The Heart of a Worship Team

School, one of the youth at the Dorchester Church, chose the worship set this past Sunday. One of the themes for me this month is mentoring, training, and equiping others to do my jobs. I'm really starting to realize that I should have been focused on this ever since I announced my departure several months ago, but now it's hitting home with a new urgency: I've got 3 weeks left!

I've watched this young worship team grow so much over the past 2 years. At first, they had a only a grasp of their own instruments and very little idea of how to put their abilities together, or even of what a worship team was. We've gone throught the loud punk rock stage where we just tried to make the coolest sound we could come up-- including a full drum set and loud, blasting choruses. We've temporarily suspended the team. We've cut down our size and shrunk to a more basic ensemble, and then grown again. More than that, though, we've gone from the business of making music to the business of praising God with our hearts. And maybe that's the one thing of lasting value we've accomplished up until now.

I'm proud of them-- very very proud. Especially after last Saturday night when we led worship for our youth conference. Sure, they were younger than all the other teams that led, but the goal of glorifying God and not ourselves was not lost on them. All the "lectures" I had delivered, all the pep talks and reminders-- phrases like "we are not a band" and "this is not for us"-- all of it could not teach the lesson as well as God did when he set our team's sights on him that Saturday night and brought himself glory through our leading.

Yeah, we've had our tough times, even over that weekend-- but through all of that, the Lord was teaching us something... and I have more good memories than tough ones. When you look at the big picture and see how much God has done in their worship lives it's not hard to realize how much God is going to do in and through them in the future. I think I know which people I'll miss most when I go....