I’ve struggled (for quite some time) with the fact that this is technically our “business” blog. Should we post about each other, our children, our lives, and our adventures in this space? I’m not sure that there’s a right or wrong answer to that question…so let’s try it out, shall we? Here’s a recent adventure of mine…

For those of you that don’t know, I’m involved with worship at our church. I have the privilege of standing on a stage and leading you into worship. I wish that each of you could stand up there with me, and see how beautiful you are. Voices singing, hands raised, in praise to our King. There’e nothing like it, your involvement gets me every time. Since I’m not the main worship leader, I often get to sit back and take it all in. I have the freedom to sing, to get lost in moments with my God. I’m allowed to just WORSHIP without thinking of the technicalities. Recently, that changed.

After the New Year, I sent our worship leader, Jason Shafer, an email. In that email, I asked him to give me more opportunities, to “push” me, and help me grow. Well, push me, he did. A few weekends ago, I lead worship at Southwest Community Church, for our Video Cafe services. In all honesty, I was terrified, even though I had three weeks to prepare. Finally deciding on a set was monumental (do you know how many great worship songs I had to choose from?!) Adding to my nervousness was the fact that I was coming down with the flu. I showed up to rehearsal on Saturday afternoon with a temperature of 100 degrees, the beginnings of a sore throat and awful body aches. Not only was I worried about how I felt physically, I had to consider the band, the sound, the slides, the timer on the back of the wall, transitions, welcoming, praying, taking the ever dreaded offering. Did you know that the offering holders are specifically called, “containers”, and not “buckets”? I had to give myself a little pep talk before each service, “Don’t say buckets, don’t say buckets”. On a normal weekend, it’s two of us leading worship (Jason leading, me backing him up and singing a song or two on my own). It’s so comforting to have another singer stand next to me while I sing. We’re a team, if one of us goes down, we all go down together. I did have Kenny Meier behind the piano, harmonizing with me and being his awesome self, but I stood in front on my own. I wished that Kenny could have been up front with me. Maybe he could have played a keytar…

This experience has left me with SO much more respect for full time worship leaders. While I knew (on paper) what their responsibilities were, I had no idea how it would feel to carry out those responsibilities, how heavy the weight of the entire congregations’ worship experience would rest upon my shoulders. Overall, it went well. Being that I’m a controlling, type “A”, perfectionist, I would change a few things….next time….maybe 🙂