As worship leaders, we love those times when the congregation is with us.
We ask them how they’re doing, and they respond. They sing the songs we chose. They are visibly expressing themselves to God.
Maybe they’re even chanting your name as you take the stage. Ahhh…worship leading bliss.
But what happens when people don’t worship – when the room feels frozen over?
There’s a tension we worship leaders face each and every week.
Sometimes it’s paralyzing. Stressful.
We want to worship God, but we also want to sound awesome.
We want to the church to sing, but we also want to do our favorite songs.
We want the glory of God, but we also want to progress in our creativity.
So often, its either one or the other.
We’ve all been there.
Sunday is almost here and we’re not quite sure what to sing. What do we do? Throw it together.
When in doubt, just find some killer songs and sing them, right?
But what about being present? If you think about it, every service is unique. Never again will that exact group of people gather together at that exact place at that exact time.
It’s about presence – being present.
We all know we’re supposed to love Scripture – to meditate on it day and night, as Joshua tells us.
We’re supposed to read it, memorize it, quote it, write it, and place it on our walls.
But how many of us really do? On our worship teams, how rooted and connected to Scripture are we?
This is what fills my mind and heart today.
If I’m going to disciple my team, they need to grow in their love of Scripture.
Their lives must be rooted in God’s Word.
But in our worship teams, Scripture is oftentimes a passing glance, a quick reference, an in-one-ear-out-the-other system.
We’d much rather talk about gear, arrangements, excellence, and creativity. But in all honesty, our souls are starving for something more.
Trust me, I don’t mean to frighten you.
But what if you took a survey, asking your congregation how your music and worship leading connected with them?
What would their answer be?
Because we all know that the best worship leaders aren’t just great singers or musicians.
It’s not even that they really love Jesus a lot. You can have both of those and still leave the room scratching their heads.
The best worship leaders work hard on connecting with people.
I hate to break it to you, but the greatest value you offer your church is not that you have a great voice.
It’s not that you can play guitar with the best of them. No, your greatest value is shown in who you’re reproducing – the teams you are building.
This isn’t going to change. You can’t just do ministry. You must become skilled at equipping people for ministry.
Can I tell you a secret?
You have to make sure you don’t tell this to anyone, because if this spreads, we just might see a revolution in local church worship leaders around the world.
And who would want that to happen? Shhhhh!
[Today's post is an excerpt from my most recent newsletter. Due to such positive feedback, I wanted to feature it on the blog. If you're not subscribed to my newsletter, I suggest you do. I consider it the "Insider's" group and it's one of my favorite things to write. You can sign up here.]
When it comes to preparing for a worship service, what is the first question you typically ask?
What songs am I going to do?
We all ask that.
We get in frantic mode to pick the best songs everyone will like, that every church is doing, that is on the radio. Then, when it comes time to lead worship, we sing through our songs.
A job well done?
Well, not exactly. I want to share with you a different approach to preparing for (and leading) corporate worship.
It doesn’t start with a frantic hunt to find the most popular songs.
The other day I was reflecting on the amazing, glorious responsibility we have as worship leaders.
We get to stand before God’s people and declare His greatness – to usher people into His presence with singing. But we also have the responsibility to do it well.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste the church’s precious moments with God in corporate worship with mere performance, a disorganized team, and a lack of passion. I want to connect them to Jesus.
The best way I’ve found to do that is to get back to the basics. Corporate worship isn’t simple. There’s a lot of organization, both in leading your team and engaging a large room of people to sing in unison. I don’t want to minimize that or paint a wrong portrait of what we do.
I’ve been talking a lot about making disciples in 2013.
In my newsletter we talked a bit more specifically about how to do that – how to teach, model, give opportunity, and provide feedback. But do you know what the problem is? Before you can teach and model to someone else, you must know why you do what you do.
Before you lead people, you must know where you’re going. Common sense, right?
Well, easier said than done.
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