This week’s Worship Leader Devotional is about learning how to sail.
When I was a kid, I attended a summer camp in western New York State on Lake Chatauqua. The camp offered a variety of elective classes that you could sign up for where you had the opportunity to learn various skills and sports as well as different arts and crafts. I’m not very fond of being in water, but I do love being by it and on it. I love the beach and I love boating, so one summer, I signed up to learn how to sail.
It’s been a lifetime ago, but I do remember some basic ideas behind sailing. One is that it requires both the wind and a sail. The other is that you need to know how to make the sail and the wind work together in a way that moves the boat forward.
Roger MacGregor, founder of the MacGregor Yacht Corporation in Costa Mesa, CA, wrote an online article called, “How to Sail” in which he clearly states up front that, “The most important thing you must know (about sailing) is the direction from which the wind is blowing.” He says that you must be able to point to where it’s coming from immediately because, “If you don’t know wind direction,” he continues, “you will look sort of stupid when trying to use the wind as your engine.”
I believe that we as worship leaders need to learn this very basic lesson about sailing when it comes to leading worship. We need to be able to sense where the wind of the Holy Spirit is coming from and what direction He is moving so that we can stay in step with Him and adjust our sails to catch His leading.
Most of the times I lead worship are very unscripted, unrehearsed, unstructured where the Holy Spirit has a lot of room to move. Consequently I have a lot of room to listen to what He wants to do and adjust as needed. I realize that not all expressions of worship have that much flexibility built into them, but I do believe there should always be an element of flexibility when we approach leading worship. We need to learn how to sail.
We need to cultivate a sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit in everything we do, and even more so when we have the responsibility of leading others into His presence. We should be intentional about listening to Him as we choose songs, as we put them into a set list, as we lead the set. We should allow Him to be the worship leader and follow His lead in every aspect of the entire process.
Here’s a thought: Have you ever approached the building of your weekend set list by asking the question, “God, what do YOU want to hear from us this weekend?” He may have an agenda for the morning that is far different from ours.
Have you ever been leading a set and felt a nudge to camp out on a certain phrase for a while longer than usual, or to add a simple chorus that wasn’t in the set when you started, or maybe even cut out a song altogether? The Wind can shift, and it can shift unexpectedly. Are you prepared to adjust? Are you willing?
It’s just something to consider. As much as we plan, prepare and rehearse, the Holy Spirit can be unpredictable. Cultivating an ear for His voice and being able to adjust in order to move us in the direction He is leading – yep, that sounds like sailing to me.
