Today, our FY100 students engaged with Kathryn Scott via video chat (iChat), as she and her 6 interns met with us and our 15 students. We shared in small group sessions, and as usual, Kathryn led us in a rich time of soul searching as lead worshipers.
Her topic was The Motivation Of The Worship Leader, and we opened up our souls to examining the motives the lead us as we care, lead, create, serve and challenge others. It was a wonderful session, and Kathryn’s humility and wisdom shines through into the hearts of students on both sides of the Atlantic.
As well, we looked into the basic foundations of Christian worship, tapping into the creative impulse of God in Genesis 1, resulting not only in the created order, but also in the flower of creation – humankind.
This week our students respond in 250 words or so, how they interacted with the ideas presented today, and the experience of shared learning with our Northern Irish friends.
If you’re not in the class, feel free to interact with our students.
19 Comments
Todays class was encouraging to me because Kathy Scott answered many of the questions that i had been struggling with in my own church were answered. Such as what does being a steward of the voice of God in the community mean? Kathy anwered this question by looking at knowing your community and the circumstances they are going through will help you serve your congregation more affectively.
Kathy also talked about motivation,specifically in song writting. This question brought me to evaluate the poerty i had written and challenged me to share my thoughts with others. Not only will i grow but others may be at the same place that i am in this life and the poetry can relate to them personaly.
Another issue that was brought up was am i serving the rest of the worship team when i ask an individual to step down. This question was a tough one for me to swallow becuase i don’t like conflict. But i realize that you have to allow these poeple to step down in order that they may grow spiritually and become whole.
I loved how Kathy allowed us the time to respond to her questions and discuss them with her team.I found it very helpful.
Ok. Call me old, out of touch and all that…I sheepishly admit to being emotionally overwhelmed at the thought that we were conversing visually, through modern tech., with someone in another country. That another group of people desiring to learn and grow as worshippers was gathered as we were. What a wonderful thing to draw spiritually close to other “family” members. May we never take that for granted.
Being that said.. “A worship leader becomes steward of the voice of God in the community” became the spring board for discussion in our class today. We grappled with modivation, community relationship and pastoral issues from the point of a worship leader. We were able to discuss personal experiences as well as listen to each other really get into the heart of the above statement.
How do we do this? How do we become the steward of the voice of our community in which live? We must learn the balance between serving the people in which we are leading and being influenced, dare I say dictated, by thier needs and desires. Relationship and having a “pulse” on what is happening is key to serving.
I am left with one thought; we lead with a heart that is passionately towards God, my personal time with God must be the impetus for leading/serving anybody.
Well the conversation with Kathryn Scott was a great way of to really understand the true meaning of what it is to lead worship but also lead the community and the importance of seeing and understanding why it’s important to know your community. it was also really cool talking to a person who was across the atlantic ocean, i kinda of felt like i was a person on the news or something. a really cool expereince to have.
I really enjoyed the questions that she asked the class. It really helped define in a way what a worship leader is, to put the needs of your community before your own worship. As a worship leader it is important to know that when we take the responsibility, we have to be stead fast servers. We can’t let it be about expressing ourselves in worship; it’s about giving expressions to the others worshipers. It’s not our turn to worship God. It’s our opportunity for the others to open there hearts for worship. I think that Kathryn said something along the lines as this; how can I use the gift to support people. Less we lose ourselves in our arts, we need to step back and listen to the pastoral voice and listen to the community, writing for the community that God has given us. And I believe that if all worship leaders had the mindset like that then there would be stronger Christian communities in the world.
The class was incredible. The ability to listen and talk to Kathryn was amazing. Through the whole class I found myself coming more and more alive. The part that stuck out the most to me was when Kathryn said, “When we are leading worship we must remember that it is not our turn. When we lead, it’s their turn. We have our turn in our quiet time or when others are leading.” I think too often it can be tempting to let leading be another personal worship time, assuming that the congregation will see that we are somewhere else and therefore follow us there. Not so. I agree with Kathryn so intensely – leading is not a time when your personal time is simply in public with a sound system. In a sense, I see leaders in a church like doorkeepers. We are responsible not just for going through the door ourselves and finding what is on the other side, but we are also called to hold the door open for others. When we lead, it is not simply a time for personal exploration; it is a time to serve the community and hold the door open for them. I also love the emphasis on how important it is to spend your own personal time with God. I think Dan is absolutely right when he says that the cost of leadership is you must live what you speak. When we lead worship we not only want people to experience God during that worship team, but we want them to go home craving more of God. We want people to seek God not just during the Sunday morning service, but intimately when they are alone as well. How can we confidently, lovingly open the door for other people when we are at the back of the room sipping our coffee?
