Heart Check

Is it time for a heart check in your worship team?

I was at our Sunday morning fasting as I heard my pastor say, “An empty vessel cannot give anything”. That statement really touched my heart and stayed in my mind for a while.It eventually lead me to 1 Samuel 16: 6, 7. 6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t make decisions the way you do!People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a person’s thoughts and intentions.”
(When you get a chance read the entire chapter to get a better understanding of the story.) In other bible versions it says, “the Lord looks at the heart”, and that is where all of this is going.

What is the condition of your worship teams heart? And even as a worship leader, What is the condition of your heart?

Every worship leader strives to bring excellence in and through worship. We desire to see God’s presence move week in and week out. So we get the lineups ready, assign harmonies, set up sheet music, set up arrangements and mixes, make sure everyone comes on time, makes last minute changes and on and on. But when do we get to focus on the spirituality of our teams? We want to do great things for God, but sometimes we push God away when there is no balance. We focus so much on the outer appearance of worship that we neglect what truly matters and what worship is all about. We go into our worship sets one way and leave out the same way. God is more concerned about the heart of our worship teams, then new arrangement, the new harmonies, the new mixes, the songs selections, etc. And don’t get me wrong all of that does matter but it is not God’s main concern. God’s more concerned about the internal than the external. He is concerned about our hearts and the development of our character than anything in the external (or physical realm).

So what needs to happen? We have strive to be vessels that are full of two things.
1. Prayer
2. God’s Word

Because we cannot give what we don’t have. We cannot lead where we have not been.Every member of our worship teams (especially the worship leader) has to be full of these two things. They have to be full of consistent prayer. Day in and day out. Having a consistent line of communication with God. Luke 18:1 “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up.”

Our worship teams (especially the worship leader) has to be full of God’s word. It doesn’t matter how eloquent our speech is or how many words we may know or even if we are a good public speaker. It will never compare to the Word of God. It will never compare to quoting a scripture to your congregation at that right moment. Joshua 1:8 “Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed.”
When everyone in your team gets to this point only then will your team succeed in accomplishing it’s divine purpose.

So worship leaders, take some time to sit and think about where the level of spirituality is in your worship team. Be open and sensitive to what the Holy Spirit wants you to do. Know what God wants and is expecting from your worship team. Cry out for your people and if you are reading this and you are only a member of a worship team, then you intercede for your team. Pray that your leader may know what God wants and is expecting from your team concerning the level of spirituality.

I pray that worship teams across this country can be able to bring excellence in worship from the inside out. In the altar and away from the altar. In our public life as well as our private life. Let us all live a Life of Worship.

On a scale of 1 to 10 ( 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest) where do you consider you and/or your worship teams level of spirituality to be at?

Is there a healthy balance between spirituality and weekly execution of tasks in your worship team?

This post has been featured at TheWorshipCommunity.com.