The Happy Blogging Bandwagon

Okay so I did it, I joined the magical world of blog-land...blog-ville...blog-town...you pick!
Why have i chosen to do so? Great question. Thank you. Your welcome (note to self, try to refrain from responding to self on blog. Got it? Got it!)
I have many things on my heart that I want to share and its time to jump on board with Flamingo Road Church and get naked! Can I get an Amen?... (i'm waiting for you to answer this time)! So here I am fellow bloggers, absolutely in love with the LORD and HIS people, ready to break down my walls and blog like I never have before. Which totally works cuz I haven't!

I didn't want my first blog to be really long........................ however................... I just read something (which inspired me to start my very own blog) that I really need to share. I have a huge burden on my heart to continue growing to reach my God potential in leading His people in worship. I believe with all my heart that it is a privilege and a big responsibility. I have been attacked a lot lately with lies of the enemy telling me I'm not good enough to lead in worship (pointing out every mistake, comparing my gifts to others, my nervousness speaking in front of people, you know the drill...).
I see more and more every week how important it is to rebuke these thoughts (lies), claim God's victory, and allow that to strengthen our worship. I believe it is vital that we equip ourselves, hold eachother accountable, confess our insecurities and challenge one another to do what is necessary to be the best that we can be for the glory of our Father both on and off stage.
With Excellence!!!!!! Hope you're still with me :) and I pray for these words to inspire you as they have done for me...

The Importance of Being a Worship Leader
For worship leaders
by Sundee Frazier
Worship has the potential to bring people before God, and worship leaders assist by standing at the door and welcoming them in.

I remember being at a retreat one time and feeling depressed because I didn’t possess the gifts of my fellow leaders. When I shared my insecurity, one of my friends quoted Psalm 84:10: “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”
It made me feel worse.
Was he saying I was as insignificant as I felt? The equivalent of a doorkeeper? Undoubtedly many fine people work as doorkeepers, but the position is not, nor has it ever been, one of great prestige and influence.
Many years later, while leading worship at a conference, I received a note from one of the participants. She wrote that as she was trying to think of a way to describe my worship leading, “hospitable” is what came to mind. At first, she said, it seemed like a strange word to use for a worship leader, but then she realized that if worship is entering the throne room of God, then “hospitable” made perfect sense. We on the worship team were “standing at the doorway,” inviting others in. She went on to write, “All the things you do that make it easier for us to participate fully—from lining out words to leading us in clapping, teaching us how to pronounce non-English words, indicating when we’re repeating a chorus—all these things help us to find our way in. Wow, what a calling: welcoming worshipers into the throne room of God!”
Though she never used the word from Psalm 84, I couldn’t miss the allusion: I was a doorkeeper. God was encouraging me to reconsider my former attitude.
Being a doorkeeper (i.e., a worship leader) is a significant position, and here’s why: worship opens people to God. It emboldens us to believe the truth that God really is as good as, and loves us as much as, we’d hoped. In this place of belief, we are able to put our trust back in God. We see reality (about ourselves, others and the world) through God’s eyes, and we more eagerly desire to be aligned with God’s heart, will and purposes.
Of course this doesn’t happen fully for every person each time we gather to worship God, and to what degree it happens for someone is not dependent on us. However, worship has the potential to bring people before God, and worship leaders assist by standing at the door and welcoming them in. On the flip side, if worship leaders don’t take their positions seriously, they can block the doorway, making it more difficult for worshipers to enter God’s presence.
Whether we help or hinder is not primarily a matter of technique. Yes, we need to learn all we can about effective worship leading and find the right styles for us and our groups. As Richard Foster has said, however, “You’re communicating a spirit and heart in worship. If the heart is not warm toward God, if it’s a cold heart, that’s what you’re going to communicate no matter what it is you’re singing and or how well you play, you’re going to communicate a cold heart.”1
Because what we do is so important, it’s crucial that we nurture our own spiritual lives. As my first InterVarsity staff worker said to me, “The only thing you have to offer others is the growth you’re experiencing in your own relationship with God.”
One writer expressed the importance of what worship leaders do by comparing us to people who work with Alzheimer’s patients. In nursing care facilities, these helpers are called “Memory Loss Assistants,” and their role is to remind patients of the names of important people in their lives and to rehearse over and over with them significant events from their pasts in order to keep them grounded and hopeful.
This is what we’re called to do as well: “We remind the people of God who they are, whose they are, and what great things have happened in their wilderness wanderings of the past, so that they might have confidence and hope in a promised land future.”2 Where the analogy breaks down is that worship leaders are Alzheimer’s patients, too. We need the reminders just as much, and we get them, every time we lead worship. If one of the purposes of worship is to open people to God, then as the leaders, we must be the first to open up.
Though no one is entirely sure what we’ll be doing in heaven, one thing is certain: we’ll be worshiping God. What more significant role could there be then, than helping people learn how to worship God now?

—Sundee Frazier and her husband, Matt, led worship at Urbana 2000. They currently live in Los Angeles where Sundee works for an adult education university and is earning her MFA in Writing for Young Adults.

*Rose stems are green like Kermit the frog,
thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!
GOD bless...