that some obscure, undefined “greater thing” would eventually “come in this city,” we left our congregation with the truth that “there is no one like our God.” Walking to their cars, they would be humming that tune and reciting that lyric in their heads. They would be sent out (on mission) being reminded that there is no one like God; the natural progression would follow. They’d remember that only He can satisfy. They’d remember that only He can save. They’d remember that salvation and victory are His. They’d remember that He is their God.
The only way that we’ll see these “greater things” take place in our cities is if God makes them happen. He has called us to proclaim the Good News and to be His ambassadors. We must believe that He is the only chance that our cities have to be restored and we must obey His calling on our lives. When His church is trusting Him and taking part in His mission, these “greater things” will abound.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:16-21 ESV) (emphasis added)
– How you ever been in this spot?
– How have you “missed it” as a worship leader?
– How did you adjust?
Love this post Cameron, how has your team been after you guys went though this? I’ve found that my team really appreciates honesty.
Thank you for sharing, Cameron. In retrospect, I can’t thank God enough for the experiences of “growing pains” and how it has shaped ministry for our teams through the years. I pray your congregation continues to grow through your leadership by example.