Worship Leader Webinar with Paul Baloche

For more than 26 years, singer/songwriter, worship leader and contemporary Christian recording artist Paul Baloche served along with his wife Rita as worship pastors in Lindale, Texas. Today, Paul is a 3-time Dove award-winning songwriter. Since 1997, he and his wife Rita started LeadWorship.com to serve, equip and train local church worship leaders.

When I learned of a webinar coming up through the Facebook group Worship Leaders Collective, with Paul as guest I signed up, and I'm glad I did.

Paul talked about his early life, how he and his wife Rita got their start and shared how God grew them both. Here are the 3 main points he talked about:

1.Humility: the foundation 

Paul talked about he and his wife Rita's humble beginnings--living in a trailer and babysitting for the worship leader next door. He says there are no superstars in the kingdom of God. And being cool, and not having to do the mundane jobs is not what we are after. he also said times of disillusionment will come. Get ready. These are times to remember God is at the helm, and still in control. 

Even first-thing this morning, I was shoveling horse manure and pitchforking soggy hay into wide buckets. I was climbing fences and refilling water buckets. Some days, (for more than 20 years), I've cleaned houses, washed floors on my hands and knees. It's mundane, simpleton work that at one point I thought I was too proud to do. Today, I love this hard work (cleaning, horse care, etc.) because it lights up my servant's heart and inspires my willingness to understand any job --any job-- can still give God glory.

2.Faithfulness 

He said humility breeds faithfulness. The first step of being faithful is to look for opportunities to serve. For the first year of his career, Paul served Kelly Willard, one of his early mentors in worship leading, and her husband. He'd wash their dishes, help with their kids, mow their lawn. sometimes they entered in the names of email sign ups after Willard's concerts. For a good solid year, they served wholeheartedly, even though it wasn't with music yet. He learned two lessons from this time: 

a.) Rely on God's spirit and do your part. See more below.

b.) Stay faithful. Honor God's Principle of Promotion:  Our opportunities often start small and unassuming. Exercise your gift, be disciplined, put in the time and effort. Jesus will take the loaves and fishes that you bring, bless it, break it, and it WILL be enough for your church. Be faithful wherever you are at. God says "When you're faithful over little, I'll give you more." 

3.Forgiveness 

In the Lord's Prayer, we say "Forgive us, as we forgive those who trespass against us." I never thought of it like this, but Paul pointed out that we will be forgiven according to how we forgive others. Whoa! Is that not convicting?! 

This means that if we hold back forgiveness of others, or harbor resentment for whatever reason, then how would we feel if God did that to us? 

The church is a family. With family is we accept people for how they are, quirks and idiosyncrasies and all. So, how about if we accept each congregation member, pastor, and member of our teams the same way. Paul says it's good to understand people. Sometimes, even doling out a personality test (Enneagram?) to your team can help foster that understanding. 

Last, he said be kind (and forgiving) to yourself too.

The Lord is quick to forgive when we humble ourselves and repent. This happens a lot with  my husband, Kevin. We are hard on ourselves, something we learned from the perfection we had to attain in our professional band, years ago. It's not uncommon for us to replay a missed note, or timing that went off,  or something I said in between songs,  which wasn't how I rehearsed it...

We beat ourselves up.

God is teaching us is that we mess up whenever we try to do it on our own. And that's the balance of worship leading, which I'm sure I'll blog a separate post someday: how do we step aside and let God move, step out of our own way when our human side wants to take over?

We are worshipers first, before we are performers and musicians.  And if God forgives us for sinning, and helps us to forgive others for their flaws, then how can we not follow His leading and forgive ourselves?

Once the worship hour is done, it's done!

Time to prepare our hearts, first and foremost, for the next Sunday.

Healthy Spirituality

I thought about where Kevin and I are today. Sure, we came to this church with a boatload of musical and even performing experience, but all that goes out the window when we serve the Lord. 

God, after all doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. It's something amazing to think of ti that way, isn't it? Because then,we can never take any of the credit for ourselves. no, instead, we can give all the glory to Him. 

And, that's how He wants it. 

Thank you for the many resources that are available He points us to - books on leading worship, Bible studies, podcasts, and webinars like this one. Little by little, each Sunday, God is fitting our feet to fit into the big shoes we stepped into. More than that, God is fitting our hearts to keep the focus on Him.

Thank you, Lord. 

Have you ever struggled to let God lead the way in worship, whether leading it yourself or participating within the congregation? Have you faced moments where God stepped in and took over, even though you felt like you were doing something wrong? 

Links: 

Worship Leaders Collective (WLCO)

Lead Worship