There are a million reasons I'm thankful to be here, Bethel Worship has to be one of the top!
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
My Family from Other Mothers - Worship Team
We had our Worship Team auditions yesterday. Everybody has to audition. Even if you've been in the worship team for 5 years, you have to re-audition every year; which I think is cool, it's something to look forward to and to display growth and get feedback.
Well, apart from us "oldies" (I love saying that, since I was a "newbie" for so long, we had a few fresh faces come in and it reminded me of myself - how nervous I was, how I was hoping to be perfect and was disappointed when I wasn't, having guys speak some sort of 'secret language' about chords and key changes, to be honest, I have no idea what a lot of that music talk is about :-)
So with all this, I'm reflecting on how AMAZING the past year serving with these guys has been. My team pictured here - I tell them all the time, they changed my life. I found another family here and even when it's not my team serving, seeing these other guys on stage, I feel so proud to know them, to know how hard they work and how much they love doing what they're doing! So, if you want to join a worship team, or any Ministry team, DO IT! Then show up. It's a humbling experience but you have to stick to it because the best is yet to come.
I thought I'd post today on what I wrote in my journal after my first time on stage, it was a Worship Night I think in September or October last year, I can't remember. Anyway, be encouraged.
Not so great parts:
Very nervous!
Blanked for a second in the song “make me over”
Forgot some lyrics here and there
Had a hard time harmonizing on some songs so I jumped back and forth between soprano and alto.
My voice is shot! Doubt I’ll be speaking tomorrow.
Band was confusing. Guitar amp was all over the place, some songs we were at the chorus and the band was at the verse, but we soldiered on.
Best parts:
Sung some songs really well
Lots of people came forward for the alter call
Crowd was singing along and seemed somehow into it
Personally, God just jazzed me at the alter call time because I started having these thoughts in my head like, “People are bored and disconnected” etc, and then all of a sudden these people walk up and God is just like, “Jo, this is not about you! I desire to connect with my people more than you desire for me to connect with them.” So, despite my best efforts, it’s not about the worship leader releasing encounters, it’s God.
There were times I really felt the presence of God in me, but at the same time there were many distractions. Like you have to look at the atmosphere in the church, look at what the leader is signaling, listen to what the harmonies are and if you’re ok… I mean, it’s a lot of stuff outside then trying to lay all that aside for what’s inside. It’s tricky, but what I’m telling myself is Jenn Johnson led worship since she was a kid, it’s taken a lot of things - time included to get those guys to where they are.
Now I have a funny story about my first time on stage. I blanked for a whole chorus just staring into space with the mic held off to the side.
:-)
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Worship Team Performance: REST AND RELAXATION
Catch Up : Introduction
Part 1: Preparation 1
This should be a deliberate activity. It’s arrogant not to rest. Anticipate the crash after the adrenaline rush performance brings and work with it not against it. Take time to unwind, give thanks to God and to review your performance.
I’ve been learning a lot about the place of rest in my own life. It’s almost like Christian lingo using the word “soaking”, I know Beni Johnson uses it a lot. Soaking is basically meditating on God’s word and setting your heart on His presence. It’s the absence of striving to get to God and just letting God get close to you.
Striving is what most of us do best as Christians. It’s easier for me to read the Bible and journal and read books and pray than it is for me to listen. The longest I’ve ever been able to lay striving aside and rest in His goodness is like the length of Bethel Music’s “Without Words” CD which was designed for times of soaking, but that was a little bit of a one-off occurrence, now I can only do like 10-15 minutes. It’s definitely an area I need to work on, getting rid of distraction and just getting in tune with God.
Anyway, I thought I’d add this video here in case you needed to do the same. Like I said, this album is such a great tool. The Holy Spirit is woven through each note and I just love it. This song makes me cry every time...hope you love it too.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Worship Team Performance: Presentation 2 - Authenticity & Abandon
Catch Up : Introduction
Part 1: Preparation 1
AUTHENTICITY
Don’t undermine your intelligence and don’t undermine your audience’s intelligence. When you open your mouth you’re communicating something spiritually and your audience can understand what that is. I had this conversation with my sister about how songs aren’t just necessarily “secular” or “Christian” every song carries a spirit behind it, sometimes in a strongly negative way, like you hear a song and you feel weird in your heart, I can’t describe it, it’s just something you know, then there are songs that lift you up and you can practically see your spirit dancing in the clouds, then there are the songs that are secular but that still make your heart happy and your spirit is content. Anyway, I think you just have to be aware of stuff like that.
