What is an atmosphere of  worship? Is it a sweet keyboard pad? Is it dim lighting with candles, coffee, and couches? Is it the third key change of ‘Shout to the Lord’?

Last night at our worship team Refresh Night, I shared a little tidbit out of the book of Acts, relating to a particular ‘atmosphere’ of worship. Check this out:

“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:1-3).

I notice three things about this ‘atmosphere’ that was cultivated through their worship:

1. The Holy Spirit spoke
2. The will of God was revealed
3. People were commissioned

What if this happened more often when we gathered to worship God? As we single-mindedly set our hearts upon glorifying Christ, He speaks to us, reveals His will, and sends us out with His boldness.

Beautiful, pastoral, and wise advice from Brian Doerksen. I particularly loved his advice to songwriters. We need to see ourselves as theologians, writing prophetically about what God is doing and going to do.

As a church, our monthly focus for March is “40 Days of Consistency”. We are focusing on maintaining a consistent, daily devotional life. The goal is that this 40 day focus will continue into healthy life patterns of spiritual discipline.

Tonight at our annual Worship Team “Refresh” Night, I’m excited to launch a similar focus for all our worship team members. For those of you involved in worship ministry, you understand the rigors of weekly programming, band rehearsal, song selection, late nights, early mornings, etc. Matters of the heart take a back seat role to the seemingly more urgent responsibilities.

Over these next 40 days, we want to focus on the inner life of the worshiper. We want to increase our unified, focused, spiritual vision. How are we personally growing as worshipers of Jesus Christ? How are we preparing for weekend ministry? Here’s what the next 40 days will look like:

• Weekly Scripture passage focus
• Weekly “why we sing” a certain song
• Weekly personal prayer preparation for ministry
• Focusing on inwardly/outwardly engaging in the weekend worship

Looking forward to what God is going to do in and through us this month!