4. It’s not just about the music.
Many people equate worship with music these days, and that’s unfortunate. Most worship leaders are concerned with the overall flow of the service, sweating out the details of liturgical elements, technical issues, sacramental acts, visual and video elements, and even stagecraft. And of course, worship leaders serve the speaking pastor, creating meaningful responsive elements to the sermon when possible. While corporate worship is often expressed through music, it encompasses so much more.
5. We see you.
When we lead worship, we can see you. We can tell when you’re texting, nodding off, disengaged. Your body language speaks to us: the teenager who doesn’t want to be there, the married couple that seems disconnected from one another, the toddler crawling under the pew.
But we can also see when you are engaged and worshiping and alive to the reality of God’s presence. And when that happens, you are a great encouragement to us. When I am up front and I see someone with their arms raised and their voice strong, that person leads me in worship, and that allows me to lead with continued passion.
6. Sometimes we lead worship even when we don’t feel like it.
Yes, we sing and close our eyes and strum our guitars, and we earnestly seek the presence and power of God during worship, but the reality is, sometimes our hearts aren’t in it. Sometimes God may feel far away from us, or we are distracted by some issue, or we are simply going through a dry time in our spiritual walk. It happens to everyone, so why shouldn’t it happen to the worship leader?
When that happens to me, I remind myself that the quality of the worship is not dependent on my earnestness or my feelings. This may seem counterintuitive, but the quality of the worship is ultimately not a function of my personal ability to feel His presence. The reality of God is true regardless of my feelings. If the object of our worship is God, then worship has more to do with how we make God feel than how I personally feel about Him.
It is in those dry times that I lean more on the Truth of God than the experience of God. In other words, I worship more with my head than my heart—and that’s OK. God is still glorified, still lifted up, still praised as an act of genuine obedience and submission. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen to me very often.
7. We love the church.
It’s true. We love you guys. We love the church. Not just the theoretical church, but the actual warts-and-all church—the people who stand at the pews on a Sunday morning and graciously allow us the privilege of leading them. It is an amazing calling, one which we don’t take lightly. We are thankful that you allow us this sacred opportunity—week after week after week.
Worship Leaders, do you have anything to add? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I know other readers would appreciate them as well.
