I grew up in youth groups and church singing the hymns, “contemporary” songs like, Shout to the Lord, and Every Move I Make. It was great knowing the words to the songs and seeing the words on the screen. Fast forward several years and I have learned to have a genuine appreciation of spontaneous and prophetic worship.
Do we worship with songs made popular by Christian worship teams and artists? Absolutely. There will always be a place for that and well, who doesn’t love an old hymn when the Holy Spirit directs us?
When I think about what God has developed at Kingdom Rain in worship, I end up calling it “Worship Intercession.” It’s worship in that we are incomplete adoration of who God is, how much we love him, and how much He loves us but it’s also a pressing into the heart of what He wants us to sing now in a new way. What is on His heart? After all, we are to seek His Kingdom first. Right?
This did not come to me overnight and, admittedly, it takes some practice especially being used to knowing the songs or seeing the words. It required me to pause, reflect on my relationship with my Father in Heaven, and tap into Holy Spirit in ways I had not before. As a worship leader, it’s hard to “not have a plan” and to lay down my agenda of how I would want it to be.
I do plan our songs and we practice them but I submit to the Holy Spirit. If He decides we are starting worship in a different way, or He decides to change it up, I have grown to welcome his “interruptions” because it usually means that we are in for a great gift from our Dad! Worship at Kingdom Rain is a group effort. It is not a performance. It is not a worship leader leading. It is all of us working together to seek the Kingdom of God first.
This is why I call myself a facilitator instead of a worship leader. We, the worship team, and the congregation work together to pull heaven into earth. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? You might be asking yourself what this looks like and I invite you to head over to our replays and check out a few of our worship sessions.
I will try to describe it below but it will be better to experience it. The worship experience at Kingdom Rain is completely up to how much you want to participate with Holy Spirit. It’s fun, exciting, and rather refreshing. I like to attribute it to riding the waves of the ocean. We start out swimming out to sea. This part is a little bit of work. We pray, prophesy, and decree things that God is saying. You will see several different people on the microphone. They might read a scripture, prophesy about God’s Kingdom, and we will start a worship song. Once you get out to sea, you wait for a wave.
Sometimes the wave is immediate, fast, large, and quick. Yet, other times you may have to wait on the Lord a little bit but once the wave hits, we are up riding a beautiful wave in the Spirit. The worship team partners with those that are hearing a prophetic word or hearing a scripture. It’s easy to follow along and of course, you are encouraged to sing your own song to the Lord as well.
The most wonderful thing about this style of worship is that, once we have sought the Kingdom and God’s agenda first, he comes and touches personally, the places that need His love the most.
A lot of people want to start off worship with “God, I need this or that” but God has taught us to take care of His needs first and then without asking, he shows up and takes care of ours. It’s an honor to work together with you to hear God’s heart of a city, a nation, and you!
