worshipwednesday | growingworship

God is Bigger

Posted on January 20, 2016 by mattodegaard

I have this tendency to make God small.

But God is not small. God is Bigger.

God is bigger than I can imagine.

When I started playing guitar I didn’t know anything. I began the journey like most, learning the basic chords: G, D, Em, C. Then came that one chord: Bm. I really did not like Bm. It made me stretch, it made me grow. It hurt.

But, I pushed through and got better. I think I got pretty good actually.

Then I watched a man play guitar like I had never seen before. And I wanted to quit. I realized I had not even scratched the surface of guitar playing! Fortunately, I did not quit and I have grown and grown since then. I came to realize that I would never hit the end of the guitar. I could learn and learn all my life and there would still be things I could learn.

I came to realize my relationship with God was similar. I grew up in church so as a kid I thought I had God figured out. But then I had a mentor who showed me that God was SO much bigger than I could imagine! Like guitar, (but so much more) I came to realize that I would never reach the end of God. No matter how much I learn about Him, or how much I come to know Him, there will always be more depth.

God is Bigger.

Spend time this week searching after God. Even if you think you have Him all figured out, you may come to realize, as I did, that God is Bigger.

Keep GrowingWorship.

Advent Week 4

Posted on December 23, 2015 by mattodegaard

advent-candles

Here’s the reading for week 4:

This week we see Mary being informed of her importance and the role Jesus will play in the salvation of the world!

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Luke 1:30-34

Advent – Week 3

Posted on December 16, 2015 by mattodegaard

advent-candles

This is the third week of Advent where we celebrate the Arrival of Jesus into this broken world to restore the Peace of God.

Here is the reading for this week:

Isaiah 40:9

You who bring good news to Zion,

go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem,

lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

Jesus came into a broken world not that different from our own.

We still need Jesus as much today as the world did then.

We join with the ages on Christmas saying ‘Here is your God!’ His name is Jesus!

Sola Scriptura

Posted on November 11, 2015 by mattodegaard

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3

Scripture is the cornerstone of our faith in God. Through Scripture we learn of God’s love, grace and mercy. We learn about his plan through Jesus to bring us back to life and transform us into the image of Christ we were made to be. As worship leaders our songs need to reflect the truth Scripture brings. Our hearts and our words need to flow heavy with His words.

This week, spend time on your own in the Word of God. And if you haven’t already, check your lyrics to make sure the songs you lead are full of Truth from the Scriptures. A great exercise to do is take a song and write down the Scriptures it references. Once you do this it also gives you a great verbal intro into the song next time you lead it!

Keep Growing Worship!

Worship is not about you.

Posted on October 28, 2015 by mattodegaard

The temptation for all of us is to roll into a Sunday and sit back, relax and enjoy the ‘show.’

Of course once we say this out loud we realize that it is ridiculous, but it seems, we still act like that each and every week. I want worship to be about me. I want the world to revolve around me. I want to be the king of the world. For the sake of the world, and thank goodness, this is not the case.

Worship is not about me. The world does not revolve around me, and sadly, I am not the king of the world. Far from it. Worship is and should be about the creator, the King, the author and giver of life; the maker of heaven and earth; GOD.

The Psalm writer in 115 reminds us:

Not to us, LORD, but to Your Name be the glory.

John the brother of Jesus tells us that [God] must become greater and I must become less. (3:30)

Worship is not about you or me. Worship is about God. God must be the focus of our worship. We have to fight the constant temptation to be more comfortable and lazy. As much as we may want to, we must not complain about style or volume or repetition.

This weekend, spend time focusing on the scriptures and the words and the attributes of God and not about your life or your work or your lunch plans and see what God does in your heart. Worship is not about us changing God, it is about God changing us!

Keep Growing Worship!

Amazing Grace

Posted on October 21, 2015 by mattodegaard

You may be here thinking that God is great and holy but I don’t deserve his love or mercy. That is true. And that is why he send his son Jesus.

Paul says it really well in his letter to a similar church in Ephesus:

2 As for you, you were dead in your sins, ²which you used to live in when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the [evil] spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

³We also lived among them at one time, following sinful desires and thoughts. We are by nature deserving of wrath.

⁴But because of his great love for us, God, in his mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ – even when we were dead in sin –

It is by grace you have been saved.

⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms ⁷so that he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, and his kindness [through] Christ Jesus.

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus … to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

It is through God’s amazing grace that we have life and we practice our worship now so we may learn to praise God forevermore!

Keep Growing Worship!

