Beginnings

Starting out leading was so strange because I had been on a small college worship team before but had never really led myself, aside from a few nights of worship with a great friend of mine (Ian Boyd).
              
I do remember the first time I had ever led a worship setting was in an old youth group, I had been playing guitar for maybe 4 to 5 months and thought it was time

My gracious leader let me...

  Just between me and you it was like mana from heaven, literally there wasn't a dry eye in the room that night. My playing was unparalleled and people were just swept up in my incredible rhythm, dancing for the Lord...

Ok those are all lies, it was a catastrophe.

I couldn't play at all and I had no rhythm. My friend Stevo sang so incredibly loud to help me keep the rhythm of the song but all it did was mess me up even more. Im pretty sure the spirit was quenched that night...
 By consistently I mean just playing with people a few times a week, not just playing guitar myself so I have to worry about rhythm so other people can follow me well.

By the time I started playing for and with Ecclesia I had been playing guitar for about 7 years and let me tell you I do not claim at all to be a good guitarist but I can play and I am constantly learning and improving. I had to quickly learn how to play consistently with other people, which honestly I am still working on but I have greatly improved since this year has passed.

One of the sweetest moments with the Ecclesia worship team so far was when I went to a worship practice and not knowing yet the whole set for Sunday.

  So i'm sitting in my car and I hear God tell me to just spend that night writing a song with my friends Vince and Raimee (sorry if I spelled your name wrong). We wrote it pretty quickly actually, much to my surprise and it was because I wasn't very intent on it being MY song, I wanted all of us to contribute and so I needed everyone to give their part. In that I still had to direct the flow of the song and lead it into certain places of mood and tone and time since I had to be at work at 5 am and it was 9 o clock at night and I still needed some sleep.

Being able to play guitar and play with others off the fly is soooo important. Shane Bernard recently taught me the nashville number system which is a system of numbering chords in a certain key so that it is easier to communicate what you are about to play so I will be incorporating that into my worship practice settings soon.

Its my heart right now to put some dreams of mine on hold right now to pursue growing this church and remaining leading in worship for a long while. I often get complacent with leading because I work two other jobs to pay all my bills and I have little time to commit but what I keep reminding myself of is that I work those jobs so I can afford to do this one because this isn't really a job to me, its a lifestyle choice. After spending a few days with Shane Bernard and Bethany Dillon I have really reached a place where I am so excited to pour more time and effort into my own small abilities for myself as a leader and for the people that play with me that serve so faithfully. And also so I can lead well for a congregation that Loves Jesus and needs to know different ways to give their worship to the Lord.