My Worship Journey

I thought it might be fun to share with all of you my own testimony and journey as a worshiper and worship leader thus far. 

I accepted Jesus as my Savior at a very early age- I remember sitting in my bedroom in the window probably at about age 8, looking outside and just saying to God that I loved Him and wanted Him to be my life. I was baptized as a teenager. I had always been very involved in the church, particularly musically. You might say the first time I led worship was at about age 3 at TICO, a detention facility in Columbus for young male offenders. I sang "Jesus Loves Me" without any hesitation. I can still remember hearing one of the inmates shout "Sing it, Mama!" I've always had a love for music and a drive to share it with others. 

As I grew up in the church hearing about worship, and as I traveled around with my parents who always had Christian rock bands of their own, I assumed  worship meant "when we sing to God". The idea of worship as a lifestyle was introduced to me in my early college years, when as  freshman, my brother bought a Passion CD for our family for Christmas. I started listening to these songs and they were talking about this unhindered devotion to God- these were deep lyrics that broke into my heart. As I explored the Passion movement more and got into the teachings of the movement, I realized that music was certainly a powerful tool that I could use to express to God what I might not otherwise say, but I also knew that God wanted more than my music- He wanted my life.  That was when I knew I wanted to lead people to God through music. 

Over the next couple years, my then-boyfriend Jarrod ( now husband of 10 years) and I explored music in the church more and more and worked in all kinds of ways to sing a new song to God- introducing new sounds and new songs. We learned to play guitar and keyboard starting in 2002. We had been to a Worship Together conference one day and there was this guy there named David Crowder. Very few people had heard of him at that point. He had just released his CD "Can You Hear Us" and we were giant fans. We talked to him after he played an acoustic set for about 25 people at this conference (and to think that the guy packs out enormous venues every single night now!)  and I remember it so well- Jarrod told him he was thinking about learning guitar and David told him to go buy one and go for it. So that's what he did. David also talked to me about women worship leaders and how women are scarcely represented in worship by strong woman singer/songwriters and encouraged me to step out and let God use me. That conversation was the catalyst that we needed to get started.  We felt strongly called and said to God- if you want us to do this, help us learn and grow.

In the evenings during the first few years we were married, Jarrod and I would learn worship songs together. We would sing and play together for hours. And in those hours and in those early years, God really shaped us into a strong team. Something powerful happens when a married couple worships together. We were full of dreams. We invented worship services within our church, we created our own ministry for young adults that was focused on worship. We saw a lot of lives change and saw our faith grow. Over time we began to see that the music, though important, was just a vehicle to take us before God's throne. We certainly had our ups and downs in our ministry and learned from many mistakes! But God has always guided us and has never let us down. 

In 2005, we had an awesome ministry going on in Logan, but had to stop when we lost our downtown location due to the owners of the building transforming our meeting space into a bar. We were so uncertain of what to do next. We were without a solid church home, we felt a little lost. My brother and his wife began going to a service at LCC called Everyday and invited us to come. We brought along with us our little disbanded leadership team from our ministry that had ceased to exist. I can remember the first night we were there- it felt like home. This was a group of people who were successfully doing what we had been trying to do. And they were so kind and so welcoming. I felt a choking sob welling up in my throat during the worship that night. Most impressive to me was the next time we attended, we met beforehand with the leaders of Everyday, including Matt Johnson and Joe Barber, who had heard of our situation and asked us, "what can we do to resource you guys?"The answer soon presented itself when in a turn of events, Everyday found itself in need of a worship band. Without a moment's hesitation, we asked Matt if he wanted us to play and he gave us the go ahead. We joke now- he had no idea what we played like- we could have been terrible! Thankfully, our skill level and calling matched where Everyday was headed and we fit right in. We've been investing our time and talents at LCC ever since and have grown more in the past 5 years than ever before- I can honestly say we've grown more in the past few months than ever before! God is stirring us as leaders and showing us His powerful plans and we are delighted to be walking in them. 

It was after we started attending at LCC that God really started showing us that music was a way to worship, but not the only way. We now know that we can express worship to God through song, but more importantly than that, He wants our hearts aligned with His and our lives to be lived for His glory. There is truly a battle for our worship. We all worship something and that "something" might change half a dozen times in the course of our lives, but hopefully, we can all see that God is the only one worthy of our worship and our lives. Everything else competing for our affection is just a distraction. As worship leaders, Jarrod and I delight in singing songs to God and leading others in doing the same, but we're really purposed lately to teach people at LCC that what happens on Sunday is just an extension of a life that's been lived for God the rest of the week- it's like the culminating, weekly celebration of the worship we've been lavishing on our Savior all week long. And we take great joy in that celebration and seeing people more and more free to worship, but we count it our greatest joy to watch people living out the words of the songs throughout the week and not just putting on a show on Sunday. Worship as a whole-life response to the revelation of what God has done is what we're after. God doesn't want our songs- He wants our lives. We've made that our life's work to point people in that direction. The future is bright and the glory of the One we're living for shines even brighter!

I'd love to hear from you- how have you grown in worship? What has your journey been like so far?