That's not my responsibility...is it?

Every Sunday morning, many Christians get up, eat breakfast, get their families ready and head off to church for a worship service.  In that time of gathering, they plan to worship together, pray together, hear from God's Word, bring their gifts, and maybe hear a testimony or participate in an ordinance.   An entire church staff focuses on planning and preparing for this service, trying to make sure that they think of every transition, every minute of the service, praying over it...hoping that it will be something God can use to touch and challenge His people.

In a conversation this morning with a friend, an interesting question was posed that I felt was worth taking some time to think and talk through...

"...in what way does a worship leader need to lead in the various ways his people worship?  Is it his/her responsibility to do that - or is it the people's responsibility to follow the leader in whatever way he/she goes?"

 As I've pondered this question, I've come to the conclusion that I believe it is both...

When I am leading worship, I have to anticipate that there are people there to worship with us who either don't know Christ, are new in their relationship with Christ, or who may have fallen away; these people are the people that I should be striving to reach more than anything when putting a service together.   Of course, as a worship leader, we are always praying that God will use us to move in the hearts of anyone and everyone that He wants to touch; but in planning, I believe that the style, environment, etc. has to be planned for those who need help learning how to draw close to the feet of God in worship.

As a growing follower of Christ, I know that when I walk into a worship service, it is MY responsibility to prepare myself for a time of worship with the body of Christ.  If I take time to prepare myself for this time, it won't matter what songs are sung and what style they are; worship is an act of giving - it is me bringing all that I am and pouring my love and adoration out to my Creator.   If I am giving, then I am setting my own personal wants aside and I am able to worship to old time hymns, liturgy, Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Leeland Band....whatever...I should simply prepare myself and trust that God has prepared the leader and been a part of the service planning.

Also - as someone who is passionately pursuing our Lord & Savior, I am worshipping throughout the week on my own and I know what things bring me to that worshipful mindset more easily than others.  For me, music is by far the easiest way for me to get lost in the greatness of God; I think second is watching my husband and girls after I have spent time praying for them and being able to see God in them; another way is when I read testimonies of how other people are pursuing Him...that always makes my heart burst with love & adoration for Him.  Those are some of my most basic ways to worship.

As a worship leader, I like to use scripture within the service & I remember when a church member emailed me once to thank me for doing so because they do not worship as easily by music, but really worship by getting lost in the Word of God.   That was a real "Aha!" moment for me in realizing how I could help people within my church find that place of worship easier.   As church members, maybe we need to be sure we do communicate with our leaders more when there is something that really helps us - I think that can be another responsibility we can pick up as members to help the staff in planning a service.

Conclusion - if you're taking the time to read this, you're probably someone who does passionately pursue God, so once again my challenge to you is to look and ask yourself if you prepare you for corporate worship on Sunday.   If enough of us take the time to do so, it will begin to change the atmosphere on Sundays...you will begin to see an overall change in the participation (more hands raised, more excitement, more kneeling at the altar), hear more singing, and I believe that will eventually bring a change to our churches in seeing our families live life together, go deeper in study, serving together, etc.  

It all starts in the heart and it takes time to prepare ourselves to go before a holy Lord.   I mean...think about it...we are bringing ourselves before the Creator of the universe of an unknown number of galaxies; and despite how amazingly grand He is, He still cares enough about you & me to know how many hairs are on our heads, to know when we wake up and when we sleep, and to know our inmost thoughts.  I think we must ask ourselves, "have I taken the He deserves to prepare to be in His presence?"