For “The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Course, with Dan Wilt“.
Ok.. So I wasn’t the greatest with processing my Essentials Red materials particularly since much of the work fell while I was traveling to visit family.. Note to self… schedule classes better next time.
This past week for Essentials Green we looked in to the Worship Values of Intimacy and Integrity.. I thought this was all well and good and I’m a huge proponent of both of these values when preparing to lead worship, but I wasnt struck by any of those woah! moments that have been a part of some of the other weeks in the Essentials Course. What changed my mind was the fact that this was my week to lead our devotion time for the Sunday morning worship band at CCOJ. We meet 30-40 minutes before we have to set up to receive some teaching and/or have prayer and time to minister to one another.
Great. What am I going to talk to these people about? Almost all are older than me and have many more years as worship musicians and Christians for that matter. What can I possibly teach them/encourage them with? Finally, I decide… hey, this Essentials stuff has been great for me.. lets see if they might enjoy a taste.
So, we dive in to the idea of Intimacy as leaders of worship… How do we as the leaders model, encourage and lead people in to intimacy with their God. What blew me away is that the team intuitively understands the idea, but has never had the right word to express it. They also immediately make the connection between intimacy and integrity, that we can not expect to call the congregation to a place where we haven’t been as a leader.
The time comes for us to depart our devotion and go to the stage and I can palpably sense that the team was striving for intimacy that morning and hopefully it will continue on in to the week.
Eric Barz 