Worship Leader or Sunday Singer?
It’s been years that I have been struggling with this term.
I know what is meant.
But seriously?
That is a pretty arrogant term.
Arrogant because the job that it describes is something I would only deem Billy Graham and St. Francis assume.
Not me.
But I get it.
And it is one that I use almost daily.
So yes, I’m spittin’ out of both sides of my mouth.
But if one is truly a “worship leader”, music on a Sunday morning should be .002% of their job.
You smell what I’m stepping in?
Check this…
A few years back I had 2 run ins with a super duper “famous” worship leader in the span of 3 weeks.
In those 2 chance meetings I saw this super duper” famous” worship leader be a complete jerk to the sound guy before he got onstage and sang to the Holy of Holys.
All the while thinking about the sound guy at the board who is patiently moving faders.
What was he thinking?
I know what he was thinking.
He was thinking that this is a bunch of $@#!@$ and that “famous worship leader” has all these people fooled.
And yes. I’ve been a jerk to a sound guy before.
But that was the moment where I first thought…Um….
RAIN IT DOWN
I think “Worship Leader” is an appropriate term for our position. In some sense we’ve replaced the Old Testament Levites in leading God’s people in the worship of Him. Whether that’s through music or scripture reading or drama or painting or sculpting or any other medium that can be used to lead groups of people in worship of the King we do that. However “stage leading” should indeed be .002% of our job.
I work with middle school students mostly. They are my players. My electric and acoustic guitarists. My drummers and my keyboardists. They read scriptures and perform dramas. They are my “co-stage-leaders”. I love them. I love teaching them how to lead their peers in worship. That being said. They things I stress the most with them are personal integrity, “off-stage leading” and private worship. This is the biggest part of worship leading. If we can’t lead off stage then we shouldn’t lead on. If we can’t lead off stage then we are just “Sunday singers”. We fill the entertainment marquee and do more for the cause of Hell than of the Kingdom.
Thank goodness for a gracious God and sovereign King that loved a wretch like me…
Who in His goodness broke my chains and by his death gave me liberty
Because in those moments when I’m lost and living like a child of Hell
He calls my name and rings my sins out in tears and sweat on the floor.
He reminds me of the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the open door.
His grace calls me by name back home.
Thanks for letting me use you blog comment space as a place to write just then…
So thankful for how our God draws us back to Him when we drift.
The truth is that we don’t get it right all the time. We can’t.
It’s why we must cling so closely to the cross.
Blessings my friend. Grace and peace to you and yours.
I like the term lead worshipper better. You are the guy who first steps out and says let’s go there, let’s turn our face to the throne. BUT, worshipping is what you are doing more than leading. You just invite us to join you.
“Worship Leader”- puts the emphasis of your action on the leading part.
“Lead Worshipper”- puts the emphasis of your action on the worshipping part.
My two cents.
I sing in my praise team every sunday. I struggle with calling myself a worship leader, but I guess we as the praise team do lead the worship service. I feel blessed to be able do something that I truly enjoy and praise god at the same time, it’s his will that it lead someone to worship. We as “worship leaders” the famous ones and the little ones have to remember always, that it is not about us, but about Him.
@billy_johnson…..I like that!
Perhaps, in the vein of the Old Testament, “worship priest” is more appropriate?
Los, I have been in similar situations with well known leaders too, as have friends, and it just leaves a bad taste. You say one thing and do another…isn’t that just a lifelong issue with too many Christians (and I count myself).
I don’t want to go off topic on this, but something I (and my wife) struggle with is responsibility; you’re up there as a worship leader and your job is to lead the congregation/worshippers to God. But then so many Sundays you’re there…and there are the few (or not so few) that aren’t following…that are just singing songs, or not even singing, just staring at you with arms folded…that are for sure faithful and have a belief, but they can’t/don’t/won’t express that through their worship. I know you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. And I know I can only do so much. And that it’s not me that’s doing it…I’m just the guy up front playing guitar. But we do beat ourselves up about it often.
