I recently received an email out of the blue from someone who had heard my wife and I sing many years ago as the duo Cephas. He said that at the concert we impressed him and his friends and he is now a musician in his church worship band. 

At Bible College we met a couple who had made the decision to be Elim missionaries after hearing us. We felt very responsible after hearing that!

This sort of feedback is very rare for us, but what a privilege to know that we are able to touch the lives of other people in quite profound ways! We all do this to one degree or another. Worship times together are precious moments when this is possible and often we are unaware that it is happening.

Worship is first and foremost our response to the grace and favour we have received from God. We give our thanks, insignificant as we may think it is, to Him. Our thanks can be expressed in many ways: through our words, our lives and the song of our hearts as we try and express our love for him. But in so doing we also touch the lives of others in our church family.

I have led worship in different churches for over six decades now. From the early days of the advent of choruses mixed with traditional hymns, strummed gently on a guitar, to new songs with the guitar played much louder and with other instruments, even drums!

There has been an amazing evolution in the format and presentation of church music and worship over time, hand in hand with technology. This is well documented in the book, “Next Wave” by Bob Sorge. I am old enough to recognise most of the stages he mentions.

As with all groups of God’s people, the desire of our hearts is to worship God together (1 Cor 14:26). We have worship leaders, but everyone who is part of our family of saints will have space to contribute in some way; in praise, prayer, reading scripture, prophesying etc. We believe corporate worship has a special place in God’s heart and has the power to strengthen, encourage, and comfort (1 Cor 14:3). It brings joy to the downhearted and peace to those in turmoil. I also pray for the time when an outsider will arrive and be saved as they fall on their knees, in recognition that God is in the house! (1 Cor 14:25).

There is something beautiful in intimacy with God in our times together. We try and remain open to God’s leading so that the Holy Spirit is able to lovingly nudge us musicians to one side and take the lead.