The audience can understand your conviction and lack of and that directs them either with you to God’s presence or away from you and maybe even away from His presence.
We have a saying here in Kenya, “Empty debes make the most noise” debes=tin cans. Worship is spiritual warfare; if you’re being dramatic and inauthentic, it’s like bringing a plastic knife to a gun show. Those demons either come in and kick your butt from here to low hell or they ignore you because you’re not a threat, you’re just a bleep in the radar.
Authenticity is just the truth. It begins in the spirit and manifests physically.
So what happens when you have to lead a happy song when you’re not happy? Is it being authentic to sing this song sad or depressed because that’s the reflection of your mood? No. We need to believe who we’re singing about and sometimes that may look like going back to the A, B, Cs of our faith that is having faith. It’s singing this song from the attitude of, “My life sucks right now, but it won’t suck forever!” like Jenn gave this example once, or, “God, I’m not happy now, but I trust in you to make me happy.” Or “God, I’m not free yet, but I believe I will be.” Sometimes it’s just consciously deciding, “I left all this stuff going on out there, but right now I’m going to worship God and focus all I have on Him not for any reason other than He deserves it.” Kim Walker-Smith said this once.
One time, I was alone in my room and I was trying to get my “God hat” on watching a Bethel worship set, and I was just not feeling it, but I remember that day this spontaneous song come out of me, “I’m going to worship like it’s already been done!” Come out of me is actually a mild term, that line practically burst through me and through all that hopelessness and defeat I was feeling. My point is, God comes through.
ABANDON
Abandon is surrender to God, to the performance, to yourself and to your audience. It’s he deliberate laying down of the ego. Enjoy yourself, people more or less tend to mirror you.
Neema said, think about authenticity like a rubber band, the further in you can go, the truer you become, the further out you can soar when it’s released. That’s when a song goes from your gut into the audience’s gut. The true performer masters the art of balancing between doing it for God/themselves and doing it for others.
See you next week for the last part of this series!
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Worship Team Performance: Presentation 1 - Authority & Arriving
Catch Up : Introduction
Part 1: Preparation 1
This is when you’re on stage and is also split into 3: Authority, Authenticity and Abandon
Authority is arriving spiritually, mentally and physically. She gave the example of how her director would tell her she needed to consciously feel the ground beneath her feet. I know I’m guilty of this, getting absent minded, my thoughts just trail off and I forget to bring the mic up to my mouth and sing when I’m supposed to! The funny thing is when this happens, not just to me but I’m sure to other worship folk, that’s when you lift your hands and act all into the song, when 5 seconds ago you were thinking about the shirt the guy in front of you is wearing. Inauthenticity noted!
When you’re nervous it shows. Stand with your center of gravity intact; be stable, and not easily shaken. Take control of your nervous ticks.
Someone will definitely question your authority so know who you are.
Arriving mentally is knowing, loving and trusting your team. You’ll definitely not perform well thinking, “oh, so and so doesn’t like me” then at the same time thinking about whether the crowd likes you…you’re attacked on every side, but if you know the team is behind you and that they’ve got you, that helps you incredibly. So mend fences and build bridges wherever they need to appear.
Arriving spiritually is knowing whose you are and who everything is directed at and where it all comes from. It’s the assurance that whether you’re in a crowd or by yourself, you will still sing, you will still worship. Like Steffany Gretzinger sang once “This is for you and no one else, in a crowded room or by myself, I will worship you, in Spirit and in truth.”
See you next week!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Spontaneous Worship
This is something I've really been interested in over the past year. Going beyond the restraint of the song and having a conversation with God leading to encounter. One way I've been loving of doing that is spontaneous worship. To me this is singing from the heart. I was singing with my team at our Church's night of worship last Friday and one of my favorite parts of the night was I was singing my own words and my friends were singing their own words and the band was singing their own words or singing in tongues all spontaneous lyrics out of ONE song, then the pastor comes up and tells us to sing a song off the set-list and unrehearsed but that was perfect in that moment, it was amazing stuff.
