I remember the day like it was yesterday.
I remember my heart racing, tears flowing, and my life changing. It was the day I experienced the presence of God for the first time. Sure, I had been in church many times before. But this time was different. This time I felt the love of God sweep over me like never before. I could sense His presence. I caught a glimpse of His glory.
And I’m not one to get emotionally overwhelmed by things. I’m much more analytical. But this was different. This was the call of God. This was an awakening from death to life. When I think on that moment, it reminds me that those moments are happening all the time. Every song we choose, every word we speak, every service we lead, destinies can be altered.
These are the kinds of things I wish I was told when I started leading worship. Which is why I compiled this list. If you’d like, share this with the young worship leaders you’re working with.
9 Lessons for Young Worship Leaders
1.You Don’t Need to Make Something Happen – Powerful worship doesn’t depend on your ability to work up a room and be a charismatic leader. The Holy Spirit is moving. Jesus is glorious. All you need to do is highlight that. And get out of the way.
2. Worship Leading is About Worship and Leadership – You need to be a worshiper. But that’s not enough. The stage isn’t the place for your own personal worship. You need to lead people and facilitate other’s encounter with God.
3. Serve Your Church, Not Your Ego – You are a part of a local church. It’s not a place to trumpet your own awesomeness or to do what you want. You’re there to serve a lead pastor’s vision and to passionately be a part of it.
4. Choose Songs That Are Good For Your People – Don’t just choose songs you like or even just songs that are popular. Choose songs based on what they say and the faith they build in people. Think pastorally. What do your people need to say and sing?
5. Songs Are Tools, Not Ends in Themselves – The goal of your “worship time” isn’t to sing through songs. Rather, carry something in your heart for what you’re about to do. Use songs as vehicles to help you lead people into declaring the promises of God.
6. Learn How to Communicate – Singing isn’t enough. Great worship leaders build trust with the people they lead. And that is done by knowing how to speak and communicate in a way that helps people relax and endears them to you.
7. Don’t Think Of It As a Career Move – Thinking of worship leading as a career leads to all sorts of problems. Think of it more in terms of your calling and your passion to serve the local church. I’m not saying you shouldn’t get paid for what you do. Just don’t approach your local church’s stage as a way to climb the corporate ministry ladder. Lead because you love God and have a heart for his people.
8. Be A Pastor – No, you don’t need to have credentials. But you need to approach your role pastorally. Love people. Care for them. Lead with compassion. Then all the other things – songwriting, albums, events – actually make sense.
9. Don’t Neglect God’s Word – It’s easy to neglect the Bible for new worship music, leadership books, and “creative inspiration.” Resist the urge. The Word is never a book you graduate from. You never learn enough. You never arrive. Let it get inside your spirit and influence everything you do & say.
God is too glorious and there’s too much to be done for us to waste time on our egos. Let’s love and lead with all our hearts.
How about you? How are you training your young worship leaders? Let us know in the comments.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
Great post! I’ve been looking for something like this to share with my team. Thanks
Love the simplicity of the 9 lessons and how relevant they become to your ministry the closer you draw to God! These should be posted in every worship team’s huddle room so they can be read, studied and practiced consistently and constantly! Thank you.
You always bring it out well David. God bless you so much
Spot on article!
Nail on the head. Thanks for a great reminder to those of us who have been doing this for a long time.
I am sharing this information with our young worship leaders!
They are always talking about ‘performance’ and about our choir!
Leading worship is certainly not about performance.
* A choir performs to an audience!
* A worship team leads from the outer courts into the inner courts’
and then up to where God can do what He knows, should be done.Maybe someone needs
healing or God has a word for the church!
Thank you.God bless you.
My comment would be geared toward music leaders that have extensive education and musical training. Most especially if you were a piano major, and have had more theory work than anyone.
Don’t get hung up on theory. Yes theory is important. During rehearsal I focus on the theory aspect of the music. But when it comes time for the service, I try to let that fall off as much as I can.
What I mean is when I am playing for our service I hope I’m focused on how playing this chord or that note will accomplish what God wants. How will it emphasise the context of the message in the song, rather than focusing on is it a major, minor, augmented, diminished, 7th, or is the key signature E Major or the relative C# minor.
We should have rehearsed the music well enough that the theory aspect can fall away as much as it can. Then we can focus on the real importance of the music.
This would be my advice for a new worship leader.
David, my name is David as well, I am new and going to be in charge of the department here at our church. We have some issues with our worship specially with the volume and the drums.
I have tried looking for an email address for you but cannot locate one
If you could reach out to me please
Shalom David, I’m currently helping to equip and train the worship team of my church. I’ve been living in different parts of Asia and most of the congregation that I serve do not read English. I have the thought of translating good articles and share it to a platform for Chinese worship leaders, please write an email to me if you are willing to let me translate your articles =)
Blessings,
Wendy
Hello….
My name is Kizito David, I have been training my team how to be worshipers and not an entertainers. Slowly they understand and all services are becoming powerful and meaningful. Most teams these days are performing rather than worshiping and to remove them from that mentality is a little bit hard. Thanks for the article it have added something in my knowledge.
Much blessing to you all.
Love this! Keep up the good work.
David:
Great post!
Thank you for preparing it.
Gary
Southern NH (U.S.)