The class was very refreshing for me. I enjoyed how we could all come together as one large group the thousands of miles did not seem to matter for that time time that we spent together. Kathryn raised some very interesting questions, ones that challenged my proses of thinking. I really enjoyed when she talked about when we lead its their turn and God is using our gifts to reach the people. This spoke to me God Just placed this vision in my head and for the first time I had a real connection He gave me this picture of two lakes and a river He was the grand lake we are the river he flows through us in to the world (or other lake). So that is how I felt that God spoke to me through Kathryn’s questions.
The iChat we had with Kathryn and her interns was an awesome experience. Who knew communication over the Atlantic could be so easy! I was telling a few people in class that before I applied to SSU to do the institute that I was planning on applying for Kathryn’s internship, so it was a strange thought to think that I could have been on the other side of the camera lens last week during class.
This time spent learning and sharing with Kathryn was rather affirming for me. There were many things we talked about which I had a good feel for, but often times I forget about the idea of motivation behind our worship leading. It was a great way to really kick start our classes, examining our hearts and learning about how we should be motivated versus how we might be motivated in our fallenness. During discussion time one word kept coming back to me — balance. I felt like our learning time with Kathryn and her interns taught me about moderation and how to balance leading the congregation but still being sold out, and on fire for God during worship.
All in all, my time learning from Kathryn (and you, Dan) was amazing, and I’d do it again in a heart beat.
FY100 Samuel Gallo Sept. 23/07
To love each other is to love our God.
My journey today started out in the desert of “Shamah” following to the path of mutual worship that led me to the green hills of motivated worship.
Shamah is a Jewish word that refers to limiting God’s word. To me Shamah is a manifestation of human stubbornness that keeps putting God in a box.
As Mr. Wilt was exploring this subject today, I felt motivated to step out of my carnal mentality that seems to always praise God for who I am rather than for who He is.
Mutual worship verses passionate worship was the subject that remained most impressed in my heart today. What is it that drives the worship leader out of common worship to the heights of motivated worship?
It was an honor to explore the subject of passionate worship development with our friends from Ireland. Kathryn Scot was our beautiful teacher today who helped us see the big picture in worship.
Important questions were asked today like: are we being true to our calling? Are we serving our communities though worship? What are our motivations in leading worship? How do we bring correction in the worship team?
We discussed in small groups the answers to these fundamental questions. So to be true to our calling do we need other people to speak into our life? Yes we do, and it’s the humility spoken into us that helps us to realize that it’s not about us, it’s about giving worship expression to the church. This expression makes us free from fear and rejection, giving us the ability to be true to our calling.
To lead my worship team is to make their ministry my ministry, by equipping and encouraging them to pursue there calling in life. Jesus was the perfect example of a leader, because he focused all his time and energy on his 12 disciples, who in turn would be like Jesus here on earth.
Our main motivator to worship God should always be to bring glory to Him, because He is worthy. But when our attention shifts from Him to us we start getting holes in our boat and pretty soon we find our selves cruising for a bruising.
It’s important for the worship leader to keep his identities behind the cross. All the worship team should follow the same example, in order to find rest and harmony in the worship team setting. Many times correction can spring up, because of the root cause of pride. Having a servant spirit is what differentiates a leader from one who only wants things for me! me! me! me!
It is good to introduce freedom and unity in the worship team environment, though the shifting around of musicians and different worship bands, all in the same setting. There’s nothing wrong with being flexible, as a worship leader and letting the pastor organize the worship songs and theme. It can be hard at first to submit to a new leader, but the outcome of it, brings lot’s of joy to God’s Kingdom.
I’m going to be honest. When I found out that we were going to be doing the online chat/video thing with Kathryn, I wasn’t overly excited. I knew that I should have been, but I wasn’t. I figured she’d have some good things to say, but I wasn’t planning on being interested. Sometimes I get this attitude of thinking I know exactly how everything’s going to turn out, and thinking I can predict exactly what God’s going to do. And as my parents might say: “Tira, you have a lousy attitude right now, and it needs to stop.” God tells me the same thing when I get in this midset, but often when he tells me I feel a little more convicted and shameful. The time we had with Kathryn last week was one of these times. I went into our class thinking that I was going to be bored, and that I probably wasn’t going to learn anything, and I left the class excited about worship, and I felt so enriched and overwhelmed by all the things Kathryn had to say. I loved what she was saying about community; knowing your community and seeing what you can do to reach out to them. I also loved the questions she brought up, and had us discuss, it was great to talk with Brianna and learn more about her, about what she thinks, and about the way she views things.
