Not all worship leaders are the same. And I’m wondering if that is OK.
Some of you will never write worship songs.
Some of you will never go on tour.
Some of you will never pursue mastery in an artistic sense.
The question becomes: is that necessary for success as a worship leader?
Worship Leading: Defined
Most of our favorite worship leaders are artists. Sure, they lead worship in local churches, but most of their time is spent in studios and tour buses.
But what is worship leading, really? In a nutshell, it’s leading people to encounter and respond to God.
On one side, you don’t need to be an artist to do that. You don’t need to write songs, travel, and spend time creating. You need to lead worship.
But what would corporate worship look like if we didn’t have artists? What songs would we sing?
Somewhere Between Mother Theresa and U2
Worship leaders live in the tension between Mother Theresa and U2. We stand on stages, write our own music, and create new sounds. Yet, our main calling is to serve the local church.
We’re not rockstars, but it’s easy to get lost in that world.
I’ve written this post to get some feedback. What do you think?
Should all worship leaders pursue becoming worship artists? Is there a place for the worship artist and the simple worship leader? Add your thoughts in the comments.
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Photo Credit: Mario Pleitez (Flickr)
I love the though in your post asking “What would we sing” without artistic leaders. That speaks volumes to me concerning those who oppose those types of worship movements. I believe the key to being a Chris Tomlin is the fact that he remains plugged in to the local church. God never intends for ANYTHING to replace the local church, EVER. I have many friends in the business, both Christian and secular. Many of the Christian artists repeat the same thing when I ask them about their church. Its usually, “We or I am so busy, I hardly ever get to be at my church. While I believe it is necessary and good in the eyesof God what theyre doing, it is scripturally out of order to not remain faithful to their local assembly and to be seated under authority and a shephard. That is unacceptable to God. The “business” is a lure with many pitfalls. Although under a “Christian” banner, even much of that business is operated by secular minded people and satellite companies of major secular labels. Those artists must remain strong and rooted in God’s word, or they will easily be drawn away. . My wife told me last week the Mac Powell is being dated heavily by the country industry to go mainstream. The bass player at my church informed me that Mac was doing it. To me this is a trap. It is not sinful for Mac to do this as long as his musical content is pure. However, he will indeed under a secular contract be forced tosing and perform in a alcohol driven society with its venues. This will dilute his witness. Michael English did this 20 years ago and destroyed him. The church needs these artist for their writing, but more importantly for uncompromised integrity in the sight of the world.
Interesting point, Chris. Some would argue that business is business and that an artist writing secular music is no different than a lawyer practicing law in a “secular” law firm. It’s just that the music industry is so much more associated with sinful content. Do you have issues with this perspective?
One thing I need to add is that “I did not validate the claim on Mac Powell and do not know if its truth.” I was using that possibility as an example for my statements, as just the rumor has people hurt over it.
I think it is great that there are worship artists. Guys like Baloche, Jared Anderson and Tomlin have written great songs for the church. I’ve written songs and I think it is great to write for your local congregation, Tomlin probably doesn’t know what my church is going through.
I think that is where a lot of guys end up. And I think it’s a great place to be, leading and writing for your church.
The ability to create inexpensive quality recordings adds an interesting dynamic, making it possible for many churches to produce worship albums.
Love it, Wayne. What would you say to those worship leaders who don’t have this particular gifting of artistry and songwriting?
I think you can be a great worship leader and not write your own stuff. But if the reason you don’t write is musical ability then I think it would be great to form a group with 2 or 3 other worship guys in your area and write together. I love Baloche’s new DVD about worship songwriting and I think most worship leaders could probably pursue it a little. There are a plethora of songs out there to choose from, but it’s great to have something that speaks exactly to where your congregation is and is from your congregation.
