I once had a remarkably gifted member of my worship team have to step down from the team for a little while because his work schedule was so awkward. It was going to be a rare moment he could attend church services, let alone rehearsals.

After about a month or two of not seeing him at all at church at all I sent him a message, “I miss you not being at church.”

He responded, “Yea, I miss not playing for you, too.”

I was pretty sure he misunderstood what I meant so I clarified, “Yea, yea, I miss not having you play your instrument – but I’m saying I miss YOU – the person – the essence of who you are. I can’t wait until you can join us in Church again. It’s great to have you around regardless of what you can do.

At the moment I’m writing the second draft of this post, it’s a Saturday in the middle of winter – about an hour or two before my team’s rehearsal. The snow is coming down HARD at the moment. We’re still having rehearsal and service tonight. I had a gal text me and ask if we were canceling. I said, “No – but if you feel unsafe leaving, stay home! Who you are is a lot more important than what you can do.”

Who you are (a disciple, a Christian, a servant, a friend, a part of your church family) is far more important than what you can do for your team. I think we often spend too much time talking about improving what we can do rather than improving who we are. Do those things go together? -Well, of course they do. But when it comes to appreciation and value – they’re very different.