“Bargo” asked me to post something on this topic which really goes back to a remark I made in a conversation some months ago.  Worship Team is a laboratory for making disciples…

For this remark to make any sense, a quick review of the word “disciple” might be helpful.  A disciple in Bible times was someone who came to know what the Master knew, and who then did what the Master did.  These disciples studied with a Rabbi (teacher).  They lived together, ate together, travelled together and built relationships together for a period of time.  The purpose of the Rabbi was to teach them everything they would need to know so that they could go forth and teach others the same.  Thus, ultimately the goal was to make disciples who, in turn would make more disciples.  This whole exercise is seen vividly in the four Gospels as Jesus worked with his disciples, and then ultimately, they did the same, making disciples who then made more disciples in the book of Acts.

We, as Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ, and we have the same process of growth and then leading as the ancients did, but sadly more often than not, modern churches don’t engage the disciple-making process, preferring instead mass communication.  With all of this in mind, consider Worship Team…

Our Worship Team has two parts within it: Music and Production.  The music side comprises the ones who actually lead our congregation is singing God’s praises.  The production side is comprised of the people who handle the technical part of doing this.  They control the sound, make slides or videos to project lyrics, and play accompaniment tracks when required.  When both sides of this are working together, God’s praises ring out, people are inspired, the Gospel is proclaimed and people are ready to received the message of salvation.

All of the people involved have relationships with each other.  They spend a great deal of time together, and  as a new team member continues serving, they get to know each team member very well.  The team prays together, serves together and everyone has the same common purpose:  To build up God’s Kingdom by giving God glory each week.  New members are taught to work with the team, to become part of its objectives and to improve their skills, use their gifts and to learn new things so their service may become more and more valuable to the team’s objectives.  They learn to take leadership roles within the team’s activities, and each is encouraged to share their faith and their experiences with others; to share the amazing things that God is doing within the church and in their own lives with other people.  And if a person would just observe this process over time they will usually notice that the people involved begin to change over time.  They start to take things more seriously, they begin to alter their patterns of speech and behavior and all of a sudden you notice that a person who was scared to death a few weeks or months ago is stepping up to lead.  Usually, they start bringing friends and neighbors to church and sharing their faith… and most interestingly, they usually start helping others along the path pf growing in their faith.  Put another way, they start leading others forward; disciple-making.

Consider this:

The objective of Worship Team is to build God’s Kingdom by giving Him glory.  That pretty well sums up the mission of the church.  They develop close relational bonds within which they are encouraged to grow, learn and apply their gifts and talents in God’s selfless service.  As they continue to grow in their areas of service, they begin to step out and lead; they become servant-leaders.  With more work and time, they begin to lead others to do the same in following Christ.  And finally, they become people of prayer and faith.

In short, people who volunteered because they like to sing, or because they like to work with computers or electronics end up becoming people who share their faith, work together with God’s people, and teach others to do the same…

Presto!  A disciple has been made.

To be fair and accurate, I must mention that some move forward more quickly than others, just as some resist more than others, and yes some drop out.  This should sound to you just like the process that went on in the time of the Apostles, and while I wish I could say that we have 100% life-altering success within 30 days of beginning, life isn’t quite that easy.  But I can safely say that the results that have been achieved in our congregation have gone a long to way to  affect the entire congregation and that they have contributed to both our spiritual and numerical growth over the last couple of years.  I also know that many other churches have had the same experience as we have, and that the same principles apply to any ministry team in any area of ministry.

Yes, it takes time and effort to lead it, and it takes a lot of patience sometimes, but they are our calling, and well worth the effort!