Sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving

For the past 3 and some odd years I have been singing on my church's worship team.  There have been many changes throughout those three+ years but none such as the last 6 months.  Last August we needed a worship leader, I volunteered.  And with much help from a friend that was leading our church's Celebrate Recovery band on Monday evenings began leading worship on Sunday mornings.

It was a lot more work than I had anticipated, I listened to too many songs to count, scheduled the songs, people for singing, playing, sound, lyrics, etc etc...We had the occasional hiccup but nothing too drastic, God is so good, He humbled me and held me.  Taught me so many things spiritually and musically. 

I started this post in January or February so this is referring to August thru December 2013.  Now I will finish it, lol!  In January my church hired a Worship Pastor.  I was very excited about it, I was ready to learn some new things and boy have I ever.  I cannot even begin to describe the work Christ has done in my heart and life this last year, but I can try. 

Last August we needed a keyboard player and a lovely teenage girl stepped up to play, she had just learned how to chord and was willing to serve the Lord with her talents.  She taught me a lot, watching her made me realize I could probably learn to do that or teach myself how to somewhat.  If you know me very well then you know I don't play the piano very well, I love to play but usually only pull out my piano music around Christmas time.  I have sang and played (easy hymns) at small churches where James has preached but only those easy hymns that I have practiced ahead of time.  Anyway, I played keys a couple of times for Celebrate Recovery last Fall and then played the very last Sunday morning in December which was a shock to everyone, including me.  Since then, our new Worship Pastor has challenged and stretched me both on playing keys and vocally.  I have learned so much from him not only musically but he has taught me spiritually as well how to lead worship, how to prepare for worship, and more.  Last month, (July) our Worship Pastor, Mark, took some of the worship team to the National Worship Leaders Conference.  What an awesome experience, I was blessed beyond measure, learned so much and have already put into practice some of the things I learned there.  God is so good to me, He is showing me how to use my gifts and talents for Him in ways I never knew I would be able to...He is simply amazing.