I recently attended a conference for worship pastors. It was an amazing experience and if you haven't ever been to one, you need to go. The worship was incredible. Prominent bands and worship leaders led us in amazing times of worship. The presence of God was so real and so inviting. As I observed worship leaders and their teams during the week I was taken back by the amount of people that had "that look". Have you seen people with "that look"? There is nothing wrong with "that look". There is nothing wrong with having better hair than the average woman or even having a cool earring to sport around. There is nothing bad about chasing "that look". Sure Chris Tomlin and Lincoln Brewster are studs and we all want to look that good leading worship. We wish we were skinny dudes with tight jeans and culturally relevant threads. Come on, be honest with yourself. These guys are cool with a capital "C". They look the part.

Let me ask you something and please don't think that I am coming down on all you cool guys. Who are you? Who are you aspiring to be? Who did God create you to be? Although I am making light of trying to have "that look" and trying to be cool, we do it. I do it. My second year of being a worship pastor someone talked me into getting my ear pierced. I was fortunate enough to make sure that the piercing was in the correct heterosexual ear. I wouldn't want to send the wrong message about that area of my life. Regardless, I started out wanting to be something. That something isn't bad. That something just might not be who God has called me to be.

My point with all this is simple. God has created you in His image and likeness to be you. There was an old children's song that Joni Erickson-Tada used to sing that says "I've got to be me, uniquely me". I have known that God wants me to be something and that He has called me to do something. I believe with all my heart that I am in the middle of God's will for my life. I have stopped trying to be someone else and have begun to focus on what God desires me to be.

While at the National Worship Leader's Conference this year Don Moen made an incredible statement that is burned into my brain. "God does not anoint who you want to be...He anoints who you are." Read that statement again. It was at that very moment that I felt as if God was wrapping His loving arms of affirmation around me. God anoints who you are. Are you leading worship today or this week? He is anointing what you are doing right now for His glory. Your preparation for Sunday is anointed. Your practices are anointed. (Some of you are saying, "'You haven't been to one of my practices lately.") Your interactions with your team are anointed. Right now you are reading my words and this time you are investing in yourself is anointed.

I think a side note is needed here. Never feel guilty for investing in yourself! You need to recharge. You need to do everything you can to be your very best for what God has called you to do.

I am sure that there are some of you that do not think the things you are doing preparing for worship are anointed. Maybe you are getting bored with the mundane, but is there nothing holy about entering your lyrics into Media Shout or Pro-presenter? Is there nothing holy in putting those backgrounds in? Is there nothing holy in getting a sound check? Is there nothing holy about setting up your gear for the worship service? In Exodus 40 we find Moses in the tabernacle as he is preparing for worship. Although his worship service was different than yours and mine, it still had preparation. It still had the mundane. It still had the boring. It still had the same old preparation for every sacrifice he made. Read what Moses is doing. He is anointing every single thing in the tabernacle (v. 9) -- every piece of furniture, every utensil, every item in the tabernacle -- in order that they might be completely holy.

The preparation did not stop there. They went on to wash Aaron and his sons in order to consecrate them "in order to serve me as priests". When I read this section of the passage I see that just as important as it is for everything to be anointed and consecrated, is the need for those who serve along side you in your ministry to also be anointed and consecrated holy.

It is our job as worship leaders and pastors to make sure that we are challenging our people unto holiness. It is my desire that my entire team be anointed and consecrated as holy. For it's not the hair, it's not the shoes; it's not the cool factor of the worship leader that will accomplish the purposes of our art. The reason we do what we do is found later in Exodus 40:34 "Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle."

That is the goal of our preparation for worship. Dear brothers and sisters we are to anoint everything that we do. It is the anointing that we should be chasing. It is the holiness we should be craving. Instead of a look or an identity we must pursue righteousness. We must pursue Holiness. As my friend David Edwards writes about in his book Encountering God, we must consistently cultivate the ground of our hearts. A tender heart is the "look" that God desires for you. "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.'" - 1 Samuel 16:7