Leading Worship

Being a worship leader is one of the most controversial positions in the church. As a musician I know that it is impossible to make everyone like your style, you have to deal with the attitudes and egos of musicians, you have to deal with balancing talent and calling, you have to worry about getting caught up in the music, and of course you have to actually understand what it means to be a worship leader. As a fairly new job in the church a lot of people have an opinion about how to do worship in a corporate setting in the correct way. In teaching me how to step up to this position God gave me a revelation, and taught me even more through the wisdom of others. I always thought it was my job to show up, have a good attitude, play well, feed of the audience, and give an excellent God glorifying show. However, the first thing I had to learn was that as a worship leader it was my job to get my nourishment from worship before I got on stage. The corporate setting is the worship leader's job to prepare the hearts for the message to come, and to lead them in approaching the throne room in an attitude of ambient praise and worship. How could I lead others when I was too busy trying to lead myself, or follow the lead of the congregation. I was constantly looking for people to raise hands or sing along in order to get psyched for Jesus. I was expecting them to what God had called me to do, and we were BOTH suffering for it. It was then that God revealed to me that I was to worship him always. I was to live worship. The illustration of the "well" describes it best for me. During the week where you are not at church you have your shovel. This is when it is time to dig. You have to be in quiet times, you have to pray, and you have to have private worship. The deeper you dig the more fresh water you are going to have. On Sunday morning your shovel is taking away, and you only have the water that you dug up the week before. It is not enough to have enough water to draw from while you are on stage, but you also have to have enough to pour out into the congregation. If you do not have enough water or stagnate water, then maybe just the congregation will suffer. Nevertheless, God has called worship LEADERS. If you have ever been to a worship service that you knew God was a part of then you understand what I mean by authentic worship. God wants all of our worship to be an experience where we encounter him, and just like anything else he wants obedient servants to lead others. If God is asking you to do this then it is imperative that you take the time to find him during the week so that you are able to show others the way when Sunday comes around. If you are authentic in this pursuit then it will not matter whether or not you want to worship on Sunday, or how hard of a week you have had. God will call you to come as you are, give your all to him, and let others benefit from your obedience. God Bless.