Paul
I don’t really much care what you call me. I know that I am a worshipper of the Most High God and that my actions on and off stage need to reflect that. Do I always nail it? NOPE! But I sure do try.
We have started infusing into our teams that we are all “worship leaders” on a Sunday (speaker, singers, musicians, tech, stage crew). We facilitate an experience where we hope to minimize distractions and help people engage with God. We have found that it tends to minimize the “prima donna effect” and level the playing field. We all work together as a team to lead people in worship. I see us having less “Sunday singers” on our teams now.
The term seems to be pretty universal … but it contributes to the notion that “worship” is just what the band does on Sunday AM. Our lives are supposed to be all about worship, right? And that servant who was at the sound board – pushing faders, serving the people – he’s worshiping too, right?
Going back to your tweet last week… this whole thing makes me think that we rely WAY too much on music. We have to find, and embrace, ways to lead others in worship that are not centered on music.
And, honestly, as a music guy – the statement I just made hurts a little. Music is the default. What if it wasn’t? What if we didn’t always fall back on ***fill in the current fav song***?
There has to be a way to get away from this single-faceted dish that we keep trying to get people to eat.
I really don’t care what you call it….leader, singer, worshiper…..Makes no difference to me. I approach every Sunday the same….in prayer that through my voice and the voices of others, people will be led to a place, in the face of Christ and in doing that, will either develop a relationship with Him that wasn’t there or strengthen one that was.
I also use the term “Lead Worshipper” when I am talking to those who help lead worship at our church. I think worship leader gives the connotation that I (or we) are leading and you are following. When we come together corporately to worship God we are equals. My role in the corporate worship is no more important that anyone else on stage or anyone else in the room. The guy running the board, or a camera or shaking a hand at the door is just as important to the worship experience as I am. Our job is to help facilitate the corporate journey. That journey starts within ourselves.
Man, thank you for writing this, Los. It’s rare that we actually hear a music leader raise this issue. I spent years as a worship planner/programmer/pastor though you’ll never catch me on stage singing or playing an instrument. It was always discouraging to see how those who received credit for leading the actual worship so rarely ascended to the level of their title. I don’t know you, but from everything I’ve heard I think “Worship Leader” applies just fine to you. Thanks again.
Could it be that Matt Redman has it right when he says he is the lead worshiper? That has already been stated by several but I like that term.
Great post man! I really appreciate that you almost always admit your weakness or short coming when you talk about a failing that you’ve seen/experienced in someone else or another leader. It’s refreshing that a leader is not just downing others for being guilty of “xyz,” but you let us know that your flawed just the same.
I like what Billy Johnson said about using the term “lead worshipper” and I was originally going to say the same thing. That was until I read his comment. (I don’t want to be redundant). As much as I like that term – than you Matt Redman! – I almost feel like it gives this idea that You are the example of worshipping.
In many ways as leaders of this area of worship, we are the example, but I wish there was a better term for it.
Thanks for being candid, cause I find I usually get pissed off the most at people when they struggle in the same area I do.
I really think this question can be extended past you worship leaders and to everyone. I know that there has been several times where I have said something mean or just been a jerk to someone and then five minutes later and singing to God about how great He is.
As well, I play drums at church and there are often times that I am more concerned with how I sound and look then the praise that is being given to God.
Nothing like getting in an argument with someone about singing songs to Jesus.
I’ve just never viewed it as an arrogant title. For me, being a worship leader has always been pushing the spotlight off myself. It’s not Biblically inaccurate, as long as we lead people to where they need to be…with God.
Just thinking … King David was a jerk too. But still an amazing worshipper. I don’t quite get it, but apparently we can be doofuses and still worship God AND lead people in the worship of God. Eventually, we get hurt by our own “doofusness” (ie., David was repremanded and more quite a few times)… and yet, we can still worship.
Cool post!
My nearly-worthless opinion is that “worship leaders” could embrace that title inwardly, and, externally, embrace being a “song leader.” In the same way that Jeff Henderson, during the Sunday welcome at Buckhead Church, says: “I’m Jeff, and I’m on staff here.” He doesn’t drop his title on people…but inwardly takes who he is in Christ, and in the organization, very seriously.