Hey David. Interesting post. I have really been struggling with this lately. I am 43, so growing up most christian singers were just artist anyway. The machine of popular music, christian or secular, has always been on the move. It’s almost like a created hype of who “artists” are and their next big album or song. We put so much faith in people and their music rather than God so many times. I had a love for my favorite “christian artists” growing up. Now, years later, I find out things about them that would have crushed me at the time. Not that “artists” are not vulnerable to attack, I suppose it just is more out in the open for them. People put so much faith in music these days. I wonder if we are really missing the point? It bothers me to see guys and girls trying to dress or act like their favorite “worship artist.” We seem to be searching for identity within the music itself, rather than Christ. It bothers me often, at the pedestal we put “worship artists” on. For many local worship leaders they will never be able to live up to the artistry hype of these “great worship leaders.” It’s like having some of the best local musicians playing with you and yet some these folks will never be seen in the same light because they didn’t have a hit worship song. I am a worship leader and guess I may have grown somewhat cynical in my old age. I don’t necessarily understand the hype about certain worship leaders or certain bands. Don’t get me wrong, I love music. All types. I just am starting to believe that we need to be careful that we are really worshiping the God we are singing about rather than the songs or the “artists.” Just my two cents, so it may not be worth much.
Great points, Jeff. Reminds me of story behind “The Heart of Worship”. Sometimes you need to strip away all the hype to see Jesus. Thanks for your heart, Jeff. Challenging.
I think Jeff’s statements are very valid! As an artist coming out a national recording band, I had many friends in secular and Christian genres. Some members of certain groups I knew in the Christian circle would often go to private clubs and drink with my bandmates and say that it had to be private for the image of the band they were in. They were hired musicians yet their faces were on the bands albums. Average people do not understand the business. I know it well, having had a recording deal with a worldwide label in the early 2000’s. Compromise is the name of the root of the industry. You are essentually a prostitute of your integrity. I sat in meetings with radio heads demanding X amount of dollars to play our songs. Something the industry described as “payolla” and will tell the public is illegal and doesnt happen. Its a corrupt world. Many of our favorite writers and artist are true to the faith. Some are not. David asked me if I am opposed to the view of a Christian working in a secular music situation. Ill say this: everyone is a product of their enviroment. The Bible says to shun the very appearance of evil. Is being a secular artist any different than a dayjob lawyer? Do lawyers have to be subjected to an ungodly lifestyle everyday? They work in an office atmosphere where drugs, alcohol, and promiscuity arent exactly the normal atmosphere. Playing honky tonks and having idolizing young ladies offering themselves to u isnt exactly the office atmosphere. I stood backstage at Ozzfest back in my lost days with a friend who was on the main stage that summer and recall another bands member walk up with a large back of presription pills to give to my buddy for free which was the norm. A respect thing, as was considered in their world, Because he was a world reknown guitar hero. Im not saying its impossible to remain righteous as a secular artist, its very improbable. When u sign a contract, your no longer your own boss. I still have a copy of ours. It takes a lawyer to read it. It took 20 grand for one to read it. Two months after I was saved, that same friend asked me to fill the bass player slot on that ozfest tour. I couldve played for 20k people a night and made great money. I chose Jesus, and declined. I chose to move back to a town of 2000 people and sing praises to Christ who opened my eyes to Satans tactics in my life, and have an audience of 250 every weekend. A former bandmate of mine and my old roomate joined together in a country duet after I got saved. My old roomate destroyed his home, became a cocaine addict and deadbeat dad. My bandmate is now pursuing a third record deal and is spiritually miserable. He is under conviction. What a blessing to a church he will be when he heeds to call. David, ive written a book here but, my heart is that God has a plan for us before birth. We often do what we WANT and call it “feeling led”. Ill go with the Word. It requires no feelings, just to read and obey! Cant go wrong with the Bible!
Everyone must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling! Being a songwriter to me is a dayjob. Even secular songs. A christian writing secular songs will write a content of whats in their heart. When you sign a publishing deal, you co-write everyday. What will you do day in and day out when youre confronted with lost writers who come in with a song idea like Honky Tonk Badonkadonk and your name with be penned to it publically? Is that the direction of the Holy One for your heart? Absolutely not! Its one opportunity to compromise the value of Christs blood before a world stage.
