Worship leading

Agree, disagree or adapt this page - as with all of this website, you have the freedom to do as you wish. These pages are here for you to pull apart, criticise and work through with your colleagues; your outcome and feedback is welcome.

Who is your worship leader?

What's worship leading all about? Simply select and discuss one or more of the statements below. Do spend some time examining the attributes page as well. Maybe you'd simply like to discuss who you think a worship leader is:

Service/meeting leader (the priest, vicar, minister etc)

Musical director

Pastoral leader

Musician

Lead singer

Music organiser

Music Group rota co-ordinator

Take time to consider what your worship leaders are responsible for: is it simply to lead others into God's presence? Maybe your leadership team have declared a long list of accountabilities, responsibilities and objectives, and in the process the overall picture has been lost. Have you an Old Testament model of restricting access to God through your leader, or are you happy with God speaking directly to each person?

Who here helps to lead worship, and are therefore colleague worship leaders?

To whom is your worship directed? Are you leading God's people - and does that exclude the "gentiles" or unbelievers outside your door? What part do you let your congregation hold in leading worship in the community?

Is a "worship leader" a figurehead, or one who serves? Is your worship leader the one who controls everything, making sure what they want will take place? Or is your worship leader the one who knows the Father's heart, knows the heart of the people, and becomes a catalyst for an inspiring time of intimacy, allowing God and his people to connect and interact?

If God calls us all to worship, then, surely, we are all responsible for helping others to worship - including those who don't yet know their heavenly Father. You may like to look at this from a different angle: who on this list can get in the way of our worship? Indeed, who on this list can help others worship - and how well do they know their calling?

Percussionist

Backing vocalists

The choir

Licence monitor

Main guitarist

Sound and PA desk engineers

OHP operators

Multimedia authors and operators

Sidesmen, sideswomen, servers

The congregation

If your congregation know the next hymn or song better than you, try to make sure you don't get in the way of the worship of the people - let them lead!! It may be worth checking the reasons why this is important with your group - and why some "worship leaders" struggle with letting go of "leading the worship".

Those who insist on their way and strangle the worship leading will suffocate a church; those who enable others to worship - and allow them and the Holy Spirit to lead - will breathe life into the worship and church. Go for the pure and contrite heart - the one that gives life to others!

My utmost for his highest

Here's a couple of statements for your group to discuss:

An experienced worship leader will recognise the Holy Spirit at work within the congregation and respond with singing the most appropriate songs, as many times as is necessary. Or stopping the singing altogether.

Until we’re used to hearing God’s voice we need to learn to trust those who already have that experience. That level of discipline in itself will help us get used to hearing God’s voice.

Your group may like to examine this description of worship, and decide what attributes your worship leaders need:

We recognise worship as the intimacy of coming towards to kiss. We see this in two key stories expressing how God has performed a miracle in welcoming us into the holy of holies, into his presence.

There's more opportunity for discussion on worship.