When we are small, externally, we can covertly lead so many more people.
I have heard of one of the big, as you said, “famous” worship leaders being a real jerk off-stage, and based on what you put in quotes, I think it might be the same “one”… (get it? It’s like a riddle now…)
How ’bout singer in a Hillsong’s United cover band? It’s an awkward position to serve in a postion that is not even mentioned in the NT. I’d have no problem with the title music director or lead musician. That’s where my gifting is. I’m not a gifted cheerleader/ hype guy which is what many churches are looking for. I also think that if a church is really looking to let people use their musical gifts for God’s glory they need to utilize the people in their church and appreciate their unique gifts and what they bring to the table, bringing out the best in each. Too often we want to erase the uniqueness of each musician and have a lowest common denominator sound where the band sounds the same no matter who is playing each service. That makes about as much sense as having a turkey sandwich and a PB&J and expecting them to taste the same or even thinking that’s desireable. I guess that’s a whole ‘nother topic though.
In reality I’m a guy who loves God and can sing and play instruments.
Here’s how I solved the Worship Leader/Sound Guy deal this week: Our sound guy stood us up so I DID BOTH! It was the best Worship Leader/Sound Guy relationship I’ve ever had. Needless to say, there was a lot of ME in the mix.
@Paul Kerslake-Don’t be too discouraged about people “just singing songs”. There are some people that don’t connect to God through music. If your the “worship leader” talk to them say “I notice you don’t sing much.” If you’re the worship leader and you notice someone not connecting through music then make sure they are able to worship another way or help them find other ways to connect to God. Or give them the freedom to worship how they want to. Some of the best worship experiences I have ever been involved with were with the Insyderz back in the day. Ska baby! We danced, we screamed, we ROCKED. In most churches if I did what we did there in worship i would be “a distraction to others.”
I’m a pastor and there are some songs i just don’t connect to God with. When we sing them corporately i participate but they just don’t take me to God. I can connect to God walking along the lake way more than singing on Sunday. I think good worship songs resonate with something deep in us. I am so done with the Jesus is my girlfriend songs. As a worship leader or lead worshiper your job in my opinion is to make sure your congregation is worshiping. It shouldn’t matter if that is on Sunday morning.
I agree with so many before who prefer “lead worshipper”. But then I thought, shouldn’t we all be leading *someone* in worship? Even if I can’t carry a tune, shouldn’t I be using my gifts to worship God, and in turn leading someone else in worship?
I also agree with another comment that said King David was a jerk, but still a great worshipper. Yes, yes he was, and yes God still lifted him up again and allowed him to worship. But aren’t we to strive towards the humility of Christ and to love others and not towards the sin of the flesh?
Our first goal should be the lead worshipper in our lives, reaching for Christ. And, when we screw up and turn into a jerk, we should praise God and worship Him for His forgiveness.
I know a worship team leader – I like that term – on the team and leading that day or that weekend! so someone else who might lead another time would be the worship team leader that moment – THE ISSUE: is what is worship? If I am to lead it, I better live it. I best deal wtih my UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP with the sound man – or the drummer or my wife, before leading or guiding people into HIs Presence. Jesus felt it important that if we have issues with someone, leave and deal with it before coming with our gift – offering or our worship. ONCE: I heard a worship leader confess that he had just been a jerk to the bass player over something – and after an opening prayer – publicly confessed – hugged the guy and asked the church what they needed to confess before coming to God in worship – it was deeply moving and caused a great flow of worship to take place. Worship is our life and lifestyle. Let’s not compromise.
I think we spend far too much time evaluating trends, acronyms, etc. and it doesn’t mean a thing to God. He looks at the heart, period. So no matter what we espouse, title ourselves, etc., it’s our relationship with and the intent and motive of the heart that matters to God.
leading worship is at least as much about how you do it as it is about what you do. I try to tell my team often (and live it out as best I can) that the way we act toward each other during rehearsal and the way we go about interacting with the congregation and other volunteers on sunday should be worship. Otherwise, the music we play is just noise.