Christopher and Jeff have the voice of experience. I would like to add that many offices are also hell-holes. My dad was a career man with a major corporation and I worked there also for a couple of years between high school and starting college. Anywhere there are egotistical, arrogant, power hungry people, there will be slimy behavior. During that 2 year period I also played bass and guitar most weekends on the road with a christian music group. It was a local or regional group. We opened for quite a few of the biggest names of the day. We were invited to a lot of tour buses, most of which had alcohol on board.
To many gospel artists, and TV evangelists, etc , christian music is a business. They are listed as “for profit” corporations. As long as they pay taxes, the feds stay out of their hair. In the old days they were usually non-profit, but highly scrutinized. Most couldn’t stand the scrutiny. The vast majority of churches and mission agencies are incorporated, for practical and self protection reasons.
Lets look at it this way. In the big concert arena,(christian or otherwise) how could it be anything but business. There are too many variables for it not to be business. Contracts, ticket sales, equipment logistics, transportation, meals and lodging, insurance, agents, underwriters, PROFITS. I just think most musicians, especially young idealistic ones, are not prepared for all of that. It all seems so unspiritual. But it is necessary. Even Christ had Judas as a money keeper. I think the mistake is thinking that something is either sacred or secular. The world and the church have always been neither and both at the same time. Nothing is purely sacred and nothing is purely secular. Neither is music. The fact that some music may not be appropriate for church does not mean that it has no spiritual value.
This past weekend, I performed solo as one of several “artists”, in a christian concert hosted by a church on Friday evening. On Sunday afternoon, I performed solo at an art gallery showing. The church concert had some unspoken constraints on it, and they took an offering to help defray the “costs”. The art show wrote me a check and said “freely express yourself”. The “spiritual” conducted business, the business displayed the spiritual through art and music. Somewhere between Mother Theresa and U2. Exactly ! !
Don I feel you on this. There are things that bother me about church that are the root of legalism. For instance, most churches spiritualize things that shouldnt be spiritual. Such as, in my area, sound systems are shamefully inadequite and lighting is something considered “worldly”! It is the heart of a religious spirit. To speak of money in churches here is like cursing. Tithing and sowing seed , although the doctrine has been perverted by some, is still a biblical principle and commandment of God, but in the bible belt its taboo to preach. I like your point about Jesus having a treasurer in Judas. Its good to point out also that Jesus watched what people put into it. He saw the woman give the two mites which was all she had. I dont believe singing a secular song is unChristlike if the content is pure, and like I wrote earlier today, if Mac Powell is truly going to do a secular career move, I dont think its sinful. Paul said ALL things are lawful for me, but not expedient. It was lawful to eat meat but the heart of Christ considers others and for that reason Paul said if his friend were a vegetarian, while with him, he too would eat what they ate. The bible tells us to always esteem each other more highly than ourselves. I think youre dead on about sleasebags being anywhere that heart is. I was stating earlier that in a contracted business of music, theres no escaping the pitfalls. David made the statement of people believing it to be like any other job. The deck is stacked against the child of God. The former roomie and bandmate I previously mentioned, when touring the album, my former bandmate’s cousin who was an ordained minister was asked to come out and fill a guitar slot for them. The end was tragic. I think God led him back to his knees recently, but his home was in forclosure and he has a wife and veryyoung child who are hurt because of sins influence. Sin is very fun! The cost is never worth that ride. I have never seen a child of God stay around it long and not be trapped. Think of Lot and his family. Lot chose to live “near” ungodly behavior, tho not engaging in it himself, yet look at the behavior of his daughters by the effect of seeing impure sexual behavior their whole lives. They got dad drunk and committed incest with him to get pregnant. I always tell the youngsters that hang around with me: If you play with dung, you get it all over you!”
Don, I also meant to say to you in response to secular/ spiritual comment: “Its not a popular view with religious minded people, but the fact is that church is still a business too. Church is spiritual and church is business, ordained of God that way. It has authority by rank and order, it needs money to operate, and it is yet still Gods house for gathering His children in corporate Worship. You are right about concert promotion and its business principles being necessary. We are all ambassadors of a Kingdom! A kingdom is a government and governments support businesses. The test of God in its products is the pureness of the stewardship. Judas failed in it, cause his heart was in love with something other than Jesus!
