Re: [Worship] losing a key worship team member

[Julie Crowl <jcrowl@portup.com>]

Hi All,

I want to weigh in on this thread to say that in the case of our worship 
band in over four years we have realized several key facts about being on a 
team:

1.      Most importantly it is not about us.  It is about God.  The members 
who show up time and again are the ones who understand this concept very 
clearly.

2.      God has exactly who he wants to show up both in the worship 
band/team and in the congregation.  This was proven yet again when we went 
without a drummer and    a keyboard player yesterday at a service we do at 
a retraining facility for teen boys.  At first we were concerned about the 
lack and then moved on.  It was perhaps    some of the most awesome worship 
that we have experienced/participated in.  We also touched a young man with 
our witness and were able (we hope) to show        God's love in a huge 
way.Thinking about it today, I am not sure that the same worship 
environment would have occurred had we been the full band.  Perhaps 
the   beautiful words of the first two songs  (Here I am to Worship, Jesus 
I Believe) may not have been as audible.  All I know is that I thank God 
for his great
         love.

3.      There are people who want to be on a worship team/in a Praise band 
but are unwilling to do the work.  Or, they are unwilling to take the 
chance to be in relationship
         with God,or with team members in the way God wants us to be.  They 
are afraid or not real.  They will show one or two times, or on occasions 
that are more public       and less worship oriented.  And that's okay 
because that's where they are at.  They will, we have noticed, stop 
participating when they become too uncomfortable
         or it takes too much work/commitment.

To summarize: God is in control.

Blessings,

Julie Crowl
The Amazing Grace Praise Band
Grace United Methodist Church
Houghton, MI  49931
Michigan's Beautiful Upper Peninsula




At 10:38 PM 06/01/2003 -0600, Kellie Mzik wrote:
>Dixie wrote:  "..and I need to figure out how to keep this ministry
>going..."
>
>Dixie, this probably won't help you too much right now, but it does
>illustrate the wisdom of my pastor's admonition to all of us in ministry in
>our church:  Each of us should always be training our replacement.
>
>As far as the worship team goes, the way we interpret that is that each
>member of the team has been responsible to seek out their "replacement" even
>if that means just finding someone who doesn't know a thing about the
>instrument, but wants to learn.
>
>It's taken about 2 years of hard work since we implemented the idea, but the
>result is that we have a church of 75 people, with two FULL worship teams
>(lead and background vocals, guitars, keys, drummers, bass).  I know several
>local churches that are more than twice our size who are struggling to put
>together a single team after the departure of key members.
>
>Now that we have two teams in place (alternating so that everyone gets
>regular time off to avoid burnout), then what?  You guessed it, we now have
>TWO teams full of people who are seeking to reproduce themselves.
>
>At the rate we're going, it looks like we'll be able to branch out in a year
>and have two full adult teams, and let the teens form a youth team of their
>own.
>
>The policy has also had the added benefit that people don't come to our
>church and say, "They're already set, there's no place for me here."
>
>re: your current situation:  I know it seems tough, but roll with it, and
>trust God to bring along who you need when you need them.  He took us
>through a period of - awesome team, to NO team (and two singers using
>horrible background tapes), to a tiny team of two very green guitar players,
>to where we are now, in the space of 6 years!
>
>blessings!
>
>-Kellie
>
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