I don’t know if I’d say King David was a JERK, but he definitely made mistakes – and I dig that comment otherwise.
I think Worship Leader is a fine title, but it is a bigger responsibility than many “worship leaders” actually live up to. I think when you’re called to lead a congregation into the holy of holies, it is a call to lead music on Sunday mornings AND to live a life of constant obedience, humility, and worship. You can’t lead people somewhere if you don’t know how to get there.
if the title matches the job, we’re song leaders/music directors. whether or not we’re worship leaders is for us to live out, according to your math, in the 99.998% of our lives that’s not on stage.
if you ask me, we’ve done the term, “worship” a disservice by associating it so strongly to music, programs, church, and departments.
these are great thoughts. it’d be sweet to see our church culture change to a more accurate and life changing understanding of worship. the WIN for me, as my title is “worship director,” would be just that, if the title matches the job.
It is absolutely an appropriate term…we just treat the position too lightly.
if you’re leading songs, you’re a song leader. if you’re leading people, you’re a worship leader.
Don’t have any problem with the title worship leader. At our church we call the guy who leads the music, music pastor. The guy who preaches most of the time is the preaching pastor. it is all worship… preaching, prayer, music… worship leader is many times very specific in people’s minds, the lead guy with the guitar. It should represent broader responsibility ie: a guy that prays, reads scripture, programs the service, leads the music, etc. Cause it is all worship. Course the minute you are titled “leader” you need to have a life that practices what you preach, cause people can see through your crap in an instant.
I tend to think of it as a Levitical thing. The tribe of Levi. I need to do some more studying on it, though, because I don’t know near enough about it to say one way or the other. It makes sense, though… it just means that you have to take the New Testament’s definition of worship into play: Romans 12:1-2. it’s not just a Sunday thing, like in your example above
Song leader or Music leader.
Or minister of music.
Or chief musical head-honcho.
I’m not a fan of the terms “worship leader” or “lead worshiper” for someone who leads the music on a Sunday morning, because it GREATLY limits the definition of worship. Worship is so much more, and we’re going to get ourselves in trouble if we limit that phrase to a few songs on Sunday.
What are we saying to people who can’t sing, strum, hear or even talk?
*note*
If you’re looking for a biblical title for what we do, I’d go with the OT Levitical musicians… That’s about as close as we’re going to get.
I agree w/ kellen.
Being a worship leader has little to do with music. You have to lead people, teach them what true worship is and how to transform their Bible reading, prayer life, people interaction. This is especially important for anyone with the title of Worship Pastor. Worship can be in all those things. Biblically, worship is almost strictly described as prayer. Somehow we’ve relegated the title of Worship Leader and Worship Pastor to someone who just “leads” a few songs once a week. That’s bogus! You must must must must must LOVE people first. Who cares how good of a singer you are; if you aren’t Loving people, you’re just a noisy gong.
There are those who are music ministers and all who play/sing worship music from the platform should strive for that. But if you’re just singing the song and moving on to the next there’s not much ministering in that. That’s why I have a hard time calling the music the “worship”. It’s not worship music just because it has nice lyrics about God. It’s all about the heart of the worshipper. It’s not a worship song unless you worship!
For me it comes down to the fact that worship is life. Worship isn’t music. I think that the church has made that extremely difficult to understand by turning the word worship into meaning the music that is played at the beginning of the experience. I was a “worship pastor” for several years at one church and when I started at our current church I pushed to be the “music pastor”. Yeah so it isn’t as spiritual but that’s not the point. I want to do everything I can to help people understand what true worship is. Everyone on staff is a worship leader. I think I would go as far as saying that everyone on staff is also a lead worshipper as well.
