Wednesday, January 05, 2011

The other me.

I do actually do something when I work at the church. I don't just sit around and think about puppies and rainbows...although I've been known to do that.

Right now I am preparing to take my maternity leave and for me, that can be hard. Not just because I'm a control freak, but also because it's hard to take maternity leave from "ministry". None-the-less, I've done it 2 other times and it's worked out. In the meantime, one of the things I am doing right now is getting together new songs for the new year. As I wrote in my last post, "Focused" is my word for the year and it very much pertains to where I feel God leading our worship ministry at River City.

As I have been praying about where the Lord is leading me this year in the worship ministry there have been a few things that come to mind.

Focused on Jesus. - Because that's first and foremost!! And always should be...NO. MATTER. WHAT. I am convinced that when we lift up the name of Jesus we see the power of God in amazing ways and I believe that God wants us to do even more of that starting now. Off the stage and on.

Focused on loving others. - I can not lead worship or lead a team of worship leaders if I do not love others and care about the vision of why we do what we do. If I forget that there are people who come in every week and do not have a relationship with Jesus, then I am missing a huge part of what Jesus wants His people to experience.

Focused on excellence. - Whenever you mention the word "excellence" in a worship arts ministry you get 2 types of responses. You get the "Hallelujah! Amen!" or you get the "You're of the devil and all you care about is how you sound, look and appeal to people". Both can be taken a little too extreme and in the meantime we've missed the whole point. I don't expect perfectionism, but I do expect us working hard at what we do to create a beautiful experience in worship. A wrong note, a missed lyric, an ugly backdrop, and even misspelled word can distract more people than you think.

All that to say, I am excited about what God wants to do. If you go to River City, then be excited! I think this year is going to be an amazing ride. If you don't, then please pray that God would lead us in the direction He wants and that we would hear his voice as artists in the church.

Just a little insight to what I'm up to....:)

1 comment:

Callie said...

Natalie, you are so very right about excellence! If we have a missed word on the screen or something off, I notice and get distracted. In fact, there was one Christmas Eve service where the slide said "Angles We Have Heard on High" I remember the typo to this day and that was 8 years ago...sad that I remember it, but hey, it is what it is.