“The Edgewood Worship Ministry strives to honor and glorify God while engaging others in the ongoing journey of worshipping Him.”
We want everything that we
do to bring honor and glory to God. Every
song that we sing, every word that we speak…how we handle good situations and
hard situations…we want everything to honor and glorify God.
This “journey of worshipping God” can be split into four stages:
I. Coming to a Personal Relationship with God
(Romans 10:13-15, John 13:35)
II. Growing in that New Relationship with the Lord
(Psalm 1:1-3, Colossians 3:12-17)
III. Using Gifts to Serve God and to Strengthen the
Body
(Romans 12:4-8, Colossians 3:23)
IV. Continuing to Worship God through Contagious
Faithfulness
(Romans 12:1, Matthew 28:19-20, Psalm 78:3-4, Luke 16:10)
As a church and as the
worship ministry, we have people in all four areas of this journey. Because of that, we cannot put our focus
fully on any one of these areas. We want
people to come wherever they are to join and grow with us in the journey of
worshipping God.
I. Coming to a Personal Relationship with God
This is where the journey
has to begin. You can’t worship what you
don’t know.Romans 10:13-15
Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!
Church-wide and within the
worship ministry specifically, we must have opportunities to connect with
people from outside the church. Whether
it’s our people going out, or finding ways to draw new people in, we have to
take steps to reach out to the lost.
We do not believe that our
Sunday morning services should be fully focused on reaching the lost. They are primarily an opportunity for
believers to worship. However, we do want
to provide connection points for non-believers and speak in a way that they can
understand.
A better approach to reach
Sunday visitors is for them to see how much we are in love with our God. Our greeters and ushers are a huge part of
this stage in helping visitors feel welcome.
However, visitors notice everything…including how all of us respond to
one another.
John 13:35 says, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
When we are showing love
to those around us and we are passionately worshipping God, people will notice
and they will want to know the God that we serve. We don’t want people to go home impressed
by our music; we want them to go home impressed by our God.
Since Sunday mornings are
not geared specifically toward non-believers, we do feel it is important to
have events throughout the year that ARE focused on those outside the church.
For the worship ministry,
that would include things like NATP, Christmas Programs, Concerts, the Outreach
Challenge and things like that. These types
of outreach events are important in drawing people into the church and inviting
them into a relationship with Christ. We also want to encourage our own people to
live an evangelistic lifestyle in order to reach out to those around them.
John Piper put it this
way. He said that “missions exists
because worship doesn’t.” You can’t
worship what you don’t know. We must
continue with these outreach missions so that more people can turn to worship
Him.
Psalm 1:1-3
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
Once someone has made that
decision to follow Christ, we want to offer areas where they can grow closer to
Him and learn what it means to truly follow Him. For the Worship Ministry, this is a huge part
of our Sunday morning services. We want
people to have their delight in the Lord and to be firmly planted in His Word. We want the preaching and our songs to be
Biblically-based and to encourage our people to deepen and develop their
relationship with God. To help new
believers, we want to make sure we’re speaking in terms that they can
understand and are taking the time to explain complex issues as they arise.
Another encouraging
passage is Colossians 3:12–17.
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and
beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a
complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should
you. Beyond all these things put on
love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were
called in one body; and be thankful. Let
the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
This passage talks about
sharing compassion and love for one another and bonding together in perfect
unity. THEN, it talks about singing
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. It’s our God that unites us, but singing gives
us an opportunity to express that unity.
By focusing on God and His holiness, we should minimize ourselves and
our preferences. Sunday morning’s time of
singing is the only time all week where we unite together and declare the same
message at the same place at the same time.
That is a powerful example of our unity in Christ. New believers need to experience that unity and
love from the Body of Christ.
Music is a tool for
worship…it is not the driving factor of worship. Our hearts and our focus on God have to be
more important than the music itself. And
helping people understand that is a strong way that we can help encourage
people to grow in their walk with Him. Explaining when songs are directly from
Scripture or are strongly based from Scripture can help assist this process as
well.
We want people to leave
our services in love with our God, desiring to grow closer to Him all week
long.
III. Using Gifts to Serve God and to Strengthen the
Body
Romans 12:4-8 instructs us
about the Body of Christ.For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
As people grow in their
walk with the Lord, they will realize God has given them unique gifts and
talents. We want to come alongside
people to help them identify, use, and develop their gifts. We need to help people understand that
their gifts were given to them BY God and to be used FOR God. And we, as a church, need to give places for
those gifts to be used.
For the worship ministry,
we have opportunities for those with:
Singing abilities (choir/praise teams/solos)Instrumental abilities (orchestra/praise band/solos)
Technical abilities (sound/video/lights)
Acting skills (drama)
Abundant friendliness (greeters/ushers)
Administrative skills (office/scheduling)
Muscles (stage/equipment setup)
Servant’s Heart (cleaning/painting/etc.)
Creativity (decorations/graphic design)
Encouragement (we all need it!)
Colossians 3:23 is one of our driving verses and it says, “whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, as if you were working for the Lord, not men.” When you’re working for the Lord, you can’t settle for anything less than your best. One way we honor God through each of these ministries is by striving for excellence. Excellence is not perfection, but it is giving our best to the Lord.
We want to provide
opportunities for people to worship Him by using their gifts. And we want to challenge people to strengthen
their gifts and continue to grow.
If people don’t make the
step from stage two to this stage of serving, they will never fully experience
what it means to worship God. They will
always remain as “spectators” and will likely become very stagnant in their
walk with the Lord.
We need to take whatever
gifts He has given us and use them for His glory.
IV. Continuing to Worship God through Contagious
Faithfulness
As Romans 12:1 states, we
want to “present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, which is our
spiritual service of worship.”
Whether we came to know
the Lord yesterday or 50 years ago, we have to remember that He saved us from
death and eternal separation…and THAT deserves our full praise every single
day! We want our people to look forward
to every Sunday that we get the opportunity to come worship Him together.
We need to continue
challenging people to grow deeper in their walk with the Lord. Explaining song lyrics or the story behind
songs can help with this. If it’s a song
we’ve sung a thousand times, it can be a reminder of the importance and meaning
of the song. If it’s a new song, it can
help us think about our God in a new and fresh way.
In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus gave us the Great
Commission.
Go therefore and make
disciples of all the
nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.We want to help people realize that the process of learning, growing and serving is never complete until God takes us to our eternal home. He commands us to take what we know and share it with others. Mature Christians should be very active in this through missional living and personal evangelism. Two other ways that we want to be encouraging this are through mentoring connections and leadership opportunities.
Mentoring connections are
a beautiful way to take what God has given us and to pass that on to future
generations. Psalm 78:3-4 encourages us
to do just that.
Which we have heard and
known, And our fathers
have told us. We will not conceal
them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
Leadership opportunities
also give us a powerful way to keep growing.
Being a part of a group and leading a group are two totally different
ways to serve. We already have many
leaders in place who oversee the greeters, ushers, drama and other areas. These are good opportunities to use their
gifts while continuing to learn and grow.
Having a variety of other worship leaders would be a huge benefit to the
church and a great leadership opportunity for the volunteers.
Luke
16:10 says, “he who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.” As we see people who are being faithful in
little things, we need to give them opportunities to grow, take on more responsibilities, and transition into leadership roles. We can only dream of the worship service
we’ll have in Heaven! Until God takes us
there, we must continue to grow and be faithful in a way that inspires as many
as possible to join us on that day.
