Why We Do This

The way you approach and view your position on a worship team is an issue of the utmost importance. In ministry, I always tell folks to know that they are called to a ministry before they plug into it. There is a huge difference in being "called" by God to serve on a team and playing or singing for any other reason. There are many other reasons that one can be on a worship team. It could be because you enjoy music. It could be because you enjoy worship. It could be because there is a need and you can play an instrument. There could be a host of other reasons as well, but I will not continue to list them. You get the picture. The reason I believe there is a huge difference in our motivation is because of simple human nature.
Human nature says that after you do something for a season, the "new" wears off of it. You settle into a routine with it. After being on a worship team for some time, methodical practicing at home will be routine and old hat. Being on time to group practices will become less of a priority. Even from a performance aspect, the adrenal hype will start to dissipate when you get used to playing and singing in front of a group of people. This is where it becomes important to know that your being a part is God mandated. If you are on a team to fill a need, the tendency is to begin to say within yourself, "I can't wait til someone rises up to relieve me from this." It becomes a burden and a weight. If your reason is that you love music, the practices, chord charts, meetings, corrections and everything that goes with the administration side of being on a team will get old and you will find that you enjoyed music much more when you did not have to deal with everything else that comes with it.
There is a core difference though when God has called you to do something. When He puts His stamp of purpose on it, it should drive you to overcome the complacency of human nature, because now it is no longer about a temporal like or dislike or need today and not need tomorrow. Now it is about what you were put on the earth for at this very moment. It is a part of your living breathing relationship with God and how you obey what He has commanded of you. Wow! That puts a completely new rung on the ladder.
Now, that motivates you to increase your gift during the week and not wait until group practice time at the church to "work on it". The Word of God says that your gift makes room for you right? Well, it stands to logic that the more gift equates to the more room it makes right? Well, increase your gift. It makes the difference between a person who can play for a service while having to jump in and out with your focus, (see last post "Caught In The Show"), and the person who can effortlessly play and have your instrument be a literal extension of your heart that is poured out like the oil in Mary's box of alabaster. I guarantee you that she did not have to divert her focus and attention on finding "where in the heck is that box". She did not divert her attention on worrying did it get on the floor or "I hope I do not pour too much on the left foot and not have enough on the right". Her gift was simply an extension of herself to the point that she even used her hair to dry them. That is truly putting yourself into the task at hand. That focus and ability to use that gift as an extension makes the difference that equates to you being able to quiet demonic forces by simply playing in worship on your instrument like David did.
To get to that point takes getting beyond the old hat human nature that overcomes a person who does something that they have not been called by God to do, but does it for temporal reasons that in a few months will no longer matter. It becomes an issue that is no longer about like, dislike, or even comfort. It becomes an issue of simply faithfulness and obedience to your creator.