Leading Worship

Scott is my hero. Leading worship is not for wimps. It is so much harder than people realize.

Scott and I just started singing worship after doing it a couple of times before without Dave. Travis puts the songs up on Worship Planning.com by Tuesdays every week. Right now he is way ahead. I print out the PDF’s or grab them out of my notebook and put them in order. Scott and I both try to listen and sing along in our cars a couple of times a week. Scott has only been singing with the worship team for a couple of months. He listens to secular music so often times, he’s never sung the songs before and maybe only heard them once or twice. I’ve been singing with Dave for a year and a half now so I know most of the songs well. My part, anyway.

The band plays through the songs (without keyboards) in Travis’ garage on Thursday nights. Dave comes over to our house and Scott and I and now Labarbara and Darryl and I sing through the songs over and over til we get the nuances and harmonies. Dave will have us get in a circle where we can hear each other and see each other’s mouths. Dave gives great instruction and tips and encouragement. We decide who is singing when and where to build the songs up. This rehearsal takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half.

On Saturdays, Travis and the guys do all the set up. We pick up Mom and drive out to TRU. It takes quite awhile to do the sound checks to get the balance out in the auditorium and the sound coming to us through the monitors right. Then we pray and go through the songs one by one. The band, the person putting up the words and Scott, have to figure out how many times we are going to go through the choruses, the verses, the bridges, and lock down who is doing where and when. This is hard to remember and keep track of. Especially for Scott since, as I said, he hasn’t sung these songs much. This rehearsal generally takes about an hour and a half.

Our band is amazing. Darren, the drummer, drives from Topeka. Josh has three kids under the age of 4. Mom is 88 years old. Travis works full time and has a busy family. They are committed and talented. They never mess up. It is a blessing when Bobby is able to join us as well. We love that Lababara and Darryl are singing with us now. We like to joke about the average age of the worship leaders. We have a lot of years but not a lot of years on a worship team. The instrumental band is way more experienced.

Sunday morning comes. We wake up never knowing how our voices will sound. Scott has a cocktail of musinex, halls throat lozenges and tea with honey to get his voice right. I have allergies but since I only do back ups, the quality of my voice isn’t as crucial as Scott’s now that he is doing the lead-in verses solo. We warm up in the car. People riding with us have to put up with all the strange sounds we make to get our voices ready.

We arrive to Tru by 8:15. Sound checks and fine tuning on the sound again. Pray. Then go through the songs. It is almost a given that this rehearsal will be rough. The things we had down all week, either the melodies or the timing, or the voices, something goes wrong at this rehearsal. Almost always. I have learned to roll with it.

Then the break. Go to the bathroom as many times as possible while trying to socialize with people we haven’t seen all week and try not to think about the worship part. Then at 9:27 we gather just off stage and hold onto each other and pray. We pray to be a blessing. We pray that God is glorified.

Then it’s time. People are just coming in. We start the first song. God always, always comes through and we sound pretty good. I try to get my mind off of where I’m holding the mic and how my body is moving and am I supposed to sing this part and oh, there’s Vinnie, and why aren’t people singing, there is a new family, and try to think about God and the words and His goodness. The auditorium is filling up. I can usually feel Him at this point. Then I see someone with their eyes closed, worshipping, maybe lifting their hands, maybe lost in the words. And I feel Him more. It is still a fight to stay out of my head and let myself get lost in the worship. Sometimes Scott messes up, sometimes he nails it, I often sing in the wrong places, but I remind myself it doesn’t matter. God loves it. People are blessed. If we can get them just a tiny bit closer to His presence then it is all worth it.

Then almost before it starts, it seems, its over. And on to the next week we go.