Back in March Christ's Church hosted "The Heart of a Worship Leader," the first of our Worship Workshops 2011 series. It was very encouraging to have pastors, worship leaders, and musicians from several local congregations participating in this gathering. The format of this particular workshop was more of a forum than a lecture, so we had some great thoughts and ideas exchanged. Below you will find a summary of each of our discussions as well as links to various supplemental articles, books and videos. There's a lot here, so you might need to visit this post a few times to get through it all.
What is a Worship Leader?
We began trying to answer this question by reading an article by
Bob Kauflin entitled "What a Worship Leader Does."
"As I studied Scripture and read books like Engaging with God by David Peterson and Adoration and Action, ed. by D.A. Carson, I quickly realized that the Bible, especially the New Testament, didn’t give much space to my role as a worship leader. None, to be exact. The more I read, the more I felt I was reading myself out of a job.There’s no question that the role of the worship leader has been exaggerated in recent decades. Some pastors give 1/3 to 1/2 of their meeting to singing, led by a musician who has little to no theological training. Gordon MacDonald comments, “For many young people choosing a church, worship leaders have become a more important factor than preachers. Mediocre preaching may be tolerated, but an inept worship leader can sink things fast.” In addition, the rise of “worship artists” has intensified the often unhelpful connection between pop music culture and congregational worship..." read more
At the conclusion Bob gives us his attempt at a definition of an effective worship leader.
An effective corporate worship leader,
aided and led by the Holy Spirit,
skillfully combines biblical truth with music
to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ,
thereby motivating the gathered church
to join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God
and seeking to live all of life for the glory of God.
I think we were all fairly satisfied with this definition and challenged by Bob's other thoughts, but there was still plenty of room left for conversation. Here are some of the thoughts that came out of our discussion:
- Our job is not to convince or bully people into singing louder or loving God more. As Brian Doerksen says in this article, "Our calling is to re-direct their affections and devotion to the one who is worthy of worship."
- The worship leader has a role as a teacher. Passages like Colossians 3:16 makes it pretty clear that songs should be used to teach and admonish the church. What we choose to sing and say ought to have this aim in view.
- A worship leader is not someone who is there to primarily be a performer. See our last topic, Who are These People?, for more on the need for worship leaders to have a pastoral heart.
- We need to recognize that corporate worship is not limited to the music time but really includes all the elements of a service like communion, reading and preaching God's Word, bringing offerings, prayer, etc. With this more complete perspective of what corporate worship is, we have to be careful to not let music have more significance than it ought to. This also means that "the worship leader" is not the only worship leader; the pastor ought to be viewed as one of the worship leaders as well.
A couple of non-musical worship leading ideas - One pastor seeks to model Psalm 100:4, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving...," beginning the service by asking people to share out loud what they are thankful for.
- Another leader tries to identify people with powerful testimonies and give them a chance to share during a service. The congregation can then respond to what God has done in this person's life in any number of ways (clapping, prayers of thanksgiving, singing a song, etc.)
Why My Heart Matters?
The following video clip from
Jeff Deyo set the tone for our second topic.
As worship leaders we're certainly not immune from neglecting our relationship with God. Sure, sometimes we've experienced God working through us even when we haven't been drawing near to Him, but that's certainly not the place He desires us to be ministering from. In an effort to encourage one another in "digging the well" as Jeff put it, we took some time to share some of the ways/disciplines that help us draw near to God and keep us from becoming fake worshipers.
Journaling
The person who suggested this discipline referenced
The Divine Mentor by Wayne Cordeiro as the book that helped him in this discipline.
Worshiping God Privately Through Song
This could be done in any number of ways, but one specific example was to do this using the songs you've prepared for a worship service. If you can't use these songs to praise God privately, then how will you use them to lead others? It also gives you a chance to become more familiar with the songs and sense places where you might have some moments of prayer, readings over the music or more spontaneous moments of singing or silence.
Setting aside time each day to be alone with God
This time might include reading scripture or a devotional, praying, or simply being still and knowing He is God. For the person who suggested this, it meant the sacrifice of getting up early in the morning before anyone else in the house was up. Jesus modeled this idea in His own life when he would go off by himself to pray to the Father.
