Young musicians and leaders are often overly self-conscious and nervous. While confidence comes with experience, we don’t want to overcome self by becoming more assured in ourselves. So one of my goals for the interns is that they get to the place where they can comfortably and joyfully get up in front of people spontaneously and lead us in a song that helps us exalt Christ. To that end, recently when I met with some interns from Boyce College, we talked about 2 Corinthians 4:5:
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that he and his co-laborers weren’t in ministry to draw attention to themselves, but to Jesus. And it was a specific Jesus they were drawing attention to—the Jesus who is Lord. The result was that rather than promoting themselves they humbled themselves and became servants to the Corinthians. They did all this “for Jesus’ sake” because they wanted the Corinthians to join them in treasuring and following Christ.
This verse helps clarify the choice we have to make when leading people in song on Sunday mornings. Are we going to proclaim ourselves or Jesus? Are we going to seek to impress or to serve?
Leading to Impress
Seeking to impress, or promoting ourselves, is revealed in a variety of ways. I’ve experienced all of them.
Sometimes we’re afraid we aren’t going to impress people.
Our rehearsals and preparation are tense and demanding.
We struggle with clammy hands and sweat-producing anxiety.
We obsess over whether or not people will like our leading, playing or singing.
We battle discouragement when we do poorly.
We fight condemnation when no one notices our contribution or when we receive negative feedback, however slight.
We’re offended when a leader doesn’t give us sufficient time to prepare so that we can look our best.
We’re trying to promote ourselves and are afraid we’re not doing a very good job.
Other times, we’re confident we do impress people.
We frequently reference our contribution.
Our monitor mix gives little to no indication that we’re leading with other musicians.
We’re shocked when someone else gets scheduled more than we do.
We view the church as a platform for our ministry.
We don’t have time for pastors that want to get to know us before they let us lead.
We don’t understand why everyone else isn’t as enamored as we are with our voice, playing, leading or songwriting.
We’re promoting ourselves and want everyone else to join in.
