*warning: long winded post ahead-skip to the end if you just want the gist of it*
So I’ve been playing off and on for a decent amount of time (15-ish yrs) and I feel like I’m just in a rut and not progressing like I want. I feel like I know a lot of broken pieces to the puzzle but I just don’t “have it down” yet. I’m nowhere near where I should be or where I want to be.
Here’s my backstory:
I picked up my first guitar when I was like 12-14 (?) and strummed a few chords and kinda fizzled out on it. Sold the guitar/amp and moved on.
Later (17-ish range) I pick it up again with the determination to be able to play at least something. I picked up a beginner book to learn some basics and learned enough chords and what not to make something that sounded like music (somewhat

). During this time I played for a while in the youth group “band” for the church I was attending at the time. I learned a bit about playing with a group and developed my rythym but the songs were so simplistic I don’t feel like I “grew” much at all during that time.
After that I got married, moved out of my parents’ house and guitar kind of became second to just living and working on a new life with my lovely new wife. I still picked on it from time to time but I no longer played at church (we had since left our church and started attending another where there seemed to be no real place for me to play). My progress over these 5-10 years was SLOW to nonexistent.
Here in the last 5 years or so I’ve picked it up a little more intensive and have tried to further my ability and I just been feeling like God has been “telling me things”:
-I love music. Even when I didn’t really play I would have music playing all the time. I love hearing the interaction between instruments and I LOVE hearing a skilled musician play their heart out.
-during worship time I found myself not singing the words but “playing” the chords in my head. It was weird; it wasn’t a distracted “daydreaming” kind of thing it was worship from my inner-most. It’s like, my heart doesn’t “sing” to God, it “makes music” to him.
I believe God was (is) telling me that my place in the body of worshippers is playing an instrument.
-Our church made the decision to split the morning services into a “traditional” and more rockin’ “modern” service. Now all of a sudden there was the potential for squeezing into a worship team that played a style I was more enthusiastic about.
I spoke to my wife about this and she, in her infinite boldness (NOT my strongest trait!), walks right up to the worship leader and tells him “My husband plays guitar”.

I expected a “we’ll see what we can do” or “maybe we can work him in eventually” but instead he just beams like we had just told him he won the lottery. The service was new and the group was still small so he, unbeknownst to us, was praying for more musicians.
So, I join in on a few practices to “play along” and see if I can do this. After every practice Joel (or worship leader) would say “so, you gonna play on Sun?”. Like I said, boldness is not my strong suit so I just kept on showing up for practice but not playing on Sun. morning. After a month or so of practice, I finally went for it. Even though I felt like I did a mediocre job (at best) it was awesome. I’ve been enjoying it for probably 2 years now. During this time I felt like I’ve made more progress than in the 10 years prior. My “Chord vocabulary” has increased tremendously, I feel confident in my rhythm and ability to “mesh” with a group, and I’ve learned some basic theory.
However, it all feels like “broken pieces”; not a full understanding of how to play. I’ve never taken lessons and have never received instructions or any sort. I am 100% self-taught and I believe this is the root of my problem. I’ve taught myself what I needed to get by but there’s never been any sort of structure to it. I’ll learn a bit here and a piece there but I feel like I’m still missing the big picture.
I just need some advice on how to organize this jumbled up information I have and how to further my playing ability. I just need to know where to start, what order to learn in, whether I should pursue professional instruction, some websites or resources that would be helpful; anything.