The Prodigal Altar Boy

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

The Prodigal Altar Boy Blog 171031 - Honor Your Gifts – The Breakdown!



Honor Your Gifts – The Breakdown
Honor your gifts, which come from God. Period.  

 1. Stop Being So Humble


No, really, you’re killing yourselves, spiritually with this one.  No matter your level of musicianship, it is a gift from God. When I get to talk to worship musicians about music, it doesn’t take long for self-deprecation to come out.  On both sides.  I’m trying to make mine go away.  


Rodney Dangerfield showed me that if you make fun of yourself, if you’re the butt of your own joke, when someone does takes a shot at you, they look as if they’re piling on.  Once I get through heckling myself, there won’t be any material left for anyone in the room.

So I get it. I know “why.” I know whole “humble” game and you’re not saving yourself from anything.  I don’t want to take away from #3, but, God Is Glorified, whether you hit that G# on the walk down or not.   Mistakes are going to happen and it’s how we recover that defines us as worshipers. Getting our musical bearings quickly and rolling on is what I strive for.  

Coming together as a musical unit means determining identity.  Since most of the songs you play are by other artists, who you are musically drives interpretation of songs.  While it’s nice to have that one guitarist with the pedalboard so big he can recreate any riff from any song, the more organic your interpretation of songs, the “easier” they become to play.

[Side note:  When it comes to intros, if the introduction of a song is going to tax your musical resources, look at other places in the song (e.g.: chorus, bridge, even the verse) to get started from.  Play to your strengths.  Never start rehearsing a song by saying, “Now how does the intro on the track go?” Start the discussion of how you as a group, or even a particular musician, wants to start the song.]

Identity begins and ends with attitude, because attitude is about knowing who you are.  Also, part of attitude is what you tell yourself.  In honoring your gifts, a good first step is acknowledging them.  “I do know how to _________, and that is a gift from God.”  You need to hear that more often.  Notice there is no adjective in front of that gift.  It is a gift from God, that is a fact.  What you make of that gift is up to you (and God), and honing your gifts is always a good thing.  

Acknowledging our gifts is great way to start paying attention to self-talk and being conscious of self-deprecating comments and thoughts.  When negative self-talk hits is a great time to acknowledge your gifts.  When someone pays you or the group a compliment, stop at “Thank you very much.”  There’s nothing more to add.  If they have a specific question, or want to talk music, answer the question or talk music.  No judgement of your playing/singing implied or requested.


Honing your gifts is a form of worship.  Taking God’s gifts, exploring and expanding them to higher levels gives us fluency to focus on making our worship relevant.   Increasing musical proficiency and using it to deepen worship honors our gifts.  While the process of preparing for worship also increases proficiency, time spent honing your skills is always in addition to time spent preparing for worship.