Thursday, April 14, 2011

"Skillful yet Humble" - Music Ministry Devotional - 4/13/11

Last night before we started the rehearsal portion of our meeting, I led a little devotional for our worship team on humility.  As worship leaders it is important to ask ourselves "Why?".  "Why do I serve the church in this way?".  Many of us have a special connection to music - it helps us to connect to God and to one another in ways that nothing else can.  We feel the need to give back and serve because music is our passion - it is our gift.  God has given us a very special gift, and we recognize the need to share that gift with others to help them find strength in the Lord.

In 1 Chronicles 15, we see the Levites being assigned different responsibilities in regards to the ark of the Lord.  In verse 16 we see that David had the leaders of the Levites appoint singers to "sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps, and cymbals".  The thing that sticks out to me is in 1 Chronicles 15:22:

"Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it"

This scripture shows us that Kenaniah had a gift ! He was skillfull at singing, and was put in a place of leadership because of his ability.  As worship leaders, we all have an amazing gift as well ! However, skill, talent and natural ability are often accompanied by pride and arrogance.  As worship leaders, our goal is to lead people into the presence of God and to help to do our part in God's kingdom to help people become Christians - there is no place for pride or arrogance - we must work together with humility and love !

As always, we must look to Jesus' example.  In Mark 10:42, we see that Jesus did not come to be served but to serve !  He shows us a true example of leadership - not "lording it over", but rather laying our lives down to serve and help others

We closed out our devotional by reflecting on David's "Psalm of Thanks" in 1 Chronicles 16 ... Why do we sing ? Why do we serve ? ... To "tell of all his wonderful acts"(vs 9) ! to help people "Remember the wonders he has done"(vs 12) ! To "Proclaim his salvation day after day !!! (vs 23) !

Lets pray to have a ministry of humility, that works as a unit - skillful yet humble, loving and serving God's  people with the goal of helping lost souls come to Christ!

Amen!!!