Is the vision greater than your worship resources today? Be sure that people will criticize your for having a big vision. But our God is a BIG GOD and He has BIG visions for our lives. We are creatures of destiny. Eph. 2:10 says God prepared plans for us before we were born. Ps. 33:11 says the plans are eternal. Phil. 1:5b says God will perform His plans in you. Prov. 19:21 says that God's purposes will prevail. Eph. 1:11 says we are predestined for His plan. Finally Jer. 29:11 says that God's plans to prosper us and He does not forget about what He promised. Why should we circum to such criticism? Nehemiah sets a good example; he continued in doing the work of his vision amidst his critics (Neh. 6). Like Nehemiah we have the choice to get distracted or continue to pursue God's vision in faith.
Planning for Vision - Vision is a partnership with God for our future by wisely investing our talents, gifts, time and resources for the greatest profit to the Kingdom of God (Mat 25:14-30). Some may be contemplating transition from hymns to contemporary worship. To continue a course that does not lead to contemporary worship is to bury your resources in the ground until the master returns. To be developing your contemporary praise team and inserting them with more and more frequency and giving instructions about the nature and responsibility of worshipping with all our heart, mind and strength regardless of the musical genre is like investing the your talents to produce more talents. Everyday you must strategically apply your resources toward your vision. Ask yourself everyday if you can do anything to bring you closer to your vision. Having your vision written in a place you see it every day makes this job a lot easier.
Ignore obstacles – I guarantee that you will face vision obstacles. Obstacles are resources users; the like tares in a wheat field (Mat. 13:24-30). Not only is investing in obstacles unwise, it undermines your vision and then kills it. You cannot serve two visions. You will be tempted to spend time and resources in non-vision activities and programs to satisfy certain constituents because they are the safe and easy path. This temptation to return to the old way increases during the transition because neither the old nor the new way of ministry, in its uncompleted form, is very satisfying. Don't deviate, not even for a quick fix of temporary satisfaction. Stay focused and continue applying your resources to your vision. Your future in Christ is the only means of ministry satisfaction because once God reveals new vision, the old way of doing ministry is dead – like returning to Egypt.
Continually cast vision – Nehemiah learned that people often and regularly forget why they embark on a given path. Rick Warren calls this the Nehemiah principle and suggests that people should be reminded monthly about the vision and why it is worth pursuing.
Experiencing Worship, The Study
Used by churches all over the world to help teach worship, the Experiencing Worship study can help your worship team too.
Your team will learn why we worship and gain a better understanding of how to worship.
One user said..."Your 5 week study course has made a tremendous impact on my life in the study of worship... I would like to express my thanks for a well written study course that leads into a higher realm of praise and worship."
Experiencing Worship, The Study