Christopher, you sound as if we have had similar experiences. I just think the sacred-secular labels are too simplistic. Christ himself was criticized by the pharisees (the sacred) for hanging out with sinners ( the secular). I agree with you on the legalism thing. I would guess I have a couple of decades on you, I was told it was a sin to play guitar when I was young. That was half a lifetime ago. Most of the legalistic churches have changed position, and some of them actually use contemporary christian music in worship now. I never could accept the idea that playing a musical instrument of any kind was a sin in itself. One thing I still run into, everybody says now that it is OK to play electric guitar, but they are afraid to put in the mix where you can actually hear it.
Jeff, i think u have 4 years my senior. Sadly those churches still exist in some capacity here, lol. When I came to my church in ’03, I had spikey hair with blood red tips, earrings, a ring on every finger, my dogs training choker chain on with a tiny master lock on it. For Eastern Ky, I was looked at as if Lucifer walked in by many, lol. This is the area in the US to change always it appears. The Pastor embraced me because I grew up here in this church but he recieved anonymous letters from parishioners, saying “how dare you let THAT sing!” I found it funny, but I thought Wow! At that point I thought everyone in church loved God, accepted the whole Bible and loved everyone. That was church 101. I quickly discovered why Jesus said let wheat and tares grow together, lol. The acid test of anything is to apply the question as to whether it glorifies God and it is or isnt something that will let our good be spoken evil of. Jesus died for sinners, of whom I am the chiefest in my church, truly. I was horrible and without grace I would be dead. Jesus hung out with sinnersand saints, not religious church people. The only people he ever spoke harshly to was the latter. He hates religion! But He never hung out with sinners in the wicked element. People tell me allthe time theyre gonna hang out in bars to winthe lost. I even thought about taking the job with the band on the ozzfest for a few minutes thinking I could win them over. Thats crazy. Did I really believe Jesus would hang out in strip bars to win strippers, when He said shun the very appearance of evil? He was merciful and healed everyone that came to Him, but He never ran them down. In our culture we might have ran the rich young ruler down and started to tell him about all the perks of serving Christ. Jesus laid out the choice and when the kid walked away, Christ let him go and then turned around and preached him as an example to those who were willing to follow Him. Jesus is tough! Yet He is all love.
The last area to change***
The 1st call is of course to worship. Everything else depends on the specific call God gives to each of us. I guess we have a huge responsibility to discern our vocation and abide by it instead of pursuing personal agendas.
The Church always had songs to sing, artists are not a necessity in that sense.
All said and done, if it’s a tension between Mother Teresa and U2, I’d choose the former any day!
My 2 cents.
I think we all should assess what kinds of gifts, responsibilities, experiences, etc. we find ourselves with and be faithful to him with it. For me I think I should work on the craft of songwriting for the local church – I’ve assessed this through a few lenses: others’ affirmation and encouragement, personal desire, a measure of natural ability – these have helped me see that songwriting is a part of what I should do in order to be faithful in serving Jesus and his body. It’s not my primary thing but it doesn’t have to be. We get into trouble when we try to be someone else so I think there are lots of worship leaders who don’t need to feel pressure to write songs (or wear deep V’s and skinny jeans 😉 ) The question we should ask is “am I being faithful to do what Jesus has given me to do?” and not what someone else has been given to do.
Great topic David thanks for sparking the discussion.
Chad, how did you discover what Jesus gave you to do? That’s a massive idea that many stumble over.
The worship leaders primary role is pastoral, using their gifts, talents and aptitudes to lead people in such a way that they respond to God wholeheartedly.
In many modern contexts, this can be done in a creative and artful manner combining technology with the art forms of music and leadership. That’s the art of worship leading.
Worship leading is an art form. But let’s be clear, the church is not the AR department for recording labels, nor is it to be the platform for artist development.
