My name is Lois Pritchard and I am a first year student at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. For three months, I have been a member of my University's Christian Union. During this time, I have made numerous friends and have gotten involved with dozens of events. One of the things that I decided to join was the Christian Union Worship Band.
When I first started the Christian Union, a worship band was non-existent. After a few weeks, we were asked to step forward if we would like to get involved. As a fairly recent flute player, I wasn't sure if this would be the thing for me, but I still decided to join in for the experience. For the first couple of weeks, I was just observing the band.
At the time, there was only a guy playing the keyboard, and another guy playing the cajon (drum box). The first time that we tried worship music at the Christian Union was quite frankly a small disaster! The problem was that no one was singing. Me and my friends at the front would sing in our little corner, but we couldn't hear anyone else joining in. The problem was that they were moving their mouths, but no sound was coming out!
A few weeks later, I brought my flute along for the worship, one of my friends was singing, and the other was playing the ukulele to add to the band. We had in mind that if we played louder, people would be more inclined to join in, even just a little bit.
It may have worked ever so slightly, and made the atmosphere less uncomfortable, but the people in the audience still had no desire to fully join in like they would if they were at church, which put us all in a tricky situation of should the band even continue at the Christian Union?
However, those doubts were soon put to rest because back on the 1st of December, one of my friends who decided to take charge of the worship for this year, leading on his keyboard, told me that next year, he would be taking part in a placement year away from his degree. He also told me that the current CU committee had been meeting this year to pray and discuss who should be part of next year's committee.
My friend Simon then dropped what felt like a bombshell on me by telling me that they would like me to be the worship leader next year, which would involve choosing the songs that we will be doing and finding the right sheet music, recruiting band members for next year, coordinating a whole band, and finally, trying to lead the whole Christian Union in worship!
Now I'm not a naturally musical person. I've been playing the flute for less than a year, and the only other experience that I've had is basic piano and guitar lessons in the past.. So the question that I asked myself at the time was, "Why have they picked me for this role?"
I later found out that it is possible to decline the position that the committee offer to you, which I could have done. But then I had a thought that during the moment that I was being offered this role, not once did I tell either Simon of myself that I really didn't want to do this, and that's when I knew that deep down, this was something that I really wanted to do.
It stems back to a few years ago, when I was just 15 years old. I decided to teach myself some of my favourite songs on the guitar, and at the same time, I was really into worship music. Back then, I would have loved to get involved with this at my home church, but I didn't have the skills or the confidence. Now I feel that maybe God has presented me with this position so that after university, I will be able to go back home and do something similar at church, especially since we only have one musician back at home.
So this leads me to say that I have taken on this role for next year, and that for once in my life, I am not afraid at the plans that God may have for me, no matter what they are. I am going to step up to this role and try my very best to serve and worship my God through the music that we do at our Christian Union!
Thank you for reading, if anyone is more experienced than I am in this field, I would greatly appreciate any advice!
Lois
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