Overall this experience was amazing. I felt silly for thinking that I knew what was going to happen, and that I knew what God was going to do. It is impossible for me to even begin to imagine the things God plans to do. All in all it was rather humbling.
Well, Wednesday’s class is definitely something for me to reflect upon. As we talked about “the motivation of a worship leader” it seems the importance of worship has just become even more important. The personal aspect of worship, for me, grows greater as I understand more and more how it reaches into every part of my life, actually how it really does encompass life and living in general. But there is also a simplicity about it that says “it is just in living that you worship.”
I think that the motivation of a worship leader stems primarily from this individual response to who God is. In our video chat Kathryn talked about a need to be a “passionate pursuer” as a worship leader. Our worship is a response to who God is in our life. Without a sincere, heartfelt response to the glory of God, I believe a worship leader will not be as effective in leading others into this same kind of relationship with their Creator.
The other aspect of worship leading we talked about in class was the leader’s role in leading the community. Their role is to help others in their worship to God. I think the western culture can have an individualistic view in worship, focusing on what “I” get out of worship, and it was cool to hear something different. Again, this is motivation thing. Being more proactive in knowing the community was an idea presented by Kathryn that challenged me, but I’m glad for it.
In all I think it was a great experience, and though at the moment I feel like I’m at a loss of what to say, feels like all I’ve succeeded in doing so far is very briefly summarizing our video experience. Regardless of what words I can come up with in this very moment, I know the views shared in Wednesday’s class will change the way I view my worship time and the way I lead others in worship, at least I’m hoping it does. Looking forward to tomorrow’s class.
I truly believe that we are called to be stewards. God gives us gifts in different areas of our life that we can use to reflect his glory. I know that my motivations behind why I lead worship, make music, write songs for the Lord often have to be checked because I find myself doing these things for self satisfaction and pride rather than for the glory of God. It is quite easy to become full of pride when you get up in front of people to lead music, and we must constantly return to the place of humility. We must constantly be getting back down on our face and giving our hearts and lives to God.
I believe that God put this special worship gene if you will inside all of us. If you look back through the ages you see worship as this almost primitive drive in all of mankind. We can tend to worship worldly things more than Godly things, but when we do come into that place of true worship for God it is as if something inside of us clicks into place and we are made whole. We must again constantly be keeping our motives in check.
I really enjoyed the sense of community that was shared during the time as well. We are all one in Christ, and it was really neat to wrestle through things with Christians across the pond. I sometimes get so stuck in the here and the now and what is immediately in front of me that I lose sight of the big pictures. We are all one in Christ.
This was suppose to be the first paragraph…woops forgot to paste.
This time truly meant a lot to me. Not only was the experience of talking with someone thousands of miles away and seeing their face amazing, but also the words and questions that Kathryn Scott had to share were meaningful and though provoking.
Talking with Kathryn over the internet was an amazing experience. We were able to directly converse with a whole classroom of people in Ireland and understand everything that they were saying! Kathryn is an amazing person and she has been one of my favorite worship leaders for a long time. I used to listen to the cd “Hungry” as I fell asleep every night and it was a big part of my life as a worshipper. It was incredible to have her teach one of our classes and be able to interact right there with her and her interns.
One of the things that was discussed during this class was how our motivation isn’t to lead worship but to live worship. Also along with that, we talked about how we are stewards or caretakers of the community and what that means. One of the things that we said that meant was that we are like a channel from God to his people, and that we help to communicate what God is saying through music. That was one of the things that put things in perspective for me. Another thing she talked about was false humility, especially in song writing. For instance, by hiding a song that I’ve written, is that really being humble, or am I just afraid that people won’t think I’m good enough if I play it for them? It’s good not to brag about our accomplishments, but we shouldn’t hide the things that we do. God has given us the ability to do what we do for a reason. There were many other things that we talked about during this class time that inspired me and motivated me to do what God has called me to do. This was great, and I look forward to any future ichats that may be coming up. ?
The video conference with Kathryn Scott was a terrific experience for me. It was definitely different from what I came into the class expecting it to be. Somehow I had pictured her giving us a long talk about worship and how we need to apply it this way or that way – but it wasn’t like that at all! That’s God all right – changing our human perception and revealing His plans instead!