True Worshippers

Posted on September 30, 2015 by mattodegaard

The small living room is glowing with the scent of candles. The handful of people are not focused on one another, some look at the floor, some at the ceiling, some have their eyes tightly closed. One person quietly strums a guitar while most others sing along. The air is heavy with heart felt praise. This small gathering is an intimate moment in worship.

The huge arena shakes with the power of the sound system. Tens of thousands of people stand and raise their arms toward heaven. It is so loud you cannot hear your own voice. The air is hazy from the light show and fog machine but it adds to the ethereal experience of so many believers in one place, with one voice praising God!

I have worshipped in a living room, I have worshipped in an arena and everywhere in-between. Ultimately it doesn’t matter where you worship. It matters who you worship. And it matters when you worship. Worship is not a once a week thing. It is not only an hour on Sunday. Worship is a lifestyle. It is a habit. It is a spiritual discipline we must practice constantly. Real, true worshippers do not just experience great music or emotional events, they experience the Presence of God!

This week, spend time in the days before your worship services pursuing the Presence of God. It doesn’t matter if your service is 5 or 5,000. All worship matters to God.

Here are some verses to consider about the Presence of God:

‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ – Exodus 33:14

‘You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.’ – Jeremiah 29:13

‘The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save, He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you by his love, He will rejoice over you with loud singing.’ – Zephaniah 3:17

Praise the Lord!

Posted on September 9, 2015 by mattodegaard

1 It is good to praise the Lord
and make music to your name, O Most High,
2 proclaiming your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
4 For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;
I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

-Psalm 92

Transformation

Posted on September 2, 2015 by mattodegaard

Life is a journey. When Christ enters a life, that life is forever changed.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

As a believer in Christ you are being transformed into HIS IMAGE! If this is actually true, as the Scripture says, than we should act accordingly. God is working on your life. He is working in your heart and wants you to leave the old ways of your sin filled life behind and be transformed into the person you were really made to be!

As a worship leader, your heart is the most important thing you have. Your gifts and talents and abilities are great. They will be used for God’s glory to shine, but God wants to take the potential he has given you and transform you into the image of his son, Jesus. Jesus is the perfect human. He overcame all the temptation, he knew the will of his Father. He was the living example of perfect Love and perfect Truth.

Spend some time today seeking the Spirit of God and asking how you can be more like Jesus! Then prepare to lead others in Worship with the transformed life you have been given in Christ!!!

A Guide to Worship Leading – Part 3

Posted on August 26, 2015 by mattodegaard

This is the final in a three part series about the basics of Worship Leading and how I mentor Worship Leaders.

You can check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you are interested!

As I’ve discussed, I break down three parts of Worship Leading; the Leading itself, Playing – vocally or instrumentally, and finally Directing; this is the role of Band Director. Again, I break these up into three parts because most people don’t come pre-wired with all three. I have met people who are great singers who need help leading. I have met people who have the heart of a worshipper, but need help learning an instrument. And most often I meet people who have a little of those two skills, but don’t know how to speak ‘Band.’ Some of you know what I mean. That time during rehearsal where you want the drummer to kick on 1 and 3 and snare on 2 and 4. Or maybe you want 4 on the floor. Then the bass player needs to do a chord substitution for the C# instead of the A. Some of that is music theory, some of it is experience with different instruments. All of it is Band Directing. I spend a lot of time coaching Worship Leaders on this. The best approach I’ve found is to co-lead with a Worship Leader and have them watch what I do. I’ll even call out to them what I’m doing, while I’m doing it. Then we’ll follow up and have a specific conversation afterwards. This is a very important skill in Worship Leading that unfortunately is not really taught in schools that I’ve seen. You don’t generally get it in a music education. You certainly don’t get it in a Biblical education. If you were in a garage band in high school, maybe you saw it happening or learned it by accident. Most however, need examples to show them what to do, what to say and when. It is just like learning another language. It is one half the language of music theory and the other half the language of sounds. Sometimes calling out chord changes or rhythm accents. Sometimes just saying ‘boom, boom, boom.’

So, if you are a less experienced Worship Leader, seek out a seasoned veteran Band Director. Chances are you already know one! There is a scary element here of asking for help, but don’t avoid the learning process. One thing I learned a long time ago is that I am usually not the best musician in the group, I am just the leader. My job is not to run musical circles around the team. My job is to pull the team together. My job is to take the weekend guitar shredder and the classical pianist and the classic rock drummer with the basement bass player and create cohesive Worship music. This takes the three skills of Leading, Playing and Directing, all at the same time with excellence to the Glory of our God and King, Jesus!

If you are a seasoned Worship Leader, maybe you could look around for someone less experienced and see if you can teach them what you’ve learned over the years. They will be grateful and the Kingdom of God will grow in ways you probably can’t even imagine!

Make a Joyful Noise!