God's Role in Worship?

God’s Role in Worship

Sometimes God works in ways that are not as apparent as you would like them to be.

I’m the pianist/keyboardist in the worship band at my school. So far, the year has been rough. Sound difficulties, lack of practice time, and not-so-great organizational skills has made for a disappointing year of chapel worship.

I’ve realized, though, that we have had an attitude which was completely wrong.
For the first few weeks, we relied solely on our talent to get us through. We never prayed before or after practice, and we didn’t call on the Lord for blessing during worship. In fact, it was quite ironic that a worship band had their faces almost completely turned from God.

Sound problems arose. The monitors kept giving terrible feedback. The levels in the house could never quite be worked out. The electric guitar was too loud, the vocals were too soft, the piano couldn’t be heard, and the bass made an awful buzzing sound that was a constant, resonant reminder of our need for the Lord’s guidance—because really, we were doing everything right, and there was no reason for things to be going haywire.

We felt that we had refocused our minds and attitudes. With God on our side, we were going to be the most amazing sounding band the school had seen yet. Right?

Wrong. Very wrong.

Because many of the members of the band had sports and obligations, practice was neglected. We failed to get songs together before the day of chapel. We also did not have the sound settings worked out, for every time we got them just right, an elementary or middle school teacher would go back to the soundboard and mess with them in order to benefit the services for the grades below high school. Although we began and ended every practice with prayer, our hearts were still not in the right place. We figured that because we looked to God for guidance, we must sound amazing. Yet week after week, many people would come to us and tell us that chapel worship did not sound good at all. We were perplexed, really. We’ve had God by our sides through this entire process, we thought. Why are things STILL not working the way that they should be?

It took a most difficult chapel today to change our minds and attitudes.

Last week, the Bible teacher approached the band and asked us to play for the entire duration of the chapel service. He asked us to make sure that we had a PowerPoint slide with all of the songs ready, and we told him that we would be able to get enough practices in to do it the following week.

The past week, we practiced once. We were supposed to practice Friday and Saturday, but no one was so dedicated that they would miss their sports and other activities for practice. Also, no one bothered to work up a PowerPoint. When the time to play rolled around, none of us had a clue what we were doing.

It took humiliation served to us by our peers on a silver platter, along with a stern scolding from the Bible teacher, to get our attitudes finally in the right place.

Although Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who give me strength,” the scripture did not mean that we should use God as a crutch and neglect the responsibilities he entrusted with us.

God gave talent to every member of the band. He expected us to be good stewards of our talents, as is demonstrated in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and Luke 19. Instead of using what God had given us, we asked Him to do all of the work for us, essentially.

Whatever God has given you, whatever he has blessed you with, praise him to the end of your days and never ask him to do for you what he gave you the ability to do for yourself.

When a worship leader keeps his eyes focused on God and prays for guidance rather than assistance, they are able to lead others into worship with the fullest potential.

I cannot wait to see the day that God uses our band to spark a revival within the student body. Although it is a cliché prayer, praying for God to move your peers in big ways is a great and powerful thing.

Throughout the week, keep your mind and heart focused on God. Also, be sure to look at every talent and ability He has blessed you with, and examine your life. Are you using your talents to their fullest potential? No? Well…

Get Motivated.

God Bless!
Hands+Tears