From the Platform of Faith - Marcos Witt
By Marcos Witt
I started out very young in the ministry. I was only 19 when I was asked to be the music minister at the local church where I was a member. It was my first "job" in ministry, and it was their first time to open the position for a paid staff member. There are lots of advantages to starting out as a young person in ministry: enthusiasm, optimism, energy, excitement to name just a few. However, there are some disadvantages, too, and my greatest one was impatience. I wanted people to get into the presence of the Lord and enjoy the benefits of being there, but I wanted them to do it NOW! I longed for people to understand the power there is in worship, but I did not understand the need for allowing people to approach His presence on the basis of where they were in their faith walk, allowing the Holy Spirit to draw them into God's presence instead of being "pushed" there by an overzealous, under-patient (albeit extremely charming) and enthusiastic worship leader.
On Your Mark, Get Set, Worship!There was one incident where I had been invited to share my thoughts on worship to a group of pastors. I felt honored to be such a young speaker at such a large event, and I came in with my shotgun loaded, unlocked and both barrels pointed at my unsuspecting crowd. And make no mistake about it; I let ‘er rip! After about the third session of some very excitable sharing (if not to say "forcing my thoughts on others"), a little old man took me to one side after one particularly heated session and asked me two questions: 1) "Marcos, how long did it take you to develop these thoughts on worship and abiding in God's presence?" My answer was true and sincere: "I've been thinking on these things and teaching them for many years," I said. I was about 23 at the time. His second question was the clincher: 2) "How do you expect all these old timers to embrace in a couple of hours what has taken you years to resolve? Give them some time. Don't try to force it on them. The Holy Spirit will do the work in them with the seeds you have sown today." With that, he indicated the conversation was over, and he encouraged me to continue being excited about what I believed and to never dampen the enthusiasm. But as I stood there watching him walk away, feeling a bit sheepish, I realized I had learned an extremely valuable lesson that day.
Lead, Not PushMany an overly zealous and enthusiastic worship leader has placed him or herself in conflict with the congregation for failure to understand that people are at different places in their lives when it comes to their relationship with the Lord. That's where faith must come in! As worship leaders, we sow the seed, we should be excellent in executing our job, invite people into the presence of the Lord, encourage, motivate and excite them to abide in His presence, then stand back, in faith, allowing the Holy Spirit to do His job: Reveal Jesus to the hearts of men! However, when we start worship "pushing" instead of worship "leading", we are no longer operating in the realm of faith but leaning on our own understanding, trying to accomplish the goal in our own way, with our own methods and in our own strength. That's one of the reasons why so many worship leaders are exhausted. They have discontinued the practice of "resting" in the Lord and relying on the knowledge that He is at work in the hearts of men.
The next time you or I step out onto that platform and people are not responding in the way we think they should, just remember the Holy Spirit is at work behind the scenes, molding hearts, transforming minds, prodding and gently leading people into the knowledge of Christ. So, let us stand on the platform of faith, and lead people with the understanding that the Holy Spirit is at work, not us. That's leading, from a platform of faith.
Marcos Witt is a dynamic speaker, musician, and Hispanic Pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. For more information: marcoswitt.net.
