Why Worship Workshop is a good question.  It’s one that will not be answered in a single blog post.  I’ll get the ball rolling today.

My History

I’ve been involved in leading worship since junior high school.  Every Sunday, I joined the musicians providing music for the children’s church at Calvary Assembly in Orlando, Florida.  As I got into High School, I started working with the High School band worship team on Wednesday nights too.  We had a pretty big group of high schoolers show up each week, and frankly, as a mid-teens kid, I was pretty keen on getting attention.

I can’t speak for the other folks in the band, but for me it was an interesting experience.  We played the music we wanted, how we wanted to play it, and we had a good time doing it.  We prayed before each service, needed to check that box, you know, and then did our thing.  This was my life through high school and as I started into my first year of college.

The next chapter

In the spring of 1989, I decided to visit my dad, who led a small ministry in Northfield Falls, VT.  He had been a minister for as long as I could remember.  His ministry was one of the “acceptable” few out there; i.e., Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Assemblies of God, etc.  He was not associated with any of them.  This was nothing new; it was how things had always been with Dad.  What I realized, probably for the first time, was that being a Christian meant more than going to church and praying before band practice.  I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that it was different and that the life I had been living was about as phony as a $3 bill.  This wasn’t new to me, but when you are so ingrained in “traditional church,” it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.

I left Florida, college, my life, car, girlfriend, etc. to move up to VT, and that’s when my walk with the Lord, and my lessons of what worship was all about, really started.

It’s not all about me

So the first thing that I had to learn about Worship was that it’s not all about me.  Here in the Worship Workshop, that is the starting point.  How that manifests in each person will be between that person and the Lord to sort out, with the help of their minister through discipleship.  Worship is a service you perform for the Lord and the people there to worship Him, not you.

See, if you are a typical musician, as I am, then you really want the worship.  You want the accolades, you want the spotlight.  You can deny it all you want, but if you are honest with yourself, you’ll see that I’m right.  You can’t lead worship unto the Lord when you are trying to take any of the spotlight for yourself.  It just won’t work.  This is a lesson I’m always learning and dealing with in my own life.

The First Step

I have talents that I’ve been gifted.  These aren’t to lift me up, but to be lifted up to the Lord so He can be glorified.  To lead worship successfully, you don’t need to be an exceptional musician; you need to love the Lord and desire to minister that love to Him and help lead others to do the same.  Here at MP3JEsus – Worship Workshop, we want to help folks find that path: take what the Lord has gifted them with and use it not for their own glory, but to glorify Him and bless His people.  Are you interested?