I appreciate your point, Los. I’ve thought about this term for years. Although I am not even a singer, I’ve been burdened by the responsibility a worship leader has on Sunday and throughout the week. I agree with Billy Johnson about the Lead Worshipper title. I first heard that phrase in 1998 and it changed my perspective greatly. I can wrap my mind around that phrase. The “worship leader” at my church is definitely a “lead worshipper”. He is keenly aware that the job for which he is paid is to lead people before the Throne. His heart is worship, he seeks to always be in a state of worship, and therefore is already worshiping before he steps on stage. I know his life, I’ve seen him on bad days – and my husband runs sound for him. He not only leads the congregation in worhsip, he leads his team in worship… all the way to the sound guy. In all, I think the term “lead worshiper” places more responsibility on the whole life of the “worship leader”.
In regard to King David being a jerk, I agree to a point, but David confessed when something was revealed to him, and he wasn’t afraid to do so publically if needed. That’s a cool trait of a great leader.
Love this. Love the responses. I’m not going to type everything I have to say about this because My husband and I spoke for over an hour on this topic at a conference recently. I would like to point you guys (and gals) to 2 Chronicles 20 for an interesting read… at least I found it to be. It highlights the vital role that “worship leaders” played in battle. They were specifically appointed as worshipers to lead the army, through songs and praises, into battle and ultimate victory. So the music aspect of leading- being a lead worshiper- has this really great piece of scripture to give it some… umm… for lack of a better word, balls!
I know this isn’t exactly related to the direction the discussion has taken, but I thought I’d throw it in for good measure.
Great conversation.
Most of the hired positions in churches are not clearly required or defined by scripture. They are moreso necessities created by the requirements of “doing church” today. It is what it is.
What we can do is help define “worship” as something more than a time and place event (I go to church on Sunday, and I worship). I think our focus as worship leaders needs to be teaching our congregations a more robust view of what worship is. Our personal worship has infinite expressions, one of those being corporate worship on Sundays, but what about the rest of the time? What are we putting in the position of “GLORY” in our lives? What do we make sacrifices for? What do we ascribe “worth” to?
::Erik
It’s an appropriate term. What matters is the heart. You can change the title around but that person still has to do the same thing. Would changing the term make it allright to yell at the sound guys? Here’s where a person has to examine what it is they are doing. Right from the bible it is there in Galatians 1:10:
“Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
The person who yells at their sound guy or basically acts like a jerk is not looking to serve Christ (which is why I wondered in a blog post last week why we don’t see more conferences on serving mixed in with the multitude of conferences about leading).
Having good sound and having a good mix is important because if its bad, it becomes a distraction and doesn’t allow people to reach that point where they are consumed by the Spirit during that time of worship. However, while it may be important, it is not essential. People worshiped for a long long time without access to sound boards, Aviom systems, monitors, etc.
I agree with the post about the “Jesus is my girlfriend/boyfriend”. We dumb down our worship music so much it’s ridiculous both lyrically and musically. Here’s the deal, people have different ways that they will respond to music in a church service. Many “worship leaders” are on a headtrip that what they want the people to do is the “proper” thing. Sometimes maybe it is, often it’s nothing more than personal preference. We’re not talking about the infallibility of scripture here. You can try to lead but that requires willing followers, otherwise it’s not a free offering of worship but coersion.
Why not just, “Music Pastor,” similar to Head Pastor, Teaching Pastor, Small Groups Pastor, Youth Pastor, etc?
That being said, I don’t so much have an issue with the title as much as its most common — limited — application. As others have pointed out above, worship isn’t just about music and singing. Yet that is the underlying message that is communicated nearly every single week in nearly every single church in America. “So and So is going to lead us in worship (they really mean “singing”) and then Pastor is going to bring a message from the Lord. But before all that, let’s pray.”
I always refer to my leaders on our music ministry as “Worship Followers”. We can’t be leaders if we aren’t Spirit-led.
Peace,
ECC
dude, great topic.
i was really helped by this article http://rq.rts.edu/spring98/glodo.html by Michael Glodo from RTS Orlando.
It’s about Hebrews 2…which quotes from Psalm 22. The essence of the article is that the bible shows us that Jesus is the one leading us to Worship the Father. He’s our High Priest and Worship Leader.
