I lead worship at our church and I love, love, love it to pieces. Only thing is I know that there is so much more we as a church can do to glorify our God and express our worship to Him with freedom. As Nick Herbert put it once: “PRAISE AUTHORISES EXPANSIVENESS!” And the more and more we praise Him, the more and more we see Him at work by the power of the Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t be afraid of that. And I really long for people to be brought before God to praise His name:
- With freedom
- With joy
- With all that they are
- With confidence
- Encountering His presence
- Hearing His voice
- Growing in intimacy with Jesus
- To see the Heavens wide open
- To grow deeper and deeper in faith
- Finding spacious places
The Holy Spirit is AMAZING and at work in all of our lives – but we need more of Him and we need to constantly be seeking His face and to me I will always become closer to God through music, and singing my heart out to Him and with Him. I can honestly say I’m not afraid of the Holy Spirit moving within a church service or a prayer meeting or just a meeting in general, I think! But how exciting would it be if and when God’s power is a really tangible thing?
Rather than afraid I guess I’m unsure of how to best go about it when leading in worship. There are so many amazingly gifted and experienced people within the worldwide church family who we can learn from and I will be honest and say that this blog will mainly be me “magpieing” ideas, reflecting on them and maybe even use them myself.
Questions that pop into my head are things like:
- How can people be encouraged to express their love for Jesus effectively?
- What should leaders say/not say?
- How can the congregation and our church be encouraged to go deeper and become free to worship God with all they have within that moment of time?
- How can people be encouraged to enter into the presence of God?
- How can worship leaders get others to follow where they think God wants to take them or be part of how God is moving effectively?
- How can a congregation be encouraged to sing in tongues? Be open to the prophetic?
- How can it be explained that when we worship sometimes we sing what the Father’s heart wants to sing over us?
I really do get lost in the moments at times and feel I sometimes can’t find the right words to say to encourage others to go deeper and lead them to that spacious place that God longs to take them. As of today I want to learn and try new things in order to enable others to encounter the love of God in all His richness. And here this blog is going to document my journey along the way. I hope it helps you. I hope it blesses you. And I really hope it reflects some of what is going on in my head when I am up front leading in worship, making myself vulnerable enough to follow God’s lead and lead others to do the same. And above all I pray that it glorifies God – the author of everything good and lovely and perfect.
Erica x
Worship wonderings.... 