Our article this month is an interview with Br Keiron Shakespeare about his experience doing the Worship Leader course.

• Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your relationship to the church?

Hi there! My name’s Kieran, I’ve been with the Moravian Church for almost seven years now, and I was introduced to the Church by my then friend – and now lovely wife – Leigha when I was visiting her in Bath and have been a part of the Coronation Avenue congregation ever since.

• What inspired you to take the Worship Leader course?

A combination of things but chiefly among them was Lorraine informing me that I was signed up! Lorraine is very good at ‘directly motivating’ people, a quality I respect.

But also Paul Holdsworth, when he was with us, was always telling me he thought I’d be good at this kind of thing. His support was always a valuable thing I have held with me throughout the years.

Patsy Holdsworth has always been equally as supportive. So between God and three ministers I can’t really argue with how much motivation I had to do this – hopefully I’m doing them all proud.

• Can you tell us as little bit of what the course was like and what was involved?

The course was actually lots of fun. Basically, once a month we would commit a Friday evening and an entire day Saturday (with mandated brew and food breaks of course!) to learning a specific aspect of worship leading from a Minister, or sometimes two! What was presented as a strict syllabus was hopefully, they won’t mind me saying, felt more like a relaxed build up of a knowledge, confidence and a support network of both ministers and fellow people on the course, that left me feeling able to lead worship effectively. After eight (I think?) months of this we met up for a retreat where we each put together a practice service and delivered it to the group and Lorraine who gave us feedback and ultimately decided whether or not we were qualified worship leaders.

• What do you feel you have learned about yourself during your training and what effect has it had on your faith?

My training has given me a lot of confidence I didn’t have before. It taught me that actually sharing my faith with people isn’t at scary as you would think, and that ultimately we all have something we can teach each other when it comes to outlooks on faith and how we practice it.

Being forced to more directly confront faith and worship really helped to strengthen my faith in God and also be more resolute in what I believe and my desire to share that with people.

• How do you see the role of a worship leader supporting the minister and congregation?

All of our ministers work incredibly hard and it’s nice to able to support them more directly, I think it lets them not feel so bad about needing to take some time to recharge or allows them to travel for more province wide things since they know they have someone who can take a service in their absence.

We’re quite fortunate in our congregation in that we have many people willing to take a service.

• We value fellowship and community. How do you plan to nurture relationships within the congregation?

I’d say I'm quite lucky in that my congregation is fairly close-knit anyway, but I have felt that having the opportunity to travel to nearby congregations such as Weston and Swindon and take services there has really allowed me to feel closer to those congregations and I generally enjoy my time there.

• Moravians emphasise mission and witness through action. How do you feel being a worship leader will help to serve both inside and beyond the church community?

Inside the church community I am hopefully another outlet through which people can come and practice and feel good about their faith. Doing the course has given me a lot more confidence to speak about and share my faith, in a way that comes across a lot better.

• What aspects of the coursework felt most challenging, and how did you meet those challenges?

To be honest I found the workload quite light which is nice. Short of taking notes and getting involved in the sessions the only big piece of work was preparing the mock service for the residential assessment at the end which was challenging but everyone was supportive and offered great advice.

• How do you envision your role in strengthening the future of Moravian congregational life?

We’ll see where we go from here, always happy to chip in where needed and who knows how far the path of worship leading will take me?

• What would you say to anyone considering taking the worship leader course?

It’s well worth the time if you even have an inkling of wanting to nurture a safe environment for people practicing their faith. You will learn a lot about the why’s of what we do and it’s really interesting. Being a worship leader is very rewarding.

• And finally, is there anything else you would like to say about it and your experiences?

It was a wonderful time and really strengthened my faith. Reach out if you have any questions.