This is an article about my church worship
team and how we've taken worship outside our church walls and to
the nations. This is a very passionate subject for me but before I
tell our story, I want to touch on an important value behind every
worship adventure we've ever taken. It's worship evangelism.
Have you ever had such an awesome worship experience that you felt like you just didn't know what to do with yourself? I mean you just couldn't hop any higher, sing any louder, kneel any longer, or cry and laugh any harder! Through God's amazing grace, I have been in many indescribable worship situations that were so awesome that after awhile, I thought I was just going to explode. Well, guess what? That's where worship evangelism comes in. It's time to invite others to the party!
One of the most important kingdom principles in the bible is, "freely you have received, freely give." God is not blessing you to reach some unattainable spiritual high that all those rookie worshippers can't get to. He's blessing you so you can be a blessing and show non-believers what they were created for. Therefore, if you feel like you're starting to become a connoisseur of worship, let me recommend that you start seeking ways to share your worship experience with others. Have we forgotten that the presence of God is what the world is looking for? Lost people are destroying their lives and doing every kind of insane, unimaginable thing - just to have a sense of oneness with their Creator. We should be introducing them to their eternal destiny!
Way back in the last century, around 1997, my brother Dale Walker, who is a pastor/ missionary, talked me into taking my worship team with him to the Philippines. I had always had a heart for missions, but never really thought about taking my church worship team to a 3rd world country so far away. God led us to hold worship evangelism crusades. We put together local choirs with as much church involvement as possible and basically took the presence of God to lost, poor people. Our goal was to be in situations where there would be approximately half believers and half non-believers. When this happens, the non-believers get to see through their own people what they were ultimately created for - to worship the one true God!
Since then, the "C. A. Worship Band" and I have traveled to many different Asian countries as well as Central America. We've seen hundreds of people saved, local worship team members instructed and encouraged, and hundreds of hungry children fed. I've said all of this and I haven't even gotten to the reason why I'm writing this article.
The primary purpose for telling this story is to remind you that your worship team isn't necessarily supposed to worship God in your church building alone. There's a whole world out there that has no clue of what worship is, what it looks like, and that all humans were created to do it. The Lord has done many amazing things through us, yet here's the meat of what I'm getting to in this article. It's all about how God has changed us and changed our whole congregation in the process. The first thing that happened to me was God put an intense love for people in me - just meeting these extremely poor, forgotten people and hearing God tell me how precious they were to him. It's been amazing! For a small example of this, just listen to the story I share about little Jerry on my "Never Gonna Stop" CD. A missionary friend to the Philippines, Vikki Penwell, once told me that the poor always get the leftovers and we should find a way to spend ourselves on them. (Read Isaiah 58: 6-12.) Ever since then, one of the themes that we've used to describe our trips is, "giving our best to those who have the least." Somehow, I sense the heart of God every time I hear this line. Upon our return from these missions oriented tours, we edit a video to show to our congregation. This is always one of my favorite parts of this whole phenomenon because it reminds me of all that God did on the trips. It always moves and challenges our church in a very deep way. There have been many tears shed while watching these little clips. You can just sense people's hearts being broken for other people across the world and you can sense that the congregation is becoming hungry to make their lives count for things that are eternal.
Now that I've been on a few of these trips, here are some things that I've learned along the way:
All of this is simply a story that has impacted our church in a powerful way. It's not for everyone and there are certainly many variations on how to do this. However, I hope that this has challenged and inspired you to broaden you thinking of what your church worship team can be about. I pray that God will call and send many of you to be in a sense, His ushers - that you will usher in His life and bring His presence to dark, forgotten places throughout the earth!
©2001 Tommy Walker
Have you ever had such an awesome worship experience that you felt like you just didn't know what to do with yourself? I mean you just couldn't hop any higher, sing any louder, kneel any longer, or cry and laugh any harder! Through God's amazing grace, I have been in many indescribable worship situations that were so awesome that after awhile, I thought I was just going to explode. Well, guess what? That's where worship evangelism comes in. It's time to invite others to the party!
One of the most important kingdom principles in the bible is, "freely you have received, freely give." God is not blessing you to reach some unattainable spiritual high that all those rookie worshippers can't get to. He's blessing you so you can be a blessing and show non-believers what they were created for. Therefore, if you feel like you're starting to become a connoisseur of worship, let me recommend that you start seeking ways to share your worship experience with others. Have we forgotten that the presence of God is what the world is looking for? Lost people are destroying their lives and doing every kind of insane, unimaginable thing - just to have a sense of oneness with their Creator. We should be introducing them to their eternal destiny!
Way back in the last century, around 1997, my brother Dale Walker, who is a pastor/ missionary, talked me into taking my worship team with him to the Philippines. I had always had a heart for missions, but never really thought about taking my church worship team to a 3rd world country so far away. God led us to hold worship evangelism crusades. We put together local choirs with as much church involvement as possible and basically took the presence of God to lost, poor people. Our goal was to be in situations where there would be approximately half believers and half non-believers. When this happens, the non-believers get to see through their own people what they were ultimately created for - to worship the one true God!
Since then, the "C. A. Worship Band" and I have traveled to many different Asian countries as well as Central America. We've seen hundreds of people saved, local worship team members instructed and encouraged, and hundreds of hungry children fed. I've said all of this and I haven't even gotten to the reason why I'm writing this article.
The primary purpose for telling this story is to remind you that your worship team isn't necessarily supposed to worship God in your church building alone. There's a whole world out there that has no clue of what worship is, what it looks like, and that all humans were created to do it. The Lord has done many amazing things through us, yet here's the meat of what I'm getting to in this article. It's all about how God has changed us and changed our whole congregation in the process. The first thing that happened to me was God put an intense love for people in me - just meeting these extremely poor, forgotten people and hearing God tell me how precious they were to him. It's been amazing! For a small example of this, just listen to the story I share about little Jerry on my "Never Gonna Stop" CD. A missionary friend to the Philippines, Vikki Penwell, once told me that the poor always get the leftovers and we should find a way to spend ourselves on them. (Read Isaiah 58: 6-12.) Ever since then, one of the themes that we've used to describe our trips is, "giving our best to those who have the least." Somehow, I sense the heart of God every time I hear this line. Upon our return from these missions oriented tours, we edit a video to show to our congregation. This is always one of my favorite parts of this whole phenomenon because it reminds me of all that God did on the trips. It always moves and challenges our church in a very deep way. There have been many tears shed while watching these little clips. You can just sense people's hearts being broken for other people across the world and you can sense that the congregation is becoming hungry to make their lives count for things that are eternal.
Now that I've been on a few of these trips, here are some things that I've learned along the way:
- Make sure that you're a blessing and not a burden. Being a missionary on the field is hard enough. The last thing they need is to have to serve a bunch of foreigners.
- Make sure you're bringing your best. Drama and other things could be added depending on your strengths. Prepare well before going.
- Make sure you're not just on a global hunt for a stage to show off. People everywhere can see through that.
- Be flexible. I guarantee you that not everything will go as planned. But hey, part of the fun is watching how God can do extraordinary things when we think everything has gone wrong.
All of this is simply a story that has impacted our church in a powerful way. It's not for everyone and there are certainly many variations on how to do this. However, I hope that this has challenged and inspired you to broaden you thinking of what your church worship team can be about. I pray that God will call and send many of you to be in a sense, His ushers - that you will usher in His life and bring His presence to dark, forgotten places throughout the earth!
©2001 Tommy Walker
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