This fall, The Worship Initiative is launching cohorts of worship leaders in cities throughout the United States. “The goal there is just that there would be a sense of encouragement, community, mentorship, discipleship,” Seay said, “that these leaders would feel like, ‘Man, I’m serving this church and I’m not alone. I’m serving this church and I’ve got some struggles with this or that, and I have a place that I can go to and share.’”
The Worship Initiative helps people grow as musicians and as worshipers of the Lord, and it also helps worship leaders deal with the challenges inherent in leadership. “We often overlook the leadership and the skill sets that are needed in worship ministry,” said Seay.
“We want to see you grow musically, we want to see you grow in ministry, but we want to see you grow in leadership,” he said. “I call that category ‘multiplier’ because it means I’m discipling and developing others, not just my own talent and skill.”
“But that takes communication and conflict resolution and all these skill sets that they didn’t teach me in the music school, right?” Seay pointed out. “And so [when] you come to The Worship Initiative, you are going to grow as a musician, a minister, and a multiplier.”
He emphasized the importance of developing worship leaders who are healthy, have good boundaries, and practice intimacy with Jesus. When he met with the worship leaders in Houston, Seay said that “Sabbath came up.”
“A lot of us, man, we love what we do,” said Seay, “and so we just overlook the idea of rest in our lives. And so if we’re not addressing the overall health of these leaders, we’re just creating a bunch of really talented worship leaders who are just going to crash and burn.”
“So we want to develop you as a musician, minister, multiplier,” he said, “but man, we pray that there is spiritual, emotional, mental health, that we’re making sure that you could do this for the long haul.”
RELATED: ‘God Is Real’—NY Giants Wide Receiver Malik Nabers Treasures His Bible
Regarding what Everett and Seay are looking forward to in The Worship Initiative’s future, Everett said he is excited about the momentum behind the daily devotionals and also about the launch of SBC Worship, a collaboration with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Seay mentioned a collaboration with Focus on the Family to help bring families together in worship, as well as The Worship Initiative’s upcoming appearance at CROSS Con.
“The daily rhythm of singing, the daily rhythm of praying, the daily rhythm of being in the Word will change your life,” said Everett. “And through The Worship Initiative, through the devo, through live shows, through whatever we’re doing, we believe that the Lord has given a grace to his children through the Word and song.”
“And we just want to be a part of spreading that on the earth,” he said, “and the Lord has given us a heart for it and he’s given us a platform to do it. And we want to be excellent in it, and we’re so grateful and overwhelmed, genuinely overwhelmed at the response.”