The implications for that are so huge.
Blessings brother.
The word/title “worship leader” carry so much weight & responsibility! Because I believe the other “leaders” in our worship services such as the preacher, ushers, the choir, the presider, the sound guy, the parking attendant and the one leading the time of praise & worship are ALL responsible for drawing us into the presence of God on Sunday by their words, actions, smiles, prayers and songs. Also our current market/consumer driven culture of placing praise leaders as separate entities in superstar-dom and celebrity status “could” lead into empowering such jerk-ish attitude like you’ve talked about…
Thanks for posing the such topic! I dunno if we’ll ever resolve this issue…
@Erik Cederberg
I think you have a point about staff at churches and the need for their positions because that is how we do church. But, I think that could also go into this discussion here. Have we created something (IE: like church staff members) because that is what we think the church should be rather than what the church originally is and will be, bride of Christ, body of believers.
This is where I start to have a problem with some of the language that is thrown around the church. Same with the “worship leader” is also the “evangelism pastor” or pastoral care minister” whatever it may be, it seems that we have conditioned ourselves and the church with a bunch of titles that in effect leave everyone waiting for those people with the titles to do something. Rather than seeing ourselves as worshippers, we look to the worship leader to help us worship.
Somewhere in the mid- 90s, the term “Music Minister” was replaced with “Worship Pastor” or “Worship Leader” at so many stinkin’ churches in the country. Unfortunately, the job description never changed. So, I dare say that 95% of “Worship Leaders” on staff at churches should still be called “Music Ministers” Which I think is still a really good, necessary job in churches. A lot of these people are also called “Creative Pastors” or “Pastor of arts and worship” and a whole slew of others.
What Jesus does in John 4 is take the external actions of worship, and move them to the heart. He does this His whole ministry. So then, worship becomes this thing where it’s all about the motivation of the heart which then flows into our actions and words. That motivation is Jesus’ love..which is 1st john pretty much.
What i’d LOVE to see happen with worship leaders around the country is they become equippers. They equip people to use their natural gifts and talents to worship God. Corporately, this means singing and serving…both outlined pretty well in scripture. Personally, this could mean swinging hammers, competitive sports, designing buildings, washing cars, adopting children, modding computers, building iPhone apps, selling insurance….whatever you do (that’s col. 3) So worship LEADERS lead people to worship God with their lives, rather than just do production on sunday. We teach people what worship as a lifestyle means (anyone doing this? ) then we LEAD them to live lives that are gratefully, actively in LOVE with Jesus Christ. Of course…that means we have to get out of our artistic angst, meet people who don’t spend $100 on jeans, and love Jesus with our lives as well. (i’m not doing so well at that one, amen?…just me? alright) Who cares what you call us, but if we’re going to lead people to worship God…let’s DO that.
Oh…and teating people like crap for anyone professing Christ as Lord is unacceptable and we should all hope fellow Christ-followers call us on that junk when it happens.
San Dimas High School Football Rules!
I agree with many of the comments on here, I think Worship Leader is the most appropriate term, inpart because it will help us keep focussed on what our main goal is, and that is NOT to knock the song out of the park musically, not too wear skinny jeans and a trendy haircut and definitely not to try and make people feel bad for not responding the way we would like them too, but instead to create an environment and atmosphere where people can respond too and adore a living and active God.
To be honest some segments of modern Christian music culture have come way too far from this, i was recently told about a church (which wil remain nameless) that conducted auditions for middle school worship leaders and musicians… on the ‘judgement’ criteria there were three categories, one was performance (which is fine) and one was ‘look’, this made me feel physically ill.
I feel for the overweight kid, with little too know fashion sense, who loves the Lord with all his heart, can sing like Bono, and will never get the chance to lead worship or be part of a service that others will. Surely this grieves Jesus Christ…. Surely the church should be the one area in society where people can feel that ‘look’ truely does not matter. In a society that jams, sex appeal, good looks, and looking young down our throat, the church is slowly falling into this same trap…
my other peve is that God can only work through worship team members under the age of 30…. disgusting. end rant here.
thanks for this post Los.
