CBC Worship Ministries: Devotional Blog

The professional vocation of "worship" has been around a long time. In 1 Chronicles 25 there's a whole chapter devoted to the organization of the Israelites "praise team". All told, there were 288 men assigned to the task of leading worship. Imagine that! It must have taken quite a sophisticated organization to oversee all those musicians. (And not a "diva" among them!) Verse 6 says "All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the Lord, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God."

It sounds to me like worship was taken pretty seriously. It looks to me that the Israelites really invested themselves in the art and craft of music; but not just music - rather, music to bring glory and honor to God. Having been a member of this "profession" for many years, I can imagine that there must have been a lot of discipline, order, planning and efficiency to what they did. I would think that they had many responsibilities that they took very seriously - being on time for rehearsals; maintaining their instruments; practicing their parts; making sure that they knew when they were "on". Afterall, if they were the ones who were leading worship in the temple of the LORD GOD, I bet they didn't want to make any mistakes.

Do we take our responsibilities as seriously? Do we recognize that we are doing this for the glory and honor of God, and that He is in the front row, waiting to receive our sacrifice of praise? Do you think he notices when one of us is not prepared? Or late? Or what do you imagine He thinks of us if we come in a half hour late to rehearsal? That maybe it's just not important enough to be on time? Do you think He cares when we don't really know our parts, and we're "faking it"? Do you think He notices when we really didn't learn the music and we're just getting through the Sunday by the sking of our teeth? And how frustrated might He be when all the sound issues, video issues and technical problems might have been avoided if there had been a thorough check of the equipment BEFORE the service got underway? Do you think He was expecting that we'd go the "extra mile" in preparation for worship?

Ouch! I think I stepped on a lot of toes with this one! I'm sure I'll get an angry email or two. . . you know, what do you expect from us, we're volunteers, we have big important jobs, small kids, etc. Do you know that there isn't ANYONE among us who doesn't have more than enough excuses?

It just won't fly with God. He expects our best. Period. And He deserves our best - the best that I know each and every one of you are capable of. There's no room on the temple team for laziness, shoddy work, undisciplined and irresponsible efforts. God wants our best. God wants your best. He wants my best.

I have always told those who work with me that people will gravitate to the lowest level of expectation. So let's raise the bar - let's do our best, because He's the best. And don't waste time sending me an angry reply. . . channel all that energy into doing YOUR best!