On Saturday I went to a conference with some of the members of the worship team at church. Dan, our worship pastor wanted to collect some of our thoughts about the day, and I posted them for the worship team, but I thought I would share them here too. The conference was led by Rory Noland, who had been the worship leader at the Willow Creek church for twenty years. Here is my worship team post. I'd love to here your thoughts too.
"Ok, I am a regular blogger, I guess I can start. I do have more thinking to do, but I have a few highlights in mind to share.
The conference was excellent. Really. And I don't say that if it was kind of blah or mediocre. It was packed with information, and with Scripture. Scripture everywhere. I want to go through my notes and just look up all of the verses, because they went by so quickly and I think I missed about half of them. Rory led several sessions, taught us some songs, prayed with us and challenged the teams with some tough questions. So here are highlights for me.
Highlight #1.
The first session focused on being a servant artist. Having been an art major in college, I can't even say how unconventional this idea is in normal art settings. But I do think it is one of the most important keys to making good art. You must be serving and thinking about something bigger than yourself, and bigger than the art itself, and this certainly fits with worship. We are serving God and he inspires our work and our words. At the end of that session we all kneeled at our seats for prayer, asking for humility, and for our worship to be a blessing to God and to our congregations.
Highlight #2
One of the very tough questions that Rory asked us to share with our teams was, "What does God like about me?" We all know God loves us, but he also likesus. We very timidly, and very humbled looked at each other around ou table, and shared what we thought God liked about us, what he delights in. And our answers were so different! And as I thought about it, I believe that they each described some of the most distinctive things about who each of us are.
Highlight #3
This one shoots right off of the last. One of the sessions was about creating authentic community, specifically in a worship team, and certainly in a local church. In this session we were asked to share with a small group of our team how we are really doing. How are you really doing? It is not a quick easy question to answer. I sat with Leslie and Nancy, and we shared with each other, and my respect and delight in knowing these woman multiplied by a hundred. This was the most important thing. Dan is right. The speaker was great, but we recieved far more from each other.
I am delighted and excited to share in worship with you all. Especially because there is a good chance that Dunkin Donuts will be involved!
Looking forward to hearing more thoughts!"
5 comments:
And so, Joanna, the question begs to be asked... What did you say that God likes about you? :)
And I really, really like the idea of being a servant artist because it can translate into something particular for me,too, though I am not an artist. I can be servant gardener, can't I? Or a servant naturalist? What you said about what we do needing to be so much larger than ourselves hits home and gives what we do deeper and farther ranging meaning.
Thank you for sharing what touched you with you with the rest of us. Thank you for letting us learn along with you.
Mom
So your mom beat me to the question... But I'd love to hear the answer just the same :)
Thanks for sharing (both here and in the evenings sitting around knitting and stuff :)
Kel
So, I guess I'll share my answer, but it is really surprisingly personal, so please don't laugh or say, "Yeah, right." It was supposed to be just a one word answer, which is difficult enough to squeak out, but also feels so insufficient to express what I really mean. And the other thing about this question about what God likes about me is that it is not necessarily what I am all the time. I am sometimes not this, but I know he likes it when I am. I think that what he likes and delights in is my honesty.
Just from reading your blog, that word seems to fit. As evidence, I'll go back to your post about that bowl you bought from a local artist. It was a good story, and it seemed personal. It gave your readers an idea about who you are and what you care about. I like that.
I think the question is a tough one, though. I don't know if I could give a one-word answer.
It's worth exploring. Thanks for posting it.
This post is so helpful for where I am right now. Thanks for your continued openness (honesty!) to share what the Lord has been showing you. I'm thrilled that you were able to enjoy a weekend of refreshing.
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