I got the privilege of listening to Aaron Keyes speak on his beliefs regarding leading worship at the Catalyst labs a couple weeks ago. (Yes, that means I listened to him over you, Los, Don’t hate me.) And I don’t think I’ve been more challenged in my “worship leading” than listening to him. He challenged us to consider the title “Worship Pastor” instead, which the name in itself now brings on even more responsibility. By claiming to be a worship pastor I’m considering myself to be a shepherd of these people that God has called me to lead. And if I truly believe that God has called me to “shepherd” them then my responsibility in my own worship and my responsibility to building my faith and my biblical knowledge on a daily basis has got to step up as well. We have no authority to demand others to worship or to raise their hands or to dance in the aisles, but through the authority of God’s word and our use of scripture we can say that Psalm 134:2 says to “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.” I just honestly think that our worship leading or “pastoring” requires so much more than simply playing some sweet music once a week. If we’re not willing to prepare in advance spiritually and biblically for the benefit of our people then we might need to reconsider putting ourselves on the stage or naming ourselves something as irresponsible as a worship leader or worship pastor when all we really are are Sunday morning rock stars. I just pray that your worship and mine are grounded in biblical truth as much as they are spiritual and emotional.
ben i think you nailed it… or at least aaron keyes nailed it, and you passed it on… worship pastor vs. sunday morning rockstar… i like it!
I prefer the terms ” a leader of worshippers” – but I let people call me what they want to. The author is right about how the actions better be consistent on and off the stage…otherwise it’s kinda fake. I agree with some others who voiced their opinion about how we’re too dependent on music. I like the Worship Pastor moniker because it DOES carry alot of responsibility. I know some of those jerks, but I can’t point my finger at them…I’m not their judge. As for the members of my team – I expect the same consistency as I demand of myself. The best “worship leaders” are the humble ones and i believe God honors that. Just sayin……..
What about ‘worship pastor’ http://tiny.cc/R6S3e
I’ve been struggling with this so much this week! Thanks for the conversation, the scriptures, the comments. I’m really trying to grasp this position I find myself in, but in the correct way. I don’t like pastor, because I don’t think it’s a five-fold ministry calling. Just my .02 (or 2 pesos here!) I know that I don’t want people to feel like worship is unattainable, feel like the music ministry is exclusively for “the beautiful people”, or to not be able to use their talents. I like the lead worshipper title the best, but I’m pondering how to translate that…
In recovery I have met sooooo many people to which the word leader is scary. We are all self-centered people on a new journey; trying to find our spiritual values again. The other scary word for many is prayer. Many in recovery have either never been exposed to prayer or looked at prayer as religious and they are never going back to religion.
I think a worship leader helps people like that to become in a worshipful state of mind. You help us to rid our minds of the trash in our lives; even if just for a few minutes of the day. Focus on what God has for me today. Not the guy next to me. He’s not my worry. Me. You set the mood for worship. Hopefully it is paired well with the message.
Thanks to all those who are on the praise and worship teams. Would join you if I could carry a tune! Ha!
Love the question! I’ve wrestled with the term “worship leader” for a long time. I think the root of the struggle has to do with the term “worship” being so heavily assigned to the music. Biblically, the english word “worship” seems to be tied to the idea of reverence, serving, bowing, prostrating before God, etc. WAY more than it is to singing or music. I think it would be AMAZING for Christians everywhere to totally re-think much of how we live out our faith. “Worship,” “Worship Leader,” “Church,” etc. would be at the top of my list of things to seriously reconsider. There’s my two cents.
yes, if worshiping God is your primary goal. If it’s not, then no. If your more concerned about how you sound or if what you are singing is attracting more people or making them feel uncomfortable, and that is o.k. at your church, then no. To me, that is the point at which it becomes an idol.
