Are people truly too busy to attend team worship services? And why should people place a good deal of value on pre-service gatherings?
These were the questions that were recently tackled by Hillsong Church in its blog.
"At Hillsong Church, our teams and volunteers are also busy people. The creative teams are made up of all sorts of people from many spheres of life. From the professionals who work long hours in the city, to the single and stay-at-home mums, not to mention the many students; all incredible people with big lives," wrote Rich Langton.
This is why they truly appreciate it when these busy people take time off from their busy schedules to attend Team Nights, and they are certainly not taking that fact for granted.
"Team Nights have been a great blessing to us as a community," he said. "The other huge blessing that we haven't written about too much is our pre-service prayer meetings. These are a hidden gem and one that I'm sure many worship teams are neglecting."
So why are pre-service gatherings so important? They provide more value to the team than one might think, said Langton, since it provides an opportunity for every team to gather and create a team culture.
It's also a good opportunity to raise up leaders, widens the definition of a "worship team," and creates more opportunity for other people to come and worship Jesus.
"For us at Hillsong Church, we include all our worship, television, and production volunteers in these gatherings. The entire creative team and many of their family come along to pray and commit the service to the Lord," he said. "They're fun times of food, real fellowship, and then the team head off to the service lifted up and ready to point people to Jesus."
Lastly, pre-service gatherings are the perfect time to inspire, teach, motivate, and pray, he said.
