Lanterns

We are all called to be lanterns. The Bible talks symbolically about us hanging our lanterns on a stand where they can give light to the house (Matthew 5.14-15). But what happens when we all we do is shine in a house that is already brightly lit?

Lanterns help people to see when things are dark. They cast shadows over things that need moving. They act as a focal point and draw life to them.

Being a lantern means taking your ordinary everyday life and living it for Jesus (Romans 12.1).

Being a lantern means loving God, and loving others like yourself (Luke 10.27).

In terms of the musicians, singers and sound engineers in our churches I sometimes wonder if we have the potential to limit the glow of their lanterns by drawing a circle around them and branding them as a ‘worship team’.

Maybe by calling ourselves a ‘worship team’ we give off the impression that it is within the circle of sunday worship that we are primarily called to use our gifts, when actually there are many areas of our local communities that need a lantern.

I was really encouraged to look through our list of musicians. In our church we have 20 people in our worship team, and nearly everyone is involved with music outside of corporate worship. Most of our guys play down the local pub, some put on concerts, some sing in choirs and barber-shop quartets, some facilitate fund-raising gigs, others teach. Last christmas we had 72 people crammed into one half of a pub for beer and a sing-along that we organised. Thats nearly the size of our congregation. There is something really healthy in all this that I think comes across when we gather for corporate worship.

Maybe we need a shift in perspective regarding where we as musicians are called to invest our time and resources. Serving the church is a vital and important role, but a healthy pond needs both an intake of water and an outflow.

Does the term ‘worship team’ imply a church-only ministry?

If we got rid of the the term ‘worship team’, what else could we use?