Hey gang!
Vicky here… I know how much you are loving Rita’s participation on this site, so I asked her to share some thoughts with us. She mentions her son Justice in her article, so I thought I’d post a photo of Justice and I, when I hung out with him and Rita in Charlotte. He’s great!! Enjoy!
I am sitting on a train for 4 hours headed to the next worship leading experience. Of course the train is because my 5 year-old wants adventure and I will try my best to give it to him. I decided this is the best time (while Justice watches old MGM cartoons on his DVD player) to write out some thoughts to encourage all of you ladies out there who are fulfilling those worship leader roles across the globe.
Vicky flew out to Charlotte this past June to teach and lead worship for a worship school I have for women called DIVE. Dive stands for Deep Innovative Vertical Expression. It’s one-week intensive course for training and equipping women to be leaders, writers and just better pursuers of the Lord in Worship. It’s really the best thing I have ever done with my gifts. To see women freed up to express more of what is in them for the Lord, to the Lord, has really been life changing for me.
I have always viewed worship as a life experience. It should never be related with only music or as a Sunday morning preference. It is not about “setting up the speaker” or ‘song time’ before the sermon. Worship is a lifestyle lived out before the Lord. This Beautiful Being deserves not only the song sounds we make but also the very sounds we live out. I don’t think it’s about religion, I know though it’s about relationship. Worship is a walk. A journey. An experience we have all the time. The fact that we are females simply means that we express this differently. We walk, talk, cry, comfort, completely different. Obviously, God intended this and set us apart to do things different. It’s in embracing our different qualities that we start really walking in what we are called too. Being comfortable in your own skin is key. I find that this is such an issue though with our gender.
I meet so many ladies through DIVE that seem to be uncomfortable in their own skin. As I listen to them describe their journeys they often sound like they have to apologize for taking up air space to breathe. Much of that is the insecurity’s we have grown accustomed to housing in our lives. It starts at an early age and depending on the amount of trauma, loss, brokenness, and abuse those insecurity’s increase and steal the heart of our worship. If the sound of freedom to be all God intended is stolen we serve out of our bondage and not our progression. I have had these beautiful conversations with the Lord about women taking their rightful places in the church. I know that in the worship field it is a man’s world pretty much. BUT, I don’t even think it has to be a woman vs. man dynamic. At least that is not what I am trying to convey.
I believe when I came into a revelation of what my value and worth was to the Lord, I started finding freedom within the gifts he gave me to articulate them better, sing them better, and progress to a better platform through my casting off the former and pressing toward the new thing. It may not be a 5-minute approach to healing but it’s a start. If we want that new dress we see in a store bad enough, we do almost anything to buy it. I wish we took more of that approach to getting through our issues and going after what makes us feel, look and act better all around. My theory is that when we allow freedom to invade us, it then inspires us and then as it heals us, we express it in all we write, sing, say, and are.
When Vicky came to Charlotte, NC in June to encourage my DIVE school students she said something I will never forget. She told them that the only way to change the male vs. female dynamic was to rise up in what God has called them to be to change it. Basically, if you see a problem that needs to be changed, you rise up to change it! The only way to solve a problem is to be the answer to it. That does not mean we knock people out of our way to the top. It means we walk out our destiny with dignity and honor. God loves a humble heart!
So, the point here is what? Well, I feel the Lord has something special for our gender. God loves Girls! There is something you were created to do for the Kingdom. As a woman you may feel pressed, crushed and hindered in your life/career position or purpose. If this is you, be encouraged. Take a deep breath and begin to examine your heart and search for hope. I have seen and been the brunt of so much immaturity in the past year. Not just from others but from my own heart! Let’s lay down our offenses and our gossip. God will exalt you and give you more than you ever hoped for when you lay down your offenses. The “more” may be that you find peace for the first time in forever! Forgive others. Let go of the unrighteous garbage others do to you. Yes, it’s hard and it costs you most your pride, but I can tell you this, more songs came out of me when I let go of others words and useless hurts then ever before. God’s opinions matter most.
These are my thoughts on a train bound for Raleigh, NC. I encourage you worshippers out there who are Girls, Gals, Dames, Misses, Chicks, and Ladies and all the remaining ways to say what we are, to love God deeply. Let Him show you the way into the new sounds you sing, write and play! There is something he is trying to say in our worship. Will you and I be able to be a mouthpiece to say it? I hope so. I am praying for us. I think we’ll make it! I think God’s on our side!
Blessings,
Rita Springer
Lovely… amazing … AND powerfull! I will share with more ladies…or girls, gals, dames…