Instrumental

I have been blessed with the friendship of very wise people. I don't think I write things down enough because I forget a lot of the wisdom people impart to me. It's pretty pointless to listen to wise people if you don't remember what they say. This one, however, struck a "chord" with me (you'll get that joke in a moment).

"Worship ministry has little to do with the instrument in your hands and EVERYTHING to do with the people you're leading." - Travis Doucette

An instrument is defined as "a means by which something is effected or done". This opens up the definition to mean a musical instrument, a surgical instrument or a person being used as an instrument. I agree with Travis. Some of the most spirited filled and fruitful times of corporate worship I've seen have come from a cappella music, or times that have instrumental accompaniment but it is far less "busy" in terms of what corporate worship has become in most of today's local churches. We have a large majority of our generation that think corporate worship cannot happen without electric guitars, drum sets and sweet synthesizers rockin out like David Crowder*Band (not that there is anything inherently sinful or wrong with any of those things).

I am a firm believer that when you are leading a group of individuals regardless of what position you're in, you need to take into account the group of people you're leading. I have a friend who is in a position of leadership at a Christian College who is about to hire other leaders that not only she will lead, but who will in turn lead others. I am the worship director for a ministry that has an extensive leadership skeleton in place. Just like myself, my friend, any pastor, or anyone else in a position of leadership, choices who affect others can be an instrument as well. It is an interesting place in life to realize that you are an instrument of God. Not so much as being manipulated like some host to some cosmic parasite but like a guitar, or a clarinet.

I like to think I'm a Cello.

Ephesians is a glorious book filled with lots of instruction on how the body of Christ should function. It's no wonder that we could find a beautiful illustration here on how we are viewed by God. In verse ten, Paul reminds us,
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

I thought I wanted to elaborate on this, but I don't think it's really necessary. So I'm going to leave you with another excerpt God brought me last night. I think this wraps up what it is to be an instrument better than I could ever say.

Romans 6:1-13: What shall we say? Are we to remain in sin in order that God's grace may multiply and overflow? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the father, so we too might habitually live and behave in newness of life. For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be one with Him in sharing His resurrection by a new life lived for God. We know that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that our body which is the instrument of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a man dies, he is freed from the power of sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, because we know that Chris, being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For by the death He died, He died to sin ending His relation to it once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God in unbroken fellowship with Him. Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God living in unbroken fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions. Do not continue offering or yuielding your bodily members and faculties to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to perpetual life, and your bodily members and faculties to God, presenting them as instruments of righteousness.