3 Tips for New Worship Leaders
Worship Leader is an interesting title.
We tend to associate worship with music, but in reality, the whole gathering on Sunday is to be an act of worship to God. From the reading of scripture to the preaching of God’s word, everything is worship.
The lead pastor is a worship leader.
The ministry staff are worship leaders.
The musicians are worship leaders.
YOU are a worship leader.
Though we may not find ourselves leading from the stage, we can still impact those around us every Sunday as we lift our voices in song to the Lord, expressing our thankfulness for what he has done in our lives and His gracious gift of salvation through Christ alone!
Today, however, I do want to focus on the musical portion of our gatherings. More specifically, we will center our conversation around the individuals tasked with leading the team of musicians and the congregation through the songs we sing each week.
First and foremost, I am not an expert, and this is not an exhaustive list.
This isn’t meant to be one of those writings that says, “do these three things and you will be the best worship leader in the world.”
Becoming a better follower of Christ and worship leader is an ongoing process that will never cease to exist as long as we walk this Earth!
Alright Chris, get to the 3 tips!
1. Worship the Lord
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. – Romans 12:1
As a worship leader, the most important thing we can do is worship. That seems pretty straightforward, but in all honesty, it is easier said than done. Each weekend brings its own struggles and distractions, so our role every Sunday morning is to fix our eyes on the Lord and help our congregation do the same.
Sunday morning is not about us and how great of a worship set we put together. Though we want to present our worship to the Lord with excellence, he desires our heart more than our perfect execution. God isn’t impressed with those cool notes you hit. After all, He gave you the ability to do that in the first place!
We sing to an audience of one… God. We strive to worship God with our whole being, not just the words that come out of our mouths. May the words we sing simply be an overflow of the love we have for God in our hearts.
2. Remove Distractions and Confusion
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. – Colossians 3:1
In order to worship freely, we must strive to remove any distractions and/or confusion from our team members and the congregation. When it comes to learning the songs we sing in church, we must supply our team with the necessary materials needed to learn each song. This includes the set list for the weekend, chord charts, rehearsal tracks, and any other pieces of information that would be helpful for the band to know.
At Orchard Hill, we have a mid-week rehearsal. This gives us a chance to tighten things up musically so that, come Sunday, we can focus less on our specific parts and focus primarily on worshiping the Lord with the gifts he has blessed us with.
We must also be mindful of anything we do from the stage that could be distracting or confusing to the congregation. We never want to be the reason why someone was unable to engage in worship. Though people have varying levels of what may or may not be distracting, we must be thoughtful and intentional when planning our gatherings.
We want the church to set their hearts and eyes on the things above, where Christ is, not focusing on the people in front of them.
3. Pre(prayer) Before you Speak
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. – Psalm 19:14
I was watching an interview with Shane Barnard from the Christian music duo, Shane & Shane, and he talked briefly about speaking during the musical portion of their gatherings. I forget exactly how the story went, but there were multiple instances where he said his pastor would tell him to not forget that he (the pastor) had a 35-minute sermon after the worship set.
Essentially, in addition to leading the congregation in song, at times Shane would deliver a mini-sermon within the worship set. I realize that everyone has a different process when it comes to these things, but for me, I always prepare what I’m going to say (if anything) before I say it. This doesn’t include encouragements that I’ll say during the song to help people engage in worship, but these are 1-3 minute segments where I’ll discuss the meaning of a particular song or deliver the scripture that inspired the song.
While I don’t read from a paper and do it the same way word-for-word every time, I try to have a road map prepared of where I want to go. This allows me to be sure of the end destination while being mindful of how long it takes me to arrive there! Most importantly, it gives me time throughout the week to pray about what I want to say and how I want to say it. Sometimes the most important thing to say is nothing at all… but sometimes I also talk too long and need to do a better job following my third tip!
Whether I’m leading from the stage or participating as a member of the congregation, I hope to practice what I preach by putting these three tips into action each weekend.
The worship ministry at Orchard Hill says frequently, “You can’t lead someone somewhere you have never been.” If we want to lead our congregation in worship, the most important thing we can do is worship. We aren’t robots and won’t do it perfectly every time, but by submitting ourselves fully to the Lord, and fixing our eyes on him during our gatherings, our goal should always be to reflect the eyes of the congregation off us and onto Jesus!