Can one really lead another in….worship? Is song singing worship? Is worship a corporate activity….? Really? Use examples that connect worship to corporate singing in the early church? What is the word ‘worship’ connected with most in the Old Testament?..In the New Testament? Any example of one leading another in worship in scripture? Was there any singing involved? Does worship really require over-amplification, and repeated phrases (in multiples of 8 sort of like vain repititions but not exactly I guess)?Would it be appropriate to use scripture to see whether it is appropriate to call a song leader ,or a cantor a ‘worship leader’. I’m thinkin’ worship is a whole ‘nother thing than what happens in our cultural expression of a ‘worship’ service. Infact I’m not sure that worship can be contained in a service and I don’t think there ever was a worship ’service’ in scripture in the way we ‘do’ it.
To call oneself (or anyone else) a worship leader puts heavy burden on that persons shoulders. To be the person to carry us into the realm of God is a HUGE task, and we have to live in that everyday, no matter what. I understand we all slip up and we all make mistakes, but worship leaders have to be in the word and in the presence of God daily. Such a huge burden, but I don’t mind the term, because in fact it’s what we do. (not us so much as God working through us) but that is what God has called us to, to lead his people to the throne of God and worship him with no abandon.
But I prefer worship pastor. =)
I’m with Mandy and Brook. The problem with “worship leader” is that it equates worship with singing praise tunes. Shouldn’t the entire service (including singing praise tunes) be an act of worship? I was raised Protestant/non-denominational/evangelical/whatever you want to call it and I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the weaknesses of our way of “doing” church is that there’s little in the way of way of sacremental mystery/awe in what we do. We worship by singing and then feed our intellects with the message when perhaps we’d be better off if the entire service was focused on engaging, as a community, with God — worshipping Him.
::walks over to team “I don’t care what you call it.” ::
You know a lot about a person by the way they treat the people they view as lower than themselves and will stick by 1 Cor. 13:1-3 on this one.
I agree, leading a congregation in worship on a Sunday morning is a very small percentage of the “job.” So many people clamor for that position, and yet, very few fathom the gravity of what it requires of them.
This video will get you thinking….this is a down snydrome stud from our church…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL1PUEgkU5M
good topic….. I recently attended a church that my wife and I been so excited to check out and was so amped to worship with this congregation. Man was I wrong! My wife and I were sad and as my wife stated she wanted to cry, as we dashed out before the service ended. It felt like we were at a rock concert than a worship service. I get the whole lights, camera, action approach but when the person leading worship is singing and not ushering in the presence of God, where have we gone with corporate worship? I wont go into details about the actual service because thats another issue, but the worship stage was packed with light, musicians, singers, media and yet the spirit of God was not present at all! Please Blog more about the issues of the Concert or the Con-Church approach to worship…
My agency, Different Drummer, is distributing Hillsong United’s one-night, live from AUS into 500 US theaters on November 4. It is going to feature two new worship songs from the band, as well as their justice documentary WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
Check out these two sites:
http://www.ncm.com/Fathom/ConcertsAndMusic/Hillsong.aspx
http://Www.theiheartfilm.com
Would you consider posting messages to your subscribers, posting of the trailer, etc about the event, encouraging audiences to attend?
Let me know if you are interested! Thanks for your consideration. We were back-stage at Catalyst — didn’t get a chance to connect — but Catalyst is going to be pushing this event over the next two weeks.
Best,
Erik
I don’t have an issue with the title, whatever it may be. Being a people who are called a “kingdom of priests”, aren’t we all called to participate in leading others to God (our family, our peers, etc etc etc) in some way? In some ways pastoring, in some ways worship leading, in some ways teaching and so on and so forth. Maybe we don’t need to be scared to call one person the “worship leader” – after all, they’re the one leading the time of corporate worship? It doesn’t make everything else we do fail to be worship, by calling that specific time worship. And it doesn’t mean that no one else in the room is leading someone else in worship.You know?
After 25 years of waiting, I got to see U2 recently.
If our churches were as geared up for Jesus as we were to see those 4 lads from Ireland, I’d call myself a Worship Leader on Sunday Mornings.
Sadly, for now, I am a lead singer.