Steve Lee – Worship

Hi Steve, what does your role as Worship Deacon entail?

I share the role with the amazing, patient, kind, sensitive, practical and thoughtful Jo Moore. We oversee aspects of worship at the Church, are involved with arranging and managing Sunday morning services, special services like Christmas and Easter, music, prayer and other expressions of worship. We try to get new people involved, organise and support the people who are already involved and also think about and try to develop ways we can expand our approach and response to God in the Church.

How long have you been in the role of Worship Deacon and what have you been doing since you took on the role?

I have been a Worship Deacon since April 2023 (wow that’s gone quickly) and am still doing the leading of music and worship in services (as I have for many years), and also do music at evening communion services now and again. I help Jo in some of the administrative aspects of the above and also lead a Pilgrim Walk once a month early on a Saturday. Also I have some ideas which are yet to come to fruition!

What is your vision for worship at BSBC?

Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” This could sound like a very passive thing – just basking in some cloud of spiritual beauty, but to seek God can and should be a very active thing, and He can lead us anywhere. I think we are all given a huge capacity for creativity, thought and imagination and we can all enjoy using those things to explore who God is and who He wants us to be. I would love for us all to find ourselves dwelling in the house of the Lord all the time, by living with Him in a more constant way, drawing from Him and responding to Him, so that our whole lives become a worshipful thing.

What other roles have you occupied since joining BSBC?

I have been at the Church since I was a kid! When I was a young teenager I started helping in Sunday School with children not much younger than I was, then later on I led a group of 9-11 year olds for a few years. I ran the youth club on a Friday night for church and non-church teenagers for a number of years in my 20s and have always played and sang in the various music groups in the Church. I started leading worship in services probably in my later 20s and have been doing that ever since. Occasionally I lead family services, which are great fun (for me at least) and I do some drama in Church from time to time.

How does it feel to be at the front leading worship?

It’s hard to describe. Anyone who has been in a band, orchestra or a choir knows it’s great fun to make music with others. I have played in secular bands as well, but when the music and singing are directed to and centred on God there is a completely different dimension and it transcends the music itself, goes beyond the words, it leads us into real communication with God. Because it’s communal with others in the band and the congregation doing the same thing it is very special indeed! Sometimes I get a little bit “emotionally available” to the whole room but try to keep things on the rails!

What skills do you need if you would like to join a worship band at BSBC?

I think the desire to meet God through music is the main thing, but I can’t escape the need to suggest that there should be a musical gift or skill of some kind… It is difficult to lead others in music if the music you are making is not recognisable! Worship doesn’t depend on professional-level musical skills, but also it doesn’t thrive when there is a distracting influence. But you can develop your skills as part of a team and start to gain confidence as you offer and use your gift!

When and how did you become a Christian?

When I was in my early teens I knew I needed to make some kind of commitment, but didn’t feel challenged about it particularly until I was 18 and went to a church weekend away. I spoke to the pastor at the time about something else, and it became clear that in fact I was being challenged to make my decision to live for Jesus and so I decided to take the plunge (as it were) and was baptised soon after. My faith felt like “my” thing from then on, no longer just something I was doing because my family and people around me were doing it.

How long have you been at BSBC and what was your Church background before coming to BSBC?

I think I was 10 when I came to BSBC with my family. My previous church background was going to church with my parents at a Baptist church in Ilford where I was born (in Ilford not in the church) and then when we moved to Sawbridgeworth we went to St Mary’s which I really enjoyed – there was a good group of children there and we liked it (I even joined the bell ringing group for a while but never got any good at it), but my parents came to BSBC I think to return to a Baptist church family.

Tell us a few interesting things about you…hobbies? Other volunteer roles?

I love spending time with my family – my wife Caroline and sons Owen and Joe. We have a very happy time together. Our boys are now 18 and 20 but we all still like each other. I like, in fact love, walking, running and cycling. I also really like films and am a bit of a film geek, though you will find massive holes in my supposed film knowledge. I weirdly love silent films from the 1920s by people like Buster Keaton but haven’t yet found a way to weave these into a worship service. Books, music, poetry, the arts in general in fact. Planning holidays. Being on holidays. I like watches. Cooking. Eating. (I would say drinking but it might give the wrong impression.)

What do you do outside the Church?

Work. A lot. All right, too much! I have a small building surveying business which is mainly just myself, but have a colleague to help on larger projects. It is enormously, sometimes dismayingly, time consuming and in fact I find it takes over at times. Apart from that, I try and remember that I also love doing the things above and make time for them too!

Is there anything we can pray about for you and/or your role?

Everything flows from the Holy Spirit being involved, so prayer for an ever-closer contact with God through His Spirit would be great. Please pray for opportunities to worship and communicate about worship in our Church – sharing ideas with people about prayer, being creative, being active, being quiet and meditative, being supportive in meaningful and worshipful ways. I would also like greater freedom and time to develop my own skills which I simply don’t find (or make?) time for!