Read/Pray the Psalms Daily
Keep a bible or the book of common prayer by your bedside. Read and pray through some psalms in the morning, evening, or both. The psalms are filled with the language of worship and help fix our hearts and minds on the Lord and His glory and how worthy He is of all our forms of worship. Paul Baloche strongly recommends memorizing some psalms as a way to recall the language of worship while leading, without having to read it from a page.
Is My Heart Really in This?
During this discussion someone asked what they should do if their heart is not in leading worship. Someone suggested that there is a difference between one's heart not being in it, and one's heart not being in the right place. In the first case, there are always going to be times when we feel less than thrilled about preaching or leading worship or whatever we are called upon to serve in. But our commitment to serving God and His church even when we don't "feel like it" or are going through a rough time actually demonstrates to others that God is worthy of worship in every season, every mood, etc.
On the other hand, if one's heart is not in the right place then that could be grounds for removing yourself (or your leadership removing you) from leading worship. There are many examples of what this might look like: a lifestyle of unrepentant sin, life's distractions causing you to neglect your leadership responsibilities, a fake relationship with God (as mentioned in the Jeff Deyo video clip), ego problems, etc. A less obvious example might be that God is no longer calling you to serve in this ministry (or perhaps He never desired for you to serve in it in the first place) and yet you are still holding on to it or others are pressuring you to continue, without seeking and honoring what God's will is.
Who are These People?
For our closing topic we talked about the need to have a pastoral heart towards the people we are leading. The vertical part of our ministry is a bit more obvious, the part where we point to and relate to God. But the horizontal part, the people part, is something that requires intention and passion as well. Unfortunately, the entertainment industry's influence on worship and the church has made it very easy to depersonalize our congregations and treat them more like crowds or spectators. Glenn Packiam makes some great points here about the worship leader's role as a shepherd
(this video was not shown at the workshop, but seemed appropriate to include here).
Of course the question becomes how do you do this? How do you develop more of a heart for the people in your congregation? There isn't a formula, that's for sure. Here's a few simple suggestions if you aren't sure how to grow in this.
- Be intentional about knowing as many people's names as possible and make a point to meet any new or unfamiliar faces.
- Sign up to receive your church's prayer updates. Be praying for the needs of your congregation, and check in with those you've been praying for.
- Make it a priority to engage in fellowship opportunities.
- A huge part of caring for people is to "mourn with those who mourn" (Rom. 12:15). During this discussion Pastor Darin shared about home and hospital visits he and I had made together to see members of our congregation. In some cases we had the privilege of singing worship songs over these people and praying for them, praising God in the midst of sickness and death. Perhaps you can ask your pastor to keep you in mind for these kinds of visits when he thinks it would be appropriate.
- It is also important to encourage this heart for the congregation in your team as well. During rehearsal you ought to be praying together anyways, but make a point of encouraging the team to pray for those you'll be leading. You may have to model this kind of prayer for a while before anyone else will volunteer to do it. Pray for God's Spirit to have His way in your worship gathering, pray for people to be delivered from the bondage to sin, to be healed of sickness, ask God to impart truth to people in a way that causes them to live for His glory, pray for us to love another well, pray for marriages to be strengthened or restored, pray for other churches in the community...
Conclusion
Ultimately the point of this workshop was to encourage worship leaders in the local church to approach what they do with more purpose and intention as well get ideas and encouragement from other leaders in the community. I hope that you've been blessed and challenged in some way by what was shared here. Stay tuned for future workshop summaries here on the blog and check out our
eventbrite page for future Worship Workshops 2011 events.
Resource List
Book Suggestions
Ancient Future Worship - Robert Webber
The Divine Mentor - Wayne Cordeiro
Let the Nations Be Glad - John Piper
Web Links
Who Do You love? - Brian Doerksen
What Does a Worship Leader Do? - Bob Kauflin
Beware of the Stage - Paul Baloche
Videos
Jeff Deyo Podcast
Worship Leader as a Shepherd - Glenn Packiam