Now to answer the question, “But what would corporate worship look like if we didn’t have artists?”
Probably more indigenous and less homogenized.
The “artist” framework is a relatively new concept. It is what it is. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. Heck I are one of them I guess.
But a vast majority of the early songwriters going back to Isaac Watts and the Wesley’s were pastors writing for the people they were shepherding. My point is somebody would fill the gap. Heck, if not, the rocks themselves will cry out and praise God.
Worship songwriting and the church would be just fine without the current construct of a worship industry with “artists”.
Would it be better off without artists or do artists provide the church with something necessary?
Hope you don’t mind me hopping in on this one…
I don’t think it’s a question of whether churches would be better off with or without artists, but rather is there worship going on in the church, and if so, is it pure and godly worship without selfish gain? There is nothing necessary about a leader either, actually. For generations, song leading was on a rotation and every man lead a song as his turn came. There was never any big, fussy, to-do’s about who was leading what and if we had enough guitars and gosh, where’s the trumpeter?! Instead, we gathered in a form of worship, no matter the key or leader and sang because we honored our G-d.
Worship is necessary, artists are simply another instrument.
Mmmmm, great questions in the post, David! I am a worship leader, and an artist, but I am not what you would call a ‘worship artist’ and have never recorded myself for more than critique. ‘Artist’ can be defined a few different ways, and I see that in the comments above. To me, an artist is a person who expresses what they feel. That comes in several forms: writing, singing, composing, drawing, painting, photographing, etc. The beauty of being a Christian worship artist is our expression is joyful because we know and love G-d. That part of being an artist, I relish. While there are hard things to say, and things to conquer, our life is beautiful because we have been saved.
I think there is a place for both worship artists and simple worship leaders. I will not always be a worship leader. In six months, I will be moving away and my days of leading will come to an end. But I will always continue to be an artist in my work. Indeed, there is always a place in this world for more talents and gifts.
Great discussion here!
Your site is encouraging as a worship leader!
Thanks Randall! Where do you lead worship?
This is a great question. I like to think of myself as a Worship Leader and as an Artist but not a Worship-Artist i see it as 2 “offices” one Priest and King. The worship leader part of me exists to do the “Priestly” or “shepherding” work. In this role we care for the sheep, we teach and train people in the word of God through music, we encourage, pastor, and care. In this role music is used to unify all ages, types and preferences.
As an Artist the role is more of the role of a “king” (meaning to the earth) here we have a conversation, start dialog, tell a story, this allows freedom to be honest, to ask questions, to communicate a moment in time. Sometimes these two bleed into one another, or inform one another. Art is still an act of worship in my heart but the expected posture of the listener is different. My hope is that my Art will start conversations, will relate to parallel moments in the listeners life and perhaps bridge them into the spaces of worship.
An example to me of someone who operated in a this manner was the Author C.S. Lewis he wrote books of priestly work like mere christianity and king work, for the people, like The Great Divorce, or The Chronicles of Narnia.
In the past when i tried to bring my creative desire into worship, it induced spectatorship rather than participation, when i didn’t have an artistic outlet i became frustrated on the inside. I need to be able to worship, and to create art, when I do both, in different avenues they both become a more honest and healthy and both are part of who I am.
Sean, this is a fantastic distinction. I really like the CS Lewis reference. He sure did operate in both worlds. Do you think it’s possible to be too artistic in our churches?
I know I’m a year too late, but here’s an encouraging site for all of you who have had a bad experience with “christian” music becoming an industry. It’s a record label called Come & Live. I don’t work for them or have any music on their label. It’s just good worship music from brothers and sisters who want people to connect with God via art.
Good thought-provoking article David! I learned from everyone’s comments!
Aaron, I agree. Come and Live has some great stuff!
David,
We haven’t got time to be rockstars. We work a regular job and fit in leading worship around other emergencies and traumas.
The big thing is a need to get away with God and to be able to attend corporate prayer meeting in our small church – often a group of about 5 people.
Anne
Anne – what do you mean by other “emergencies and traumas”?