Darcy L. Watkins – July 4, 2024
In part 1, I told you to jump in, get involved and then learn and grow in God. In this part we deal with how you will grow as a disciple of Jesus. If you are afraid of bungling things up, just get into the Gospel accounts of the disciples as they followed Jesus. They bungled things up all the time. Jesus patiently corrected and mentored them. They grew into true followers of Jesus.
So, if you want to be a worship musician, a worship singer as part of a worship team, first consider the calling God has on you. You must be a disciple of Jesus first. Then you can seek out how to best serve Him in your church. Some people misunderstand the real sense of calling, of the Lord’s call on our lives. We often think of it in terms of a vocation or specialization. “I’m called to do music so please don’t have me set up chairs”. But the writings in the scriptures refer to God’s call on our lives as a general call to repent and follow Him. It is a call to discipleship. I don’t want to knock how people use (or misuse) “calling”, so I like to define two senses of calling. First there is the general call of God. This is God’s call for you to become a disciple of Jesus. Then there may be specific calls on a more day to day, week to week and year to year basis. These are more the result of our ongoing relationship with God, as His disciple, the outcome of our response to His general call. The more specific items are assignments He gives us. As we prove faithful serving (and more importantly, faithful as a disciple) He gives us more assignments to take on. You must understand your calling as a disciple of Jesus and be on that path in your personal life of worship to the Lord. This is pretty much non-negotiable.
Years back, there was a popular keynote topic where the preacher pointed out three “L”’s. Based on the claims that Jesus made, He was one of Liar, Lunatic or the Lord. There was no in-between. He was either God or a fake. This argument is sometimes referred to as “the trilemma”. The trilemma is most popularly attributed to C. S. Lewis who probably best articulated it in “Mere Christianity” (1942 – sermons, 1952 – publication). The topic was also covered earlier by Watchman Nee in “Normal Christian Faith” (1936). But it goes further back. The trilemma was mentioned by John Duncan during the mid nineteenth century. There is also a trilemma in terms of our faith, our response to God. I refer to this second trilemma as the three “D”’s. Each of us are one of, in Deception, in Delusion or we are a Disciple. There is no in-between. Each of us is either a real follower of Jesus, or a fake.
Worship ministry isn’t easy. It involves a life and lifestyle of being a disciple of Jesus. It involves being a part of a community of faith. You will work alongside of others, some “better” than you and others much less developed than you are. In fact, the leader could be someone much less developed as a musician or singer, but they have a natural “instinct” for how to engage a group of people and lead them towards an expression of praise and worship. You must be prepared to be a team player in all this. In this sense, you are like a heavy lifting muscle that helps to make the worship leader operate effectively. You work together in success or in failure, as a team. In worship context, success or failure is seldom measured in terms of musical skill. It is usually measured more in terms of teamwork, good attitudes and submission to God’s will, and how effective this is to bring a diverse group of gathered people into a unified voice of praise rising to the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a saying that each hour of a performance involves many hours of practice and preparation. The same is true of ministry. Each hour of ministry involves many hours, days, weeks, years of discipleship, of following Jesus. And these lessons are valuable even if you decide to pursue something other that being part of a worship team. I pray you press in and grow in the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ.