I'm Impressed

The Junior High music team led worship very well tonight. I must say that I am impressed. We played the song "Days of Elijah." If you've heard this song, you know that it is an up-beat rockin' song.

I had two goals for this song:
1. keep everyone generally together
2. just keep smiling

Accomplishments:
1. Everyone sounded really good!
2. The group was not only generally together, but they were really together.
3. "S" began the introduction at a good tempo, and his guitar chords sounded nice.
4. I could actually hear "J" on the drums while we were playing. (During sound check, he was a bit tentative, which is not good for a rock song.)
5. "B" sang great vocal harmony without any help from me, and she smiled. :)
6. "A" engaged in the song and had some fun with it, too.
7. "J" and "M" played the congas well, without over filling the beat.
8. The other junior high students were singing and doing motions.
9. Everyone stopped playing when I gave them the cut-off signal.
10. "D," the other music leader, who couldn't be at practice tonight, said that the song sounded awesome.

YAY!

In some other notes, we had some extra participation from the students as well. "S" who lived with us for a while, spoke up first when I asked for a praise. That warmed my heart!

Also, I try to challenge the kids in the band with some Bible verses. I've been learning more about how God is the vine and we are the branches. I shared with the students how God wants to prune dead branches and the shoots that have too much exuberance in one area. For example, on a plant, if one shoot sticks way out above the rest, that shoot will take up most of the plants productivity, leaving other areas of the plant unfed. God wants our life in balance, not dead or way out of balance. I try to give concrete examples of such areas. While mulling things over ahead of time, I thought of several things that could become out of balance. However, the Lord gave me a great example while I was talking: computer time. I shared that often, I spend to much time on the computer. They all nodded in understanding with grins on their faces.

...well...

With that conviction, I shall end this blog and go do something else! I did have a great time with them today!