Freedom in Worship

I haven't posted in quite some time, but I got the urge to do so as it gets close to 1am. I'm not sure why I told you what time it is, but I often get inspired late at night.

Anyway....

One of the things I'm passionate about as a Worship Leader is seeing the people of God experience freedom in worship. I want them to feel safe and secure in God's presence while they worship, so they can express themselves freely. It doesn't matter if they are lifting their hands, dancing, screaming or kneeling before the Lord. It only matters that we do so with the right heart and that above all, God is glorified.

Why are we able to experience this freedom:

  - Christ has set us free. (Galatians 5:1)

 - There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1-2)
       
 - Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)
           " We worship God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit."

I long to see the day when the body of Christ in all areas of the world can feel freedom while they worship. I want the body to be able to express whatever they have been feeling about God on any given Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, or whatever day there is a Worship Service at Church. One of the things that can help is if we come with confident expectation before the Lord when we meet together (Hebrews 4:16).

What would it look like if the body came before the Lord every Sunday excited and ready to worship Him? Excited and ready to share what the Lord has been showing them. Excited and ready to lay themselves down before the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

"God I pray that we can experience this kind of Freedom in the Church. That the body would not hold back because of the way things are, but that Your presence would allow people to sense that freedom as they worship You. Lord I know this will come and I thank You now for the amazing work of Your hands!" Amen.

Passion

Recently we had lecture series and David Pierce from Steiger International came to speak to the student body. David started Steiger (an International Ministry) in hopes to reach non believers around the world. Although David spent most of the time recruiting for His ministry that I don't feel called to there was something else I saw in Him, Passion.

You can tell by listening and hearing Him speak that David is passionate about God and passionate about the ministry he is called to. Passionate people can be infectious and God is using David in this way. I admire his passion for his ministry and God.

It made me think about my own ministry and where I am called to be. As a worship leader I have to have passion for leading Gods people into worship and  a passion for their hearts. However, I need to have passion in my own relationship with Christ first. I can't lead people into God's presence if I'm not passionate about pursuing God in my own life.

Ministries can be built with passionate people, but we can never forget that unless we have an undying, passionate relationship with Christ then surely those ministries wont be started on the right foundation.

Thoughts?

Simple Lyrics

I have been struck by this song i'm doing in a worship set this upcoming weekend. The song is called "Set A Fire" by the United Pursuit band and it goes like this:

No place i'd rather be
No place i'd rather be
No place i'd rather be
Then here in your love, here in your love 

So set a fire down in my soul
That I can't contain, that I can't control
I want more of you God
I want more of you God

I love writing songs that have big ideas and recently, a lot of lyrics. This isn't too bad, but sometimes my songs can get wordy and start to not make sense. This song is a nice cry of the heart. It has simple lyrics and can be used easily in a worship set.

I love the phrase set a fire down in my soul, because it makes me think how many times I pray that. When a song can make you think past the lyrics or the melody, then you know its powerful.

Thats it for now, God bless!

Why Write A Worship Song?

Instead of talking a whole lot about why writing worship songs is good, i'm going to make the reason simple: Because God deserves it. God deserves the outpour of our heart and the glory due to Him through songwriting. Last class we shot out ideas of why we write worship songs and these included catharsis, testimony, money, and others. The real why was simply because God deserves it and by doing so we are obeying God. I don't write a lot of worship songs because they never end up how I want them to, and then I just throw them in the trash. The more important idea is that when I do write i'm doing it because God deserves it rather than writing without reason.

Psalm 96:1 "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth."

This verse doesn't say sing a new song followed by to the Lord, but rather it says sing to the LORD a new song. When we sing that new song we are doing it because the Lord deserves all the glory and honor from it.

Why write a worship song?

... Because God deserves it.

  

Back In His Footsteps

To this day I still use the word God spoke to me when I truly began living for Him. For those of you who know me you may be familiar with my life verse, but for those who don't I've probably used it in my blog before. The scripture is from Romans 12: 1-2 and it was the word God spoke to me when my eyes were reopened to Him.

I had lost His footsteps somewhere along the road and I was traveling down a path I shouldn't have been on. Up until I finally left my first college my walk with the Lord was absent, but he changed that once I dropped out. Looking back it was God leading me away from the school, so that he could work on me and reclaim me. Looking back on that period in my life God put a pause on everything and made me sit down and talk with Him... for about a year and a half. When I mean sit down and talk with Him I mean praying and asking hard questions and Him giving me hard answers. Answers that tore me up and changed me completely. This is where my life verse comes in.

I had read it right before I left my first college and then about five hundred times once I got home. For me the second verse related directly to where I was which states "Do not any longer conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve God's will for you, His good pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2)." WOW! Every time I read that verse, or recite it those incredible memories get stirred up and I get fired up. During this year and half God drilled this into me to the point where I only wanted to be transformed by the renewing of my mind according to what His word told me. This is something I never thought would happen.

Since the second verse had pushed so hard into me, once the first verse finally hit  me my eyes were truly opened. "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1)." It wasn't enough for me to leave the bad things alone, but fully give myself to Him. Simple yet profound.

After this moment I felt my footsteps realigning with His and then the train start to move. That train brought me here, to Visible Music College, where God has me fulfilling his good, pleasing, and perfect will.  Last class we talked about time and it's different terms. One of those terms is Kairos referring to the fulness of time, or a season of life...

