The Blame Game

Praise and Worship this Sunday was ok. With no major snafus, we had average participation with a few people who really appeared to be getting into it.

At the very least, we prayed as a team before service began. This was actually one of the suggestions from my members who did not make it in time for P&W. I'm sure you're wondering why we hadn't been doing it already. I'll blame that on Sunday School.

If SS lets out on time, we'd have 15 minutes between then and Sunday Morning Worship. That's not a lot of time to use the restroom, have a snack, pray, and get back into the sanctuary - even for a church as small as ours. One of my members also helps set-up and breakdown the refreshments. I'm sure you're wondering why someone who is on the Praise Team is also on refreshments. I'll blame that on our church being small.

If we had more members I'd ask that Praise Team members would not be on breakdown of the morning refreshments. But since we don't have more members, I can't exactly do that. I'm sure you're wondering why we don't have more members. I'll blame that on... well, all of us, since sheep beget sheep.

Let me clarify and say that we have people who attend, but most of them are babes in Christ. I'm happy for the lay members and regulars that we have. I remember the days when it was just my immediate family...

This Sunday, we announced that we would start having P&W rehearsal after service beginning in June. So, next month, I should have plenty of updates. Let's just hope that when we do have rehearsal, we all stay focused, pick up the songs well, and that nobody runs out the door when they see their grandchild came to visit, like my mother-in-law did when she was practicing with her praise team. Sorry Tanya, you were out of order! I guess we can blame that on Zoe.

The set-up

It's very rare that I meander around on the internet - mostly because I lose interest before I can get to anything good. However, today I found out that there's a whole convention especially for Worship Leaders. My mind was blown. What's more is that this convention takes place in 3 different cities across the U.S.

Now perhaps you think I should've assumed that there was something like this out there, but honestly, it never even crossed my mind. A little more searching and I found there's even a Worship magazine. Who knew?! Apparently not me.

Based on my experience, I know little about leading a Praise&Worship (P&W) team. I was thrown into the position by my pastor (who's also my mom) when the previous leaders (first my aunt and then my sister) went away for various reasons (marriage and school, respectively.) Since I was recently back home from school myself I was forced into landed the job. Thanks, mom! (In my sarcastic voice.) I've been doing it a few years now.

Our church is small and urban. Most of the people who attend aren't "church" people like most church-goer are. They weren't always in church all of their lives. They're people transitioning from street life to Christianity, so it's very different. As an all-my-life church goer myself, trust me when I say the vibe at my church is not traditional. That said, most of the audience grew familiar with the songs we sing for P&W from hearing our praise team sing them - not because they'd heard them before. In general, audience participation ranges from people giving us the side-eye to people singing in a drunken (and I do mean literally drunk from alcohol consumption) stupor. Which led me to start this blog.

You can expect updates on how Sunday's Praise and Worship portion of the service goes, updates on our rehearsals and how new songs go over, my Praise Team's dynamics, and what I've learned in general. I'm going to guess that 90% of this will be very funny. Hopefully it'll show that we're all in this together. (And by "we" I'm speaking in the future sense of the word because no one is following this blog right now.)

Welcome!