When I look back at my time at Hope Fellowship, it has been a ride! If it were not for the praise teams at Hope Fellowship I likely would not be an involved Christian right now. In my time at university, Hope Fellowship was a life raft in my life. As I struggled to stay connected with God, it was the times when I was able to come home and play music on the praise team when I felt God and was able to worship freely
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I remember as a kid always looking forward to getting more involved. I was able to lead the HSM team in my high school days and then began leading a regular team, and has been an absolute passion of mine. Now the LCD people can tell you how frustrating it must be on their end to work with me, as I am the WORST at giving them roadmaps for the songs, but they can also attest to my desire to center our worship around the Holy spirit and to allow the Holy Spirit to lead out worship.
I’ve always thought of praise teams as simply the vehicle that God is driving to lead us in worship. My father always told me the greatest compliment you can receive as a worship leader is “I didn’t even notice you were there”. When I was young this seemed odd. But as I grew in leadership it has become a mission statement in my life. I have always loved to lead from the back of the room at Ignite. People don’t understand it, but I feel it focuses us on the words and on God. Its not about the praise team, its not about Pastor Dale, its not about the visuals. Its about God. My hope for the future of the praise teams at Hope and the church in worship, is that more often than not people will fall so into worshiping God, that they will say to the praise team. “I didn’t even notice you were there”.
Thank you for supporting me in my decade-plus serving as a praise team member, my time as a worship leader, and my recent position as interim worship coordinator. I love this church community and hope to be back involved one day soon, and that nobody will notice :)
- Nigel
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I remember as a kid always looking forward to getting more involved. I was able to lead the HSM team in my high school days and then began leading a regular team, and has been an absolute passion of mine. Now the LCD people can tell you how frustrating it must be on their end to work with me, as I am the WORST at giving them roadmaps for the songs, but they can also attest to my desire to center our worship around the Holy spirit and to allow the Holy Spirit to lead out worship.
I’ve always thought of praise teams as simply the vehicle that God is driving to lead us in worship. My father always told me the greatest compliment you can receive as a worship leader is “I didn’t even notice you were there”. When I was young this seemed odd. But as I grew in leadership it has become a mission statement in my life. I have always loved to lead from the back of the room at Ignite. People don’t understand it, but I feel it focuses us on the words and on God. Its not about the praise team, its not about Pastor Dale, its not about the visuals. Its about God. My hope for the future of the praise teams at Hope and the church in worship, is that more often than not people will fall so into worshiping God, that they will say to the praise team. “I didn’t even notice you were there”.
Thank you for supporting me in my decade-plus serving as a praise team member, my time as a worship leader, and my recent position as interim worship coordinator. I love this church community and hope to be back involved one day soon, and that nobody will notice :)
- Nigel
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