Worship leader, it’s not just about your singing.
It’s not a matter of your songwriting brilliance and your penchant for good guitar tone.
No, it’s not even the french press coffee, skinny jeans, and passion for obscure, indie post rock music.
Your life is a testimony of worship. You lead by your lifestyle.
Reading the word “influential” in the title may have conjured up images in your mind:
- Your name in lights.
- A world worship tour.
- Hit songs on CCLI.
- Becoming best friends with Matt Redman, Darlene Zschech, and Martin Smith.
That may seem like influence, but you can have all those things and be sleeping with someone who’s not your spouse. You can have all the recognition but have a barren relationship with Jesus. You can win worship awards yet lose the battle completely.
What is influence?
What is true influence?
Whatever it is, we want it, right? If you’re breathing, you want to influence others.
Influence begins in the shadows where nobody sees you and spreads to your public life. You see, if your public ministry isn’t supported by private integrity, your influence will die.
I believe God is raising up worship leaders who will lead not just with practical excellence but with personal passion – a lifestyle that sings louder than their songs. Leading worship is not just the ability to work a room. It’s modeling a life of surrender to Jesus.
5 Qualities Of An Influential Worship Leader
What does an influential worship leader look like? I believe it involves 5 dynamics. And yes, they all begin with the letter ‘S’. Awesome? I tend to think so:
1. Your Story
Worship leader, your leadership doesn’t begin on a stage. It begins with your life – what you have experienced thus far in your journey.
It’s important for you to remember what God has done, where God has brought you, and what God is continuing to do. It’s about living a “today” faith – remembering the past but not running on the good things of yesterday.
Test yourself. Do you have current stories to tell of God’s faithfulness? Are you really experiencing God today or are you stuck in the past? Influential worship leaders stay close to Jesus and experience Him today.
2. Your Suffering
This may be an area you’d like to forget – a specific part of your story tinged with pain. But let me tell you, dear worship leader – you can’t worship apart from suffering.
The canvas of our lives are stained with the fall. It’s a messy existence and the best worship leaders don’t ignore their suffering – they press deeper into God because of it. And because they do, they’re able to lead a community of suffering saints deeper.
Your congregation is filled with people walking through pain – lost jobs, marital conflicts, death, and addiction. They stumble into church on Sunday wondering if they should keep believing. Lead them. Teach them to raise a song in the midst of their pain.
3. Your Sphere
Do you coddle your social network while ignoring your family? I don’t know how influential you are.
Do you make time for counseling appointments but forget to plan dates with your wife? I question your influence.
You see, the quality of your closest relationships tells a lot about you. Reaching out to friends and acquaintances is easy. You don’t have to live with them. But the relationships you have with your family is a true test of your influence.
Focus on your family. If you do anything in life, make sure they have your full attention.
4. Your Song
When I talk about your song, I’m not necessarily referring to an actual song. I’m talking about the song of God’s glory.
I believe early on in a worship leader’s life, one becomes gripped with a sense of God’s glory. I know I was. It was unmistakable in its power. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life singing this song, making it known, leading others to encounter the glory of God.
So what is the song you are singing? Is it a song of your gifting? A song of your talent? A song of your passion for music?
Or has the song of God’s majesty taken root in your heart and compelled you to lead others?
5. Your Strategy
Influential worship leaders have a plan. They don’t just improve their skills, they improve people. I’ve talked on this blog before about the importance of crafting a vision and discipling your team.
If you desire influence, you need to know where you’re going. Catch a vision from God and run with it. Orient your weeks, your days, your hours around it. Lead your team to accomplish it.
So what do you do to increase your influence? Live a today story of encountering God. Don’t hide your suffering. Invest in your closest sphere of influence – your family. Drown out your self-centeredness with the song of God’s glory. And develop a strategy – teach your team what it means to follow Jesus.
I look forward to being influenced by you.
Question: Who has had the biggest influence on you? What about them influenced you so much? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Great alliteration David, also great points on being an influential worship leader. I know you hinted at this, but being transparent is huge in connecting and leading our churches.
Any tips for doing that more effectively?
Man, you are so right! Often times I hold back my story and suffering thinking that if I do that, it would make me look stronger but I realize the person I portray sometimes is not really who I am. I’m so ready to be transparent like our friend Rob says.
So true. I think if we try and “look” stronger we’ll end up pushing people away. It’s ironic, but the more honest we are about our weakness the more people trust us and follow us.
Great post, David! One question for clarity, though. Is there a right and wrong way to “share sufferings”?
Here is where I’m coming from: In sharing our sufferings, I’ve seen three things happen,
a) people are drawn to us and NOT God because they will tend to be “sorry for what you went through” yet not see God’s divine hand in the matters — kind of like using sob stories to gain an audience, maybe not intentionally but it happens.
b) others have judged the way it was presented, especially if the suffering dealt with someone or something they know, and it conflicted with their understanding. So, they treat it like an attack. I have personal stories to add deeper context.
c) people see God’s hand in saving us from our suffering, and desire to have the same intervention for themselves.
Of course, we all want scenario c. So I’m wondering how conscious we should be in HOW we share our sufferings with others.
Thanks again for another great post. Blessings to you, bro!
I think as long as you tie it into the faithfulness of God, it’s a win. Leave people amazed by God’s intervention in your life moreso than just the pain you experienced. As a worship leader, I’m able to connect with people so much more when I share my pain and then God’s faithfulness. Make sense?
Yep. Sadly, some are blind to the part where God was faithful. Interestingly, my sufferings include how people responded to me expressing God’s faithfulness through my sufferings. Dizzy yet? LOL!
Sounds like the life of David, struggle and strength. Amazingly accomplished while we find he struggled w/morality, persecution, family problems etc. Yet he used these experiences to worship and lead others in worship. Because he had a revelation of the glory of God and continually pointed others toward it he is probably the most influential worship leader in history.
Love the post!!
Thanks Ruth! “A revelation of the glory of God”. I love that!
Amen on #3, David. To answer your question – some of the most influential people in my life in the last year and even five years have been people that aren’t on any social networks. From what I have observed, they focus on the people they are in face to face community with!
Awesome. You mean there are people not on social networks?! 🙂
amen, not only can we share our suffering but empower folks to come to God with theirs.
I recently said in a worship time something like “we don’t always come with joy, a lot of us come with pain, doubt, hurts and fears… but we got to Jesus who is the source of joy”. afterwards a women who battles depression shared how freeing that was.
I shared what I did that night because the Sunday before my wife and I were out of town and we found a church near our hotel. the worship leader led songs like “blessed be your name” with a plastered on smile and all I could think was “where’s the reality?”
Good stuff, Adam. I always find it hard to lead a song like “Blessed Be Your Name”. I want to make sure people know what they’re singing!
Awesome post Dave! It’s amazing how suffering deepens our worship. I know that was true for me – the song “Healer” was really powerful in my life when I was going through my bout with thyroid cancer. Thanks for your writing! Keep it up!
Thanks Kate! It’s awesome to see your testimony as a worshiper through your suffering.
So good man
Thanks Justin!
I am really touched by your article. It’s definitely the work of the holy spirit in you that made you publish such a wonderful article. I am a student pursuing bachelor’s in engineering. I feel that the Lord has called me to bring people to his throne of grace by using my voice and my instrument for his glory. Pray that if it is God’s will that I will persevere to be a worship leader so that by using me God will touch other people’s hearts and will know about his salvation.