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Ready to Worship?
Completion requirements
As a leader you should be the most prepared and the most committed to what is going on. You cannot expect people to go to a place you’re not willing to go yourself.”
- Pastor Marc Jolicoeur
In the first part of this lesson, Pastor Jolicoeur focuses on your immediate personal preparation for the worship service. Did you get enough sleep? Are you properly hydrated? Are you able to lead worship from a state of reserve rather than depletion?
These things matter. If you are not able to think at your best, it will be more difficult for you to be responsive to the moment. It will be more difficult to hear the Spirit and more difficult to engage the congregation. As a driver who has not had enough sleep is dangerous, so a worship leader whose body is in a less-than-optimal state will have more difficulty facilitating worship than someone who is rested and nourished.
Pastor Jolicoeur also talks about the kind of timeliness and preparedness that is appropriate for a leader. “Showing up is paramount,” he says. Hopefully, it will be obvious that it is a bad sign if your volunteers show up more prepared and more committed than you are. As the leader, you would ideally be at the church before the rest of your worship team. You should be a resource for them, not someone needing them to fill you in on the plan for the day.
You are the worship leader. That means you need to be as, or more, prepared as anyone else who is there. As Pastor Jolicoeur has said before, “God will do what God will do, but we have a responsibility to show up prepared.”