What Is Worship

Worship is the churches opportunity to proclaim to the Lord how we love Him and praise Him for who He is and what He has done as well as what He is going to do.  A great example of this in scripture is Revelation 4:8-11. 


The four living creatures, each having six wings,

Were full of eyes around and within.

And they do not rest day or night, saying: 

 

Holy, holy, holy, 

Lord God Almighty, 

Who was and is and is to come!


Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,

The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever,

And cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 


You are worthy, O Lord, 

To receive glory and honor and power; 

For You created all things, 

And by Your will they exist and were created.


Heaven demonstrates to us what worship is supposed to look like.  It’s is our goal here at Jackson First Baptist to follow this example of worship.  A guest in our services will quickly recognize that worship is not just about the music, but that every portion of our services are worship from the fellowship to the opportunity for every worshiper to respond to God’s invitation to be led. 

As leaders, knowing that the Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts of the church, much of what we do is to limit distractions.   


How do we as a church do that?

We Prepare Spiritually

Those who lead worship are expected to spend time in preparation for worship each Sunday.  Spiritually the whole team, from the instrumentalist to the vocalist are all expected to have a clean heart.  This means that they have prayerfully dealt with their personal spiritual issues of life so that they can recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit.

We Prepare Technically

Much goes on behind the scenes that those who attend worship never see.  On the music side, sound must be mixed and adjusted based on vocalists and instrumentalists for every individual worship service.  The mix of sound is always different based on the number of worshipers, different vocalists, different musicians, types of instruments, and many other factors.  Those who lead in this area need to have an ear for vocal harmonies, how various instruments sound, as well the ability to hear when an instrument or vocalist is too loud or soft.  These volunteers are expected to not only attend various worship services, but are also expected to attend rehearsals to get a pre-mix for worship. 


There are many worshipers throughout the world who attend our services by way of online streaming, radio, and television broadcasts.  Those who lead in the Broadcast Ministry need to be attentive to both visual and audio details.  Being able to manage camera angles, lighting, graphics and the broadcast sound is very important.  Producers need to arrive 30 minutes before the start of worship services in order to review the days worship plan and prepare the equipment for recording and broadcasting. 

We Practice

GOD expects our best, and we can’t offer our best without practice.   Those who lead in this ministry have the ability to see in advance the sheet music and hear acoustically how a particular song should be accompanied in order to both play and develop the harmonies.  Our leaders are expected to both attend rehearsals as well as prepare prior to those rehearsals.  Rehearsals take place on Wednesday evenings then warmup early on Sunday mornings.  Opportunities to lead include instrumental accompaniment, praise team vocalist, and choir vocalist.   


All worship and music is performed live at Jackson First Baptist, so there are many opportunities for instrumentalist to play various styles of music. 


Join The Worship and Media Team