Leading worship

Playing Their Song-Part 2

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For those of you who like me are trying your best to bring music into nursing home ministry here are a few practical suggestions that have helped in encouraging residents to sing. First, we need to remind ourselves that hearing and voice change over time. None of us still has the vocal range we had as a kid and that goes for our ear’s range as well. We naturally begin to lose the upper notes in our hearing and voice as we age. Lowering the keys we use for our songs will not only encourage our people to sing, it will also enable them to hear more of the lyrics.

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Practice still matters! Most of us expect that our worship team or in more traditional churches, our choir, will learn some new songs and practice regularly. In the same way we need to continue to avoid getting lazy and just singing the same songs on every visit. Though we do need to use some of the same songs regularly, it is good to change things up once in a while in an effort to touch people’s hearts for Jesus Christ. Consider spending a little time looking through the hymn books or listening to older praise and worship songs. Time spent looking for and then practicing new material is a great investment in the lives of those we are called to serve and it yields the dividend of their voices joining yours in praise. The rule I have used for myself with when picking songs is that the best ones to sing are the ones that we sing together…

Morning Worship

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Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. John 9:37-38 ESV

Discipleship of grace begins by faith – but it will only grow as we worship. One pitfall in our modern church is that we are so comfortable that we end up connecting worship in our minds to a hushed mood, a moment in the performance and a time to settle back into our comfortable seats.

But in the Bible we see Moses worshipped bare foot in the desert by a burning bush. We see Elijah wKIMG0642orshipping God at a stone altar even when the crowd was loving the 400 man worship team at the 1st church of Baal. David worshiped while he watched sheep and Daniel worshiped in the lion’s den. All of these people were worshiping because they had met by an awesome God and they wanted Him to get all the glory, no matter what the circumstances.

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Dial it forward to Jesus meeting the blind man in John chapter nine. First, He became His healer. Later after no one else could accept him, Jesus became His friend. Finally when Jesus showed the man who He really was He could do nothing less than worship. Before we can walk down the road with Jesus or gives us something more to do we must learn what it means to truly worship Him. No ministry is more important, no goal so vital, no relationship so precious that it can stand in the way of our worship. We will know that He is worthy and worth more than all we have to give, when we begin to uncover the truth of who He really is!

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Worship and Praise

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I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Psalms 138:2

Worship in it’s truest form happens in our secret place with God. Praise on the other hand begins bursts out into public with joyful shouts because it is impossible to keep to ourselves the wonderful loving kindness of God! Most our trouble in ministry is a result of leaving one of these undone.