Real Worship

Wow, what a rollercoaster ride!

There were a lot of good learning experiences this week.

Ali was at the helm. He had chosen 6 songs for the set list, but we only got to do 4 of them. The songs that made it through were:

• Lifesong* (Casting Crowns) Ali
• Kingdom Come (Mike Ellis) Mike
• King of Glory* (Chris Tomlin) Mike
  
• Hallelujah (Jonas Myrin/Marty Sampson) Mike

*these songs were new this week

Everything appeared to be “going to plan” until the end of the second song. Remember what I was saying last week about God & the Senior Pastors having full liberty to step in at any point and change things? Well they did.

God had specifically told Pastor Mark that He wanted to demonstrate His miracle working power early on in the service – without any “hype” or “warming up”, or having to wait until the end of the service. God wanted us to learn to accept the demonstration of signs & wonders as freely as we do the forgiveness of sin (after all, we have no power of our own to provide or deliver any part of God’s great free gift of salvation); and to expect it during the service as normal as giving the notices.

So, without any “atmosphere” to speak of and out of nothing but sheer obedience to God’s word, Pastor Mark stepped in and gave an “alter call” – asking for all who wanted to receive from God to step out from there seats and come to the front of the hall. Virtually all of the congregation came forward!

This was where the “fun” (& the learning) began. As Pastor Mark began laying hands on people, we played the chords to Ali’s, “Your Love is a Burning Flame” and God started to move in power. With the numbers of people involved, we were there for quite some time. There was a flow of people being ministered to, testimony & exhortation – all the while we were playing. The challenge for us in that situation is being able to know how to flow with the ministry i.e. how to continue to “lead” the congregation in worship while there is ministry happening without cutting across it.

However, instead of “taking the bull by the horns” and actively leading the worship during this time, we chose to wait and watch (lesson No 1 – don’t stop “leading” during ministry times). This created a vacuum which Pastor Sandra filled (as is her prerogative as Senior Pastor). What I hadn’t seen coming was the offense that I found myself battling with throughout this time (lesson No 2 – don’t be intimidated, put off, distracted, or affected either by the atmosphere or by what you can see going on around you). There were also practical lessons to learn about communication & the logistics of making such times “work”.

There was an obvious strategic attack of the enemy to try and divide us by getting us to be offended. In talking with the other band members, every one had similar battles. The good news is that god used what the enemy had intended for harm & turned it around for good (Rom. 8:28).

We had a training evening on Monday where I was teaching about the power of praise. We looked at the fact that the worship team is often at the forefront of battle (especially on a Sunday morning) – from the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chron. 20. We talked specifically about what happened on Sunday and saw how we need to arrive prepared, having made a decision to take the pathway of praise into the presence of Almighty God; and how we need to cover each other. We spent time worshiping and had a totally awesome time!

Don’t you just love how God is so Good? Even though Sunday seemed more like a war zone at times, people were healed and set free – they encountered God in a very powerful way and were changed by that encounter; and He even used the mistakes we made to teach us and cause us to grow stronger as a team – closer to each other & closer to Him.