Spiritual Gifts relating to music and worship

Spiritual Gifts relating to music and worship

1 Peter 4:10
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

So when I started thinking about lesson 2 I thought about a class I took several years ago that helped you figure out what your spiritual gifts are.  I knew one of my gifts would be teaching and there were a few that I knew I didn't have; mercy, tongues, prophecy, etc.  but I felt compelled to know what my gifts were and how I could use my God given gifts to serve the Lord.

So now, my goal was to enlighten the kids to figure out and think about how they could use the gifts that they have been given to help them serve the worship team and the other kids in the youth group.

I started with sharing this story from my childhood:

When I was  young girl my mom hired the most beautiful woman to come work in our shop.  I was totally enamored with her, she had long blond wavy hair (it was the late 70's), she had beautifully painted long nails, she was so pretty and kind and I was in awe!  Well, one of my love languages is gift giving, so when I noticed the blackberry bushes on my street over flowing with berries, I thought that I would pick a bunch and give them to her.  I went to work with my mom, berries in hand, and so excited to give her my gift.  She was very gracious and I was very happy that my gift brought her happiness.  The next day, she came in with some small pies......blackberry pies....made with the blackberries that I had given her.....I was so sad, in my young mind I thought - she didn't like my gift and she's giving it back - I was heart broken.

I know now that was not the case at all, she probably also had the love language of gift giving and wanted to gift back and it made me think about how God gives us gifts.  He doesn't give us spiritual gifts so that we can take them home and keep them to ourselves, no He gives us gifts so that we can share them with the world and through our sharing, many will be blessed in the name of God. 

When we think of gifts we often think in terms of art or intelligence, i.e.  Mozart was musically gifted, Picasso was artistically gifted, Einstein was intellectually gifted – but when talking about spiritual gifts, there are no direct references to music, art or smarts.  This does not mean that we, as musicians, aren’t musically gifted because I believe that God has granted many musicians with talent, but how we use that talent is where our gifts lie. 

So here's what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.  If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three's the limit, and then only if someone if present who can interpret what you're saying.  Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself.  And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over.  Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other.  If you choose to speak, you're also responsible for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn't stir us up into confusion; He brings us into harmony.  The goes for all the churches-no exceptions.
1 Corinthians 14:26 (The Message)

Leadership, service, teaching

He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts.  He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evengelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ's followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easity with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. 

Ephesians 4:11-12

The spiritual gifts that we as worship leaders should possess are;

·         Leadership – we are leading people to Christ through our music, attitude and reverence

1.       Do you view yourself as a leader?

2.       Do others view you as a leader?

·         Service – we serve the congregation by genuinely worshiping God

1.       Has a worship service ever impacted you so much that you felt an immediate change in your heart for God?

2.       Has a worship service ever made you feel frustrated, angry or empty?

·         Teaching – we teach the non-musician that worship comes from the heart not from perfect pitch or guitar riffs.  We teach the congregation how to come before the throne.

1.       Modeling behavior is how we teach people to worship because they can’t see our hearts, how will they know to genuinely worship the Lord through music?  How is this taught?

2.       Have you ever heard the phrase, “Those that can, do.  Those that can’t, teach.”?  This implies that teaching is for the less talented, but aren’t teachers usually the ones that set us on the paths that lead us to our careers?

a.       Is there a teacher that has helped shape your life?

b.      Are you ready to help shape the lives of those around us for Christ?

1.       Knowing that our job as worship leaders is so important; does this excite you or scare you?

2.       How can we pray for you tonight?

Personal reflection: This question is just between you and God.
Are you someone with musical talent? Or are you someone who has musical talent, biblical
insight, and the desire to share these gifts for God's glory?

If you are interested in taking the test to find out what your spiritual gifts are go to http://www.kodachrome.org/spiritgiftyouth/

(I have not taken the test on this website but I looked it over and it looks like a pretty good one.  If anyone takes it, would you let me know how you liked it?)


Finding a worship song that fits this topic was a bit challenging but one in particular came to mind - Starfield's I Will Go.  Being the person who willingly says - "send me, I will go Lord send me".  Trusting and knowing that God will equipt you will all that you need in order to do His will, takes true faith, but going back to the first verse (1 Peter 4:10) states that God will do exactly that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo-hkHf_qeY&feature=related  (Starfields I Will Go)