Are We Properly Preparing For Worship?

Are you on the worship team at your church? What do you do to prepare before you take the stage on behalf of God?

My kids used to be on a summer swim team at the community pool. Right before each event the team would get a pep talk and chant (shout) the team cheer.

When I was in Up With People we would gather in the “green room” before every show and get/give a pep talk followed by our own cast cheer.

I was in a local community theatre show and again, we would meet in front of the stage and go through a ritual designed to unify us before every performance.

When I was on my first worship team, we would all gather with the priest and pray in a circle just before we went out.

These are all examples of rituals designed to unify us in our performance. Prior to these last minute preparations, there are countless hours of technical and mental preparations. Not to mention individual and team skill building exercises.

But what about spiritual preparations?

I’m on the worship team here at my church in Tucson and we have a few rituals that we go through, mostly formed around prayer. Personally, for the last 2 or 3 years, my ideas of spiritual preparation for worship have evolved. I’ve had the opportunity to hear and experience from other people their ideas of preparation and I’ve felt God guide me to some of my (His?) ideas of how I should do my own preparation. This includes the rituals my church leads me in, plus my own ideas and rituals.

I’m curious about how other people view this idea of spiritual preparation. It’s clear by observing others on the worship team, that not everyone approaches worship with the same level of intensity or purpose. Some view musical rehearsal as sufficient, while others have lengthy rituals and habits that begin sometimes weeks before the weekend in question.

I tried to do some research on this topic and found very little information about spiritual preparation for worship online. I decided to put this out there for the purpose of learning about how others feel and to maybe inspire some people to dig deeper wells in advance of leading the church in worship. To get the ball rolling, I’ll share how I prepare for a weekend where I am playing or leading-

Two weeks out:

When I am leading worship, either with a large congregation or a small group, I like to pray before I begin to create a set. This helps me to avoid choosing songs for the wrong reason. It feels better to know that the Spirit is helping me pick music. I don’t always hear so well, but I’m getting better at that.

Two weeks during:

When I am just playing, I begin the prayer process upon receiving the set for my weekend. Along with the rehearsing process, I continue to pray for our weekend and for our leaders and fellow musicians and technicians for the weeks leading up to our weekend.

Rehearsal:

At this point, the day of rehearsal and for the days until we are all done, I begin a fast in order to keep my heart focused on what I truly feel is a huge responsibility laying ahead. I purposefully pray before we all come together for rehearsal. This is on my own time, before we meet. There is often prayer at rehearsal and at completion. Now we’re getting into the thick of things.

The Weekend:

Saturday afternoon we meet at church for the final rehearsing before the evening service. The band prays as a group before the rehearsal. When rehearsal is over we join with all the people involved with the production and pray in a circle for the weekend. Now it is one hour before our first set – a crucial time.

During this hour, I try to stay focused. The struggle is to avoid conversations that take my mind and heart off of the task ahead. Approximately ½ hour before we go out I find a place to be alone. No standing up for this prayer. On my knees I go, confessing before God and pouring my own wants out, emptying myself of “self”. My desire is to be completely God-focused from here on out. Without fail, I begin to feel the Holy Spirit lift me out of my flesh state and start to clothe me in purity and to arm me against the enemy. Male or female, we are all warriors at this point, bathed in power from on high and focused on doing all for God’s glory. At this point, I feel pretty unstoppable and highly energized.

For the next 10 minutes or so before we go out there, it is crucial that I don’t engage in any idle or potentially diverting conversation. Since not everyone on my team is one the same page, this can be difficult. Often, I find myself having to tactfully extract myself from any place where I might find other team members who are not on the same page.

Final prayer:

5 or so minutes before we go on there is one more band prayer. If I am involved in this prayer, I’m going to be intense about it. I’m only in one mood and that is to glorify God and kick some devil butt. Nothing can stop me at this point.

So what does all this accomplish? I’m glad you asked. If you are on a worship team, this is what you might be missing-

- An anointing that is powerful enough to cover a wide area and many people.

- A confidence that will override missed chords/notes and will cause “hiccups” in the worship set to sail pass the congregation.

- A power to undergird the set causing it to penetrate people’s hearts and cause healing and conviction and discomfort to the comfortable.

- Energy. Energy and freedom to worship God as David did. Energy to overcome timidity and self consciousness. Energy to throw yourself into worship and not be distracted by anything.

- A heightened ability to perceive and hear the Holy Spirit, the One who REALLY should be guiding our worship.

There are many conversations going about how we can improve our worship experience and help our teams and congregation to grow. Websites, magazines, conferences and books abound to help us become better worshippers.

From what I’ve seen, these things are not really doing much good in the long run. I would like to see the conversation begin that will help us to grow individually toward God and to really bring the Holy Spirit into the process. I’ve seen many good worship sets with great song selections and great playing and clean flow and nice lights and sound……and no anointing whatsoever. Imagine that. All that expertise and head knowledge, and the Holy Spirit just seems to have been left out of the process. It shows. I know how it feels.

There is another conversation that needs to begin and that is the one that brings the question: What is a congregation’s responsibility before they come to worship?

But for now, I'm focused on the worship team’s spiritual responsibility.

Honor and power and glory be Yours now and forever!

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