That was a season of life where God worked in me and truly rocked my world.

Running Sound: Know the Basics

http://www.musiccleveland.com/PA_System_Basics.html

This past summer I got the most experience I've had running sound. I didn't necessarily run a board for an extended period of time, but I did get to set up a system and see how it works. My home church had to set up and take down every Sunday and so as I helped my friend (the sound guy) set everything up I paid attention to how he did things and worked the room to get the best sound out of it. During the week when I would have worship practices I needed to set up a system myself, so that helped me get very familiar with how things worked. Although I may not be able to mix well and EQ rooms right now, I have enough knowledge to step up if need be.

Basic System:
- mixing board
- amps (supply power for speakers, instruments, mics, ext..)
- speakers
- cables (mics, instruments, speakers,ect..)
- microphones/instruments

Setting it up:
1) Make sure all power is OFF
2) Plug necessary cables into the input/channels of the mixer and then into the designated microphones/instruments
3) Plug speaker cable into the output socket of the mixer
4) Plug other end of speaker cable into the input socket of the speaker
5) Plug the amps into the mixer board (if you have them) and then you will plug the speakers into the amps
6) When turning it on: Mixer first, then amps, then speakers.
7) When turning it off: Speakers first, then amps, then mixer

That should be a how to on a basic PA type system with instrumentation. If there seems to be some iffy things then let me know, after all I don't know it all. I would also suggest running through these steps with your whole worship team so that everyone has an idea of how to set it up and turn it on to get things rolling. It can't hurt, but only help.

My goal is to grow in proficiency with sound so that if I ever need to step up and run it, I can. Hopefully this helps those who may not have understood before and gives you an idea of the basics.

God Bless!

Are you a Follower or a Leader?

I remember when I was in high school people would ask this question all the time. Are you a follower or a leader? Every time it was asked I didn't really answer because I didn't care, but it was somehow followed up by a condescending; Oh, your a follower... Every time this came about it made it seem like it was bad to be a follower, or to follow something rather than to take the lead, or be the initiator.

A few days ago in class the statement was made that in order to be a good leader you must be a follower first. I haven't thought about what happened in high school in a long time, but this idea brought me back into the past and through the path I've traveled up until now. All I have to say is transformation is amazing and you wouldn't even notice when it takes place. This was the case in my instance. Through these years I had put myself into the "follower" mindset, but God had a different plan which was using that in order to make me a leader. Now it all makes sense!

I wish that someone would ask me that question because then I'd answer, "Both". You need to be a follower first in order to be a leader, but as you become a follower you also become a leader. Very interesting and inspiring.

"Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ". (1 Corinthians 11:1) Paul one of the biggest if the most important leaders in Church history. Not only did he start it, but throughout his entire life he led it alongside other apostles. Paul was a leader and he recognized this, but he also recognized his place as a follower to the biggest leader of all, Christ. It takes many things to become great followers and leaders such as humility, patience, strong will, and many others. The great thing is that these appear more so once we follow the example of Christ and become like Him.

So as we follow leaders here who we will learn from and get incredible insight from we can't forget our ultimate leader which is Christ, who called us all the follow him.


Be Blessed!





             

Preference is good, right?

Since I began leading worship one of the reoccurring issues i've faced is preference. It's easy to pick out songs and arrangements that I'm familiar with and I like, but it's harder to do the latter...... right? Preference was key to my success and also key to the stunt in my growth as a leader. 

Last class we talked about a whole bunch of incredible ideas for worship leading and worship ministry. Low and behold preference was one of the topics, but at this point my viewpoint had changed dramatically since the years past. After looking back, I saw the journey of following my own preference to laying myself down. Laying myself down..hmm.. why does that sound familiar?

^{..... "16} This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." (1 John 3:16 NIV).....

Right! It's in the bible. On a worship team it's as simple as letting someone else choose the way a song should end, or how to arrange it. It's as simple as removing yourself and allowing others to step in. Preference is a crutch that a lot of worship leaders hang on. Not only is it harmful to you personally, but to you're congregation as well. If I followed my personal preference every Sunday then I could easily stunt the guidance from the Holy Spirit when choosing songs and who wants to do that? Not me! 

Jesus constantly laid down His life for others. Since we're supposed to follow His example of living then why wouldn't I do the same? Why wouldn't I lay down my life to allow more amazing things to happen on the worship team, in the Church, and in His Kingdom. 

^"21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps." (1 Peter 2:21 NIV)

Dear Lord, allow me to follow in Your footsteps in order to become more and more like You each day, so that I can lay myself down for others and move my preferences aside. 

Amen.

More Than A Song

For my first post I wanted to describe why the blog is title More Than A Song. If you've read my about me page then you may have an idea already. As a Christian I am also a worshipper and I try to live that out everyday. I pray that my actions would exemplify Jesus and that everything I do is an act of worship to my God. That above all I would give Him glory on the highest peak and in the lowest valley. I say these things, because our worship is exactly what my blog says, More Than A Song. 

In Romans 12:1 Paul writes, "1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^a act of worship."

I try to let those words "Living Sacrifice" be apart of my daily prayer and daily thinking. Although I may fail I will do the best I can as a worshiper and follower of Christ. 

In Christ,
Corey