Music Makes The People Come Together
September 5, 2009 § 3 Comments
Wednesday night as my first time leading worship. I’ve been singing with praise teams for about four years, but only as a secondary vocalist.
There was an unprecedented number of people who showed up for our first Asian Christian Fellowship meeting of the year — almost 50. It was also amazing to have a full team for the first time in ACF history: four vocalists, keyboard, bass, two guitars and tambourine. I had imagined myself leading worship on keyboard, mostly because I felt like I would have more control over where the music went. During practice, however, it proved too much of a distraction for me, and EN played much better than me anyhow, so I will just stick to singing.
We sounded pretty good, although I could not hear second guitar and our voices were not perfectly in tune. I was not nervous to be onstage, but my mouth became extremely dry, which increased my anxiety somewhat.
Looking out at the rows of people standing, I felt blessed to have such a fellowship. I saw some people singing whom I did not expect to see singing — a moving sight. Is ACF really affecting these people who do not consider themselves Christian? What a privilege it is to be here.
A friend sent me a song request for next week and my visceral reaction was to shut her down. After all, I’m a worship leader, not a DJ. Sets are put together deliberately, not haphazardly according to what I feel like doing. But this is an example of my control freak tendencies — I don’t like the idea of somebody usurping my “power.” Does God really care whether the songs we sing directly relate to the Bible study? Probably not, as long as the worship is sincere. Letting go of my pride in this aspect will definitely continue to be a struggle for me.
auradis 
About the songs to choose, actually you can talk to Andrew and Jae. Jae is who you know have a better idea of the true worshipping. I have listened to their discussion with Andrew today and Jae’s church in Seattle is similar to my church. I don’t lead worship and so Jae is a better guy you can actually talk to.
My little opinion, can accept the song requests and take those to consideration by listening to it, but you have the right to make final decisions when you are leading the worship. I sometimes give some hymns that Lloyd havn’t heard and sometimes he uses the songs I suggest to worship. It is not because I request it, but because they are beautiful and can be used in worship.
I want to hear you sing sometime wo de pengyou
“my visceral reaction was to shut her down”
That’s a very honest statement you made there. whether you were right to or not, it’s good to see you being thoughtful about it.