Students Lead Worship

Yesterday at my church the university students lead worship. We each had a role, and a few of us volunteered to speak for a few minutes during the sermon about the spring break mission’s trip or in my case, what I did on spring break. Earlier in the week, I was not exactly sure what I wanted to talk about. Did I want to talk about how CPC had affected my freshman year, or did I want to talk about Big Break? My friend Ryan was very helpful when it came to my articulation of thoughts. He asked me, “What affected you more, CPC or Big Break?” It took me about a second to answer, “Big Break.” From there I went to tell him about the biggest lesson I learned, and then got my heart set on the topic that I wanted to talk about. My topic was the lesson I learned, which was to not be afraid to share my faith. I was relieved to get that out onto the table, and was very thankful that Ryan asked me the questions that he did.

However, I left that conversation with the intention of going forth and writing down some notes. But, with all the events last week, it slipped my mind until about 10 minutes before the service started on Sunday morning. I knew what the Bible verse was and I knew what I wanted to say; I just had to come up with an introduction, support, and a conclusion in a few minutes. As soon as I started thinking about it, I forgot my initial idea, and then got very nervous. The first thing I did was pray, and then boom, Doug was finished and it was my turn to speak. I walked up to the podium, my hands shaking, my heart pounding, and my mind fuming with different thoughts of completely failure. As soon as I got to the podium, I glanced at the audience. All my friends in the front row looked at me and smiled. Seeing their smiles, my thoughts slowed and I knew exactly what I was going to say, and how I was going to do it. Of course I was still nervous, and I was very thankful that the podium was hiding my knees knocking together rapidly. I began with talking about how I was scared on the first day of Big Break, but quickly discovered what I could do with my words. I learned that if I hide my faith and what I know about God, how could I ever be a light in someone else’s life. When I said this, I could see many people in the church, thinking. Their facial expressions changed to wonder and then to smiles. I became more comfortable behind that podium. My short speech did not have the best conclusion, but what can I say, I came up with it on the spot. Can you say extemporaneous?

When I had gotten down and back to my seat, my buddies whispered praises into my ears and complemented on what a great job I did. Anne even gave me kudos at the end of the service. Many were surprised that I just spoke on the spot. I responded with I like to live on the edge, and I thrive on improvisation. In the end, I really did like speaking. I would rather speak to smaller groups of people, but I really liked it. I can’t wait to do something like that again. Specifically, speaking on a topic that I feel strongly about and have a great interest. Hopefully in the years to come, I can, but not only can, will.