Why I’m stepping back from leading the band

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My most public role at Crown Church is easily that I’ve led the band on Sunday mornings at least once a month for a good few years now. We have four bands, and I’m involved in leadership of two of them.

I approached James Hunting, the Lead Elder, and Dan Smith, who’s responsible for oversight for the entire worship team (including PA and lyrics projection), and got their support in my decision to step back, but I have been asked by a few people why I have – I thought it would be good to sum up here.

Clarification

By stepping back from leading that doesn’t mean I’m leaving the band, or leaving the Crown! I’ll still be just as involved, just not with the lead microphone. I’ve also been told that I may get drafted in, so you may not have seen the last of me yet!

Capacity

Anna and I lead a cell group, lead the student and twenties work, and are involved in organising local outreach events into West Drayton. I’d like to be freed up to do those things well.

Others

There was once a time when the Crown had two band leaders, Dan and me. That’s not the case any more; there are five leaders on the team so I want to make space for them to lead as much as they want to.

The Crown’s future

The Crown is growing, and it’s always better to plan than to suddenly realise that you’re not ready for something! I’m confident that one day the Crown will get to the size that it will need a bigger team of band leaders, so the more people with experience in that role the better. If me stopping for a bit enables others to get that experience, great!

My future

I don’t feel that leading the band is my primary gift. That’s not some sort of false humility, it’s just that I think I’m far more gifted in other areas like strategy and preaching. By stepping back from leading the band I hope I can grow in different gifts.

I won’t stop leading worship

You may notice that I haven’t used the word ‘worship’ at all so far, which is odd because most band leaders title themselves ‘worship leaders’. I don’t think that’s wrong, because band leaders do lead God’s people in worship, but I do think it’s misleading.

Worship doesn’t mean singing, it’s about a lifestyle lived to the glory of God. To my mind, every single Christian is a worship leader in that they live their lives to the glory of God, in order to inspire others to do the same. By the grace of God I will never stop doing that; will you be the best worship leader you can be?

The Final Summit by Andy Andrews

This is a fictional book about David Ponder, who is whisked away by the archangel Gabriel to lead a discussion with historical characters about the salvation of mankind. The group is given five opportunities to come up with the answer to ‘the question’, each time benefitting from the input of another historical figure, such as King David, Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln.

Let’s start with the things I liked. I found a lot of the history behind the characters interesting, and found myself doing further research on some of them, which is always good. I also liked the fact that the book made me think about what my own answer to ‘the question’ would be; there’s a series of questions at the end of the book as well, which would help for discussion in a small group setting.

Unfortunately, as much as I tried to like the book, there were a few too many annoyances for me to do so. The story itself is just a little too simple and predictable for my liking; I don’t want to give the game away here but the way the storyline plays out isn’t in the least surprising. What this means is that at times it feels like chapters are extended just for the sake of it, so the group will come up with a new answer and Ponder will effectively say, ‘should we give the answer, or should we talk about it for a few more pages?’ The answer from the group is, ‘let’s talk about it.’

I also didn’t find the writing that compelling – I read the book through but wouldn’t describe it as a page turner, apart from the fact that I felt like I wanted to skip pages at times – the comparison to C. S. Lewis’ writing found on the opening page are unfounded in my opinion.

But underlying all this is my genuine concern with the book. SPOILER ALERT. I find that the selection of historical figures and answers that the group comes up with (along with Gabriel’s responses) don’t encourage a biblical understanding of a successful civilisation. For me, the key to mankind’s salvation is found only in God – worship of Him, and the free gift of His grace. But the answer found by the group to be the right one is entirely based around mankind’s works to achieve their own success.

So in conclusion the uninspiring narrative and predictable storyline would lead me to give this a mediocre review on the best of days, but the gospel of works that’s preached throughout it undermines any hope I had when starting it that I had found the new C. S. Lewis.

I’d certainly recommend this book to a mature Christian who wanted a fun fiction book to inspire restricted biography study, but generally I don’t have a good opinion of it I’m afraid.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.