Worship leader example

OH man. I had a meeting last night with our worship team and the pastor. Our pastor is an amazing man, but I won't go on about that right now, I want to write about an 'aha moment' which came from somebody else at the meeting. It was priceless, and I didn't even 'get it' until about three am this morning as I lay awake in bed thinking about what I was going to blog today.

First, you need to know that my wife makes the best brownies in the whole world. Yes, I'm sure some of you think that you have had things which were purported to be good, awesome, or even life-changing. Nothing. Forget 'em. Throw them right out the nearest window, even if it happens to be closed at the moment. There is no secret that my wife uses a mix, but with the amazing chocolate chips and huge secret ingredient she adds, they will rock your world. I have eaten whole batches by myself in a single day - OK, that was in my tubby past, but they are still THAT good. OK, enough background. On to the meeting last night:

We were gathering to go set up a table and chairs for everyone in the pastor's office. I had the brownies on a paper plate in my hand, so I knew that they were still warm from the oven. But they were zipped into a plastic bag, and none of the awesomeness was escaping and tempting the nose of anyone. OH - one more important detail: Hope had used a new baking tool she just got the other day, a set of baking pans which create little mini cupcake shaped brownies. So these things looked more like shriveled, embarrassed cupcakes without frosting than they looked like the little pieces of heaven that they actually were.

I offered them around by just showing them to people, and one by one they all turned their noses up. Yes! These wonderful people were insulting my wife's Godly gift one by one! I was amazed, because I knew the deep, heart-throbbing love that was baked into each one, and I knew the way in which the triple chocolate and fudge could wrap itself around your central nervous system and cause that predictable look of ecstasy which I had seen on face after face in years gone by.

Wow - this was amazing. I was holding in my hand an opportunity few mortals ever get to experience - a world-class chocolate experience unparalleled in human history, and they were refusing, and not even doing it politely!

Finally I opened the bag, and tossed it unceremoniously into the center of the table as the meeting got under way. I was deeply disappointed, but I knew that with that bag open, something good was going to happen, I just had to be patient. Finally, the wonderful smell of choco-goodness got out and found the first victim. Martin Johnson - fire Captain and worship leader was that victim. I'm sure he THOUGHT that he was in control of his hand as he reached out and took one of those brown lumps, but it was already beyond his control, I assure you. And as he transported it to his mouth, he mentioned that 'hey, these are still warm!'

Then it happened: he tossed it whole into his mouth. And the look - the reflex reaction which humans are simply powerless to stop - came across his face. The meeting came to a crashing halt as we all looked to see what this was about: Martin was moaning in a most personal way, with his hands raised and his eyes rolled back. He was either loving it or about to have a stroke, we couldn't tell for a second or two.

All eyes were upon him as he swallowed, and all manner of 'ooh' and 'ahh' escaped his chocolate-encrusted vocal instruments. "Oh WOW!" he said, and then he tried to start about four sentences at the same time - but finally just gave up and grabbed another heart-stopper from the bag - this time he bit off half (the recommended way to eat them) and began the ecstasy all over. This time he cut it short and held up the uneaten half for all to see, saying, "LOOK! It's still warmmm and there 're chocolate chimps and they are all meldy.." I'm trying to capture the chocolate-induced way in which the words came out around the brownie he was chewing as his eyes once again shot toward the heavens.

Well, the expected result finally was achieved: everyone leaned toward the center of the table, hands were extended, and a tussle almost ensued as all but four or five of the brownies were grabbed and gobbled. It was a perfect example of what a worship leader is supposed to do: experience God and then make it inviting so others will follow.

But 'worship leaders' are not the only ones who have this responsibility: each and every one of us does too.