  Good morning everybody. It's about 7:00am, and I've been going through my usual "ritual" to prepare my heart to lead worship this morning.
I thought I would share with you some of what I do. I hope you find this helpful. I do want to make it very clear that what I do works... FOR ME. It might not be what works for you. We have three Sunday morning worship services, the first one beginning at 9:00.
Being a morning person, I like to get up early (around 5:00) and go to the worship center where we hold services. I set up my guitars (my electric takes about 20 minutes), and then I retreat to my office. I spend this time on my knees or in some other posture that I find to helpful for me to pray. After I've spent some time with the Lord in prayer, I begin to read scripture. I usually start out with a few psalms and then go to the OT, and then read 1 Cor.
12, which I read every time before I lead worship. Once I've done this, I go back out to stage and make sure that everyone else's gear is setup and ready, and then I stand in the spot where each of the worship team members will be. I pray over each spot and for each person who will take that place. I pray for the drummer, the bass player, the keyboard player, the other guitarist, and each vocalist.
I pray that God would draw them very close to Himself as we lead worship together, and I pray that our worship would be focused on God alone and that it would engage our fellowship in worship. After I do this, I walk through each row of the worship center and pray over the whole building, asking God to come in power and to show Himself in ways that only He can.
Once I have done this, the band usually arrives, and we begin to pray together. We then usually have a short time of sharing Scripture together, and then we rehearse briefly before the services begin. (we also have a seperate rehearsal on Thursday nights). I find that the time I spend on Sunday when no one is around is the sweetest time of my week. Let me know what you think.... jsmiddlebrook@hotmail.com Sam 
