Praise Leaders

     What does that title mean to you? Be careful, your answer may reveal a lot about your relationship with God!
     I've attended many churches and have observed many praise services. In one church my husband and I could only hear our own voices, but we sang on! We've also been to churches where a person stood at the front and sang loud enough that some of the others in the congregation weren't afraid to join them and sing also. I've also been to churches where a choir did all of the singing! They didn't even ask the people to join them and to praise God!
     Where did we come up with these traditions!? It's a tidy way to deal with that pesky part of the church service that asks for our involvement, we'll just appoint someone else to handle the praise, right?, then we can get to the part where we can just sit and listen and have nothing else expected of us!
     That is a long ways from what we should be offering! We want to feel God's presence in our churches, but yet we don't even want to put ourselves out enough to lift our voices! much less our hands! Are we afraid our neighbors might think we've taken this God thing too far? How sad...
     How do you decide what is too far? We're talking about our Great Creator, our Savior, our King of Kings...how far is too far? Most of the people that don't want to be seen raising their hands in church are some of the people that will jump up and down and scream at a football game! They don't mind going too far for their favorite team, right!? They need to get as excited about God!
     We need to realize that the Praise Leaders have a part in our praise to our Lord and Saviour, but so do we! The Praise Leader is not up there to perform for our entertainment, they are there to usher us into the presence of the Lord, they're like a tour guide that says "Here it is, come and look! Come and see! Come and enjoy! Come and be part of this!". And then it's our responsibility to enter in!
     Come and see that the Lord is good! Psalm 34:8