I've been doing a little research about it because I'm a nerd and I research things a lot, this is some stuff I found:
I've been doing a little research about it because I'm a nerd and I research things a lot, this is some stuff I found:
I have encountered about 3 different ways people sing out in the spirit. All 3 are equally valid and have purpose, but the outcomes are very different and we therefore need to respond in different ways depending on what type of singing in the spirit God is calling us to do during a service.
1. You may be called to sing a prophetic/spontaneous song... something that is revealing God’s heart/nature to us to either encourage/guide or edify the church. Should these prophetic songs be transcribed if at all possible like any other prophetic word? What do you think?
The point is for everyone to hear what God has to say, so it is good to sing that out over a microphone – or if you’re me then don’t use one lol!
The point is for everyone to hear what God has to say, so it is good to sing that out over a microphone – or if you’re me then don’t use one lol!
2. We may be called to sing out in the spirit spontaneous songs of praise. If it is a general song of praise – not something prophetic from God to His people, rather an overflowing of what is in your heart I would suggest stepping back from the microphone... this will encourage other people to join you in singing out praises from their hearts rather than stopping to listen to what you are singing... THINK... what is the purpose of my singing out, is it 'just' my own praise therefore between me and God or is it something to edify the church?
3. One of us, or even the congregation may start to sing a short phrase over and over again in the spirit. We need to listen out for this happening and ‘catch hold’ of it... allow the spirit to move in it and encourage the church to respond corporately to it, by joining in or adding their own phrases to follow on where one person has started us off. In that instance if it is a member of the team I would encourage you to sing into you microphone as you are leading people corporately singing in the spirit.
Our leadership want us when bringing a prophetic WORD to bring it to the person leading the service through briefly for them to make an initial yes bring it now or ...no not right now judgement. They then ask that person to write up the word so that they can revisit it over time, and weigh it up etc.
We cant really do that with spontaneous songs and prophetic songs... as in their nature they are spontaneous.
We cant really do that with spontaneous songs and prophetic songs... as in their nature they are spontaneous.
Sometimes they appear to be directly prophetic in nature, other times they appear to be 'just' spontaneous... who makes the judgement call over whether it was prophetic or not... not me I think that is a job for leadership, but we do need to therefore equip them to make that judgement by providing some means of assessing a spontaneous song by keeping some form of record.
Pauline L - Worship Central Forums
If you’re assembling a prophetic worship team, it won’t be enough if you merely find a few people who jam well together. They may be spontaneous and they may sound good together. But it doesn’t turn prophetic until we stop expressing our hearts, our sound, or our style. Only when we express God’s heart do we step into prophetic song.
Over the years, I’ve found two good ways to start. First, sing in tongues for a while, and ask God for the interpretation. Second, sing Bible truth about Jesus. But then, invite the Holy Spirit to pour a song of worship through our lips, a song that will release the manifest presence of God.
Often, the prophetic song arrives not with a lot of musical virtuosity, but with sounds I suspect I could play in my sleep.
Prophetic activity doesn’t spill off the top of our heads. Jesus said (John 7:37-38) “Out of your belly – out of your deepest parts – will flow rivers of living waters.”
If your deepest parts are thinking about music, your spontaneous songs will be little more than jamming. But if your deepest parts are communing with Jesus, you are likely to get into a prophetic flow.
I don’t think John the Baptist ever picked up a guitar, but he had the recipe: “I, [the musician] must decrease, but He. The Word of God, must increase.”
To cultivate this, it’s good to seek the flow of the Spirit and the manifest presence of God as we worship Him in secret. That’s what Jesus taught; if we seek the Father in secret, He will reward us openly.
Go into the prophetic flow. Don’t be satisfied just to jam.
I'm going to do a lot more posts like this on this type of stuff that really just stirs me up. As much as I research and read and receive I'll share with you guys.
Good news too. I know my "God" posts are long but I've decided I won't put a page break thing so that even if you happen to stumble upon this site you can read all these hopefully inspirational/educational posts without clicking and waiting...all for your convenience.
xx
Jo