The interactive format was ideal in that it was far from a lecture and a lot more like a conversation with great input from both sides. More specifically, I appreciated the term Kathryn used – being a passionate pursuer – responding to God’s call and living out worship. What we do as worshippers as well as worship leaders is to respond to the hunger in our hearts for God and that is what motivates us to “do what we do”.
I love pondering this thought: that when leading worship, by offering up a song to the Lord, others will find their song in our song. This is a key role of a worship leader: to be a “steward of the voice of God in our community”. Along with this concept comes knowing the community that we have been placed in and serving there faithfully all the while serving the Lord, the leadership and the people – certainly not something to be taken lightly!
I would have liked to have heard more from the interns over with her in Ireland, but I guess that there was only so much time. All in all I enjoyed immensely hearing Kathryn’s thoughts on worship, motivations and community as well as the small group discussions that stemmed from there!
Sorry Dan that it took me this long to make a post. The reason is I thought that I did put a post up, and I did, but it must have not really posted, so I hope this time it will work.
I really enjoyed the conversation we had the Kathryn Scott and her class about the important roles of a worship leader and what a person can do to make the worship time run smoothly and let the community get something out of it. I also thought that it was pretty cool talking to a person over they internet via satellite. It kind of made me feel like I was on the news or something, that’s what it reminded me of. Getting back to the subject, I really enjoyed the topic about knowing your community and how truly important it is to understand where your community is at and then applying it to the worship set. I think that if worship teams all across the world would take in consideration of where there community is and applying that to the worship time, communities would grow stronger, more Christ centered and there would be communities for Christ everywhere. Another thing that was important is when we take the responsibility; we have to be stead fast servers. We can’t let be about expressing ourselves in worship, it’s about giving expressions to the others worshipers. It’s not our turn to worship God. I’s our opportunity for the others to open there hearts for worship We are the arranger, the song chooser, or the songwriter, and a church leader.
I really enjoyed that class and I’m looking forward to more conversations like that one.
Wednesday’s iChat with Kathryn Scott and her interns was just great. It amazes me that communicating with someone thousands of kilometers away is actually so easy. It certainly shrinks the world even more. Her heart was evident in her teaching, which blessed me so much. Kathryn spoke on the motivation of a worship leader, I know for me I have struggled with many of the things we touched on.
One of the things that I have wrestled with as a leader is this, that it is my tendency to please people. Yes, I said it, I am a people pleaser! Kathryn put it like this, “you can’t be people pleasers; you have to be people leaders.” Unfortunately, reality is that you will not be able to please everyone in every decision you make in any leadership setting. So you must pose questions to yourself as you make decisions, “am I serving the community in making this decision about this situation?” And you must also ask yourself, “am I being true to my calling in making this decision in this situation?” Depending on the situation, the questions you ask yourself may change a little.
Another thing that really struck me was that when you lead worship it is not your turn. Meaning that the reason you are there is to lead others into worship of a holy God. The hope being that you are leading others into a place that you have been before. That what you do publicly as a lead worshiper is an overflow of what goes on in your personal life with God.
Alexandria
I am somewhere else, and was not in the session. I have been a worship leader, but I am not one, really. I agree completely with your comments. I have been in worship times where the leader seemed to be having their own personal worship time, and I felt like I had no clue where they were going.
And to your other point…it certainly does bug me when worship leaders don’t engage in worship when they are not leading…I wonder “is this just a job for them? why do they not have a heart to worship? And if they don’t, how can they lead?”
thanks for your comments…keep on learning!
Tina keep on being honest, especially with yourself like that, and you will go far!!
Thanks for this Dan. Even though I am not a worship leader, my heart connects with the desire to lead people to God. I just do it (or try to) in different ways. So this conversation is relevant for me as well. please share more…
Upon hearing about our iChat with Kathryn Scott, I really didn’t know what to expect. I had never really done anything like that before. It was like a double class, as though we were in the same room with her and her interns. Throughout this discussion, it was really cool to see her and hear her views on worship leadership. I loved how at one point, she asked the question: “What does it mean to be a steward of the voice of God in our community?” My small group began to discuss the answers to this question which opened up a whole new realm of understanding of what a worship leader does. We discussed how the role of the worship leader is like being a steward of the word of God. We used the picture of a steward of an airplane as a way of serving God in worshipping. I was really impacted by this analogy due to the idea it gives us as being servants. Typically a steward ushers people into an airplane or something like that, just as worship leaders are ushering the people into a closer embrace with the Father.
This talk also helped me realize the need to come to the altar with a servant’s heart. If you don’t, then you are taking away from the congregation’s worship experience in that you can’t expect to enter into worship with pride in your heart instead of servanthood.
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