On February 23rd, 2024 at 6:00 pm I met with Pastor Byron to review my assigned things to do for Weeks 3-4 ( Worship Leading Basics) of my internship. Prior to our meeting I planned a full worship set with liturgy for the 4th Sunday Service and sent it over to Pastor Byron and Identity’s Worship Experience Coordinator. I created two set list options and decided to go with my first set list:

1. Chasing After You by Vashawn Mitchell
2. Build My Life by Patt Barrett
3. I Give Myself Away by William McDowell

I chose these songs based on a few factors:

• Pastor Byron mentioned diversifying the genre from just Contemporary Christian music to incorporating gospel songs to be accommodating to not just the members in the church, but the residents of our local community (midtown Daytona, right by Bethune Cookman)
• The sermons for the previous weeks were based on finances and how to steward them and honor God with them. One of the things emphasized during this time was giving and stewarding finances with a right heart, a heart with genuine desire to be generous and do what pleases God. The songs chosen emphasize the need for God, the desire to live for Him, and desire to build or lives on Him. Since the upcoming Sunday was our day to volunteer in the community, I found these songs to also be motivation and encouragement as we prepare to share our love with others.
• Atleast two of the songs are fairly known or recognizable by the typical attendee in the church, which is also very important.

I created song maps for each song choice, highlighting details such as how many times we sing each section, where the lead singer starts, where background vocals come in and whether they sing in unison, harmonies, or inverted harmonies. For the call to worship I chose the verse Matthew 5:6 to accompany the setlist. This verse reads:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

I wrote additional liturgy inspired by this verse:

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus starts off by delivering a message about the Beatitudes, a collection of His important teachings. Amongst these teachings is one where Jesus emphasizes the truth of how the Lord blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He explains how those who truly desire and yearn to know and follow in the way of Christ will be blessed. These blessings can extend beyond the material or physical aspects of our world, we can also be blessed with peace, love, joy, and His Holy presence in our lives if we desire from the depths of our hearts to trust in the Lord, the sacrifice He made for us through Christ, and the good things we shall behold by following His right path. As we enter into a time of worship this morning, I encourage you to ask yourself: have I truly recognized my need for God in my life and believe that He can satisfy me and my desires? I encourage you to surrender your will, and ask the Lord to fill you with a yearning for His righteousness so you can taste the satisfaction that only He can give. 

Prayer:

Lord, help us to understand that you are the Source of all, and only You can truly satisfy and fulfill us. Help us to surrender our personal will, motives, and desires to align with what you intend for us. Help us trust that we can build our lives upon You, our Firm Foundation, the Rock on which we stand. Father, we love You and thank You for Your many blessings. Our lives are Yours, In Jesus Name, Amen.

Due to limited time at the meeting, I did not get to present my research and brief on my favorite worship song. This will flow into Weeks 5-6 ( Audio Engineering Fundamentals), which I am very excite about. I enjoyed talking more about my preparation for the Sunday service and received positive feedback from Pastor Byron about what I shared.

On February 10th around 2:00 pm I met once again with Pastor Byron and we reviewed Weeks 3-4 (February 8-21) of my internship: Worship Leading Basics. For the next few weeks, I am to be working towards designing a worship set with liturgy for a Sunday service. This will most likely be the fourth Sunday, which is the day where we go out into the community to do a service project, and will include 3 songs for the setlist. I will also be expected to plan and lead a worship rehearsal and share a devotional with the team during our rehearsal time. Finally, I am also expected to research and present a brief on my favorite worship song, and I will share it at our meeting next week. At this meeting, I will also spend time discussing my current progress and challenges with Pastor Byron.

Review of the last couple of Sundays:

I have been put in charge of pre-mixing and arranging the tracks within PlayBack for MultiTracks to fit with our voices, structure, and specific sound we are aiming for during rehearsals, and cuing the songs in MultiTracks during service. Doing this is new and has been exercising my muscles of multitasking. I cue the tracks, lead songs by singing and playing the piano, and pray, and have messed up many times. My mistakes have taught me how to creatively, smoothly, and quickly resolve my trip ups and issues I come across. I’m learning that it is a process to familiarize myself with these new tools and operate them effectively, and perfection will not always be attainable. I am truly enjoying this environment and opportunity to grow in so many ways through my internship at Identity Church.

My first meeting with my site supervisor at Identity Church, Pastor Byron, took place on January 11th at 3:30. We started off our meeting chatting and catching up, and then reviewed the document he created that outlines what my internship will entail for this semester and the expectations.

Our January meeting was considered Orientation and Introduction. We established goals for myself that I would like to achieve through this internship centered around what I would like to: 1. Learn, 2. Grow in, and 3. Do. After some thoughtful discussion, I shared that I would like to learn more about the technical aspects of the worship experience, grow in playing along with the music tracks, spiritual leadership, and directing, and try out songwriting and doing a worship night with the worship team. After this, Pastor Byron asked me to complete an Assessment of Worship Experience survey, as well as a Spiritual Gifts and Leadership Assessment.

I am looking forward to our next meeting where we will conversation emote in depth about the results of my assessments, specifically reviewing my spiritual gifts of mercy, service, and exhortation. We will also be taking the time in our next meeting to begin my familiarization with worship software and media tools.

Here is an overview of what the other weeks will look like:

Weeks 3-4 (February 8-21): Worship Leading Basics

Weeks 5-6 (February 22 – March 6): Audio Engineering Fundamentals

Weeks 7-8 (March 7-20): Creative Development in Worship

Weeks 9-10 (March 21 – April 3): Songwriting and Production Basics

Weeks 11-12 (April 4-17): Integration and Refinement

Weeks 13-14 (April 18 – May 1): Project Completion and Presentation