Who, What, Why?

This is the result of a conversation I had with the members of the worship team at St. Giles. I pray that it encourages you to ask questions about where you are in regards to effecting your congregations through worship. Maybe you've got an entirely different vision and direction, I would love to hear about it. What conversations are trending with your staff and volunteers?

Who Are We: First and foremost we are believers in the global eternal church of Christ, finding our value and confidence in his love and opinion of us. More specifically we are The St. Giles Worship Leaders, We are St. Gilians, Worshipers, and Leaders.

As St. Gilians we have a heritage and tradition of being Reformed, Charismatic, Believers. To delve into that I would like to draw out for you a little table of synonyms where one idea leads to the next and builds a more complete picture of our identity. As you'll see in the table below being a St. Gilian is more complex than you  might think, each layer adds more complexity and provides for us a level of understanding and excitement in regards to our heritage, and excitement in regards to our future.

Reformed/ Charismatic/ Believers

Submitted/ Spirit filled/ Followers

Chosen/ Passionate / Students of Christ

As Worshipers we are grateful for the work that has been done on our behalf, we are over powered by the love expressed from the father through his son, and find ourselves Lost in an overwhelming love towards the one that acted on or behalf and for our good. Its from this heart that we respond with lies pored out, and songs of praise.

As Leaders we are models of appropriate and uninhibited worship, we have a responsibility to teach through the word and our deeds what worship is and what it is about. We also as leaders must Shepherd those in the flock towards a place where spirit and truth in worship is a life changing event, and through this guard the flock from distraction and false understanding.

What Do We Do:  Again you will see how a very simple statement caries with it much weight when closely observed. What do we do? Simply put we Worship God and Lead the Congregation in Worship.  Through a quick observation of these four concepts you will begin to see what goes into this simple idea.

Worship - Lift up, Exalt, Focus on Proclaim, and Get Low Before God

God - Our Creator, Savior, Substitute, Redeemer, Bride Groom, The Huge and Perfect One!

          *so much more can be said about this singular topic, and ultimately an understanding of God alone is what eternal salvation is about, let alone the work done by him on our behalf. All of what we do is connected to this one fact.

Lead - Model, teach, Shepherd, Guard (as stated above the role of leader is much more than being a visible face, or the manager of people, there is serious spiritual significance in the role. One that brings about a higher level of scrutiny in Heaven, and ultimately a great reward of service for the Kingdom.

Congregation - Children to God, Siblings to Self, Bride of Jesus. All of these images and relationships are very powerful, and looking through each lens lends a different color towards our interactions with the congregation. I want to focus our attention on one that I believe carries with it great reverence and importance. As we were discussing the importance of being a friend of the Bridegroom the concept of ushering the Bride of Jesus to the alter really struck me. It is of ultimate importance that we place Christ first in our eyes, and then through His eyes view the congregation with great affection, never allowing their comments or criticisms to injure us, she is imperfect but when she meets her Groom she will be forever changed.

WHY Do We Do It: We do all of this because it is eternally important that the Church recognize the Position, Work, Sacrifice, and Power of our God. - AND- That they respond with and in an appropriate manner. This is our why.