|
|
Christian Indie Radio
GetChristianMusic
Solid Walnut Music
|
|
|
|
|
|
Devotionals
|
|
Cartoons
Culture
Family
Games
Health
Homeschooling
Humor
Inspiration
Kids
Men
Ministry
Parenting
Poetry
Teens
Women
|
|
Statement of Faith
Contact Us
|
|
|
|
The Heart of Worship:The "Show" Must Go On
by Alan Seeger (Alan's bio)
Send this page to a friend
Some of you may know that I was a theater major in college. In fact, I was involved in theater very nearly full time from the time I was about 13 years of age until the end of my college days. And even since then, I have continued to be involved with theater. I've done community theater. I've directed shows. I've written shows. I was even asked to come back to my alma mater to appear in a show there several years after I left.
Why am I telling you this? To illustrate a point. There's a saying in the theater world, and all of you, I'm sure, have heard it: "The show must go on." In other words, barring, say, death and dismemberment, nothing should prevent an actor, a technician, or whatever part you may have in a production, from fulfilling your part in the show. And if one actor can't do his or her part, you need to have an understudy ready to step in. You must never let down the audience. The show, as I previously mentioned, must go on.
Hmmmm.
Here in Northwest Arkansas, we had a rather unseasonal snowstorm this weekend. The weather guys had said it was coming, but I said, "Lord, I don't want to have to deal with it." You know, sometimes when the Lord answers our prayers, He says, "Sorry, I love you, son, but you're just going to have to live with this one."
I woke up at about 5:00 AM on Saturday. No, I didn't intend to wake up that early, but something inside me — internal clock, I think they call it? — does that almost every morning. I looked out the window and it was just wet as wet could be. It had been raining all night long. There had even been a few thunderclaps. I visited the rest room and went back to bed.
I woke again at 7:00, rolled over, and looked out the same window. To my astonishment, there was about an inch of snow accumulated on the windowsill, and on my vehicles, and it was still coming down. Hard. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, "It were big FAT snow." I put the pillow over my head and groaned.
I was supposed to drive to nearby Fayetteville that morning and shoot some video of a major equestrian event — oh, sorry, that's a horse show — for the TV station I work for. I was supposed to meet my boss, who also happens to be my pastor (the TV station is owned by our church) there at 10:00 AM. After playing a few rounds of telephone tag, we decided we wouldn't go — the roads were deadly and treacherous.
I got word later that we were going to have service the next morning, but not to risk it if it was still bad. My family and I decided we'd try it, and just turn back if the roads were still hazardous. Long story short: What is normally a 20-30 minute drive took over an hour. When we arrived, I discovered I was the only musician there, and that neither of the regular worship leaders were going to make it in. The only vocal team members that were there were one soprano, one alto, and one tenor, none of whom had a whole lot of experience leading. So guess what? Everyone was looking at me. "What songs are we going to do?" It was 10:28. Our service was supposed to start at 10:30. But people were still straggling in. There was no time to rehearse. I pulled a pile of song charts out of a notebook and began to pray, "Lord, help me pick the songs You want sung this morning." I found four or five that seemed to fit together, and said, "OK, here is what we're going to do..."
The rest of the morning is a bit of a blur. All I know is that I remember, at the end of the service, hearing Pastor say, "Thank you, Brother Alan, you did a wonderful job."
I'm glad I was able to please him. But you know what? I am glad that I was able to please the Father. And I think I did. I put aside all the things inside me that said, "You can't do this alone, with just you, and the piano, and three singers! This congregation is used to drums, and bass, and guitar, and a big sound like Hillsongs or the Vineyard! You're gonna fall flat on your face!"
John 10:4-5 says, "My sheep hear My voice, and the voice of a stranger they will not follow..." I knew whose voice it was saying those things to me. I remembered the scripture that says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13) I knew that "Greater is He that is within me than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4)
You know, it doesn't really matter whether we have guitars, drums, a piano, even if there is anyone who can lead singing. Even if all you can do is to praise Him by croaking out "Alleluia" in a frog's voice, or just exalting Him by shouting His glory, or calling His name and clapping Your hands, or falling face down on the ground and weeping while you say, "Thank you," that means every bit as much to Him as when the Hillsongs crew gets together, or when Andy Parks and his band lead a worship service. Remember when the little widow in the scriptures put her two pennies in the offering, and the Lord said she'd put more in than anyone else? I believe it's the same principle.
I've heard people who were successful in the secular music field get up and "perform" (and that's what it was, a performance) a piece of sacred music, such as Amazing Grace, or Ave Maria, or His Eye Is On The Sparrow, and all they were doing was giving the Lord this little bit of their time, and this little bit of their talent, out of this huge truckload of what He had blessed them with — out of what he had intended them to bless others with for His kingdom, not for the kingdom of "Oh, baby, I love you, I need you, I want you."
Now, the point of this article is not that I was the only one who showed up to play for praise and worship on this past Sunday morning — that was up to each individual. And I'm not going to wag a finger in any of their faces and say, "You should have been there," or "You left me high and dry," because that's not the way I feel at all.
The real point of this article is to say, "Look at what awesome things God can do with such a meager little bit of nothing." The boy offered Him his five rolls and two scrawny little fish, and He fed 5,000. The widow put her last two copper coins in the Temple collection, and no one but He Himself knows what awesome things He did with those. Another little widow gave His servant the last of her flour and oil to feed him, and the Lord multiplied it back to her many times over. And in this case, we gave Him the seemingly weak, scrawny little bit of music that our understaffed team could produce that Sunday morning, and from the tears I saw, and the way I felt His presence in the house, He did some awesome things with it.
Let Your power fall, let Your voice be heard
Come and change our hearts
As we stand on Your word,
Holy Spirit, rain down.1
The moral to this story? Paul told Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because he was young. I'm telling you, don't let anyone look down on you because your worship team is small, or inexperienced. He can do just as much with you as he can with anyone, Hillsongs and the Vineyard notwithstanding.
Because, after all, as we discussed previously, the show must go on. Our Audience awaits. He's the one we're really playing and singing for. He's the one we aim to please. Our Audience of One.
1"Holy Spirit, Rain Down," ©1997 Russell Fragar/Hillsongs (Admin. in U.S. & Canada by Integrity's Hosanna! Music)
Copyright Alan Seeger. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
| About Alan Seeger: Alan Seeger is a worship leader and songwriter. At 16 he heard God's call to ministry through music and the Word -- and ran like a scared rabbit. At 21, Alan returned to God's service and now works full-time in the television and music ministries at Victory Family Worship Center in Springdale, Arkansas. Alan has composed a number of songs that are being used in churches across America, including "Pray (Until The Glory Of The Lord Comes Down)." Alan can be reached through Psalmist Creations Ministries at www.psalmist.net |
Send this page to a friend: