Below is an article that broke on CCLI this week! Hit the link below and visit the site.
http://www.ccli.com/WorshipCorner/Article.aspx?ContentId=0bd6052b-0f84-4770-a63c-901b06afade9
Stewarding The Glocal Call
Posted 11/10/2010
As a local worship leader in Colorado Springs, one of my main responsibilities is to equip my local church.
Equipping my local church not only involves stewarding those special ‘moments’ we all have when God’s Spirit is present in a very ‘tangible’ way. It also involves stewarding the other aspect of my calling as a worship leader – a call to the nations. You may be reading this saying, ‘but I’ve never been overseas’. Actually, you don’t have to be a “missionary” as such to steward such a call.
The Wikipedia definition of Glocal is: “To think locally and act globally”
Every one of us as worship leaders has been called to ‘steward’ that which God has entrusted to us through the leaders of our local church or fellowship. Stewarding what we’ve experienced, read, etc. is part of what God wants to use through those weekly worship services. However, I must emphasize a word of warning: it is not our place to preach or take unnecessary time from the platform to convert someone to an ideal or something that has greatly impacted us through what we’ve read or experienced. Rather the platform has been entrusted to us to ‘lead’ through our ‘global’ experiences. Let me give a couple of examples.
My wife and I have lived abroad much of our married life. Therefore much of what we’ve experienced through living out our worship in other cultures and regions of the world has greatly impacted our paradigm and understanding of the Global nature of God. We’ve been infected by a Glocal call – to think locally and act globally. We’ve lived in Moscow, London, Prague and Beijing. All of these places have greatly affected the way we lead worship, the way we converse, and the way we respond to our local congregation in Colorado Springs where we now are based as a ministry. Often I’ll share a scripture and story from abroad (or from a book that I’m reading) that has impacted my heart, as a tie-in to the next song. I keep the story very brief (with perhaps an acoustic guitar or pad playing underneath my story) Sharing these ‘global’ stories, takes our congregation ‘outside’ their personal, sometimes ‘selfish’ world. It’s part of the equipping aspect that I feel worship leaders are called to.
We have to see ourselves as leaders who simply construct a slick, ‘flowy’ seamless set of worship songs, and start to assume a greater leadership role of equipping our congregations and challenging them to action – to get our hands dirty for the advancement of the kingdom!
I’ve listed a few ideas that could perhaps get you thinking about equipping through those transitional ‘moments’ of worship: 1) a conversation you’ve perhaps had on a mission trip that impacted you or your team; 2) a story of compassion about an adoption situation that God used to rescue a child from trafficking; 3) a time when you’ve lead worship in another context where the song you’re about to lead played an important role in a persons journey/life. There are many times I’ve read something (from a current book I’m reading) that I’ve used in the context of worship that’s moved the congregation.
Remember that “story” is powerful because we all live there! Everyone has a story, and stories are what often shape our journeys and our relationship with God. Again, I want to emphasize that we must keep our story short and to the point! If what we share is too long and complicated, it could have an adverse effect. This is again something that you must steward as a worship leader.
I love my congregation in Colorado Springs. I want too see them grow in the knowledge of who God is and what he desires to do in and through them. I also see my role as an equipper, to take them on a journey beyond themselves. Obviously (and hopefully) this is all done under the authority and prompting of the Holy Spirit as I prepare, select songs, look at the text and theme of the message and ask God to help me lead with humility and authority under his almighty example.
One recent story: We recently released a project called “Restore” which is a live acoustic worship CD/DVD project we recorded in Cathedrals across Europe. The opening song is called “I Believe”. I wrote this song after doing an in-depth study into the Apostles Creed – digging into the foundations of our faith as Christ followers. I introduced I Believe to a church in Northwest Arkansas this summer. A week later, the worship leaders called and said he’d like to re-introduce that song again the very next week. After that service, a 17 year old girl was leaving the Sunday service and mentioned to her mom that she has a “new favorite worship song called I Believe”. On Tuesday of that week, the 17 year old girl was attending a John Mayer concert in Fayetteville Arkansas. On the way home from the gig, she was instantly killed in a car accident. It obviously sent shock waves through her immediate family, her school, the church and her friends. The mom called my worship leader friend and requestedI Believe to be played in the memorial service for her 17 year old daughter – it was a fresh worship song that was ‘singing’ in her heart in the hours leading up to the time she would meet Jesus face to face.
Mark Tedder
www.worshiplanet.com
