{"id":2843,"date":"2013-10-19T17:24:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T22:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/?p=2843"},"modified":"2013-10-19T17:24:38","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T22:24:38","slug":"faithful-or-fraudulent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/2013\/10\/faithful-or-fraudulent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fine Line Between Faithful and Fraudulent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Today\u2019s post is written by Matt Nightingale, Pastor of Worship at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.redwoodcovenant.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Redwood Covenant Church<\/a>\u00a0in Santa Rosa, CA.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2013\/10\/worship.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[2843]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2844\" alt=\"worship\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2013\/10\/worship-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2013\/10\/worship-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2013\/10\/worship.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Several weeks ago, I was leading worship at RCC. I was playing piano with the band and singing a duet with a woman from my worship team. The song is intense&#8230; It&#8217;s called &#8220;Wake Up,&#8221; by All Sons and Daughters, and it builds from nearly a whisper to a huge chorus&#8230; &#8220;Wake up, wake up, wake up, all you sleepers&#8230; Stand up, oh stand up, stand up, all you dreamers&#8230; Hands up, hands up, oh hands up, all believers&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was concentrating on the piano part and singing well. I love the song, and I wanted to do it justice. I wanted it to sound\u00a0<em>awesome<\/em>. But if I&#8217;m honest, I wasn&#8217;t really worshipping God. Not consciously, at least. Sure, I was worshipping with my life&#8230; doing my job&#8230; leading the people God has called me to lead&#8230; But I wasn&#8217;t even really conscious of God&#8217;s presence with me and my connection to Him.<\/p>\n<p>Until someone stood up. Up till that moment, everyone had been sitting down in the dark while we sang to them. But then, on the bridge (&#8220;Here we stand, our hearts are Yours. Not our will, but Yours be done.&#8221;), someone stood up. And then another. And then another. And then everyone was on their feet, and hands and voices were raised, and it was a beautiful moment. And I realized in that moment that I had been going through the motions. That I was doing my job, sure, but not consciously connecting with the God who called me to this job. And I was grateful, again, that &#8220;the\u00a0wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going&#8221; (John 3:8). The Spirit will move, with or without my help.\u00a0I was humbled and I was moved. And I felt God&#8217;s presence. And it was good.<\/p>\n<p>But looking back on that moment, I wonder if I was doing anything wrong. Sometimes I think the line between\u00a0<em>faithfulness<\/em> (doing my job, leading the congregation, playing and singing well &#8211; even when I don&#8217;t &#8220;feel it&#8221;) and\u00a0<em>fraudulent<\/em> (relying on my talents and experience rather than the Holy Spirit&#8217;s present guidance and power) is awfully fine. When have I crossed that line? There are days when I\u00a0<em>don&#8217;t<\/em> feel what I hope the people of RCC are feeling, but I still show up and lead, hopefully well. Am I simply being faithful despite my feelings or am I being fraudulent?<\/p>\n<p><strong>I know you&#8217;ve experienced these feelings too, worship leaders. What are your thoughts? How do you guard against fraudulence? How do you remain faithful when you\u00a0<em>don&#8217;t\u00a0<\/em>&#8220;feel it&#8221;?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=2843&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s post is written by Matt Nightingale, Pastor of Worship at\u00a0Redwood Covenant Church\u00a0in Santa Rosa, CA. Several weeks ago, I was leading worship at RCC. I was playing piano with the band and singing a duet with a woman from my worship team. The song is intense&#8230; It&#8217;s called &#8220;Wake Up,&#8221; by All Sons and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-vocation-and-call"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Fine Line Between Faithful and Fraudulent - Worship Connect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/2013\/10\/faithful-or-fraudulent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Fine Line Between Faithful and Fraudulent - Worship Connect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today\u2019s post is written by Matt Nightingale, Pastor of Worship at\u00a0Redwood Covenant Church\u00a0in Santa Rosa, CA. 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