Worship Team Training Day Report

As promised, here is my take on last Saturday's BCC Worship Team Training Day. About 15-20 Musicians from the Church gathered for a day's training and team building. This is the first such event we have run and it proved to be highly successful. The programme consisted of a number of different parts. We started with two practical workshops led by Jon and Kat. Each person could choose which workshop they attended. Jon was looking at how we arrange songs and took Phil Wickham's song 'Because of Your Love', building around it lessons in layering, dynamics, creating musical space, variety and had different musicians mentoring other musicians. Kat ran a special session on developing vocal techniques and incorporated into this a strong emphasis on how to sing prophetically; picking a phrase, building confidence and knowing the right time to deliver it. Both these sessions were extremely well received and expertly facilitated. I saw again just how many talented people God has added into the Team, complimenting my weaknesses with their strengths. The anointed total of these constituent parts is truly inspiring to behold.

Just before we broke for lunch (thank to Fran for sorting out a lovely Ploughman's and Jamie for providing extra cakes!) I spoke briefly on our journey as a worship team using Psalm 136 as an example of seeing God at work through a whole lifetime. Knowing where we have come from, seeing God at work in our past and remembering these testimonies provide important spiritual stimulation to our faith for what God is going to do in the future: if He's done it before then He'll definitely do it again. It also helps newer members appreciate the price we have paid to be where we are and grounds us all in the reality of the limitless possibilities of a God who works outside of time constraints yet ironically can only be seen outworking His purposes and perfect character over the course of years rather than minutes.

Lunch followed.

After this I drew out attention to Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship." We broke into groups to consider what worship really involves and I then detailed this some more, identifying worship as being all about Jesus, being costly, being a daily act of devotion and requiring death to self in order that the life of Christ maybe demonstrated through us. It is more than singing a song. We concluded our day with a time of worship, prayer and communion.

What did I take away from this event? I saw how faithful God has been to us over many years. I was so very thankful to God for giving me a great team of very different and diverse characters, all of whom work together to serve Jesus by serving His Church in this ministry. Included in this are Jon and Kat, both of whom play a vital role in what God is doing through worship here in BCC. I also ate lots of cake.

What a great day :-) Thanks to all of you who came along, got involved and/or prayed for the event. Thanks also to the Worship Team for all their hard work. Thanks to those who helped make the day possible (including Fran and Peter Gossage) but most of all, thanks to God for all He is doing; He gets all the glory. See you tomorrow.