Welcome to this month’s installment of ‘The Art Of Worship’.

I am going to talk about transitions, as in, when you transition from one church to another.  I happen to be involved in a transition at the present time.  I will be taking a position as the main worship leader for a very small church of about 30-35 people. My former church is a congregation of roughly 800 people, so quite a change in terms of numbers of people.

I served at my former church as worship leader, team member, guitarist and vocalist for over 10 years. Moving to a much smaller, more intimate setting is going to be quite a big change from what I have been accustomed to, where I have had the luxury of having multiple musicians and worship leaders to work with.

Starting out with a worship team of maybe 3 or 4 at the most, is going to be both new and challenging. On my part, this will require creativity, understanding, and patience. Although this will be challenging and perhaps even difficult in many ways for me, I choose to focus on the positive side of things.

The church I will be leading in worship is in need of strong, experienced, worship team leadership. This is something I have to offer to them, with my many years of experience in leading worship teams. I consider this a win-win situation since I will be able to offer my skills and experience to help the church improve their worship ministry and I, in turn, will be blessed with a new part time job as well as gaining a more close knit or intimate church family setting, which I enjoy and look forward to very much, both personally and for my family as well!

It is always important to remember that it takes time for things to smooth out or become more familiar, to the point that you begin to feel like you’re a part of your new team and congregation. It works the other way, too. The new church will have to learn to appreciate the new direction, the new worship leader and their style and presentation approach. Change, no matter which side your on, can often be an uncomfortable, even unsettling, experience.

Eventually, you both will feel more comfortable and at ease, as you begin to get to know, and be known by, the people in your new church. So hang in there baby! It will be worth it, particularly if you are following God’s direction and instruction to become a part of a new church family.

One of the things I love about the family of God is that wherever we go for church, there is always a built-in family waiting for us, since we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. I will discuss more on this topic in next month’s column. Until then, keep on worshipping the King!

God bless!!

JB